Losing Body Fat By Self-Monitoring Food Intake
Want to lose body fat? Time to be honest with what you’re eating by self-monitoring your food intake.
So what is self-monitoring? Self-monitoring is taking inventory of what you’re eating. This can be done in several ways. You can use a calorie or macronutrient app to track your calories and macros, or journal about your food intake. Here are five reasons why you should self-monitor:
It keeps you from lying to yourself. When you track your food, you’re forcing yourself to look at the data. If the information is there, you won’t be lying about what you’re eating. So when you get to the end of the month and wonder why the scale hasn’t moved, you can look through the logged information and be honest with yourself. Thought you were eating well? What about the weekend alcohol binges you’ve had or the handful of nuts you have in between meals that are adding hundreds of calories to your daily intake and stalling progress? Being able to identify exactly what you’re consuming will help you to objectively look at what may or may not be working.
It helps you to stay mindful. Think of logging your food like an accountability buddy. When you know
you need to jot it down, you’ll probably make different choices because it’ll help you to focus on the moment. When you’re not accountable for your behavior, you may choose to eat more freely without paying attention to the harm that some foods may have on your body or fat loss goals.
It helps you to solve problems and make any needed adjustments. If you’re trying to figure out what to eat and see that you’re not getting enough protein for example, you’ll start to get creative with the food options around you. Tracking will help you to identify gaps in your macro or micronutrient intake and adjust accordingly so that you reach your fat loss goals.
It helps you to track more accurately. Tracking food is similar to tracking spending. If you never look at your account balance, you may not realize that you’re actually spending a lot more money at Target and Amazon than you originally thought. The exact same thing can happen with food intake. When you have to write it down, you’ll likely be inclined to make different choices because you’ll see how the
excess calories/food is affecting your bottom line.
It helps you to stay connected to your fat loss goal. When you look at your data on a daily basis, you can assess what’s happening and stay connected to your fat loss goal. This is especially important if you’re trying to hit certain milestones, like a special occasion. If something isn’t working for a couple of months, you can change your behavior so that you don’t end up going on an extreme exercise or weight loss journey before the big day.
So, can fat loss take place without self-monitoring? Probably, but it’ll happen a lot faster when you pay closer attention to your meals by either using a calorie or macronutrient app or journal to take note of what you’re eating.
