Keep track of your healthy eating progress

Keeping track of what you eat and drink each day and when may help you make healthier choices. As always, personalise your approach to what works best for you. Some people find tracking helpful, especially at the start of their journey. 

Using a food diary at the start of your journey can help you spot habits that you'd like to change. This helps you to set your goals. The diary can also help you stay on target to reach your healthy eating goals.

You may think you're eating healthily, but it's easy to lose track if you're not paying attention. Filling in your diary close to the time you eat, or drink gives you a more honest picture of what - and how much - you've had.

And remember that the diary also captures your helpful habits too. Use it to spot things you'd like to do more of, such as a dinner with lots of vegetables.

Use a diary to monitor your eating

We've provided a 'healthy eating' diary that you can save to your device. It can be useful to start with monitoring what you eat and drink for one week at a time.

Save a copy of the healthy eating diary (PDF, 150 KB)

You can look back through each day and see not only what you're eating but also when you're eating certain foods. Are there any triggers or situations that make you more or less likely to eat healthily? Are there differences between weekdays and the weekend?

You may also want to look at your diary and consider:

• When are you managing to make 'healthy' choices?
• Are you eating at consistent times throughout the day?
• Are you able to eat from all the recommended food groups?
• Are you eating enough fruit and vegetables?
• Are your choices of snacks healthy ones?

You can use the Healthy Eating diary as often as you like if it helps you to keep track of what types of foods you are eating.

Note: For some people, especially those with, at risk of, or recovering from eating disorders, tracking food can be unhelpful. If you're concerned about yourself or someone you care about, BEAT has a dedicated helpline for support.

Supporting your tracking with Food Savvy tips

You might also find inspiration from the Food Savvy campaign. Food Savvy focuses on reducing food waste, but also encourages meal planning, mindful eating, and using leftovers. If you're using a food diary, Food Savvy's tips can help you reflect not just on what you eat, but how you plan, store and use your food. This can give you a fuller picture of your eating habits and help with choices aligned to your goals. 

Other tools and apps

There are many apps and websites with monitoring tools available that aim to encourage healthy food habits. Some, like Nutracheck and MyFitnessPal offer detailed food diaries, barcode scanning, and the ability to spot patterns in your eating habits. There are also apps that focus on mindful eating, meal timing, or visual food diaries, so it's worth exploring what might be useful for you. While these tools are widely used and well-reviewed, it's worth noting that they are not endorsed by a registered UK public body or organisation.

The NHS Food Scanner App and Change4Life Smart Recipes website are also available and free to use. They don't offer tracking features, but they can support you by suggesting healthier swaps when shopping or offering simple, balanced meal ideas. 

If you've decided to use a diary or monitoring tool, it's important to note everything you eat and drink. This will help you see patterns in your eating, and the type of foods and drinks that you chose to consume, and when.

Being accurate will help you achieve your healthy eating goals. There's no right or wrong way to use these tools, they just need to be true to you and make sense for the healthy eating goals you've set yourself.

What's next

You may now also want to find out why it's important to check in on your goals and progress.