When thinking about losing weight, one generally tends to imagine and be fearful about having to spend hours in the gym and depriving oneself of the foods one loves. To a certain extent, this does become necessary; however, new research has now shown that the best predictor of success in losing weight is self-monitoring and recording calorie and fat intake throughout the day.
According to researchers at the University of Vermont and the University of South Carolina, the practice of self-monitoring a diet is generally viewed as unpleasant and time-consuming and, for this reason, many do not adopt it. For the study, researchers collated data from 142 participants who self-monitored their dietary intake, in an online behavioural weight-loss programme.
After six months of monitoring their dietary intake, the most successful participants in an online behavioural weight-loss programme spent an average of just 14.6 minutes per day on the activity. Programme participants recorded the calories and fat content for all foods and beverages they consumed, as well as the portion sizes and the preparation methods. This is the first study to quantify the amount of time that dietary self-monitoring actually takes for those who successfully lost weight and the results are soon going to be published in the March edition of the scientific journal Obesity.
“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? The answer is: Not very much,” said Dr Jean Harvey, chair of the nutrition and food sciences department at the University of Vermont and the lead author of the study. For the study, Dr Harvey and her colleagues looked at the dietary self-monitoring habits of participants for a period of 24 weeks, where they met weekly for an online group session led by a trained dietician.
Additionally, participants also logged their daily food intake online. This process allowed for a record of how much time they spent on the activity and how often they logged in - information the researchers mined for the study. Those who lost 10% of their body weight - the most successful members of the group - spent an average of 23.2 minutes per day on self-monitoring in the first month of the programme. But, by the sixth month, this time had dropped down to 14.6 minutes.
Surprisingly, the most predictive factor of weight-loss success was not the time spent monitoring—those who took more time and included more details did not have better outcomes—but the frequency of log-ins, confirming the conclusions of earlier studies. “Those who self-monitored three or more times per day, and were consistent day after day, were the most successful,” Dr Harvey said. “It seems to be the act of self-monitoring itself that makes the difference, not the time spent or the details included.” Explaining the decrease in time needed for self-monitoring over a period, Dr Harvey attributes it to the increasing efficiency in recording data and to the web programme’s progressive ability to complete words and phrases automatically after just a few letters were entered.
This study’s most important contribution, according to Dr Harvey, might be in helping prospective weight losers set behavioural targets. “We know people do better when they have the right expectations,” Dr Havey added. “We’ve been able to tell them that they should exercise 200 minutes per week. But when we asked them to write down all their foods, we could never say how long it would take. Now we can.”
With online dietary monitoring apps like LoseIt, Calorie King and My Fitness Pal widely available, Dr Harvey hopes the results of the study will motivate more people to adopt dietary self-monitoring as a successful weight-loss strategy.
