Technology Makes It Easier to Make Better Choices

---

Scientific weight loss requires making improvements to your skill sets for self-monitoring. A key factor for permanent weight loss is to ensure your daily food intake is more compatible by developing good self-monitoring skill sets. Weight self-monitoring was shown to increase awareness of body weight and its relationship to energy intake and expenditure. Results of daily self-weighing studies indicate a significant reduction in an individual’s risk of weight regain.

The introduction of computer-based technology has spawned a new generation of self-monitoring weight loss strategies related to the use of the Internet to simplify support through remote feedback messaging and monitoring of dietary results. Recent studies suggest a good support network can make sustained nutritional changes much easier for people to accept for the long-term. Plus, some people do require more physical activity to maintain the weight they’ve lost.

Tips to Benefit Your Weight Loss Journey

Self-monitoring your weight loss results requires allowing time to reflect on how new habits are having a positive impact on your life. This will make it easier to continue your journey for living healthy. Listed below are four benefits of tracking your food, weight and daily exercise:

1) Understand Your Eating Habits – Knowing what you consume through your meals, snacks, and beverages requires putting hard numbers down rather than trying to deal with vague ideas about your eating habits.

2) Know Nutrient Density of Foods – Tracking your food consumption will help you determine which foods are really worth eating as well as those that are more difficult to fit into your daily menu plan.

3) Measure Changes to Your Body – If you routinely measure your progress, it can help you gauge the effectiveness of your exercise regime and daily food intake. This helps encourage you to continue replacing bad habits with healthy ones.

4) Helps to Hold You Accountable – Studies published by the Journal of Obesity found that those who weighed themselves every day and tracked his or her results over time were more successful at losing weight and keeping the lost weight off.

How to Stay On-Track with Plans for Healthy Living

Consistent tracking using good self-monitoring and self-regulatory skills can also be viewed as a measure of your resilience and ability to stay on track with your plan for healthy living even during the most challenging times. A study of dietary tracking over the holidays concluded that despite the challenges to eating healthy participants who maintained a food journal did not experience an increase in weight indicating self-monitoring to be a protective barrier against overeating. Although newer self-monitoring technologies like smartphone apps and wearable devices can make it easier to track weight loss strategies, these tools should not be viewed as an intervention themselves. These are tools not strategies for healthy living.

Tracking your food intake and the time you spend each day being physically active is a simple first step in your journey for achieving healthy living. Visit MRC online to learn more about how our one-on-one coaching can boost motivation and accountability.