How to use a food journal after a sleeve

The research out there suggests that when trying to lose weight (with or out without surgery) tracking food intake is a tool that contributes to greater weight loss. For example, one study looking at participants of a Diabetes Prevention and Management (DPM) program found that those who tracked regularly (>66% of the time) lost ~5kg more than those that tracked rarely (<33% of the time). The ASMBS and other recommendations for nutrition management after WLS recommend tracking food intake as well.

However, I think it’s extremely important to recognise that food journals aren’t for everyone. For some, they are a great tool that helps you stay on track, but for others, they bring shame and guilt which does no good in the long run. If you know yourself, you probably already know whether a food journal is helpful or a hinderance, but I wanted to take a look at it and to help you figure out the best way to track, if tracking at all.

Firstly, let me say outright that I do NOT make all of my clients track their food. In fact, I believe that while tracking sometimes or using a food journal to check you are getting the nutrients you need on an ad hoc basis is a great way to use them. But I also tend to see people who become too focused on their journal and spend a significant amount of time each day focused it, rather than enjoying other things in life!

So, ask yourself the following questions to see whether tracking might be a good thing or a not-so-good thing for you:

1. Does recording your food feel uncomfortable because you have to be honest when you record your eating habits? Or does it bring shame where you feel you fall deeper into a struggle with food?
2. Do you gain a little too much pride with a pretty food journal that when you do finally eat something you shouldn’t (and we all do) that you feel like you’ve failed and forget the whole thing?
3. Do you swear you just don’t have time to write down food and no method of easy tracking will ever be something you could make work?
4. Do you spend too much time working on your food journal that you are worried if you ate 40 or 50g of ham, or 10 or 12 almonds?

If you answered yes to questions two or four, you might be putting a bit too much value in your food journal and I would recommend you loosen your grip on it. Instead, focus on eating when you are hungry and not when you’re not, and on enjoying your food. Working on your relationship with food will be much more rewarding in the long term than having a pile of food journals to look back on.

If you answered yes to questions one or three, you might benefit from tracking what you eat just a couple of days a week. Food journals can give us insight into our own behaviour that we just didn’t realise. For example, what food do you pick at without registering? What do you grab on the go and why? Figuring out these behaviours isn’t meant to be a punishment or to make you feel guilty or like you’re a bad person – think of awareness as the first step to being able to put things in place to fix those habits. Oh and by the way, when you do track your food, there is no need to weigh or even guess how much you’re eating – a little note about how you were feeling and what you ate is enough (we don’t want to push you too far the other way!).  

So, if you are going to journal, this is what I recommend:

• Only track a couple of days a week (one week day and one weekend day is a good start)
• Don’t weigh or worry about amounts of food
• Note your mood and how you were feeling before and after you eat (you might notice, you eat more when stressed for example)
• Use an app, note in your phone or a simple notebook (or the template below) to keep your food journal.
• Do something with the information!
  • See what changes can be made, what lessons can be learned.
  • Don’t forget to look at what improvements have been made since that last time you had to look.

Now, if you want to give it a go, try the template available at the end of this post. And if you have a comment on what works or doesn’t work for you, post it below – I’d love to hear!