Trouble Sticking to Your Diet? Keep A Photo Diary

If you have trouble sticking to your diet or losing weight, your best bet may be to keep a photo diary of your body, a new study reports.

Recruiting patients for weight loss programs at a nutrition clinic in Columbia, researchers found that participants were likely to reach their goals and stay with a diet because of full-body photographs that were taken each week.

One of the most motivating factors, the study found, was pictures of waist circumference .

"After all, it is very gratifying to literally see yourself get slimmer over time," explained Mercedes Rizo Baeza, director at the University of Alicante.

Image, not health, is what motivates

The study included a 16-week diet schedule with patients ranging in age from 16 to 72. A full 90 percent of the patients saw the treatment through to the end, and about 71 percent successfully met their weight loss goals.

"This finding correlates with the fact that the majority of the patients who attended the clinic did so motivated by image, rather than any underlying condition (high cholesterol, heart condition, etc.)," a press release on the study stated.

For home-based dieters, the same strategy can work, researchers found. Even patients who did not attend the nutrition clinic in person - but who submitted their measurements and sent full-body photographs to the researchers - were successful in adhering to the diet and losing weight.

"What patients want is a photo, rather than cold numbers," Baeza concluded.

Source: AlphaGalileo