Free Food Journal Online

Diet & Achieving Your Goals

In the United States, we have it in our minds that the reason we're overweight is that we don't exercise enough and society is becoming more sedentary, etc. While exercise is an important aspect of a healthy lifestyle, diet is truly more significant.

According to Gallup's Well Being Index, Americans are working out more than ever. However, the American obesity rate has climbed in any case. What this tells me is that diet is the likely culprit.

Having kept reasonably good track of my body stats over the past few years, I know that I can consume about 3500 calories/day while working out and not experience any body fat gains. But I'm also reasonably muscular, so my metabolism can handle that.

When I eat like that and DON'T work out, I gain weight. What's worse is when I go out to eat and consume all 3000 calories in one meal or eat an entire pizza for dinner, etc. Then, even if I work out, I'm going to be gaining weight.

Alcohol is another hindrance to achieving your fitness goals. I wrote an article about how alcohol affects your body's ability to metabolize fat HERE.

The way eating and drinking is anymore, it's much easier to go over your caloric baseline than fall under it. Even if you only exceed it once per week, each week you are slowly gaining body fat. Over years, it affects your appearance.

One cannot and should not "diet" off and on all the time. It's more difficult to lose weight than to keep it off and eating badly half the year is still not healthful, even if you "average" a healthy weight. It's really about creating positive eating habits, and doing so is easier than you may think.

Keep A Food Journal

The biggest reason people exceed their caloric baseline, or the amount you can consume without gaining or losing weight, is because we have NO IDEA HOW MUCH WE'RE EATING! Some things will absolutely shock you.

By keeping a food journal and tracking your weight, you can find how much you can consume without gaining weight. You can find estimators and calculators out there on the internet to tell you approximately where you should be given your height, weight, activity level, and goals, but they are only estimates. You'll need to find out for yourself how your body responds to changes in diet. The only way to do so is with a food journal.

Free Food Journal Online

I found a free food journal online at www.mynetdiary.com. It's a useful tool because most things you eat are already contribute, so you just type in what you ate and how much, then all the calculations are done for you. At the end of each day, you have a pretty good idea how many calories you ate and what the macronutrient breakdown was (protein, fat, carbohydrate).

Using A Food Journal Effectively

When To Record Your Entries

To really get all you can out of your food journal, you should plan your meals ahead of time or keep track of them as you go. I prefer the former because it ensures I don't eat half my calories for breakfast and then go hungry all day, which is bad for your hormone levels because of how your body responds to low blood sugar.

The one thing you DON'T want to do is add up everything you ate at the end of the day, after you've already eaten it. The reason is that if you were "bad" and overate, you'll feel bad about yourself.

That may sound like a good thing, but it's best to remain positive all the time. Feeling bad about yourself is more likely to push you to eat more than to push you to eat less because people associate food with comfort. It's much more effective to manage your calories and eating throughout the day and KNOW that you're going to be successful than hope that at the end of the day you did a pretty good job.

Using A Food Journal As A Weight-Loss Tool

I recommend always using your food journal. It keeps you disciplined and prevents you from falling into bad eating habits. However, you may be looking for a way to lose weight and a food journal can be an excellent tool to help you reach your goals. Whether you're overweight or simply trying to reveal your abs, keeping a food journal helps you stick to your diet plan because you can track your macronutrients and calories.

For example, if I want to lose 1lb each week, I need to consume 3500 calories less than I burn that week. That means the amount I need to eat is 500 calories less than my caloric baseline.

Note: as you lose weight, your baseline will decline as well, so if you have a lot of weight to lose, you will want to make sure you periodically reexamine your caloric baseline. The easiest way to do so is to keep a food journal. Say, for example, that after 3 months of dieting, you lose 24 lbs, or 2lbs/week. Then, you start losing only 1lb/week thereafter. You know that you're body has adapted to the new weight and your caloric baseline can be brought down another 250 calories/day (to maintain the same rate of weight loss).

In short, a food journal can help you find your caloric baseline if you track your weight and calories consumed. Remember that each pound of fat is comprised of 3500 calories and the calculations should be easy.