Free resource
Food journal template
Three layouts, no sign-up and no email. Use your browser's print dialogue to get a PDF, or copy the plain-text versions further down into whatever notes app you already have open.
Template 1
Daily food log.
The everyday one. A line per meal, a rough range rather than a fake number, and one line at the bottom for how the day actually felt — which is the part a calorie count cannot give you.
Date: ________________ Target: ____________ kcal / ________ g protein
| Time | What I ate | Rough kcal | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|
Day total: ____________ Protein: ________
Hunger, energy, sleep, anything I noticed:
Template 2
Weekly summary.
Fill this in once a week. Weight change is driven by the weekly average, not by any single day, so this is the sheet that actually tells you whether anything is working.
Week beginning: ________________
| Day | kcal | Protein | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | ||||
| Tue | ||||
| Wed | ||||
| Thu | ||||
| Fri | ||||
| Sat | ||||
| Sun | ||||
| Average |
What went well:
One thing to change next week:
Template 3
Protein-first tracker.
For anyone tracking one thing besides calories. Protein is the macro worth being deliberate about, and it is far easier to hit when every meal has a named anchor rather than a number to reach at 9pm.
Date: ________________ Protein target: ________ g
| Meal | Protein anchor | Grams | Running total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | |||
| Lunch | |||
| Snack | |||
| Dinner |
Anchors worth knowing: chicken breast 100 g ≈ 31 g · soya chunks 50 g dry ≈ 26 g · whey 1 scoop ≈ 24 g · paneer 100 g ≈ 18 g · Greek yoghurt 150 g ≈ 15 g · tofu 100 g ≈ 12 g · rajma 1 katori ≈ 8 g · egg ≈ 6 g · dal 1 katori ≈ 6 g · roti ≈ 3 g.
For a notes app
The plain-text version.
If you would rather not print anything, this is the same daily template in a form you can paste into Apple Notes, Google Keep or anything else. It is deliberately short — an elaborate template is how a notes-app food log dies.
DATE —
Target: ____ kcal / ____ g protein
08:00 —
13:00 —
17:00 —
21:00 —
Total:
Protein:
Notes (hunger, energy, sleep):Copy that once, duplicate the note each morning, and fill it in as you go rather than at the end of the day. The four-week plan for making it stick →
Frequently asked questions
How do I download these as a PDF?
Use the print button at the top, or your browser's print dialogue, and choose "Save as PDF" as the destination. The page is styled for print, so the templates come out clean and the site chrome is dropped.
What should a food journal template include?
The date, a line per meal with a time, a rough calorie range, and one line about hunger or energy. Anything more elaborate tends to make the habit fragile — start smaller than feels useful.
Should I write calories or just the food?
For the first week, just the food. Numbers add friction before the habit exists, and if your goal is awareness or symptoms rather than weight change, you may never need them. See food journal vs calorie counter.
Why are the calorie columns marked "rough"?
Because home cooking has no standard serving and a confident single figure would be false precision. Writing a range — "600–750" — is less satisfying and considerably more honest, and it stops you treating an estimate as a measurement.
Or don't print anything
Log a day in one sentence.
BetterCal keeps the plain-language input and does the arithmetic for you. Free to start on iPhone and Android.
