A food diary or food log is a tool that I encourage many of my clients to use. Whether the client’s goal is weight loss, maintenance, or simply for nutritional guidance, a log can be very informative and influential on behavior. I often use a food log in times when I feel my nutrition is getting off base. It helps me to review my habits and choices over a few day period and I can decide if I need to make changes. Sometimes simply writing down what I have eaten early in the day alters my decisions towards different foods in the evening or the following day.
While a written journal is a great way to keep track of your food, I have found another source that makes everything so much easier. The app, Lose It for the iPhone and iPod touch is a free app that makes it incredibly simple to keep track of your food. To begin, you fill out a few basic questions about age, height, weight, etc. You can enter weight loss goals and based on your goals and measurements the program calculates your daily caloric budget.
Food is entered in 4 categories, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. When you go to add foods and enter in the name of the food it searches the program database. Sometimes I cannot find the food I am looking for, but for the majority I can find exactly what I am looking for, brand name and everything. There are even restaurant dishes in the database also. If I cannot find a food I am looking for there is an option to “create food” and you can enter the nutritional info. Once you have entered a food into your log it is saved under “my foods”. This is nice because you don’t have to search for it again. As you are adding the food you can select the serving size or amount. This is the only option that I am not crazy about. Many digital food logs will have a number selection and also a serving option, for example, cups, ounces, serving, etc. Lose it only has one option in regards to serving “type”. So when I enter raisins it only has an “each” option, and I cannot enter in cups or ounces. It’s not that inconvenient, but it is one thing I would change about the app.
Exercise can also be entered in the log and the estimated calories you burn during your workout is added to your daily budget. This is great especially for people trying to lose weight or maintain weight. Sometimes it is difficult to calculate calorie intake vs. calorie expenditure, but this estimates it for you. There is also a large database for exercise as well.
When I choose to do a food diary I usually only do it for 3-4 days to review my diet. However, the Lose It app is so easy to navigate, I have been using it for over 2 weeks. The program also calculates daily and weekly nutrient info and averages. Looking at this data, I have found that I am probably eating too little protein and too many carbohydrates. I am working on adjusting my diet because of it. The nutrient summaries are nice, but really only include fats, cholesterol, sodium, carbs, fiber, and protein. I would like it if it also had a vitamin and mineral summary as well. It is a free app, though I suppose I can’t have it all!
I have heard great reviews for some other apps for the iPhone, such as livestrong.com calorie tracker ($2.99), and the daily burn (free). From what I have heard they are worth a test run.
