Self-monitoring is an essential and most critical behavioral interventional strategy for weight management and lifestyle change. Weight-loss treatments that include behavioral interventions are more effective than those that do not.
Behavioral interventions can help people lose weight, prevent weight gain or weight regain, and improve physical fitness. In the past, self-monitoring has unfortunately been one of the least popular techniques for those participating in weight-management programs. It has even been viewed as a form of punishment in some instances.
The importance of self-monitoring in the success of lifestyle changes makes it necessary to examine the various self-monitoring techniques available.
What is the definition of self-monitoring?
Self-monitoring is observing and recording one’s eating and physical activity patterns, followed by receiving feedback on one’s actions. The goal of self-monitoring is to increase self-awareness of target behaviors and outcomes.
As a result, it can serve as an early warning system if problems arise and can aid in tracking progress toward goals. Some of the most commonly used self-monitoring techniques are as follows:
- Diaries of one’s eating habits
- Self-weighing regularly
- Logs of physical activity
- Pedometers, accelerometers, and metabolic devices are examples of such equipment.
1. Diaries of eating
Keeping a food diary is another valuable tool for self-monitoring that can be used to track progress. Food diaries differ from food logs because they contain more detailed information about the foods consumed. They are helpful if you are trying to figure out why you are eating or if there are psychological aspects to your eating.
Some food diaries may include information about the person’s stress level, mood or feelings surrounding eating, activity or location, and other environmental or emotional triggers for eating, depending on the person and behavioral complexities involved. The more complex or detailed the feedback, the better the feedback will be able to be.
However, in today’s society, it is nearly impossible for most people to maintain highly detailed daily food records over an extended period. As a result, compliance with detailed food diaries is frequently low. It is possible that by recommending that patients keep a detailed food record for a few days each week, significant areas of focus for nutritional and behavioral intervention can be identified and addressed.
Food logs and diaries are valuable tools
Keeping a food log is one of the most common and important types of self-monitoring strategies used in weight-management programs. In a food log, people record the foods they eat, their exercises, and the beverages they drink as soon as they consume them.
Individuals recording what they eat or drink as consumed is an important technique when using food logs; otherwise, the log may not provide an accurate account of the day’s intake of food and beverages. When it comes to food logs, a good “rule of thumb” is “if you bite it, you write it!”
The bare minimum of information for weight loss that should be recorded in food logs is the type of food or beverage consumed, the amount consumed, and the caloric content of the food or drink consumed. This allows you to keep track of and balance the number of calories you consume throughout the day with the number of calories you expend, which is very useful.
Other nutritional information that can be recorded includes the time of day that one must consume the meal, the fat content, and the number of carbohydrate grams consumed. It is also possible to keep food logs specific to a disease. For example, patients with diabetes or insulin resistance may benefit from focusing on carbohydrate content rather than calorie count.
Portable calorie counters
Handheld calorie counters are another option for those who are constantly on the move. They allow you to download updates when nutrition facts change; however, some of them consume a significant amount of memory when running.
Keeping track of your food online
Online food logs, diaries, and computer software are quick and convenient ways to keep track of the foods consumed in today’s technologically advanced world. The tracking of nutrition and calories throughout the day is made possible by many Web sites, many of which are free and extremely simple to use.
You can look up food options and alternative options in online databases that contain information on more than 50,000 different foods. Bloggers familiar with the Internet may choose to keep their journals online. Others may prefer to use these databases to look up the nutritional value of foods because they are more convenient than searching on the Internet. Some examples of free online diaries are as follows:
There are numerous free websites available for searching for nutritional information, such as www.calorieking.com, which provides an example. These Web sites may also offer exercise tracking and ideas, support, motivational tips, and chat or discussion rooms for their users.
2. Weighing regularly
It is crucial and straightforward to weigh oneself to keep track of one’s eating and physical activity habits. It can serve as a reminder of one’s eating and physical activity habits. Although it can be difficult and discouraging to weigh yourself while losing weight, it is recommended that you consider yourself once a week on the same scale, preferably outside of the home, to keep yourself motivated.
The scale at your local gym or exercise facility and the scale at your doctor’s office may be more accurate than the scale at home. However, if this is not possible, it is acceptable to use a household scale. Make an effort to weigh yourself at the same time of day and on the same day of the week every week.
