A detailed eating & exercise diary is key to losing 64% more weight & keep it off for 1.5 years

[Glenda]

Your diary should be small enough to be with you at all times so you can immediately write down any food, drink, or exercise and remember little things.  For food write what, portion size, calories, grams of fat and if it met goals for fruit or vegetables.  Was it a snack, the time, were you hungry?  We are often unaware of little things we do that hamper weight loss.  By identifying problems we can make positive changes.  At the beginning of your book put goals to remind you of what you are striving for.  

         All this is in Prevention magazine's 2001 book "Get Thin, Get Young Plan"  I'm going to try this.  They say study after study shows record keeping  works.    (I'm reading all my old paper books and then giving them away to empty my bookcases)

[JuanFitbit]

 @Glenda Nice to see you around! Thank you for sharing this information. I'm sure it will help other members. 

I agree with what you mentioned   "By identifying problems we can make positive changes.". This is not only for weight valid, but for everything in life. 

See you around. 

[LionLady · Accepted solution]

YES! The key to losing is first knowing how much you are eating. It's funny, but hearing "are you logging your food?" seems to be the simplest yet "hardest" thing for us to do in the journey to losing weight. The fitbit app lets you log food. I also use MyFitnessPal for logging. Using a food scale for portions is a true eye opener. Yikes! What I thought was a single portion of many foods was often two.

[Glenda]

I mentioned to a friend that I eat LOTS of salt, possibly I don't have a great sense of taste;  I can't smell anything.  Anyway my friend said he doesn't use salt he uses Cayenne pepper instead.  I tried it.  That may work for me.  If I eat enough less salt I hope to lose weight.  Is that silly?   At least you notice you are eating something with the pepper.  LOL

[Heybales]

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@Glenda wrote:

I mentioned to a friend that I eat LOTS of salt, possibly I don't have a great sense of taste;  I can't smell anything.  Anyway my friend said he doesn't use salt he uses Cayenne pepper instead.  I tried it.  That may work for me.  If I eat enough less salt I hope to lose weight.  Is that silly?   At least you notice you are eating something with the pepper.  LOL

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If you eat less sodium you will most likely lose water weight.

That's usually not the kind of weight that matters though - unless a competitor trying to make a weight class.

It's meaningless weight in the sense of health risks - that's excess fat weight that matters then.

[Be50Gone]

Hi Glenda,

Back in February if finally realized I have had enough and seriously wanted to lose weight, but needed a simple method of tracking. And after tons of reading boards, blogs etc. I realized it basically boils down to calories in, and calories out. And the main thing everyone lacks is in guessing what they are eating. So I bought a scale from Amazon and started weighing and measuring everything that goes into me, down to my Ketchup. That first week I was totally taken back on how many more calories I was actually eating. I found out what a cup is and what I think a cup is, etc. Even my tbsp of ketchup was much less then I thought it would be.

Now with that said, The exercise department it is way to complicated to detail everything, so I just decided to go with the calories burned by steps and the bmr, and let fitbit do all the work, so there is not extra logging for me. And so far it is working really well for me, lost 14lbs since Feb 23rd and other then the hassle of measuring things (which by not is not to much of a hassle, plus I take Saturdays off from measuring). I am very pleased with the outcome, as it is coming off slowly, but I do not feel like I am dieting, it more like a slow lifestyle change that I will be able to maintain as I have not given up anything I love. But have learned to eat in moderation as it will always be there( for some reason in my mind, eating some favorite foods I would eat like I would never have them again), plus some substitutes like Chocolate Honey Graham teddy bears is just as satisfying then eating a hershey bar and is about 200 calories less. I wish everyone good luck on their journey.

[Glenda]

@Be50Gone Congratulations on your success.  So happy for you to have found what is working for you that isn't so hard that you can't continue for as long as it takes.  Good job.