Can meal tracking help you lose weight?
Research shows that logging meals regularly can help people hit nutrition goals, including losing weight.
Feel like you need to shed some pounds? You are not alone. Up to 59 percent of adults worldwide are overweight or obese, which can lead to a host of health problems, including Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and depression. But losing and keeping weight off healthily and sustainably is challenging. Most people who lose weight regain at least some within five years. In addition, there is debate about how we gain weight in the first place.
But any nutrition goal, including weight loss, likely involves making dietary lifestyle adjustments—a challenge in our modern world where processed foods are easily accessible and portions are often too large. One tool research suggests can be a powerful ally in your weight loss journey is meal tracking, sometimes called food logging. That’s why it’s now a central feature in the Levels app.
“Self-monitoring provides the awareness and objectivity that’s often needed for people to achieve their goals,” says nutritionist Steph Greunke, MS, RD, CPT. For some, this means tracking for a short period of time (7-14 days) to better understand their dietary intake. For others, it can be a useful longer-term strategy to support specific fitness or body composition goals.”
Here’s what we know and how to use meal tracking to your benefit.
Is meal tracking effective in weight loss?
Studies have for many years shown a strong link between keeping track of what you eat (self-monitoring food intake) and losing weight. The strategy seems to work even if you don’t have access to other weight loss programs or resources.
In one of the largest weight loss trials conducted, researchers followed 1,685 people for six months in a program with many components meant to support weight loss, including weekly group sessions led by nutrition and behavioral counselors, an exercise program, a reduced calorie and sodium diet and the maintenance of a food diary. At the end of the study, most participants lost weight—69 percent lost at least nine pounds, with a mean weight loss of roughly 13 pounds. Researchers found that consistent meal tracking was one of the most significant predictors of weight loss. Participants who regularly logged their meals every day of the week lost about twice the amount of weight than those who did not log at all.
In another study from Duke University in 2019, research again showed that consistent meal tracking was predictive of weight loss. In this study, researchers gave participants a free mobile food tracking app that showed them how much to eat in a day and encouraged them to record their daily food intake. Roughly 100 adults who had overweight or obesity were divided into three groups. The first group tracked what they ate, weighed themselves daily, and received weekly lessons, action plans, and feedback for three months; the second group only tracked their weight for a month and then was asked to follow the plan of the first group for two months, and the third group only tracked their food intake with no other interventions. The goal was for participants to lose five percent of their starting weight by the end of week 12. At the end of the program, all participants lost weight, with no significant difference between the groups. The third group that was asked only to track meals had the highest adherence rate to daily tracking. This study demonstrates that even without a comprehensive diet plan, exercise, and lessons, there are benefits to food logging.
Why does food tracking work so well? People who have used it to lose weight say that the practice can raise awareness and mindfulness around eating. In one weight loss study, participants in a meal-logging diet plan were asked to offer feedback about their experience. Some people said food tracking opened their eyes to how much they were overconsuming. They were surprised by the calorie count of their foods and the amount they were overeating. Other participants said tracking increased their motivation to make significant behavior changes, like forgoing fast food restaurants, carefully reading nutrition labels, and opting for healthier alternatives like foods low in sugar and salt.
Are digital diaries better?
The explosion of smartphones and dieting apps has created a wealth of digital meal-logging options. Most mobile apps go beyond simple tracking, offering educational content with recipes and nutritional information, built-in social support for motivation, and barcode scanning for easy recording of packaged foods.
So, are digital tools better than their analog predecessors? Numerous studies have found that mobile weight loss apps are as good and sometimes better than traditional pen-and-paper methods.
One enrolled 128 participants and randomly assigned them to a smartphone app, website, or paper diary. The smartphone app incorporated goal setting, self-monitoring of diet and exercise, and feedback through weekly text messages. It had better adherence than the website or paper diary groups. The smartphone group used the app to record their food intake for a mean of 92 days, compared with 35 days in the website group and 29 days in the paper diary group. Participants in the smartphone also lost more weight compared to the website and paper diary groups. Participants lost mean weight loss of 10, six, and three pounds after six months, respectively.
