Printable IBS Food and Symptom Diary Template (FREE PDF)

Why Use the Printable IBS Food & Symptom Diary?

Using a FODMAP diary has been scientifically proven to help uncover the connection between gastrointestinal symptoms and diets.¹ Without monitoring your foods closely, you won’t figure out what ingredients affect your gut motility, and your symptoms won’t improve.

Some people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome choose to not use a diary for the elimination process. The problem is our memories aren’t always exact. “Not writing a journal” could become a guessing game of what you had yesterday. As time goes by, your symptoms don’t improve, and you’ll get stressed that your IBS is worsening. These seemingly simple factors contribute to lowering IBS patients’ quality of life.²

What is the IBS Food & Symptom Journal?

IBS food and symptom log is a tool for helping you identify what ingredients trigger your symptoms by recording what you eat and drink throughout the day.

You’ll need to fill in many details, including your bowel movement frequency, pain, mood, and even the medications you take. Let’s take a look at them:

• Date: The day you fill the diary.
• Food Description: What do you eat?
• Quantity: How much do you eat for each food?
• Stool Form: Please check the Continence.org stool category. For the simple explanation, types 1 and 2 indicate constipation (hard stools). Types 3 and 4 are ideal (smooth stools). Types 5-7 indicate diarrhea and other conditions.
• Symptoms: Rank your symptoms after consuming certain foods or drinks with a 1-10 scale.
• Pain: Describe your pain on a 1-10 scale.
• Mood: How does your mood feel after consuming certain foods or drinks? Please choose one of the faces to describe it.
• Stress: How does your stress level feel when consuming certain foods or drinks? Please choose one of the faces to describe it.
• Other Notes: Describe any relevant information to give more context to what you’ve written.

How to Use the Printable IBS Food & Symptom Diary?

The IBS food journal goes hand-in-hand with the elimination diet, so we’ll explain how to do it first in simple steps:

• Prepare a list of FODMAP food. It’s great to use Monash’s list of FODMAP foods or download Monash’s app as they created the diet and consistently update them with the latest information.
• Write down every single low FODMAP ingredient (or even better, no FODMAP ingredients).
• Check which ingredients are available in your area and which you can actually eat.
• Swap all your foods (yes, all) with those low FODMAP ingredients.
• Reintroduce one food at a time. Observe the effect over the period of three days while filling out the food journal.

The following is the procedure for using the food journal in this page:

1. Jot down the day you fill the diary (for example, April 28th, 2023). You’ll use a new sheet every day. Compile the sheets per week or month, then show them to your GI doctor or registered dietitian to discuss further treatments and specific diets for you.
2. Start from “Breakfast” for the “Time of Day.” Write the time you have breakfast below it (for example, 08.10 AM).
3. In “Food Description,” note as many details as possible. You can include the cooking method, the additional ingredients, or even the brands (if any). For example, instead of “pasta,” write “spicy chicken aglio olio spaghetti from XYZ restaurant.”
4. Write how much you consume the food or drink. For example, “2 eggs + 1 cup of spinach” for spinach omelet. It’s not as accurate as using oz and lbs, but not everybody has the time to weigh your meal, right?
5. Write the stool type you have that day according to the Continence.org scale. Add the time you relieve yourself.
6. Measure how your bowel feels after consuming a particular food or drink. Use a 1-10 scale, with 1 to describe a very bad condition and 10 for no symptoms. For example, you feel terrible after drinking lactose-free milk. So, you jot down 1 and write some additional description (e.g., feeling bloated, distension, pain, farting, etc.)
7. Describe the “Pain” you feel after consuming a particular food or drink. Check the notes on the file to categorize your pain level. You can add more descriptions, such as stomach cramps, lower intestine cramps, rectal pain with a sharp/burning sensation, etc.
8. Notice any change in mood after you eat and note it in the “Mood” column. If your food is great and doesn’t cause any bowel movement, put a checkmark on the rightmost face to indicate a great mood. If the lactose-free milk you drink causes a cramp and your mood is bad, check the leftmost face.
9. Like mood, note your “Stress” by putting a checkmark on the appropriate face symbol.
10. For “Other Notes,” you can write any health condition for more information. For example, menstrual cycle, exercise, medication from doctors, or supplements you take (as well as the dosage). If you’re having a stomach cramp and decide to drink ginger tea, write it in this column. If you’re being stressed by overloaded work, note it down, too.

What are the Benefits of Using an IBS Food & Symptom Log?

Without being selective with the ingredients, many foods can wreck your digestive system and cause diarrhea, unbearable pain, or other combinations.¹

Doing the elimination diet is a good start toward not worrying about where the toilet is every so often. You can eat low FODMAP foods and do your best to avoid fatty foods, cafein, alcohol, and milk.^{1 3} However, your bowel might still refuse to cooperate with you and get triggered by random ingredients without rhyme or reason.

Trial-and-error eating is a constant battle for an IBS patient, especially when you’re still in the elimination phase or want to try new foods. The Irritable Bowel Syndrome food and symptom diary will benefit you because:

• You can monitor the symptoms in real-time (24 hours).¹ Don’t think all foods trigger your guts immediately. Some might affect you the next day. This journaling process helps you in tackling those cases.
• You will fill it with valuable information over a long period. Not only do you describe the foods, but you’ll also take note of the bowel consistency, stress level, and other factors that could unknowingly related to your digestive problems.¹
• You can show the diary to GI doctors and registered dietitians so that they can consider what treatments you can receive.

Who should Use the IBS Food & Symptom Diary?

Anyone with Irritable Bowel Syndrome can use the symptom diary, as it’ll help you recognize your triggers. The journal will be invaluable if you’re in the elimination diet phase.

When should You Use the IBS Food & Symptom Journal Template?

As we’ve written before, this food log is best used during the FODMAP elimination diet phase. As a general rule, an IBS patient usually needs to follow a low-FODMAP diet for at least 4-8 weeks.⁴ However, as a registered dietitian, I’d say it’s actually ideal to use it as long as you can.

There’s no strict limitation on when to stop using an IBS food journal and when to continue using one. Many IBS patients believe they have a good grasp of their allergy. Still, a study showed that only 11-27% actually identify their triggers.⁵

The low percentage of people understanding their bowel might be caused by the complicated nature of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Not only will the kind of ingredients affect you, but the amount you take will also affect you. For example, you can be okay drinking one glass of milk. But gulping just one extra glass will send you flying to the nearest lavatory.

It’d be prudent to use a food diary long-term, even when you don’t experience any symptoms. You can experience a symptom even when you only eat your “safe foods.” There are other factors to notice, such as stress levels, psychological issues,³ and interaction between diets, microbial gut flora, and digestive products.²