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Keeping track of everything you eat and drink during the day can help you lose weight – but despite its effectiveness, people are often reluctant to try it.
However, a new study suggests that monitoring your diet may not be as much work as you think.
The study found that after six months of diet monitoring as part of a weight loss program, participants who lost weight on average spent just under 15 minutes per day to record their food intake.
The study, published Feb. 25 in the journal Obesity, is the first to quantify exactly how much time this food self-monitoring actually takes for people who lose weight successfully, the researchers said. [7 Tips for Moving Toward a More Plant-Based Diet]
"People hate it, they think it's painful and horrible, but the question we had was: how long does self-monitoring for food?" Lead author of the study, Jean Harvey, director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Vermont, said in a statement. "The answer is, not much."
The researchers said they hoped the results would encourage more people to try food self-monitoring. "It's very effective and it's not as hard as people think," said Harvey, who also pointed out that apps to track food consumption are widely available.
Food tracking
The study analyzed data from 142 overweight or obese people who participated in an online weight loss program. The program included online group meetings lasting a total of 24 weeks weekly, devoted to weight loss strategies – such as goal setting and self-monitoring – as well as to a variety of topics. to exercise and a low calorie diet.
Participants also connected to a website to record their daily food consumption. The site also noted how much time they spent doing this task and how often they logged on.
In the first month of the study, participants spent an average of 23.2 minutes per day monitoring their food intake. By the end of the study, participants had reduced this time to an average of 14.6 minutes per day.
Interestingly, those who lost the most weight did not spend more time following their diet than those who lost less weight. But the most successful participants had more frequent and consistent connections to the monitoring site. For example, those who lost at least 10% of their body weight after six months logged 2.7 times a day on average, compared to an average of 1.7 times a day for those who lost less than 10% of their weight. .
In addition, those who lost at least 10% of their body weight recorded their food intake more than 20 days per month, compared to only 11 days per month for those who lost less than 10% of their weight.
"It seems to be the act of self-monitoring that makes the difference – not the time spent or the details included," Harvey said.
The researchers noted that since self-monitoring had been performed online, their findings applied to electronic self-monitoring and not necessarily to paper-and-pencil monitoring. In addition, the study included individuals who participated in a weight loss program as part of a clinical trial. Therefore, the results are not necessarily the same for people not participating in a weight loss program.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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