Food Diary for Your Doctor: What to Record, Template and Sample Report
Updated September 30, 2026
Your doctor or dietitian doesn't need “I eat normally” — they need a record of what, how much and when you ate and drank, written down at the time rather than from memory. You can keep it on paper — there's a printable template below — or in an app that condenses two weeks into one page: your average day, how it compares with targets, and the main sources of salt, sugar and fat.
What to write down
- Everything you eat and drink, including snacks, sugar in tea, sauces and the oil you cooked in. Small things are forgotten first and add up to a real share of the day.
- How much. In grams if you weigh food, or in household measures: a plate, a slice, a tablespoon, a glass, a piece.
- What exactly it was and how it was cooked: boiled or fried, the fat level of dairy, the brand of ready-made food.
- When — the time of each meal or snack; where and with whom, if your doctor asked.
- Supplements and medicines — if your doctor asked you to note them.
- How you felt — when the diary is meant to link food with symptoms: what you noticed and how long after eating. This is how a diary is used for irritable bowel syndrome, for example.
Two rules
Write things down as you eat, not from memory in the evening. And eat the way you usually do: people who know their food is being recorded tend to eat “better” without meaning to — researchers call it reactivity. Your doctor needs your ordinary week, not a model one.
How many days to keep it
Your doctor sets the period — ask at the appointment. Nutrition research uses records of one to several consecutive days, three-day records for example, sometimes repeated later. If no period was given, record at least three days in a row with a weekend day among them. Allow at least 15 minutes a day for it.
Three days won't answer questions like “am I getting enough protein?” or “how much salt do I average?” — that takes a longer stretch. The report in the app covers 14, 30 or 90 days and averages only the days on which you logged something.
Printable food diary template
Two pages. A detailed one for a single day — time, what you ate and drank, how much, how it was prepared, and a column for how you felt; print one for each day. And a week at a glance — breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks by day, for when your doctor wants the overall picture.
Open the printable templateDownload PDF
Sample report from the app
This is the page Calories Not Count builds from a diary. The person and the menu are made up: a 46-year-old woman who logged 12 days out of 14. The figures are produced by the same code as a real report.
Sample · made-up data
15 September 2026 — 28 September 2026
Days logged: 12 of 14
Female, 46 y · 165 cm · 72 kg · target 1,870 kcal a day
Average logged day
| Measure | Average | Target | Days off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 1,645 kcal — under target | 1,683–2,057 kcal | 7/12 |
| Protein | 87 g | at least 60 g | 0/12 |
| Fat | 69 g | 42–73 g | 5/12 |
| Carbohydrates | 177 g — under target | 210–281 g | 11/12 |
| Saturated fat | 27 g — over target | no more than 21 g | 9/12 |
| Sugars (total) | 51 g — over target | no more than 47 g | 7/12 |
| Fiber | 13 g — under target | at least 26 g | 12/12 |
| Salt | 5.9 g — over target | no more than 5 g | 8/12 |
Main sources
- calories: Margherita pizza 10%, Pasta bolognese 10%, Caesar salad with chicken 10%
- salt: Caesar salad with chicken 16%, Margherita pizza 14%, Pasta bolognese 14%
- sugar: Latte 21%, Orange juice 14%, Apple 9%
- saturated fat: Omelette 12%, Latte 12%, Margherita pizza 11%
- protein: Chicken breast, boiled 13%, Caesar salad with chicken 12%, Pasta bolognese 9%
- fiber: Pasta bolognese 13%, Margherita pizza 11%, Apple 8%
Most frequent foods
- Latte — on 10 days, usually 300 ml
- White bread — on 6 days, usually 60 g
- Bagel — on 5 days, usually 100 g
- Cream cheese — on 5 days, usually 25 g
- Pasta bolognese — on 4 days, usually 300 g
- Caesar salad with chicken — on 4 days, usually 250 g
Movement: 76 kcal per logged day on average.
Self-reported diary data: portions are estimated, dish composition comes from open tables. Not a medical assessment.
What this page shows at a glance
- Carbohydrates: 177 g on average against a target of 210–281 g — under on 11 of 12 logged days.
- Saturated fat: 27 g on average against a target of no more than 21 g — over on 9 of 12 logged days; the main sources are omelette and latte.
