How to Keep a Food Diary

Keeping a food diary helps you get a picture of exactly what you eat every day. It can be a great way to take more control of your diet and help you better understand what you eat and how it affects your health and lifestyle. For example, if you have trouble digesting or have a medical condition, keeping a food diary can help you manage or lose weight or eat healthier. Start recording your diet and you’ll be amazed at what you learn.

Table of Contents

Track What You Eat and Drink

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Write diary. The easiest way to keep track of your diet is to keep a diary in a notebook or download food diary software to your phone. You need to be able to keep track of the date, time, location, type of food used, quantity consumed and other notes. ^{[1] X Cleveland Clinic Trusted Source Go to Source}

If you prefer to write by hand, use a blank notebook or buy a diary with enough space on each page to record your daily food intake. You can find sample food diary pages online to print and use or copy into your notebook.
You can use software or an online tracking device if you want. Eating diary is very popular these days, so there are many good software for you to choose from.

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Record everything you eat and drink. An accurate food diary will come in handy. Try to write down or record what you put in your mouth, including meals, drinks, snacks, and even foods you taste while cooking. ^{[2] X Research Source}

Take detailed notes, breaking down complex foods by ingredients. For example, instead of “turkey sandwich,” list the weight of the bread, chicken, and seasoning as separate headings. Record mixed foods, like casseroles and smoothies, in a similar way. This will help you remember what is in the food or total calories.
Be sure to include any snacks or junk you eat like cookies you’re offered at work. ^{[3] X Research Sources}
Record all drinks. Don’t forget to keep track of the types of water you use as well. Keeping a record of how much water you drink helps you understand if you need to drink more to stay hydrated.

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Record the exact amount. If you’re concerned about your calorie intake, writing down how much you eat is an important metric to include in your diary. You may need to purchase a food scale or measuring cup to ensure accurate amounts.

Before changing the amount of food you eat, start by measuring the amount of food you normally eat at each meal. If the portions are too many or too few, make the necessary changes.
Measure food or use measuring cups, bowls, or containers. This will keep the log accurate. Estimates or “measures by eye” are inaccurate and often underestimate total food and calorie intake.
You may have to estimate quantities when eating out at restaurants or when buying foods that are difficult to quantify. If eating at a chain restaurant, check online for information on ingredient amounts in servings. Also, try to find household supplies that are comparable to typical serving sizes. For example, a piece of meat the size of a deck of cards weighs 85-110 g or 1/2 cup or an egg weighs 55 g or 1/4 cup.
Calorie control. If you’re trying to lose or gain weight, it’s helpful to keep a check on your total daily calorie intake. Some food diary apps provide you with nutritional and calorie information. If you use a food diary or photocopy, you will have to look up foods online to find the calorie information they provide.Choosemyplate.gov is a reliable source of information.
Start by controlling how many calories you normally consume each day and change as needed.
Reducing or adding 500 calories daily will make you lose or gain 0.5 to 1 kg. ^{[4] X Trusted Source Mayo Clinic Go to Source}

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Record the date, time and place you eat. This is an important part of figuring out your eating habits. If you’re trying to change your diet or lifestyle, this information can help you understand why you eat certain foods at specific times.

Try to record the exact time, instead of just writing “lunch snack” or “night snack”.
If you want to be very detailed, you can record the exact location in the house where you eat. Are you sitting in front of the TV? Or at the table at home? Sometimes certain places or activities make you want to eat. For example, you can eat to relieve boredom while watching TV.

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Record how you feel after eating a food. Whether you’re journaling to lose weight or trying to figure out a possible food allergy, your feelings matter. Take notes on how you feel about the food or meal. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

Wait 10–20 minutes after eating to assess how you feel. It takes 20 minutes for your body to know you’re satisfied. ^{[6] X Trusted Source Harvard Medical Schop Go to Source} Record the satisfaction that food gives you.
You should also try recording how you feel before you eat. This can help you understand the problems you have with emotional eating. For example, you may realize that you are stressed and eat larger portions or higher fat foods.
Record hunger levels before and after meals. If you’re ravenously hungry before you eat, you may find yourself eating slightly more portions. ^{[7] X Research Sources}
Don’t forget to include any body symptoms or side effects after eating. For example, you may experience a hangover and stomach ache after eating dairy foods.

Data Analytics

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Find the type of food you eat. After a few weeks of tracking what you eat and drink, you’ll notice some patterns. Some patterns are as obvious as eating the same thing for breakfast every day, while others are more obvious. Check your diary and think about the following questions:

Do these food patterns have anything to do with how they affect your mood?
Which meal leaves you hungry and which makes you more satisfied?
Under what circumstances do you tend to overeat?

