Watch Your Budget, Watch Your Weight

In this Post:

• Budget
• HSBC
• Weight Loss
• Food Diary

Credit is out; cash is king. And layaways are back in vogue, according to a segment on The Today Show this morning. Remember those department store plans, where you pay in installments and only take the item home once it’s paid in full? What a quaint notion!

But experts say that a layaway plan can help you stick to a budget—another quaint notion rapidly coming back in style. Being virtuous isn’t always fun, but it can provide peace of mind and a sense of satisfaction—especially now. I recently blogged about the surprising joys of spending less. But who knew that keeping to your budget may also help keep you healthy?

A very interesting new survey by HSBC Direct of more than 1,000 U.S. households (given as an exclusive first look to this very blog!) found this correlation:

Fiscal Versus Physical

• About 59 percent of all people surveyed said they stick to a budget or track expenditures regularly (58 percent of men, 61 percent of women).

• About 47 percent off all respondents said they keep track of their diet and nutrition (40 percent of men, 54 percent of women)

• Some 75 percent of those who reported monitoring their diet regularly also stick to a budget and track expenditures, compared with only 45 percent of those who don’t watch their diets.

• Of the 19 percent of respondents who don't have a budget at all, nearly 75 percent also don't keep track of their diet and nutrition.

Sticking to a budget and monitoring nutrition are both learned disciplines and good habits, so it makes sense that people who do one would do the other. But anyone can learn to do these. It’s easy to be in denial about the real state of your finances (have you added up all your debt lately or really scrutinized the finance charges you’re paying on your credit cards?) or the state of your caloric intake (yes, the bites you eat off your kid’s plates when you’re clearing the dishes do add up).

But facing the truth and then taking steps to change it for the better can bring a huge feeling of relief and accomplishment. The current economic freefall is motivation enough to take a hard look at spending and make a plan to reduce debt. And while eating less costs less, here’s even more motivation to pay extra attention to what you eat:

Keeping a food diary can double your weight loss.

A recent study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine followed a diverse group of 1,685 adults for six months, encouraging them to eat fewer calories, exercise regularly, follow the DASH eating style, keep their sodium down, limit alcohol—and record their daily food intake.

The researchers found that those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records. Apparently just the act of writing it down encourages people to eat fewer calories. If you google “food diary,” you’ll find lots of online tools and tips, but it doesn’t have to be anything fancy or formal, either, the experts say. Don’t wait till the end of the day, but try to do it as you go, so you remember everything. Just scribble it down on a Post-it note or the back of an envelope, if that’s what’s handy.

The key is to do it consistently, especially on your binge days, so you can’t fool yourself. It’s a small step, but one that’s proven to make a big difference.
 

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