To successfully lose weight in the New Year - write down everything you eat. According to Christopher J. Mozunika, a specialist in weight and diabetes (Greenwich Hospital, Connecticut, USA), to maintain a food diary is one of the effective strategies leading to weight loss.

"Nutritional diary is similar to exercise, if you do it regularly, you will necessarily lose weight," says Mozunik.

For many people, the food diary becomes a kind of behavioral psychotherapy. Many patients of Dr. Mozunik also suffer from type 2 diabetes, so maintaining a normal weight for them is especially important.

"I can divide my patients into two groups: those who keep a diary and those who do not keep it. People who keep a diary, achieve great success in losing weight; I usually work with them for about 12 weeks. With people who do not keep a diary, I sometimes work for years. Maintaining a diary is like recording during a lesson - the more you write, the better you cope with the subject, "explains Dr. Mozunik.

The reason for success lies in the willingness to admit to yourself in every piece of food that you eat. Diary helps you quickly understand how many calories you get daily.

A candid and accurate food diary is also needed by weight loss specialists to properly assess your eating behavior and adjust it. For example, using a diary you can understand where the bouts of gluttony come from. "It's enough to know what a person eats for breakfast to find out why the glucose level in his blood falls, and by noon he starts to uncontrollably absorb food," says Mozunik.

Ideally, your diary needs to be shown to a nutritionist or weight loss specialist who can identify factors leading to overeating and other unhealthy habits.

Nevertheless, a food diary will help an ordinary person who wants to lose a couple of kilograms, or to get off the ground in weight loss.

Here are some more expert tips:.

- Do not complicate your diary. One common mistake is to use overly complex computer programs. A good diary should be simple and understandable.

- Record absolutely everything. Even if you ate only one cookie or a handful of chips, write it down. It is important to fully feel responsible for everything that you eat.

- Have someone read your diary. "In the best diaries of my patients constantly harmful products. Why? Because they are honest, "says Dr. Mozunik.

News. Gradusnik. En.