If you're starting a weight loss programme an online food diary can be an invaluable resource.

By keeping a record of everything you eat, and automatically adding up the calories every day, an online food diary can help you monitor your weight loss progress, and stay on track.

Simply writing down everything you eat is an important catalyst towards losing weight, because the first step towards change is awareness. That's why an online food diary can prove to be a surprisingly powerful weight-loss tool. Once you become more aware of your eating and exercise habits, you'll be able to focus your attention on your particular problem areas. An online food diary is completely confidential, and also easy to use. Some can even be downloaded onto your mobile phone, so you can keep track of everything you eat and drink while you're out and about.

The most sophisticated web based tools can automatically cross-reference your daily food intake with your personal daily targets, so you can keep tabs on how well you're doing with your weight loss programme on a day to day basis. You'll be able to see how many calories you've eaten every day, and some of the latest web technology also enables you to check the exact calorific value of every item of food you eat, by entering the last four numbers of the product's barcode into your computer. You'll also be able to keep a running total of exactly how much fat and fibre you're eating.

Keeping a record of what you eat and drink is a remarkably simple tactic that can dramatically improve your weight loss progress.