Another 2013 study, which compared diet programs with and without digital tools, showed even more benefits. The program enrolled 70 participants and put them in two groups: both attended biweekly weight loss meetings; however, one group had access to digital assistants to self-monitor diet and physical activity. At each quarterly follow-up, participants assigned to the digital assistant lost, on average, 8.6 lbs more weight loss relative to the other group. However, the study also showed that adherence matters. The participants with the digital assistants who attended 80 percent of the biweekly meetings lost significantly more weight than less adherent digital participants and either adherent or nonadherent standard-of-care participants.
Regular food tracking is also a significant factor in many studies. This meta-analysis that analyzed research on obese and overweight adults published since 2017 found that mobile app users who had successful weight loss after 12 months logged meals more frequently than those who did not lose weight. They also exercised more, tracked by step counters, and recorded their weight regularly.
Tips for Success
Timely Tracking:
Research suggests that tracking foods immediately after eating improves adherence to food logs and more weight loss overall. It is likely that timely tracking enables better adherence to the weight loss program in general.
Log meals every day
Studies have shown that consistent meal tracking is the best predictor of success in weight loss programs. So find whatever method works best for you—a paper diary, mobile phone app, or something else—but be sure to do it consistently.
Try to be accurate
Maintaining an accurate food log can be challenging when away from home or at restaurants without measuring cups or food scales. One strategy for portion control is using comparisons to everyday objects. A cup of berries, for example, is roughly equal to the size of a baseball, a two-tablespoon serving size of salad dressing is the equivalent of a golf ball, a three-ounce serving of cooked meat is about the same as a deck of playing cards, and so on. It’s probably a good idea to memorize some of these serving sizes to know what healthy portions look like. Weighing food when you are at home can also be helpful early on to help you learn what portion sizes look like so you’re better able to judge when you’re out.
Common Challenges
Food journaling is supposed to help you track your intake and make better choices, but journaling can be a hurdle. Keeping track of everything you eat takes time and effort, and figuring out portion sizes and ingredients, especially for home-cooked meals, can be a pain. People stop journaling for various reasons, including the time and effort required, difficulty entering information for certain foods (especially home-cooked meals), and forgetting to log entries. Food journal design, especially in mobile apps, can also lead to unintended consequences. The ease of logging pre-packaged and fast foods compared to home-cooked meals can nudge people towards unhealthy choices.
There is also a psychological component. One survey of 150 current and past food loggers reported that focusing on calorie counting and healthy eating in journals can lead to feelings of shame, guilt, or obsession, causing people to stop journaling altogether. Social features meant to motivate and encourage may not always work as expected. People may feel embarrassed to share their journals or discouraged by the success of others.
“While food logging can provide the awareness and objectivity some people need, it can trigger disordered eating thoughts or behaviors in others,” Greunke says. “If at any point, you notice you’re intentionally skipping meals, finding yourself hyperfocused on hitting calorie/macro targets, or experiencing negative thought patterns around food or your body, it’s time to re-evaluate your approach.”
Conclusion
Whether you rely on pen and paper or a fancy app, meal tracking is a powerful tool in the weight loss arsenal. Using the easiest method for you will likely help dieters stick to their diets and lose weight. One study looking at adherence to food logging gave its participants three different tracking methods (paper, website, and smartphone app) and found that those who used their preferred method had higher adherence to the diet program. Consistent tracking leads to greater awareness of food intake and portion sizes, motivating people to make healthier choices.
So, if you want to drop some pounds, find a tracking method that works for you. Remember, the more you track, the better your results will be.
Start tracking your meals and learn where you can improve
The best way to understand how your diet impacts your health is with an app like Levels, which offers lightning-fast AI-powered food logging, detailed macronutrient breakdown, and personalized insights and suggestions to help you find the best diet and habits for your goals. Click here to learn more about Levels.
