Scientific Dieting

The very basis of science is observation. The scientific method requires us to gather data, hypothesize an explanation for those observations, create an experiment to see if the prediction occurs, and then see if others can corroborate our experiments.

How does this translate to dieting and exercise? We need to gather data on how and what we eat. That means writing down everything we put into our mouths. This is difficult and takes time. Fortunately, there are two great online tools that can help us: Fitday and The Daily Plate. I prefer Fitday because I can see how much saturated fat I have eaten over the course of the day. Others might prefer The Daily Plate because it has a very large database of food products, but you have to pay to see detailed nutritional breakdowns.

So, for the first week of my diet, I'm not going to try to diet. I am going to simply record everything I eat and the types of exercise that I perform. It takes some effort, but it is worth it. For example, I thought I was eating healthy, but I didn't realize that I ate 2000 calories and 20g of saturated fat yesterday. Yikes!

Interestingly, a scientific study published this past August claims that simply recording what you eat and participating in physical activity accounts for most weight-loss.