1. Health

Weight Management: Make Your Own Food Diary

By , About.com Guide

Updated March 03, 2013

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board

1 of 4

Why Keep a Food Diary?
Food Diary Cover Page

Food Diary Cover Page

Shereen Jegtvig
A food diary will help you figure out how many calories you are consuming each day and it will also tell you if you are getting enough fruits, vegetables, and whole grains that should be part of a healthy diet. You might also want to keep track of things like dietary supplements or herbs such as hoodia.

You'll need a three-ring binder, a three-hole paper puncher, paper and your printer. I've got the food diary pages you need to keep track of your diet. You also need to know how to measure your portion sizes. A kitchen scale (buy direct), measuring cups (buy direct) and spoons will come in handy. Knowing how to read Nutrition Fact Labels is important too. Finally, you'll need a nutrition database to find all the nutrition information for foods you eat that don't have Nutrition Facts Labels. My favorite is the United States Department of Agriculture National Nutrient Database.

Related Video
Keeping Track of Children in Crowds
Food Portion Control

©2013 About.com. All rights reserved.

We comply with the HONcode standard
for trustworthy health
information: verify here.