If you have ever battled a weight problem or tried to get into better shape through workouts, you no doubt have heard a certain piece of advice again and again. Write it down.
Keeping track of your workouts, the foods you eat and the progress you have made may sound like just one more chore on your list of things to do. With everyone so busy these days, who has time? Moreover, does this really make a difference anyway?
2008 study by Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research showed that people in a control group who kept nutrition journals lost almost twice as much weight as the people who did not keep track of those things. More than 1,500 overweight or obese people took part in the research. They got information about healthy lifestyles, took part in group sessions each week and were asked to embrace a diet high in fruits and vegetables as well as exercise 30 minutes a day.
The participants who kept a food journal for five days a week lost almost twice as much weight as the people who did not track their food intake, and those who kept the journals also had far higher rates of success in keeping off the pounds they had lost.
