American Journal of Preventive Medicine has just published the findings of the largest and longest running weight loss maintenance trials that demonstrates that a person can double weight loss by simply keeping a daily food diary.
This study was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and is one of the few that recruited a large percentage (44%) of African Americans as participants. It has been found that African Americans are predisposed to conditions that are aggravated by being overweight. High among these conditions are heart disease and diabetes so this study found that the majority of African American participants lost at nine pounds, higher than in previously conducted studies.
The lead author and researcher at Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research, Portland, Oregon - Jack Hollis found that the more food records kept the more weight a person lost. Participants were encouraged to turn in the diaries at weekly support group meetings and follow a heart-healthy diet to stop hypertension. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables, low or non-fat dairy, weekly group sessions, writing down what was eaten plus daily moderate exercise of 30 minutes somehow encouraged people to consume fewer calories.
What’s even more amazing is that two-thirds or 69% of the participants was able to reduce the health risks for hypertension and diabetes. This is remarkable because more than two-thirds of Americans are obese or overweight. If we could get everyone in our nation to lose nine pounds as everyone in the study did, we would see a vast reduction in hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
In fact another Permanente researcher, Victor Stevens found that losing as little as five pounds is enough to reduce your risk of developing high blood pressure by a whopping 20%. Keeping a food diary doesn’t have to be an elaborate thing, just a small purse-sized notebook, sending yourself emails of each meal, text messaging yourself or a plain Post-It note is enough psychological support to force you to reflect on the food you are eating.
After you read this article, make a pledge to start keeping a daily diary of the food you eat and see if you can make a change to alter your eating and lifestyle habits.
July 9th, 2008 - 10:48 pm
I recently started an exercise regimen designed to lose weight and help me lose my belly fat. I have been running everyday and eat a diet full of fruits and vegetables to maintain the weight loss that I have already achieved on this click2lose weight loss guide. I am thrilled with the results so far and have been wearing jeans that I had not worn in years.
I actually like this idea of a daily dairy to aid weight loss and will adopt the weight loss daily diary as another one of the tools that I will use to keep me focus and on track. Thanks for sharing this with us and keep up the good work.
July 10th, 2008 - 6:49 am
It is said that the journey of mile begins with the first step. This is true about this thing of the Daily Food Diary Doubles Weight Loss. I used to think that journal writing was only for girls but I decided to try this concept and it has been working like magic for my weight loss. Who would believe that chronicling everything that you eat daily would work on your mind the way it has on mine. I am definitely a believer now, I even started writing down my daily exercises, how much time spent and what type of exercise. This has helped me to add more walking to my daily life, I am literally looking for opportunities to walk more places and do more physical work whereas before I would try to avoid physically activity like it was the plague.