anybody use diet/ nutrition tracking software?

[Nean]

Had fitday on my old computer. Can't recall/find my signin info, so before I go to the trouble of hooking up the old computer - anybody have a site/system they love? hate? wish was better?

I want to be able to easily track the ECC, which fitday pc does do.

Thanks!

(and, yes, I've seen the links Shadow has listed :) just wanting any feedback I can get from experienced users)

[SeeItThrough]

I use Diet and Exercise Assistant v 6.0 by Keyoe, INC. The reason I chose it is because I keep track with it on my handheld and then can link up to the desktop and review things a bit easier. They had a free trial (download.com?) and it did what I wanted it to do so I bought it.

The handheld and desktop are two different purchases...when I bought them I think I dropped around $30 total.

For me the best feature is that you can tailor the basic goals however you want. You can set the program up for a low carb, low fat, or a ratio-based program (like 40/30/30). This makes it tidier when it shows you your remaining targets for the day.

The included food database is pretty complete. Additional foods are easily added. There is a daily summary which will put all your values in columns, etc.

It keeps track of weight and about 5 or 6 body measurements...also has a rudimentary body fat estimator. You can graph your weight but reviewing your body measurements can only be done by paging through your previous days (IOW, no global view of measurements, trends, etc). It also has a journal.

The exercise part of it is pretty basic in the regard you put in the duration and the intensity and it subtracts those calories from your daily goal. I would like it to expand to being able to enter weight-lifting routines (weight, sets, reps). I still have to use Excel for that.

A downside for me is that it doesn't let you log the times of each meal. My days are never the same and I eat three meals plus 2 snacks a day so a time function would be nice. It lets group your meals but not your time.

[Bangs]

I have DietPower. A great data base but a couple of serious flaws, IMO. There's no version for handheld devices currently, and no way to track nutritional totals by meal or snack, which is ideally the way I'd like to see it, in addition to cumulative totals. SeeTI, does Diet and Exercise Assisant have a way to track by meal?

[LisaS]

I've just reviewed (by free download trial)
dietpower
Performance Diet
Weight by Date
Crosstrainer
Lifeform
Fitness Assistant
Weigtmania
FitnessTool

I was looking for multi-purpose - exercise logging and diet tracking -

and found that the features I wanted in each function were available but didn't coincide in the same product. Some I didn't like how to specify portions consumed - some I didn't like how the food search worked - some I didn't like how you put in exercises and/or routines or routes -

some have more body measurement tracking abilities than others - or medical test results - so it depends on if that is important to you or if you are willing to do that sort of thing in Excel since it isn't a daily report type of thing. Unless maybe you want to track FBG or post-prandials in the same software - I'm sure there are products explicitly for that type of tracking as well.

you really need to download a few and see for yourself what you like and what you don't about the interfaces and the features - what you can live with and what would be a showstopper - and what you think is a reasonable cost for the one with the features you like.

I downloaded a few at a time and used them for about a week - duplicating the entry in each product each day.

[Always]

I use Diet Power (http://www.dietpower.com) and I am happy with it. Been using it for 5 years and like the fact that I can enter a recipe and get the nutritionals. The guy that invented it, however, is definitely not a fan of low carb based on his articles in his newsletter, which I do not subscribe to any longer.

[Belfrybat]

I love DietPower, but like Mary agree that the creators are biased strongly towards low fat. However, that doesn't affect the program once you edit your dietary needs (PDA). You can put in special foods, input your own recipes, keep track of exercise and do long range calculations as to projected weight loss. The downside is their body weight calculator works on BMI only. I wish they had a body fat calculator, but I guess you can't have everything. Tech support, however is fantastic. I've been using it for 3 years, and last month had a glitch with it. E-mailed the company and received personal assistance to fix the problem, which really was with my computer and not DietPower specifically. They also have a forum that I have found helpful in learning/ tweaking the program. Oh, it also comes on a free trial disk, so you don't have to download it if you have a slow connection.

I've also heard good things about Lifeform on other forums, but can't download large programs on this slow connection, so haven't tried it myself.

[momuvfour]

I use fitday, it seems to work and I don't know how I did any of this pre computer

[SeeItThrough]

SeeTI, does Diet and Exercise Assisant have a way to track by meal?

Unfortunately it only tracks total values for the day...interesting now that I think about it because the meals can easily be divided up...it would seem logical for a newer version to add meal totals as well.

[Nean]

Thanks everyone for your replies. Definately ya'll have good ideas and feedback!

[cmcole]

www.mybodycomp.com

Used to just be measurements, but has expanded

[Bogie]

Campers, this is sounding WAY too much like a hobby here...

Lemme break it down: You wanna go digital? Okay. Ones and zeros.

Protein and fat are needed, so they're positives. Carbs aren't needed, and can be detrimental. They're zeros, and can turn into negatives in excess.

There. Digital. Ones and zeros. Stay positive.

And when I showed back up, I bet y'all were wondering just who this stranger was...

[Nean]

Not hobby - obsession [compulsion?] :D

[sueo]

Calorie King also has software, but you have to pay for it. You can puchase the version for your hand-held device, too. You can use their food database for free but pay for the food journaling.

I signed up for a year when somebody told me that it was so much better than fitday. The food database is better (but that is part of the free stuff) but the food journals aren't that different. I don't us the exercise tracking much, nor have I signed up for their "university" where they teach you everything you ever wanted to know about nutrition in 13 easy weekly lessons.

[LisaS]

i finally picked up LifeForm over the weekend - so far I like it. There are some things missing that would be enhancements - but the fact is it was more important to me, at this point, to have easy logging of what was eaten and storing recipes, meals, novel foods, etc than having many reporting and calculating options.