- Sugars (total): 51 g on average against a target of no more than 47 g — over on 7 of 12 logged days; the main sources are latte and orange juice.
- Fiber: 13 g on average against a target of at least 26 g — under on all 12 logged days.
- Salt: 5.9 g on average against a target of no more than 5 g — over on 8 of 12 logged days; the main sources are Caesar salad with chicken and Margherita pizza.
The report deliberately has no conclusions, diagnoses or advice: these are figures for a professional, who decides what to do with them. One caveat on sugar: the report counts total sugars, including those in fruit and dairy, while the target (10% of calories) is the WHO's for free sugars. So a flag on sugar is a prompt to look at where it comes from, not an exact overshoot.
Paper or app
| Paper diary | App | |
|---|---|---|
| How you record | in words, portions by eye | search, barcode, nutrition label or a photo of the dish; portions as “a plate”, “a slice” or grams |
| What the doctor gets | the day-by-day entries | one page: the average day, the targets, how many days went past them and the main sources |
| Protein, fat, carbs, salt, sugar, fiber | worked out by hand | calculated for you |
| Symptoms and how you felt | there's a column in the template | no separate field — keep them on paper alongside |
| Cost | free | the diary and a CSV export of every entry are free; the one-page report is part of the Plus subscription |
The two work together: symptoms are easy to keep on paper, and food in the app, so nobody has to add up grams of salt and fiber by hand.
How to make the report in Calories Not Count
- Keep the diary: averages need at least 3 logged days to mean anything, and two weeks is better.
- Open the Days tab and, in the “Report for your doctor” card, choose “Open the report and export” — or use the button below.
- Choose the period: 14, 30 or 90 days.
- In a browser, choose “Print or PDF”. In the phone app, use “Send as text” to pass the report on by email or messenger.
- If your doctor wants the raw entries, download the whole diary as a CSV table from the same page — that part is free.
The one-page report is part of the Plus subscription; the CSV export of the whole diary on the same page is free.
For keeping a diary going past week two, see the food diary guide; the formulas behind the targets and food ratings are on the methodology page.
FAQ
How many days should I keep a food diary for my doctor?
As many as your doctor asks for. If they didn't say, record at least three days in a row and make sure a weekend day is among them, because people eat differently at weekends. To see averages over a longer stretch — how much salt, sugar or fiber you typically get — you need two weeks or more.
Do I need to weigh my food?
Not necessarily. You can record portions in household measures — a plate, a slice, a tablespoon, a glass, a piece. Writing things down straight away and the same way each time matters more. If your doctor asked for grams, weigh it.
What if I miss a day or a meal?
Add a missed meal as soon as you remember it and mark it as written from memory. Don't rebuild a whole day from memory as “the usual” — leave it blank. The report in the app averages only the days you actually logged and states how many that was, for example 12 of 14.
Can I just show my doctor the diary on my phone?
You can, but scrolling through entries in an appointment is awkward. One page is easier: in Calories Not Count the report for 14, 30 or 90 days (part of the Plus subscription) prints or saves as a PDF from a browser, and from the phone app it can be sent as text. If your doctor wants the raw entries, the whole diary exports as a CSV table.
Should I write down water, tea and coffee?
Drinks with calories — always: sweetened tea, juice, coffee with milk, alcohol. Record water and unsweetened tea and coffee if your doctor asked you to track how much you drink.
Sources
- National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. Dietary Assessment Primer: Food Record at a Glance.What a food record is in research: everything eaten and drunk, written down as it is consumed, with brand, preparation and portion; it takes at least 15 minutes a day.
- National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. Dietary Assessment Primer: Reactivity.Reactivity: knowing their food is being recorded, people change what they eat, so the record stops reflecting their usual diet.
- NHS. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS): diet, lifestyle and medicines.An example of a diary kept together with symptoms: the advice to keep a diary of what you eat and any symptoms you get.
- World Health Organization (2026). Healthy diet (fact sheet).Daily guideline amounts: at least 400 g of fruit and vegetables, at least 25 g of fibre, under 5 g of salt, free sugars under 10% of calories (ideally under 5%), saturated fat no more than 10%.
Sources last checked on September 30, 2026.