Keeping A Weight Loss Diary

The reasons for keeping a weight loss diary are manifold, but some of the basic reasons have a lot to do with our own human nature and the fact that we are easily bored, distracted or both when it comes to disciplining our daily activities with such mundane things as dieting and exercise.

A weight loss diary or journal should give you the ability to record everything that you eat and drink along with how much you exercise each day. At the end of a week’s time, you will be able to see the result of how many calories you took in over the week compared to how many calories you expended with exercise. If you use more calories than you take in, you will lose weight, simple as that.

If we don’t keep track of these basic items, we can succumb to the folly of self-deception, in that we “think” we exercised enough, or we “think” we did “OK” in sticking to our diet, and out quest for weight loss becomes a process of how we feel about things as opposed to what we are actually accomplishing.

If we didn’t keep score in a baseball of basketball game, no one would know whether there would be actual progress of anyone winning the game. The same goes with our dieting, if we don’t keep score, we won’t really have any control over our progress.

The statistics on keeping a weight loss diary tell us that the people who accurately keep such a record over the course of their diet and exercise plan are twice as likely to achieve their goals as people who keep no record at all. The people who don’t keep a record of their progress are always wondering what went wrong and why such and such a diet failed to work. It wasn’t the diet that wasn’t working, perhaps it was the individual.

Fortunately there are a number of diets that are accessible online and with apps for smart phones that make it easy for calculating calories for certain foods and for the types of exercises done for specific time periods. That takes a lot of the tedium out of the process, making the entire record keeping process in the easy category. It becomes a simple matter of entering the food you ate and the amount of exercise you did.

Diets and exercise are not really fun things to do, but the regimen is a lot easier with motivation and support. Having a diary to keep track of your progress is sometimes all the motivation a person needs to get up and running towards the goal. Keeping track of your progress gives a much clearer picture of your dedication and progress.

Also keeping track tells what you are eating and how it affects your diet plan and helps you to assume responsibility for your actions as it gives you a track to run on and helps you to stay on that track. Now is the time to get your diary, whether online or on paper and get started on your successful diet and exercise program.