Journal or not to journal

how many people keep a food journal I find it very helpful when I do then I am acountable to something but it takes up somuch time. It is hard to balance the time. What do people think?

I would agree that it takes an enormous amount of time - but if I didn't do it I would have no idea what I'm really consuming in a day.  If I log a day ahead of time then I tend to stay on track better throughout that day.  

It also gives you valuable nutritional breakdowns of what you are consuming.  For instance, my sodium levels are through the roof which is the primary reason I retain so much water and through off some of my work out efforts.

I highly recommend it - it will keep you disciplined.

I think it depends on the individual and where you are in your weight-loss efforts.  If you're relatively new to weight-control it's important to keep the food log going pretty accurately until you get into a good healthy-eating and portion-control habit.  If you've been doing it a while, you're in a good routine and your weight is coming down fairly steadily you can probably reduce the food-log to a spot-check... i.e. not every day. 

In terms of personality... I know you've posted about feeling the need to stand on the scales too often.  If you feel the food log is turning into an unhealthy obsession, that would also be a good reason to reduce the frequency.

"Calorie counting is a good servant but a bad master"... good luck

Thanks fpr the advice.

I do log my food every day.  I don't think it takes that much time.  I am a full time student, and work a full time job.  Thankfully I don't have any kids to chase after; but I manage to log everything. 

I say ditto to mommakitty - I too have a full-time job and go to school full-time, but I log everything I eat with ease.  It takes more time to start becaue you have to enter/find your staples - but if you're anything like me, once you have a few weeks in just about all of your food will be in and it's just a matter a few clicks of the mouse (via adding things as 'tagged' items or looking back at past records).  There is no way to really know what you're getting without logging!

I guess I am slower at this food journalling than others but thanks for the posts.

i used to do it religeously every day but ive not logged in months, maybe one or twice n i still loose 1-2lbs a week

i guess all that logging has just made me remember all the callories in the food i like to eat :)

I can't wait for the day when I can remember the calories in my favorite food. :-) Until then, because I'm an emotional eater with four kids (I LIKE chicken nuggets), I have to log my calories.  I'm not concerned at this moment with protein, that'll be after I get used to counting calories. :-) So anyway -- I have to log my calories every day. Good luck!!

I am with you I will be glad for that day too or the day when I just don't eat too much and dn't have to count. Good luck to you too and God bless.

Results are the key and if not journalling is working for you then so be it.

i just keep a rough count in my head, to the nearest hundred.  if i'm not sure about something, i try to overestimate.  but i don't eat out much, so that helps.

I have found logging the food I put in my mouth extremely valuable.  I have been on the South Beach diet for a month.  I lost a lot the first two weeks, but as soon as I started on phase 2 I stopped losing--and even gained a few pounds.  I was baffled, because I was keeping to the diet exactly....but then I started logging in my calories, and realized that I was mindlessly adding hundreds of calories during snacks!  I was eating maybe 400 calories of cashews, and maybe another 200 with peanut butter on my celery sticks!  I was appalled!  So now I've started logging in my calories, keep it to 1500 a day, and I have been losing a little every day.  I also realized that my fat intake was out of this world....so I've tried to make my "pie chart" more balanced.  I think it's been very effective and very motivating!

I do it every day. Sometimes if things are really hectic or I'm away from home I don't (mostly because I can't) I just try to eat within reason & make good choices & try to get some exercise.

Also just try logging everything every day for a couple of weeks & tag it all. I tag mine in sections breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert & snacks, aswell as a general section that has stuff like low fat spread, cheese, ect. Then when logging what I'm eating the next day I just go to breakfast & pick something.

I do it every day, sometimes more than once if the  calories in something are questionable.  It only takes a few min if you don't let it get out of hand (like I do!) and it keeps me on track really well.

What Claire said!  I tag the foods I eat the most often and then easily pop them into the log.  If you don't find the information it relays to you as being valuable, then it's probably not worth the time to keep the log.  Me, I think it's valuable and shows me information about food I wasn't particularly aware of.  For instance, how much sodium, fiber, etc. you get in a day.  Once you are painfully aware of what you should eat or targets to aim for, it's hard to ignore that info from then on. 

Tags are it for me!  I even spent some time with foods from my pantry and entered their composition into the counter so I'll always have it now and know how it fits in the plan.  Guess it's like a lot of things - tedious until you've become used to it then it seems like no time at all.  Personally, I think I"m a bit OCD and love scrutinizing all the details.  Keeping track in my head doesn't work for me because you forget items or think they don't count when they do.

eating out would throw the old calorie count threw the roof.

I use Calorie Count for my food journal and I use it to plan my meals for the day.  It's so helpful to put in what I plan to eat for the day and see how the cals add up.  I am able to change if I eat over or under or change the foods I eat.  It's become part of my daily routine.

sstephen27, that is an excellent idea!!  It's so disheartening to cook dinner, eat, plug the calories in, and see the damage you've done....after it's already done.  I had never thought of planning the day's meals first using the calorie counter....brilliant!!

I LOVE the journal.  It gets much easier to use as you get used to it, and it really brings awareness to things you may have missed before.  My advice would be try it out for a couple weeks, and see if the habit sticks and is helpful to you!

I've got 5 years of thick notepads filled with every food and its calories. Monthly averages are kept on the computer along with the month's end bodyweight.

The most valuable thing Ive gleaned from this is that my MAINTENANCE level is around 2350 calories daily...that's an immensely VALUABLE number for me personally that no internet chart can provide.

Does that qualify as "keeping a journal?"