Try This 15-Second Weight Loss Trick

Confess your sins: Writing down what you eat could help you lose your gut. People in a weight-loss study lost six more pounds over the course of a year simply if they kept a food journal, according to the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The study was in women, but experts say men can expect similar success, too.

“For my clients, a food journal helps them realize what they’re actually eating,” says Aaron Flores, a registered dietitian in Los Angeles. “A lot of men sit in front of the TV watching sports and mindlessly eat potato chips or they eat standing up or on-the-go. That’s an easy way to end up consuming too many calories.” (Calories in/calories out? Not quite. Click here to find out The Truth About Calories.)

Keeping a journal forces you to stop, pick up a pen (or your smart phone) and think for a second about your food choices. “You might not like what you see on the page, like the two Frappuccinos a day or that afternoon Snickers bar,” says Flores. Faced with the idea of writing it down, you might not eat it at all.

What should you record? Flores suggests writing down the food you ate and the time. In addition, rate your hunger level before eating and fullness level after. (Flores uses a 1 to 10 scale, with 1 being starving and 10 Thanksgiving full.) This will help you relearn what it means to be hungry, he says.

If an actual paper journal seems so 1998, try these tech-savvy alternatives.

• Snap a pic of everything you eat with your phone. Tweet it or post on Facebook. Your friends can help keep you in line.
• Record your eats in a Google Doc or on a doc saved in DropBox so you can access it anywhere.
• Use an app like iFoodDiary ($2.99; iPhone and Android) or Calorie Counter (free; iPhone). Calorie Counter allows you to scan bar codes for easy entries.

Of course, it's hard to know just what's going into your mouth if you're eating out. Sign up for the free Eat This, Not That newsletter and you'll know the right order every time.

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