Accountability of food diary assists weight loss

Posted on Wednesday 6th Aug 08

The study, carried out by researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Centre for Health Research, in Portland, Oregon, found that keeping a food diary could help individuals lose up to twice as much weight.

The researchers studied 1,700 women and men who were classified as being either overweight or obese, and whose average weight was 96kg (212 pounds). Over a 20-week period, the subjects attended weekly meetings and were encouraged to eat around 500 fewer calories daily and to take part in moderately intense exercise for half an hour or more a day. Additionally, the low-sodium, low-fat DASH dietary plan, emphasising fruit, vegetables and low-fat dairy foods, was advocated.

During the period of the study, participants were asked to maintained a food diary, logging every meal, snack and drink consumed and to record their exercise time. By the end of the 20 weeks the average weight loss was 6kg (13 pounds), with those who abided by the food and exercise diary achieving the best results. Study co-author Dr Victor Stevens, a senior investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Centre said, 'The more food records they kept, the more they lost. Those who kept no food records lost about 9 pounds (4kg), and those who kept six or more per week lost about 18 pounds (8kg). That's a whopping difference'.

Conceding that the method might not spark the imagination of those seeking weight loss, Stevens said 'It's not fun to write down what you eat; it just works'. He attributed the success of the system to the self-accountability it demands; 'It makes you accountable to yourself. They handed in the food diaries, and we took a quick look. They also got on the scale every week at the meeting. And you can't fake that'.

Source: American Journal of Preventive Medicine