Food Journal Ideas: What to Write in a Food Diary, With Examples
Starting a food journal is easy; knowing what to write in it is harder. A list of foods is a start, but on its own it rarely tells you much. The entries that turn out to be useful a few weeks later usually include a little context: how hungry you were, where you ate, and whether you would eat it again.
Below are practical ideas and prompts, grouped by what you want to get out of the journal, followed by example entries, ways to organise them with tags and ratings, and questions for a weekly review. The last section shows how to use these ideas in Foodlog.
The basics for every entry
Whatever your goal, these four details make an entry useful later:
- Which meal and roughly what time.
- What you ate and drank, in plain words.
- About how much, using everyday measures: a handful, a bowl, two slices.
- A photo, if you can take one before you start.
Everything else in this guide is optional. Add one or two of the ideas below rather than all of them, or the journal becomes a chore.
Ideas for noticing eating habits
- Hunger before eating, on a simple 1 to 5 scale.
- Fullness afterwards, on the same scale.
- Where you ate: kitchen table, desk, car, sofa, restaurant.
- Who you ate with, or whether you ate alone.
- What you were doing at the same time, such as working, scrolling or watching TV.
- Your mood before the meal in one word: calm, stressed, bored, tired, happy.
- Whether the meal was planned or spontaneous.
After a couple of weeks, these short notes often explain more than the food itself, for example that most unplanned snacks happen at a desk in the late afternoon.
Ideas for home cooks
- The recipe name or where you found it.
- Changes you made and whether they worked.
- How long it really took compared with the recipe.
- Whether there were leftovers, and what you did with them.
- A rating, so you can find your best recipes again quickly.
- One thing to try differently next time.
Ideas for eating out and takeout
- The restaurant or takeaway and the dish.
- Whether you would order it again.
- A note for next time: "ask for the sauce on the side", "half portion is plenty".
- How often you ate out this week compared with last week.
Example entries
These made-up examples show the level of detail that works for most people. Each takes under a minute to write.
- Breakfast, 7:30: two slices of wholegrain toast with peanut butter, banana, coffee with milk. Hunger 4. At the kitchen table. Tags: Homemade. 3 stars.
- Lunch, 13:15: chicken wrap and crisps from the shop near work, can of soda. Hunger 5, had skipped my morning snack. Ate at my desk while answering email. Tags: Takeout. 2 stars, too rushed.
- Dinner, 19:00: lentil curry from the recipe saved last week, rice, extra spinach. Took 40 minutes, not 25. Leftovers for tomorrow. Tags: Homemade, Vegetarian. 5 stars, making again.
Notice that none of these needs exact weights or nutrition figures. The value is in the pattern across many entries.
Organise entries with tags and ratings
Tags turn a long list of meals into something you can count. Useful tag groups are where the food came from (homemade, takeout, dining out), the style of food (for example Japanese, Western or Chinese), and anything you are paying attention to, such as vegetarian meals or high-protein meals. Keep the list short so you use it consistently.
Ratings answer a different question: was this worth repeating? A quick star rating after each meal soon gives you a list of favourite home recipes and dependable restaurant dishes.
Questions for a weekly review
- Which three meals did I rate highest, and what do they have in common?
- How many meals were homemade this week compared with last week?
- When did I eat while distracted or rushed?
- Which drinks did I have most often?
- What is one small thing I would like to try next week?
Notebook, notes app or food diary app?
A paper notebook is the most flexible place for prompts like these, and some people enjoy writing by hand. A notes app is always with you but has no structure, so entries vary and are hard to count. A food diary app gives each meal a fixed slot, keeps photos with the entry and adds up tags and ratings for you, at the cost of fitting your notes into its fields.
Using these ideas in Foodlog
Foodlog has a place for each of the basics and room for your own prompts:
- On the Meal Record tab, tap Record Breakfast, Record Lunch or Record Dinner.
- Add a photo with Take Picture or Select from Gallery.
- Use the description for what you ate and any prompts you are following, such as hunger, place and mood. Snacks can go in the description of the nearest meal.
- Enter calories in kcal only if you want them.
- Rate the meal from one to five stars.
- Pick tags from Homemade, Takeout, Dining Out, Japanese, Western, Chinese, Low Calorie, High Protein, Vegetarian and Vegan.
- At the end of the week, tap the statistics icon to see meal type counts, your most-used tags and your highest-rated meals, and use the Calendar tab to jump to any logged day.
Everything in the web version stays in your browser. The iPhone and Android apps add meal-time reminders. For a step-by-step method, see how to keep a food diary.
Frequently asked questions
What should a beginner write in a food journal?
Start with the meal, what you ate and drank, roughly how much, and a photo if possible. Add one prompt, such as hunger level or where you ate, once the habit is in place.
Should I write how I felt?
If you are curious about why you eat when you do, a one-word mood note before the meal is useful. Keep it short and neutral; the aim is to notice patterns, not to judge yourself.
Can I create my own tags in Foodlog?
Foodlog has a fixed set of ten tags. For anything else, write it in the meal description.
Does Foodlog track snacks?
There are slots for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Many people record snacks in the description of the nearest meal.