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Count the number of snacks during the day. Many people are surprised to learn how many times they actually snack on a particular day. A handful of almonds here, a cookie or two there, and finish with a pack of chips while watching TV at night. Use a diary to assess whether your snacking habits are healthy or if you need some tweaking.

Do you tend to eat healthy snacks or just grab whatever is nearby to eat? If you are at risk of running out of food and don’t have time to prepare fresh food when you need a snack, think ahead and have snacks ready instead of rushing to find the snack vending machine when hungry.
Does snacking make you full or make you hungrier? Take note of your thoughts after snacking and analyze whether or not to change junk food.

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Compare weekdays and weekends. For most people, work and school have a big influence on their eating habits. You may find it difficult to cook during work days, but spend more time in the kitchen on days off. See if you can find an eating pattern that affects your eating habits. ^{[8] X Research Source hhttp://foodpsychpogy.cornell.edu/op/weightrhythms}

Do you tend to overeat on certain days? If you find yourself going out to restaurants four times a week because you come home late from work, it means you need to prepare food on the weekend to have healthier meals during the week.
Use the information to arrange meals. If you know you don’t want to cook on a certain night, prepare healthy food in the fridge in advance.

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Record the relationship between your emotions and food. Find out what circumstances in your life affect your eating during a particular day or week. You may discover the type of food you choose during times of stress, loneliness, or depression. Maybe you can’t sleep so you have to snack at night, or you eat fast food after a stressful day at work. Knowing about these will come in handy as you plan your diet. ^{[9] X Research Source}

See if there’s a problem with overeating when you’re bored. If so, try engaging in more relaxing activities instead of eating when you’re stressed.
Conversely, if any food leads to negative emotions, you need to stop eating to see what happens. For example, you may feel anxious or restless after drinking too much coffee.

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Circle the foods that are not tolerated. Find out how food affects your body. You may discover you are lactose intolerant when your notes regularly show nausea, abdominal pain, and bloating after you eat foods high in dairy.

See which foods give you bloating, gas, headaches, nausea, or simply being overly full. Share these notes with your doctor or licensed dietitian.
Celiac disease (a gluten intolerance that causes diarrhea and exhaustion), irritable bowel syndrome, and others can be greatly improved by modifying the diet and completely eliminating certain ingredients. If you have symptoms that lead you to believe that food may be making them worse, bring your eating diary to see your doctor to see if changing foods helps.

Follow Other Useful Information

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Record physical activity. If you keep a food diary to track calories and stay in shape, you should also log physical activity.

Record the type of activity and the time taken. If possible, you should also include data on calories burned while doing that activity.
See how exercise affects your hunger threshold and what you eat. Note whether you notice an overall increase in hunger or just immediately after exercising.

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Record nutritional information. If you keep a food diary to see if you’re getting enough of a particular nutrient, you’ll want to keep a record of the nutritional information for each food. You can easily find the nutrition information of any food online, and many food diary apps automatically provide this information for you. Examples of nutrients to watch for include:

Fiber
Protein
Starch and sugar
Iron
Vitamin D

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Track your progress towards your goal. A food diary can be a motivational tool when you have a goal to achieve that is related to your diet. Whether you want to lose weight or just trying to eat more fruits and vegetables, tracking your progress will keep you motivated and show you there’s still ways to improve. Here are some ways to follow up:

Record weight. Record your weight at the end of each week to see how your weight changes.
Record important milestones. If you successfully eliminated gluten from your diet for a month, write it down in a diary.
Record the amount of exercise you can do. For example, record your progress toward your 5km running goal.

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Track food spending. You’re ready to record everything you eat, why not write down the price of it? It’s a great way to control your daily, weekly and monthly food spending. You might be surprised to find out what food you spend most of your money on.

Record how much you spend on each meal, including meals at home and out of the store.
Find the type of food you decide to spend on weekly or monthly and find out which foods you can reduce your spending.
You should summarize the amount spent on food purchased outside. For example, you can spend money on coffee or lunch with colleagues. Gradually these small expenses will add up.

Advice

If you keep a food diary because you want to lose weight or because you have an eating disorder, it may help to add a “Feelings” column. This will help you keep track of your reasons for eating.
You don’t need to keep a specific record of each day, but the information will be more if you follow it more often. If you don’t take daily notes, try to record at least a few days of the week and one weekend.

Steps

Track What You Eat and Drink

Data Analytics

Follow Other Useful Information

Advice

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