Evidence to support the food diary

Self monitoring is a proven
way to lose weight

Many doctors and dietitians ask patients to keep a food diary as the simple act of monitoring what you eat has been proven to change behaviour. Here is just some of the evidence:

Nutracheck research presented at Xl International Conference on Obesity conference in Stockholm in July.

Data from our own Nutracheck study was presented by Dr Fiona Johnson, Research Psychologist, UCL, London.

The discussion summarised "Adherence to food and exercise diaries is significantly associated with weight loss, with obese and overweight participants benefiting most from regular diary completion. Exercise diaries may be particularly useful for men".

The research found that the longer people kept a food diary for, the more weight they lost:

Also the more food diaries entries made, the more weight was lost:

More about Nutracheck

Kaiser Permanente study finds keeping a food diary doubles diet weight loss

"The more food records people kept, the more weight they lost", said lead author Jack Hollis Ph.D., a researcher at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore. "Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records. It seems that the simple act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories." Read article

Diet vrs exercise?

The problem of the growing obesity problem has often been blamed on an increasingly sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise. However recent research has highlighted the need to refocus on food intake as exercise alone is not enough to tackle the issue.

"Diet, not lack of exercise to blame for obesity" The Times, May 2009 A study of the US obesity "epidemic" - a precursor of world dietary trends - suggests that there has not been any significant reduction in levels of exercise in the past 30 years. It concludes that the surge in obesity is a result of excessive calories.

Researchers at the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention, at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia, said that the findings would be reflected in other industrialised countries such as Britain. Professor Boyd Swinburn, chairman of population health at Deakin University, said "This is a call to focus public health attention more on the energy intake side," he said. "There is no evidence that a marked reduction in physical activity has been a contributor to this epidemic". Read article

Read independent reviews of Nutracheck from the website www.reviewcentre.com. Click on the link below to read Nutracheck reviews by our members...

* average score on 20 Nov 10'

* Published by Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research
** Weight loss is individual and your personal rate of loss may vary from any case studies shown on this website.