Fat Loss Tips.

If you’ve been battling with overweight for years and have gone on numerous diets, you most likely know that most diets don’t really work, or they do but the weight comes back all too soon. Been there? Trust me: You’re not the only one!

You need to understand why you have this weight problem. Most likely it’s your current lifestyle that made you fat: unhealthy eating habits and too little activity. Only if you know precisely which habits made you overweight, you can grab the root of all evil and pull it out.

There are many reasons why diets fail. One is that most people just go on a quick diet. But if you want to lose weight successfully and make certain you won’t gain it back, it takes much more.

A very powerful tool in your weight loss battle is keeping a food and activity diary. It’s easy and not much effort, but it will increase your chances of long-term success drastically if you use it well. Research has shown that people who monitor their eating and activity habits are more successful in losing weight and keeping it of.

How to keep a food and activity diary

• Get a little booklet you can carry on you all the time. Or design a table and print it.
• Write down everything you eat and drink during the day, preferably immediately. It’s difficult to remember later.
• Also write down every physical activity of ten minutes or more.
• For each food, drink and activity, make a note about the situation you are in and your mood or feelings.
• Be honest! If you palliate things, your diary won’t help you as it could.

How to effectively use this information you gathered

The purpose of a food and activity diary is to discover which of your habits caused your overweight. Now, take an attentive look at your life.

Consider your eating habits and understand their pattern:

• Do you eat too much? Why? Are your portions too big? Do you eat so fast that you have overeaten before you notice that you had enough?
• Do you eat the wrong foods? Fatty and sugary foods instead of fruit, vegetables and grains?
• Do you eat when you are not really hungry? When? When you are bored, stressed, frustrated, sad, tired? Do you need snacks to concentrate?

You also find out how active you are:

• How much activity do you actually do?
• Which kind of activity?
• For how long?

What you find out with your food and activity diary will help you to decide which habits you need to change and how to change them. It will also help you to foresee situations that might put your weight loss attempts at risk, so that you can take the necessary precautions or avoid these situations.

For example, if you know you often need a snack at work, take fruit, low-fat yoghurt and a whole grain muffin along so that you won’t need the chocolate bars out of the vending machine. Or if you know you might be too tired to go jogging after work, do an exercise session at home before you go.

This will be of great importance after you lost weight, when the challenge is to maintain your new weight.

Conclusion

Keeping a food and activity diary is a “self-monitoring” technique that shows you clearly what contributes to your overweight so that you can plan the right lifestyle changes and set the right goals to finally achieve the long-term weight loss you dream of.

Often, the mere fact of writing things down makes you more conscious of your actions and already leads to positive changes in your behavior. During weight loss, your diary helps to track your success and can boost your motivation. That’s a lot of benefits for just a little bit of work, isn’t it? This can be your chance to break the yoyo-cycle. Why not give it a try?