You have been asked to keep a food diary by your health care professional. These are a really useful tool for dietary analysis, but only if honest and accurate. Read on for tips on how to get the most out of your food dairy.
Choose Your Format
Paper Journal: A free PDF is available below.
Digital Apps: Consider using apps like MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, or Cronometer for easy tracking.
Spreadsheets: Create a custom spreadsheet for detailed tracking.
Be Honest and Consistent for an Accurate Food Diary
Don’t skip entries; consistency is key for accuracy.
Be honest about what you eat to get a true picture of your habits. There is no judgement here and inaccurate information will lead to inaccurate advice.
Record Everything
Log all meals, snacks, and beverages. Even if you think it's small and doesn't matter, log it because it may add up over time.
Include portion sizes and any condiments or toppings. More guidance on this is below.
Note the time of day for each entry. It's best to complete it immediately when you eat your food. Filling it all out in the evening will be inaccurate.
Describing foods and measuring portion sizes
To complete an accurate food diary try to give an accurate, detailed description. There is no judgment based on what you write on your food diary, so record as accurately as possible. It is important to record the amount of a food as well as what the food is.
For example, a sandwich is 3 foods (bread, filling and butter or spread), but if you just wrote sandwich, it's unknown what is in the sandwich, what bread or how many slices of bread.
Spoons are a useful measure to determine portion sizes - indicate teaspoon, dessertspoon, or tablespoon, and whether they are level or heaped. These can also be used for vegetables, cereals, puddings.
Bread - what type of bread and how thick were the slices?
Butter or margarine - was it spread thickly or thinly?
Describe meat, fish, and cheese portions
2 large thin slices ham
2 small lamb chops (no fat eaten)
Small fillet of cod grilled with 1 teaspoon spread
Small matchbox sized portion of Cheddar cheese
For dishes prepared at home, please give a recipe and state the proportion eaten e.g., half a portion. or the weight of the portion of the recipe. You may also be asked to send photos of the meals for your health care professional to assess. Some research has shown this to be more accurate.
How was the food prepared? e.g. fried (with fat or oil), boiled, casseroled, roasted, or grilled.
Remember to look at labels and wrappers. Write down the brand name, weights and proportions eaten, e.g., ½ a 450g tin Del Monte® pears in syrup.
State whether drinks are in glasses, mugs or cups and measure the volume e.g., 240ml mug of tea with semiskimmed milk (no sugar).
Below is an example of an accurate detailed food diary.
Here is a simple food dairy available for free download. If you run out of room, continue on a new sheet.
Here is a video where I discuss common issues with tracking what you eat.
Comments