Writing down your weekly weights on a table, graph, or calendar can help you keep track of your progress or get back on track more quickly if you’re having trouble staying on track. Please keep in mind that weighing yourself more frequently than once a week is not recommended, as daily fluctuations are not indicative of actual weight loss or gain. It is also necessary to keep track of your weight regularly to maintain your weight after losing weight.
3. Logs of Physical Activity
Exercise logs and diaries are other self-monitoring techniques used in conjunction with food logs and diaries. It is preferable to keep track of the number of minutes spent participating in physical activity and the type and level of exertion.
The level of perceived exertion recorded in an exercise log is an essential but often overlooked component of the record. Walking for 30 minutes at a leisurely pace versus a hard rate will result in different levels of calories burned and cardiovascular impact, depending on how fast you walk.
An example of simple physical activity that does not significantly increase heart rate or alter breathing would be the pace at which you walk around your workplace or go shopping.
When you are engaged in moderate physical activity, your heart and breathing rates are slightly elevated. Sweating, increased heart rate (within the target heart rate range), and increased breathing would indicate a heavy or difficult level of physical exertion.
Remember that physical activity can be completed in a single session or spread out over the day. Keeping track of your exercise can serve as positive reinforcement or a reminder to incorporate more exercise or physical activity into your everyday routine.
Walking, riding a stationary bike, or swimming at a slow pace are all excellent options for first-time activities. Dancing, exercise videos and chair exercises are all examples of enjoyable forms of physical activity. On most days of the week, you should try to get in 30 minutes of physical activity.
Many people decide to begin exercising three or four days per week, to begin with. However, if you can get yourself to exert on the majority of days of the week, even if it is only for 10 or 15 minutes, it will become more of a habit for you in the long run.
Suggestions for a Healthy Lifestyle
To meet their long-term physical activity goals, all adults should strive to complete at least 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity on most of their workdays or all workdays.
Try to incorporate more activities of daily living into your routine, such as taking the stairs rather than the elevator, parking further away, or walking to a bathroom that is farther away from your desk.
Reduced sedentary time is an effective strategy for increasing activity levels through participation infrequent, less strenuous activities. With time, you may be able to participate in more physically demanding activities.
4. Metabolic devices are devices that help the body burn calories
Pedometers
Self-monitoring tools are becoming more and more popular, and they are becoming more accurate. Pedometers provide objective data on the amount of physical activity performed daily. It is possible to purchase a pedometer from almost any consumer catalog or retail store.
Digi-Walker, Omron, Acumen, Bodytrend, Oregon Scientific, Sportline, Freestyle, Brookstone, AccuStep, and a slew of other manufacturers are among the most well-known. Garmin and Timex manufacture pedometer and speedometer devices that use GPS to calculate steps taken and speed traveled. These clip-on devices are relatively inexpensive, with prices ranging from less than $15 to more than $75.
Many people walk an average of 3,000 steps per day due to their normal activities. Walking 10,000 steps per day is recommended for weight loss to burn excess calories and lose weight. A minimum of 6,000 steps per day is required for good health regularly. Studies have shown that taking a deliberate walk of 4,000-6,000 steps per day can aid in weight loss. It’s a good idea to keep track of the daily steps taken in your exercise log consistently.
For those more concerned with the distance traveled, pedometers can be a source of frustration. It is just as important to concentrate on the number of steps taken and ways to incorporate more measures throughout the day to focus on the actual distance traveled when it comes to weight loss. People who use pedometers are more likely to find ways to increase their daily step count.
Pedometer technology continues to advance as the practice of step counting becomes more popular among the general population. New pedometers show the number of steps taken and accurately count them. They are meant to be worn every day and all day long as a source of motivation to keep moving forward. The majority of them are small and comfortable to wear.
Pedometers detect your body motion and count your footsteps using a variety of mechanisms, including turned pendulum technology, coiled spring technology, and a hairspring mechanism (which is the least accurate).
When you wear the unit correctly, it should be accurate in its counting capabilities. You may have to experiment with where you wear it. It is possible to measure your stride, and then the pedometer will calculate the distance traveled.
