does writing what you eat in a notebook help you lose wegiht?

Answer 1

yes, it makes you control and count what you have ate in a whole day.
find calorie/fitness calculator on the net, enter all your stats and it will tell you how many calories you need a day to maintain, take off 300-400cal off that number and thats how much you need to lose.
eat 5-6 small meals a day (eat every 2-3 hours)
5-8 servings of fruit and veggies a day
8 glasses of water
have complex carbs for breakfast - they give you energy
have lean meat (protein) for dinner - repairs muscle
cardio exercise 4-6 times a week for 30-50min, light weight training
dont consume foods that are made of white flour (white bread, cakes, past etc.), sugar loaded foods (cookies, icecream, candy etc) and nothing fried - no junk food.

Answer 2

actually writing it down won't do a thing
but reading what you wrote and tailoring it to a healthy amount can.
there are tons of websites to help with that, including mypyramid.gov (just google or yahoo "calorie tracker")

Basically, to lose weight you must get rid of 3500 calories in one week (that's 1 pound of fat) and you can track what you eat to see where those calories each day are going (for example, if you track for a week and find you are eating about 2300 calories a day...cut it back to 1800 a day and you'll lose a pound a week).

Also, exercising burns calories so if you work out 3 times a week and burn 300 calories per work out, that's 900 calories a week that you've lost from the total amount. Finally, keep in mind that any activity above your normal one will burn calories (grocery shopping once a week, walking the dog, etc).

So no, writing it down alone won't help but writing/recording it online and then analyzing it will help you

good luck

Answer 3

It helps me. Because otherwise I lose track of the nibbling of small things, like cookies, sweets etc. I also find it practical to have 5-6 numbers written for everyday beforehand. Everytime I eat something one number is taken, so basically I control when and what I eat. I don't nibble many times during the day, as I only have 5 opportunities to eat: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner.

Answer 4

No and yes. It lets you see what you are really eating, and you can see how many calories you are taking in. It can show you that your eating just fine, or need to cut back.

Answer 5

YES! Studies have shown that keeping a food journal makes you more aware of what you are putting in your mouth which helps prevent against 'mindless eating'.
I am a member of sparkpeople which is a free weight loss website. They have great tools including a nutrition tracker that calculates your caloric intake.
If you decide to join, please tell them Honeybea referred you. Thanks!