What is your fitness goal? Do you want to lose weight? How about build some muscle? Are you wanting to get stronger?Whatever your goals are, using a log helps you achieve them. Food logs and training logs give you a look at what is working and what isn’t working. It’s time to stop being lazy, maintain a log, and hold yourself accountable. That is, if you want to actually achieve your goals. If you like to pretend and say “this doesn’t work” or “I just can’t lose weight and I don’t know why,” then this article isn’t for you. But, if you’re ready to give up the excuses and start making progress towards your goal, read below.

5 Reasons You Should Log Your Food and Training

Below are five reasons you absolutely need a log. Trust me, you can only “wing it” so far — the rest comes from consistency. If you aren’t consistent with what you eat and how you train, you cannot expect consistent results.

1.) A Log Shows Progression or Lack Thereof

Weight Loss

Writing your calorie intake daily shows you what works and what doesn’t. Have you been stuck at the same weight for a while? Refusing to log what you’ve eaten keeps you guessing if all of this hard work will pay off.

The next part about a log is being truthful — did you account for the bag of chips you ate, or did you only say you had one serving? Did you count that soda you guzzled down at lunch? Did you actually jog for 30 minutes on the treadmill? Weight loss comes from consistently burning more calories than you consume. If you aren’t being truthful and careful what you log, you may as well not have a log.

Building Muscle or Getting Stronger

If your goal is to build muscle or get stronger, having a log of your lifts gives you a better picture of how you’re progressing. You’ll see where you do fine and where you need to put in some extra work. Writing down your sets, reps, and what weight you performed is only part of the equation. Adding in comments such as how you felt that day, how the weight felt, and why you may have missed that last rep can give you more insight to your progress. Example: You’ll be able to see when you started to stall on your bench press, and you’ll also see that adding that 20th set of curls to your workout may not be paying off as well as you had hoped.

2.) A Log Holds You Accountable

When you accurately log what you eat and how much you exercise and lift, you’re giving yourself the black and white data you need to remove doubt from your mind. Most people do not want to use a log because you get to see exactly where you’re screwing up. They would rather blame genetics or their metabolism, even though they are simply overeating and being lazy.

No more hiding the handful of shredded cheese you inhaled at 2am. No more lying about going to the gym so you could stuff your face with birthday cake.

3.) Starting a Log is Easier Than Ever

Chances are, you use your cell phone every day, so why not use it to improve your health instead of sharing memes on the crapper? Apps like MyFitnessPal removes as many headaches and struggles you may have with logging your food.

Their huge database allows you to search for what you are eating, many times allowing you to scan the package’s barcode, which makes it very easy to accurately log your food. Seriously, not starting a log is a statement to yourself that you are lazy and you truly do not want to achieve your goals.

4.) A Log Gives You Something to Look Back On When You Achieve Your Goals

Whenever someone sees you achieving your goal, they fail to understand how many months and years went into it. Being able to look back 2 years ago when you first started in the gym can be a great feeling. You’ll be able to laugh now that you warm up with what was once your max weight. Nothing feels better than going through your old logs to see your struggle. You’ll be able to see when you finally hit your lifetime PR, and you’ll be able to highlight when you finally curled 225 in the squat rack.

5.) Maintaining a Log Promotes Healthy Habits

If you could figure out exactly what it takes to reach your fitness goals, would you actually do it? Or would you come up with another excuse why you couldn’t? No matter how you start, maintaining a lot will promote many healthy habits. Once you get past the first hurdle of starting, you’ll notice that you enjoy logging everything.

As weeks go by, you make more and more progress towards your goals and it motivates you to keep going. You start becoming motivated or obsessed with making it to the gym, eating healthier foods, and living an overall healthier life.