Study: Tracking Daily Food, Drinks Helps in Losing Weight

By: Yassmine ElSayed

CAIRO, Mar. 1 (SEE) – Have you tried many techniques to lose weight and didn't help? Here's a new way to achieve this. A new study revealed that if you keep track of what you eat and drink throughout the day, you are much more likely to lose weight.

The study published by in the journal Obesity suggests that monitoring your diet may not be as much work as you think.

The researchers found that, after six months of diet tracking as part of a weight loss program, participants who lost weight spent just under 15 minutes a day, on average, recording their dietary intake.

According to livescience.com, the study is the first to quantify exactly how much time such dietary self-monitoring actually takes for people who successfully lose weight.

"People hate it; they think it's onerous and awful, but the question we had was: How much time does dietary self-monitoring really take?" study lead author Jean Harvey, chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont, said in a statement. "The answer is, not very much."

The researchers said that they hope the results motivate more people to try dietary self-monitoring. "It's highly effective, and it's not as hard as people think," said Harvey, who also noted that apps to track food intake are widely available.