The Effect of Adherence to Dietary Tracking on Weight Loss: Using HLM to Model Weight Loss over Time

Abstract

The role of dietary tracking on weight loss remains unexplored despite being part of multiple diabetes and weight management programs. Hence, participants of the Diabetes Prevention and Management (DPM) program (12 months, 22 sessions) tracked their food intake for the duration of the study. A scatterplot of days tracked versus total weight loss revealed a nonlinear relationship. Hence, the number of possible tracking days was divided to create the 3 groups of participants: rare trackers (<33% total days tracked), inconsistent trackers (33–66% total days tracked), and consistent trackers (>66% total days tracked). After controlling for initial body mass index, hemoglobin A1c, and gender, only consistent trackers had significant weight loss (−9.99 pounds), following a linear relationship with consistent loss throughout the year. In addition, the weight loss trend for the rare and inconsistent trackers followed a nonlinear path, with the holidays slowing weight loss and the onset of summer increasing weight loss. These results show the importance of frequent dietary tracking for consistent long-term weight loss success.