The latest generation of pedometers includes multifunction features such as calorie estimates, clocks, timers, stopwatches, speed estimators, seven-day memory, pulse rate readers, voice feedback, and radios. Other features include voice feedback and radios.
Accelerometers
Although pedometers are highly cost-effective, one of the significant drawbacks of using pedometers is that they do not record movement intensity (how hard it is), duration (how long it lasts), or frequency (how frequently it occurs). In physical activity, accelerometers are devices that can objectively determine the frequency, duration, and intensity of physical activity.
When it comes to assessing physical activity, accelerometers provide a high level of accuracy. Accelerometers, also known as activity monitors, are commercially available and can be purchased for various price ranges ranging from $50 to $1,000. Accelerometers such as the trainer and Nike are examples of reasonably priced devices.
Many of the more expensive accelerometers are only used in research or as part of a hospital-based program, so they are costly. They are more complex than pedometers in that they can display and store more complex information.
Some of them are designed to be downloaded to a computer and used to analyze intensity levels, movements, and patterns of physical activity. They can also estimate the number of calories burned or the amount of energy expended.
A sophisticated set of sensors and accelerometers can convert physical movement into an electrical signal that is proportional to the amount of muscular force required to perform the work. Accelerometers are available in either uniaxial or triaxial configurations.
Uniaxial accelerometers, which measure in a single plane, can be attached to the trunk or limbs and can measure acceleration. Triaxial accelerometers measure in three planes: vertical, medial-lateral, and anterior-posterior. They are available in two sizes: small and large.
Although accelerometers are a step up in accuracy from pedometers in measuring physical activity, they cannot measure resistance. Consequently, if you are strength training, adding resistance to your bike or treadmill, increasing the incline of your walking, or any combination of these, it will be unable to distinguish the increased level of energy required to complete that work.
When it comes to self-monitoring, one of the most accurate and expensive tools available are those that have incredibly sophisticated monitoring and interpreting sensors for calories burned.
Many of these devices can subscribe to a Web-based calorie counter system that integrates the number of calories burned measured by the equipment with the number of calories consumed that you enter in simple to use food logs, allowing you to lose weight more effectively.
In addition to accelerometer technology, these devices use heat flux sensors, galvanic skin response sensors (which measure physical exertion and emotional stimuli), and skin temperature gauges to provide more accurate measurements of calories burned.
Some of these techniques also include heart rate monitoring. In conjunction with one another, these technologies provide highly accurate measurements of calories burned throughout the day.
These devices can tell whether you are sitting, sleeping, jogging, walking, lifting weights, or riding in a car by the way you move your body. Many of these devices are extremely expensive and are only used for research purposes; however, some are commercially available.
This technology is also used in hospital-based programs, which is a plus. Patients are required to wear the hospital’s armband and keep track of their nutrition on the hospital’s Web site or computer-based program for one to two weeks. It will be uploaded when they return to the clinic, which will allow doctors to work with patients based on objective data about their metabolic lifestyle patterns when they do so.
Monitoring patients through integrated software applications allows practitioners to provide consultations even when they are not in person. Clinicians can now set daily goals to customize programs for each patient.
These are excellent tools for objectively monitoring behavior and physical activity and providing real-time feedback to the patient and their family. In addition to SenseWear, other companies offer this technology.
Conclusion
Even though specific diseases and treatments vary, behavior modification is the most crucial factor in weight loss or disease prevention and lowering the risk of developing infections. Self-monitoring is essential for behavior modification, and there are numerous ways to conduct self-monitoring.
Self-monitoring techniques are changing and improving as a result of technological advancements, helping to overcome some of the significant barriers to compliance.
Overall, self-monitoring should be a significant part of any weight-loss, weight-maintenance, or healthy lifestyle change program, regardless of how it is carried out or how often it is carried out. Once this is accomplished, the next step is to ensure that the self-monitoring results in positive behavior changes in diet and physical activity.
REFERENCES:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3268700/
- https://www.obesityaction.org/resources/self-monitoring-the-way-to-successful-weight-management/
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/weight-loss/art-20048224
- https://www.jmir.org/2022/1/e30673
- https://www.jcfitness.co.uk/blog/how-self-regulation-can-improve-your-weight-loss/
