Tracking Food Intake

Track your food intake and measure what you're eating - Stay healthy

There are studies which reveal that people who use food journals for various references are more successful in losing weight and keeping it off. When you keep track on your food, you can hold yourself accountable for the healthy eating goals which you set for yourself. By jotting down whatever you eat, you can remain aware of the nutritional choices which you're making. The goal is not to track your food throughout your entire life but it is about teaching yourself to keep a tab on how much you're eating. If you aren't still hitting your health and fitness goals, here are few tips that you can do to watch your intake and control it.

>     Keep a food journal

There are some who are techies and they prefer keeping health apps but the old-fashioned people use pen and paper to track their food in a diary. They don't keep scribbling them in scraps of paper as this way they can get on to determining the patterns or changes which they may need to make in their food habits.

>     Record each and everything that you eat

When it is 'everything', it means 'everything', whether it is a taste or a bite or even a sip. Even those little taste tests which you do while cooking dinner and that small nibble from your sister's plate add up. Drinks like coffee, tea and juice can be easily forgotten but don't forget that they are often loaded with enough calories like a meal or a snack. Once you start tracking everything you will think twice before eating something wrong.

>     Read the labels and understand

Nutrition labels do a lot of work for you and before you eat something, read the portion sizes, the calories, and nutrients like carbs, protein and fat. There are lot of foods which don't have such labels and this is actually a sign that it is a healthy food choice. You just have to then do the work yourself or seek help of Google.

>     Watch each portion that you take

In case your food comes in packaged, don't forget to check the serving size. Just because it seems like a single serving, it is not always so and if you eat the entire package, you could consume 2-3 times the calories that you think you're taking in. Even the healthy foods like breasts of chicken and the pieces of fruit which contain multiple servings and then there are things like pasta which is impossible to control. Make sure you measure food before eating in order to avoid eating too much.

So, if you wish to stay healthy and fit, try and watch your food intake so that you can stay within your limit. Consider following the tips given above to eat as per measurement.