Keeping a food diary

My weight has been stuck around 212 for quite awhile now, and I’ve been trying to figure out what I’m doing (or not doing) that’s keeping me at this weight. My exercise level hasn’t changed significantly one way or the other, and as far as I know, my calorie intake hasn’t changed - as far as I know. That’s the kicker - I think I know how much I’m intaking, but I’m not sure.

I just came across this blog entry from Slashfood that talks about keeping a food diary, where you write down everything you eat, so that you can get a very good idea of how much is going in. A recent study from Kaiser Permanente shows that maintaining a food diary doubles one’s weight loss, which is pretty impressive. They talk about keeping a written journal (here’s a sample if you’d like to print one out), but if you have easy access to the Internet, you could use a site like FitDay, which lists hundreds of foods and their caloric and nutritional values (registration is required, but it’s free). I’ve been sporadic in my use of the site, but I plan on kicking it up between now and when we go on vacation in a couple of weeks. Once I know exactly how much I’m taking in each day, I’ll have a better idea of my next steps. As you know, the actual act of weight loss is a pretty simple mathematical equation: if energy (calories) taken in are less than energy (calories) expended, you’ll lose; change the direction of the < sign, and you’ll gain. If you don’t know how many calories you’re taking in, it’s like trying to solve an equation like x - y = -5 : until you know at least one of the variables, you won’t be able to solve the equation, and in this case, you won’t know what you need to do to lose the weight.