Food Log

Used to use training peaks to track my nutrition until they closed this feature.

Anything good out there?

I’ve found MyFitnessPal is not very good.

Maybe I’m old school but to be honest I found the best way to be pen, paper and a calculator. Also with bigger meals you can measure everything at once and then say…well I guess I have 6-8 meals at 400 calories etc.

I found the process of writing everything down made me think about the process a bit more, maybe not the best way….I still keep a paper log at certain times of the year, with notes comments etc.

Maurice

Used to use training peaks to track my nutrition until they closed this feature.
Anything good out there?
I’ve found MyFitnessPal is not very good.

Recent thread on this:

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=5431678;search_string=food%20journal;#5431678

Used to use training peaks to track my nutrition until they closed this feature.

Anything good out there?

I’ve found MyFitnessPal is not very good.

Not a fan of MyFitnessPal, I prefer LoseIt but still not totally what I want. Most apps are geared too much to losing weight, and not enough just to get people to focus on making better choices and being aware of their choices.

Used to use training peaks to track my nutrition until they closed this feature.

Anything good out there?

I’ve found MyFitnessPal is not very good.

Not a fan of MyFitnessPal, I prefer LoseIt but still not totally what I want. Most apps are geared too much to losing weight, and not enough just to get people to focus on making better choices and being aware of their choices.

What don’t you like about MyFitnessPal?

My partner has recently started using it, it turns out that she was undereating for her 4000-4500 kcal target which is the first thing to look at, but it also gives the C-P-F breakdown for getting the right balance. What else would you use a log for?

Used to use training peaks to track my nutrition until they closed this feature.

Anything good out there?

I’ve found MyFitnessPal is not very good.

Not a fan of MyFitnessPal, I prefer LoseIt but still not totally what I want. Most apps are geared too much to losing weight, and not enough just to get people to focus on making better choices and being aware of their choices.

What don’t you like about MyFitnessPal?

My partner has recently started using it, it turns out that she was undereating for her 4000-4500 kcal target which is the first thing to look at, but it also gives the C-P-F breakdown for getting the right balance. What else would you use a log for?

Obviously both programs are a work in progress and things change, but I don’t like ads near buttons for one. The developers know that users will all too often click the ad with fat fingers. I don’t like App that require access to contacts when I don’t think they need to. I don’t like apps that when you link to Facebook make you then provide an email and username - wasn’t that the point of logging in with Facebook? I don’t like the highly socialized nature of the app - I just want to log my nutrients yet they show you this “facebook” like dashboard that takes up most of the screen. It seems like social nature is first, logging second.

At this point in time LoseIt is just a cleaner interface IMO, albeit it still has a bunch of improvements I would like to see. Hope that helps clarify.

Oh I see. I don’t use it myself, but I’d hate it for all those things too.
I just figured there was some content-based reason. Thanks for clarifying.

I have no ads in the app, no contacts, no facebook… It is just a means to enter and calculate calories.

I also use the WP version, it works perfectly, if the WP version works without a problem the apple and android ones must be amazing.

Do you mean the website?

I use MyNetDiary http://www.mynetdiary.com/

I was not using an online training log tool when I started diet tracking but I can see how it would be nice to just go to one integrated program. However, I’ve found MyNetDiary to be as good a calorie/diet tracker as there is out there so I’ve never thought of switching. Don’t be put off by the fact it does not have “fitness” in the title :wink: The market for non athletes looking for help to lose weight is much bigger than athletes looking for a diet tracking tool so this product is highly developed and has a ton of users. (Lots of users is a benefit since users can add foods to the data base so the more users you have, the more foods are in there). It automatically gives you full nutritional data for most foods you enter and you can generate daily and weekly nutrient reports so it is very useful for more than just weight loss.

Used to use training peaks to track my nutrition until they closed this feature.

Anything good out there?

I’ve found MyFitnessPal is not very good.

Not a fan of MyFitnessPal, I prefer LoseIt but still not totally what I want. Most apps are geared too much to losing weight, and not enough just to get people to focus on making better choices and being aware of their choices.

What don’t you like about MyFitnessPal?

My partner has recently started using it, it turns out that she was undereating for her 4000-4500 kcal target which is the first thing to look at, but it also gives the C-P-F breakdown for getting the right balance. What else would you use a log for?

Obviously both programs are a work in progress and things change, but I don’t like ads near buttons for one. The developers know that users will all too often click the ad with fat fingers. I don’t like App that require access to contacts when I don’t think they need to. I don’t like apps that when you link to Facebook make you then provide an email and username - wasn’t that the point of logging in with Facebook? I don’t like the highly socialized nature of the app - I just want to log my nutrients yet they show you this “facebook” like dashboard that takes up most of the screen. It seems like social nature is first, logging second.

