Weight Loss and Keeping a food diary/journal

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25573436/from/ET/

Check out the above summation of a study from Kaiser Permanente showing that people who journal their food intake tend to be much more successful in their weight loss efforts than those who do not.

At our clinics, we do ask our patients to write down everything they eat/drink and even provide a diary book to do this. We feel this helps on a number of fronts. One reason is that when people write down their food entries, they are putting much more thought into the things they are eating. Once they train themselves to "I HAVE TO" write everything down, people will think more and more about the foods they are consumming. Another reason to write things down is if you are doing a "counting" dietary program such as the one at the Serotonin-Plus clinics (we allow a certain number of portions from the different food groups daily), the only way of knowing the daily tally of those portions is by writing them down. Yet another important reason to journal food intake is that sometimes we find people eating food they thought were compatible with a good dietary plan...such as an abundance of fruits or nuts, and we are able to educate them that these food sources are not good to do when trying to lose weight.

There is no question that writing everything down that you are eating is a pain in the gluteus maximus, but the above study documents something that we have known for years at our clinic: take the time to journal your food intake because your weight loss efforts will be improved!

On a non-weight loss note: The above study came from Kaiser Permanente, a very large HMO. During open season I always see their impressive television ads trying to recruit customers telling everyone how much individual attention they get, how responsive the system is to getting patients in to be seen, etc. At my medical practice every month I see patients who have Kaiser who get so frustrated with not being able to get immediate help for a "same day" problem, or get a timely referral that they come out of their insurance coverage to see me. Large delivery systems of medicine, especially when the financial incentive is NOT to see the patients, can be incredibly frustrating for a person when they wake up ill, pick up a phone, and want someone to care. I often get asked how, in my medical practice, I have been able to flourish after I decided years ago to not participate with any insurance companies, and I point to the above examples of other medical delivery systems failing to show empathy/caring/same day service to their subscribers.