Ive been thinking of starting a food diary in order to see what food/fluid intake I have and then trying to use this as a way of changing and effective weight loss

Has anyone kept one before?
did you benefit from it or did it just tell you what you already know?
Did you change your habits aferwards?

__________________
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I am the hate you try to hide and I control you - Mr Self-Destruct.

I used to keep one when I was obsessed by weight loss back when I was um 17...I do not keep track of what I eat, I find it becomes obsessive compulsive and very unhealthy after a while. for me anyways. and I refuse to go back there, I always felt guilty when indulding in something I shouldn't(after a while of keeping diaries), then it led to counting calories all the time in everything, then it led to bulimic episodes...and so I stray away from obsessing about food.
So i no longer keep a food diary, but when grocery shopping, I mostly buy veggies and fruits, and whole grain foods, just because I feel like at a certain point in time, you realize more about the foods you ingest and about your eating habbits, and you want to take care of your body. And if 50% of what I eat is crap, I'll feel like crap. And so at this point, I don't do it for weight loss, but everything I do regarding food, or keeping track of wha I ingest I do it because I'm concerned about my health...
I know I derrived a bit from the original question, but sometimes calorie counting people sadden me, although i KNOW that when you need to lose weight you need to watch your calories, it saddens me when it becomes an obsession and when girls are just constantly battling with that obsession that basically makes one feel constantly not content..

i just had to do it for a class. and then input everything into a website that analyzes your nutrition. we had to pick three days that were "typical" for us and make a big project out of it and take it really seriously and turn it in for TWO HUNDRED POINTS. so just to be a dick i picked a day in which i ate nothing but coffee, skittles, doritos, pizza, and beer. i hope my professor gives me an A on it.

I kept record of my diet when I lost weight .... that was like 5 years ago and I dropped lots of weight. And yes, it was really, really helpful to me. Although I wasn't too anal about the exact amounts of anything... I didn't weigh my food etc.
I just wanted to increase the veggie and fruit intake.

The other thing I did: I also noted when/what I ate when I was already full. Like I had this extra symbol I scribbled next to the things I only ate out of pure greed. And THAT was the most helpful thing.

i keep a food diary online. you have to with weight watchers. i've been sort of lax about it for the past month or two but i definitely feel that it helped me to recognize when i was eating absentmindedly. being more cognizant of when and what i'm eating has helped me to lose weight over the course of roughly a year and then maintain the loss for 6 months and counting. it's a pain in the ass to get started but then when you get used to tracking everything it's not so bad.