Double Your Weight Loss with the Power of a Pen and the Written Word

Author: Drucilla Dyess

Instead of reading about foods you should eat to lose weight, maybe you should be writing about the diet foods you do eat. Putting pen to paper and recording your eating habits could mean increased weight loss. In fact, researchers have found that by keeping a food diary, you can lose twice as much and become a healthier you.

The Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon recently performed an analysis on a group of of overweight people. The research team assembled volunteers including 1,685 men and women, 25 years of age and older, who were obese or overweight and suffering from high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which are common health issues of those carrying too many extra pounds. Almost half of the study participants were African Americans. The average participant weight was 212 pounds. All were asked to eat about 500 fewer calories a day, exercise moderately for 30 minutes or more a day, and to follow the low-fat, low-sodium DASH dietary plan, which emphasizes fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy foods.

Roughly two-thirds of the participants lost weight throughout the study, an average of 12 pounds, which was enough to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The key to success was attending 20 group meetings held on a weekly basis which targeted nutrition and behavioral change education, and keeping a written daily record of all food intake and physical activity minutes.

According to Victor J. Stevens, a senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente and co-author of the study, "There is a common myth that most people have trouble losing weight and can't lose enough weight to make a difference. This study demonstrated that most people can." Stevens also explained that tracking how much food they ate helped participants learn to eat less, which is a key step in shedding pounds. "A lot of people will say, ‘I was thinking about eating something or other, but I didn't want it on my food record.' The next day, they are never sorry that they avoided that extra cookie or fast food."

Stevens noted that the more food records participants kept, the more weight they lost, and that those who kept no food records lost about 9 pounds while those who kept six or more per week lost about 18 pounds, which is "a whopping difference." He also said that keeping the diary makes you accountable to yourself. Writing down your intake yields clues about where the extra calories are coming from and participants said it got easier with time. "It's not fun to write down what you eat; it just works," he said.
Food diaries are best done right after meals, according to Dr. Keith Bachman, a weight management specialist at Kaiser Permanente Care Management Institute and its Weight Management and Obesity Initiative, in Portland, Oregon. Use whatever method is easiest for you whether you choose pen and paper, a sticky note, make an entry in your computer or PDA, or even e-mail yourself. Write down your intake and calories after each eating episode as it is typically more accurate than reconstructing the entire day's intake at once.

There are also Web sites that will allow you to record your food and physical activity right online for free. A few of them are www.fitday.com, www.nutritiondata.com, www.sparkpeople.com and www.mypyramidtracker.gov.

The food diary study, supported by The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, appears in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. In addition to the study performed at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, the study was also conducted at Duke University Medical Center, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and Johns Hopkins University.