People writing down what they eat every day lose on average
twice as much weight as those who don’t, according to a new study to appear in
the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Victor Stevens senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente
Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore. and his colleagues tracked 1,685
men and women who were overweight or obese and having obesity-related problems
like high blood pressure. About 44 percent of the participants were black
people who are believed to have higher risk for conditions linked to obesity
such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease compared to whites.
After a six-month period of follow-up, the researchers
discovered that the participants lost on average 12.5 pounds. However, those who
managed to keep food diaries six or seven days a week lost about 18 pounds
compared to 9 pounds for those not regularly writing down what they ate.
Besides keeping food diaries, the participants kept a healthier
diet composed of more fruits, vegetables, and food with less fat, attended
weekly group meetings and exercise 30 minutes a day mostly by walking.
“There is a misconception that nobody can lose weight, but
in this study, two-thirds of them lost enough weight to make a difference to
their health,” Stevens said.
More exactly, losing that amount of weight is enough to
improve your cholesterol levels, to lower your blood pressure and the risk of
developing diabetes, the researchers noted.
How exactly does the food diary help you? Well, according to
the study, keeping food diaries makes you more aware of “where the extra
calories are coming from.” Therefore, looking over what you previously wrote
down, “you put yourself in a position where you are accountable for your
behavior, it changes your behavior.”
As the
The study was funded by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.