I talked about it here  and now the news comes out that according to experts there is one and only one way to lose weight by dieting, that is by counting calories . And there is one and only one way to count calories the right way: that is, by keeping a food diary. You can choose to use a free app like Fatsecret, but writing meals in a notebook also helps.

I know: the food diary is not very fascinating. But it works. It works a lot. It allows you to really count calories and at the same time realize what we eat more. Because the truth is that maybe we eat more. Without realizing it.

Then we lie to ourselves by underestimating the calories of what we put in our mouth. In this way it is possible to exceed even 500 calories from the purpose of the diet.

The food diary is merciless. If we do it honestly, even writing down the piece of bread we nibbled while making dinner, it really works for weight loss.

The important thing is to NOTE the weight of each food before cooking it and the list of the overall ingredients of the meal,  not only of how much you have already eaten, but also of how much you will eat, making a list of what to eat the next day, planning so are the meals.

Not only the food (e.g. today I eat pizza) but the description in grams and ingredients (today I ate a slice of homemade pizza with 50 grams of flour, a teaspoon of oil, three tomatoes, 50 grams of mozzarella ) and adding up in caloric shares (50 gr. of mozzarella are about 125 calories).

But why, according to this study , do nutrition experts recommend keeping a calorie counting diary?

Because the diary refers us to greater food awareness . It shows us what exactly we are eating and how often we are indulgent when we eat. And if we do it correctly, it records our steps forward, our efforts, which then become concrete not only when we see the weight go down, but above all we realize that we are concretely working towards our goal of losing weight . So far, so good.

But when do we have dinner out? How do we count calories and keep a diary?

Doctor Katherine Zeratsky , a dietician, answers this way: when you are out and on a diet, you should choose the options that seem healthier to us (a grilled fish or lean meat, a salad) and then, returning home , slightly overestimate the calorie count rather than underestimate it, with an increase of 40 percent more than what we think.

Another dietician, Dr. Freedhoff, leaves us a pretty good trick : do you want sweet, or do you want the first or second more caloric? Taste only three bites, and with each bite give a symbolic value of fifty calories . Generally you are not wrong.
What about counting calories? What media to use? I have used a simple notebook for years, then Fatsecret. It has never failed as a system. Dietitians are also talking about a new app: there is one called Lose it.