At this point in time LoseIt is just a cleaner interface IMO, albeit it still has a bunch of improvements I would like to see. Hope that helps clarify.

I’m going to agree with Maurice Maher and say that the “old school” method of just writing all your food and drink intake down on paper w/ pen/pencil is still the best, since the process of actual writing makes you consider your intake a bit more than just the point and click. While i don’t write everything down every day, i do a detailed calculation of my estimated calories burned for the day, and then a detailed calc of my cal intake. Generally i aim to eat 200-300 cal less than i have burned, just to guard against weight gain. Sometimes this will result in 2 or 3lbs inadvertently lost below my target weight, but then i just eat a little more for a week or two and of course it comes back:)

The MyFitnessPal Android app for me is slow-as-fuck on a Galaxy S3.

The website has a mildly annoying UI as well… I guess I’ll try LoseIt.

Paper versus electronic is definitely a matter of personal preference and one way is not better than another as long as you are not missing opportunities. For me, I already handle most of the data I care about electronically (training, finances, “to do” lists, etc) and most of it is already tracked and managed on my smart phone. So going electronic with my diet info was a no brainer and thus super easy. I do like the fact that the calculations are done automatically so I don’t have to figure out myself if I eat X grams of yogurt and Y grams of granola it is Z calories. (It seems I have never ever eaten exactly the same amount of yogurt and granola for breakfast in 100’s of trials . . . .) And, I can instantly look up virtually any food. My program even has a bar code scanner.

I get the same mental effect and discipline you describe with pen and paper when I use a click or keystrokes so that part is just personal preference. But I do know a lot of people who would never get around to entering anything if it had to be done on their phone or a computer (e.g. my wife) so the key is finding what works for you.

I used to use the nutrition section of trainingpeaks, which was actually pretty good, but they did away with that (last I checked they were defaulting to myfitnesspal)

I tried using myfitnesspal, but I was really disappointed that you can’t create and save meals, like you could in trainingpeaks. I have a lot of meal repetition, like most people, so it would be much easier to just click on a meal (like “Smoothie”) rather than enter the 4 ingredients every time. It amazes me that myfitnesspal has so many users and is still so clunky.

That said, tracking calories is very, very powerful…and can change behaviors instantly. Not just for the chubbies trying to lose weight, but also for athletes, people trying to eat healthy, etc. I was amazed at how much reality is different perception, when you actually quantify what you are eating vs guessing (even for a “healthy eater”).

MyNetDiary lets create and save multi ingredient food items or meals. The program call them “recipes.”

[quote G$
I tried using myfitnesspal, but I was really disappointed that you can’t create and save meals, like you could in trainingpeaks.

Sure you can, I haven’t entered the salad I eat everyday for work in months now, just click on the work lunch I created and there it is.

You can create meals, ad custom recipes and if you poke around copy another days food entirely. On iOS anyway. I think the biggest thing with MFP is using it for a week or two and getting your regular meals in. Once this is done it’s becomes easy as pie to use. It has to learn what you eat first which is like any data mining application out there. Here are a few pointers.

Create Meals:
In the Diary once you’ve entered all your items once go to the …more option and click “Save Meal”
Now once you Add any food there are 5 tabs below the search field, one of which is MEALS
Your newly created meal will be listed.
This also allows you to just select “Yesterdays Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Snack”

Create Recipes:
From any section (Home, Diary, Progress etc) click on the … More option at the bottom of the app
Click on My Recipes & Foods
Hit the + sign in top left corner
Enter in the recipe
Voila!

Copy Food From Past Day:
In diary section navigate to the date of the meal
Click on the …More in that section (not at the bottom of the screen)
Select “Copy Meal”
Voila done

Sure you can, I haven’t entered the salad I eat everyday for work in months now, just click on the work lunch I created and there it is.

You are right…my bad. I just went back and looked. My frustration wasn’t with meals, but rather with saving favorite foods. If you type in a food…“Cuties”…or “chicken breast”…you get a whole range of possible choices. All of which are populated with different (sometimes inaccurate information). As far as I can tell, myfitnesspal only shows a handful of recent foods and not favorite foods (you may want to save one particular chicken breast entry that you have checked and is accurate).

These are the options in the WP version

frequent is well frequent, Orange juice for example is now on the top of mine, finally bumped Cabernet :slight_smile:

Recent is like 20-25 most recent items I think not sure the count.

My foods, not sure honestly never used it you can probably save a specific chicken breast single item to that though.

My meals, that is where I have my lunch salad saved as a group, my shake, those things

My recipes… again not sure

http://i.imgur.com/Q57CSY5.jpg

I have a Jawbone up fitness band and love it, great for nutrition tracking, sleep optimization and tracking and fitness tracking.