10 Online Food Journal Templates, Apps, and Printables in 2020 (2023)

We review the most popular food diary apps and templates in 2021 for healthy eating, weight loss, digestive issues and eating disorder recovery.

In theory, keeping a food diary is a good idea, but how many of us have failed after just one day? Or after the first meal? If you've given up, then you're not alone and it's probably not your fault. Many food diaries are poorly designed and have a knack of making us feel bad about our choices.

However, there are many good reasons to keep a food diary. If you're trying to lose weight, eat better, or figure out what's triggering your IBS, a food log is probably one of the first things a nutritionist or nutritionist will ask you to do. It's also a good place to start if you want to take care of your health.

The best food diary app is designed for a specific purpose like weight loss or symptom tracking. He should use AI food recognition software that allows him to take pictures of his meals, as it is the most accurate way to track his food intake and record portion sizes. Preferably, a food diary app should also allow you to create reports on your eating habits to identify eating patterns that influence your food choices.

This article reviews the best online food diary options with pros and cons to help you find the best one. Whether you're looking for a printable food diary, a PDF food diary, or a food diary app, we've got you covered. Also, most of them are free.

How to keep a food diary

1.discover your purpose: How does the food diary help you?
2.Set an end date: Your food diary is for a purpose, not a lifestyle.
3.Do not wait, write down your food intake immediately or you will forget.
4.To be consistentand write down everything you eat and drink.
5.Be honestabout your food intake and don't feel bad about it.
6.Show a nutritionistor nutritionist for expert nutritional advice.

Keeping a food diary can be very simple. Choose the easiest printable food diary options for short term purposes. Alternatively, download an app that considers many metrics and data from other sources (eg fitness apps) when trying to find answers to complex health issues like digestive issues.

Index

• How to keep a food diary
• CDC printable food diary
• Harvard Health printable journal
• Atlas gut microbiome diary
• Coma o Rainbow Food Journal
• MySymptoms IBS Food Diary
• Gut Stuff food diary
• Noom food diary for weight loss
• Weight loss world food diary
• Weight Watchers Food Diary
• Food Diary for ED and Anorexia Rise Up

general food diary

A food diary is a short-term tool to help you record your food intake and provide your doctor with information about what you eat, how you eat, and when you eat. This information contains valuable tips that can help you create a nutrition plan tailored to your needs.

CDC food diary (hyperbasic)

The Centers for Disease Control of America is a reputable source of information and guidance on public health, including healthy eating and obesity prevention. They created a very simple weekly food diary template that you can print out and fill out.

Benefits: This A4 printable food diary organizes your daily eating habits. Includes a lineup for three meals and three snacks. It's free, hassle-free, and you only need to print once a week.

Disadvantages: There is only one line for each meal and snack, and this can limit how much you can put on your food diary sheets. There is no room for portions or portion sizes, time of day or extra queues for unplanned snacks.

Harvard Health Food Journal (abrangente)

Harvard Health is an excellent resource for simple, straightforward science-backed health and nutrition advice. Its printable food diary template lets you keep track of time and place you ate, hunger, mood, and fruit and vegetable servings.

Benefits: This comprehensive log starts with a sample food diary that shows you how to complete it. It lets you track hunger and mood to identify behaviors and bad habits you can address to improve your diet, such as eating less. For example, mindless eating in front of the TV and stress eating.

Disadvantages: If you do not fill it in immediately after eating, you may miss important information. It's very long, can be cumbersome to fill out, and has a colored background that can drain your print cartridges.

☝️TIPP☝️ Don't forget to check out Amazon's food diary options, as there are many formats, purposes and bindings to choose from.

Gut health food diary

If you have digestive issues, you are not alone. actually approx40% of people worldwidemeet the criteria for a functional gastrointestinal disorder (symptoms with no apparent cause). Unfortunately, digestive issues can be difficult to diagnose and treat - this is where a food diary can help.

Atlas microbiome food diary

if you got thisAtlas-Microbiome-Test, you will have free access to a photo food diary, which you can use to photograph your meals. This healthy food diary rates your meal as good or bad for the good bacteria in your gut. is available forAndroidEiOS.

A 2020 studyconfirms that photo food diaries are the best option for food tracking as they are much more accurate. It relieves you of the burden of recording all ingredients or weighing your meals and provides your nutritionist with a file of relevant nutritional information.

Benefits:It's fast, easy and free once you take the test. It uses reliable scientific evidence to assess how microbiome-friendly your food choices are. Includes a free Rainbow Food Tracker to help you diversify your diet for gut and whole-body health. Plus, your nutritionist can access your food and view your photos to help you with your gut health goals.

Disadvantages: you can only use it if you have taken the Atlas microbiome test. It's very focused on optimizing your gut microbiome to boost your well-being, so it doesn't provide calorie information or allow you to integrate fitness data.

IBS Food Diary: MySymptoms

MySymptoms is the best food diary app for tracking digestive discomforts caused by IBS, food intolerances and intolerances, and inflammatory bowel disease. It's a data-driven app that maps your food intake and symptoms to identify trigger foods and situations. Includes sleep and stress scores, bowel movements, and symptom intensity.

Benefits:This app records data and creates graphs to find out what triggers your episodes of digestive comfort. It's a true food and symptom diary that tracks many different metrics, not just food, to give you a comprehensive picture of how your life is interacting with your gut health. You can also create food diary PDF reports.

