There are 3 things you need to keep a diary of: food, exercise and body shape. Read below on how to use them:

Food Diary

A food diary records all the food and drink you consume day-in, day-out. Also, a food diary allows you to take an objective look at your real eating patterns. Many people who try to gain weight and feel that they "eat heaps" will be amazed at how little they actually eat in comparison to what they need to be eating.

How to Fill It Out
Record what you ate and drank for breakfast, lunch, dinner and anything in between for everyday of the week. Also be sure to record the times you ate.

How to Utilise It as a Tool
If for example you gained 0.2kg of weight in a fortnight, you could look back over your food dairy and see what foods you consumed and what eating patterns you followed that helped you get such a fantastic result. Then you could replicate similar eating habits (and activity levels) for the following fortnight and see if you get another gain. Alternatively, if at the end of a fortnight you lost weight, you could look back over the diary and see where you can increase food (calorie) intake.

NOTE: This tool is best used in conjunction with the other diaries.

Weight-Training Diary (exercise program)

In a weight-training diary you record specific information on the weight-training exercises performed during a workout.

How to Fill It Out
For everyday you weight-train, record what exercises you performed during a workout, how much load you lifted on each exercise and how many sets and reps you performed on the exercises.

How to Utilise It as a Tool
If for example you gained 0.2kg of weight in a fortnight, you could look back over your exercise dairy and see what exercises and what increases in the loads lifted helped you get such a great weight gain. Then you could replicate the same exercises and load increases for the following fortnight and see if you get another gain. Alternatively, if at the end of a fortnight you did not gain any weight, you could look back over the exercise diary and see where you can increase loads on any of your exercises.

NOTE: This tool is best used in conjunction with the other diaries.

Body Shape Diary

A body shape diary records information about your body shape, so you can compare data taken at a later date and gauge progress.

How to Fill It Out
At the beginning of your muscle gain journey, write down the date and record various information using any of the following methods:

• Weight reading from scales (be sure to write down the time you weighed yourself and the last time you ate, so you can closely replicate later on)

• Girth measurements (measuring certain body parts. e.g. biceps, thighs, chest)

• How your clothes feel

• Pants, shirts, belt or dress sizes

• A current photo of youself

• Fitness tests (e.g. how long it takes you to walk 500m, how long it takes you to cycle 2km)

How to Utilise It as a Tool
At the end of each week, fortnight or month, retake the body shape data and compare it to the original/previous record. If there was a positive result, then use your exercise and food diaries to replicate similar exercise patterns (load increases, rep increases) and eating habits for the next period and see if you get another positive result. Alternatively, if you retook the data and did not get a positive result, you could look back over the exercise and food diaries to see where you can make changes in food intake/timing and/or exercise levels to ascertain a positive result next time.

NOTE: You can still get results without using a diary system. The above is just one method that can be implemented.