Behave like Bridget Jones and keep a food diary if you want to get slim

[Snowden]

Behave like Bridget Jones and keep a food diary if you want to get slim

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 8:59 PM on 08th July 2008



Keeping a food diary is a powerful tool in helping dieters lose weight, scientists said yesterday.

Those who compiled a detailed account of what they ate and drank and the calories it contained lost about twice as much weight as those who did not, they found.

The six-month study involved 1,685 middle-aged men and women from four U.S. cities – Portland, Oregon; Baltimore, Maryland; Durham, North Carolina and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Model behavour: Renee Zellweger's character famously recorded her meals

Their average weight loss was about 13lb. But those who kept food diaries six or seven days a week lost about 18lb compared with 9lb for those who did not.

Those taking part in the study, whose average age was 55, were asked to eat less fat and more vegetables, fruit and whole grains. They were also told to exercise for three hours a week, mostly by walking, and attend support group meetings.

One of the study’s leaders, Dr Victor Stevens, of Kaiser Permanente’s Centre for Health Research in Portland, said: ‘For those who are working on weight loss, just writing down everything you eat is a pretty powerful technique.

‘It helps the participants see where the extra calories are coming from, and then develop more specific plans to deal with those situations.’

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, supports earlier research that endorses the value of food diaries in helping dieters lose weight.

Dr Keith Bachman, another Kaiser Permanente expert, said: ‘Keeping a food diary doesn’t have to be a formal thing.

‘Just scribbling down what you eat on a Post-It note, sending yourself e-mails tallying each meal or sending yourself a text message will suffice.’


Behave like Bridget Jones and keep a food diary if you want to get slim | Mail Online