Disadvantages:MySymptoms finds connections between different factors, but does not provide any causal connections. For example, this diet symptom diary might find a link between a poor night's sleep and your symptoms, but what if something else is really disrupting your sleep and causing the symptom? It's worth considering.

Healthy Eating Diary App: Eat the Rainbow

Eat The Rainbow is a great healthy eating journal that doesn't focus on calories. Instead, it aims to encourage people to diversify their diets with colorful plant-based foods. It includes a comprehensive list of healthy foods and lets you set weekly goals.

Benefits: this simple and straightforward app aims to help you eat better. It also aims to enlighten you with references to the scientific facts that support eating rainbows for health. The colorful list of plant foods is great inspiration to get into the kitchen and start cooking.

Disadvantages: It's a very basic app that won't let you take pictures of your food. It cannot be integrated with other data sources to give you better results on how you are helping your body.

Food diary book: The good stuff

Gut Stuff was founded by DJs turned gut aficionados, the Mac Twins. They travel around the UK organizing events, debates and dinners dedicated to gut health and healthy eating. As part of their quest to make gut health a hot topic of discussion in the UK, they've released the cutest food diary around.

Benefits: Allows you to monitor hydration, mood, symptoms, and food intake. The book contains fantastic gut health tips to help you make better digestive health choices every day. And let's be honest, it looks like a great birthday or Christmas present.

Disadvantages: is a beautifully printed book to carry around if you want to properly record food, mood and water intake. While it may be suitable for nutritionist purposes as a food tracker, it is not a flexible tool that does calculations for you or integrates data from other sources.

weight loss diet diary

A food diary can support weight loss as part of a structured plan overseen by your doctor or nutritionist for conditions such as type II diabetes and obesity. Recording information such as your mood, hunger levels, and eating context (stress eating, mindless eating, binge eating) is especially important as it provides valuable insight into the role of food in your life.

However, there are limitations and risks. For example, studies show that people tend to underestimate what they eat and overestimate servings of healthy foods. Additionally, food diaries can be triggers for people with a history of eating disorders.

Assessing why you want to lose weight is important because there are so many bad reasons to diet. Hollywood, Instagram and smartphone filters have created unattainable physical targets by promoting celebrities who are (or appear to be) underweight. If that's your goal, you should talk to a nutritionist about your health goals to set realistic goals that won't overwhelm your health.

Weight loss diet tracker: Noom

Noom is an all-in-one food and exercise diary app that lets you log what you ate, your weight, and your physical activity. It's supported by wellness coaches (who aren't qualified nutritionists!) and has good reviews.

In fact,a 2016 studyin Nature, a respected scientific journal, found it to be an effective weight loss app for most of its users. You can find an expert opinion here.detailed noom testby registered dietitian Nora Minno.

Benefits: Noom doesn't force you on a strict diet and doesn't promote fad diets like keto or gluten free. The food is simply color-coded: green for good food and red for not-so-healthy food. It can connect to your smartphone's health app to integrate data from your workouts.

Disadvantages: It's expensive - the full Noom program costs £41.99 per month. Also, Noom is not designed for people with diagnosed health conditions. Therefore, if you have diabetes or thyroid problems, consult your doctor or nutritionist first.

Weight loss world food diary

Slimming World(r) is a company with offices across the UK and a digital programme. It focuses on helping people make healthier choices without completely overhauling their diets. Their food diary allows members to track 'free foods', 'free super foods' and 'synthetics'.

Benefits:A studyof nearly 1.4 million Slimming World members have shown that this program can really support weight loss in 3 months. This printable Slimming World food diary is ideal for older members who are not familiar with smartphones.

Disadvantages: This printable food diary looks like it was made for kids and you have to join Slimming World(r) for it to make sense (it's £5-10 a week). The science behind their "free" and "super free" shopping lists is difficult to verify, and some recommendations for high-glycemic foods (such as pasta) may not be appropriate for people with blood sugar issues such as resistance to insulin, diabetes and pre-diabetes. .

Weight Watchers Food Diary

Weight Watchers(r) is another weight loss company with nationwide groups where everything you eat is ranked using a point system. The Weight Watchers ® program is structured like a bank account into which you receive meal points each week. You can track your goals in the Weight Watchers Food JournalApplication.

Benefits: There's a barcode scanner to help you make the right choice where it matters most: at the supermarket. You can earn food points by exercising and the app gives you access to training 24/7.

Disadvantages: You have to pay monthly fees (£12.99). This show also tries to stake and monetize every part of its show, and while it does provide recipes and food advice, it also makes money from branded meals and a variety of ready-to-eat meals.

Food Diary Eating Disorders and Anorexia: Rise Up + Recovery App

This free food diary app from Recovery Warriors turns your food diary into an ally in your recovery from an eating disorder. While a traditional calorie-counting food diary can exacerbate eating disorders, this app focuses on mental well-being, state of mind, and motivation with a non-threatening food diary without the pressure to add portion size or calories.

Benefits: Intended to support self-management as part of cognitive-behavioral therapy to overcome eating disorders. It also provides access to support and healthcare in the local area.

Disadvantages: some people find the motivational quotes offensive, discouraging or just plain annoying and may discourage them from using the app to monitor and treat their eating disorder.