Many people suffer from the same eating problems, but among those eating issues, there is on that stands out. Emotional eating. For most people, it is the leading cause of abnormal weight gain, as you end up compensating for your emotional distress by sitting down for a large snack. Once and a while this is fine, but do it too often and you will find it hard to lose any weight. Every time you eat anything, you need to write down your state of mind in your food journal. Were you feeling tired, upset, depressed, happy or energetic? Just writing a few words about how you felt at the time you decided to eat can make a world of difference when it comes time to analyze your eating behaviors. While your emotions are a good starting point, if you want to get even more in depth in your journal, you should go ahead and make that extra effort. At the end of each day, make a note about what happened during that day. Were the events good or bad? Did they lead to you eating more than you normally would have? Once you analyze your emotions in regard to your hunger levels and how often you eat your meals, you may be able to find a pattern which you can use to become a more proper eater. Maybe you'll find that you eat more when you're depressed, even if you do not feel that hungry. Or perhaps you will find that you bolster happy days with food to make you feel even better. The ultimate goal of any food journal you create is to be able to track your dietary patterns to see what needs to be changed if you hope to lose weight. While the core of your food notebook should be based on what you eat and how much of it you ate, you should also take the time to write about your state of mind, how often you eat, and where you have your meals. While these facts may seem useless at first, they can provide you with a number of interesting observations about what you need to change if you hope to lose weight.