I hate Fitday........thread solely dedicated to calorie counters!? page

[AnnTheRockBiter]

I have been using Fitday to track calories and nutrients from time to time and I have to say that I really don't like the site. It doesn't remember me at all, and I often can't find certain foods. Looking for something a little easier to use and more extensive. Also looking for something that breaks down the micro nutrients in more detail. I thought it would be great to have a master thread for all of the online tracking calculators we like, for both fitness &/ nutrition.

If this is a dupe, let me know! I did a search but didn't come up with a definitive thread on this topic in the first 2 pages of results then I got tired of digging for it :/

[JPA]

I'm also interesting in knowing some better sources than FitDay. It has too much advertising, lacks some foods or decent internal search engine and isn't inaccurate on some foods.

[emmie]

This probably isn't relevant to your search because I have no interest at all in 'micro nutrients.' I need to restrict calories, and that's what I primarily count--along with carbs and protein. Anything else (fat included), I don't worry about.

I'm old (69), so I've not changed my habit of counting on my own--using the internet for reference. I plan my meals in advance (at least one day), and if I don't know the calories or carbs or protein, I'll check on a site like calorie king. Since I eat almost exclusively whole foods (no 'recipes'), it's easy for me to get the numbers. I don't weigh or measure anything--relying on the purchase weight for my calculations--e.g., a pound of bison or salmon, etc. and then divide by portions.

This has worked well without stressing me. In the past several years, I've gone from a high of 340 to my current 158. I take no Rx except for my hypothyroidism, and all my blood values are excellent. So 'micro nutrients' are not an issue for me.

[ahklein]

I don't notice ad issues on FitDay, but I do use Adblock. I have noticed too that their food catalog isn't very deep and it's a pain in the neck for me to enter things I know aren't that weird.

SparkPeople has a pretty extensive and easy to use calorie calculator: www.sparkpeople.com Sparkpeople requires a log in, but is free.

You'll have to fight with its default settings though--it'll want to put you on a calorie restricted diet and it will yell at you (so to speak) if you go over or under on what it wants you to eat. You CAN change the settings to reflect your goals, though--it's not that hard but finding the right form to change it can be a little tricky (Its on the nutrition tracker page at the top). It has a deeper "library" of foods and has an easy to use "make this a favorite" or "make this a food grouping" functions that let you save foods you enter a lot or enter foods you enter together a lot without searching for them, and it also gives you access to user-generated values. Be careful with those--they can be inaccurate, either due to input error or to "drift" of what's in processed foods as they tinker with the recipe (of course, if you're not eating processed foods, this isn't as much of an issue, now, is it? Though I did just notice an entry that says there's 600 calories and 90 grams of fat in an ounce of cashews!!!) I've found their verified values pretty dead on though, and they have a form where you can flag something for inaccuracies and they'll check it, which is pretty nice. Its also linked into spark recipes, which lets you enter recipes into their own online database (you can make them private for just your use) and put them directly into your food tracker. That's helpful sometimes.

They have apps for smartphones, as well, if I remember right (I don't have a smartphone, so I never used it) and also a little app for iGoogle if you use that (I do, and it was always nice to have my calorie tracker right on my homepage).

It will also show you trend lines over time for nutrient values, which can be really handy if you want to see how, say, your protein intake looked over the last week on average, and it has a nice place where you can keep track of your measurements over time, too.

I might go back to it myself, because it has a deeper food catalog and because I'm really good with it since I tried their program for about five months last year. The program didn't work for me (since I'm here I guess that should be pretty obvious, huh?) but their tracking software I still think is quite impressive.

[geoffspakes]

Check out Lose It! (www.loseit.com), it's my site and app of choice.

[naiadknight]

Chron-o-meter. It's a free dowloadable program based on nutritiondata.com, which is in turn based on the USDA data for most foods. Has extensive listing of micronutrients, you can enter your own foods and it highlights them in a different color, and is reprogrammable to adjust for what YOUR intake of ANYTHING should be. Also tracks amino acids and omega 3s and 6s.

[profdjj]

I like www.fatsecret.com

[jesslikesstuff]

I love www.myfooddiary.com.

It costs $9/month but you can save your meals and recipes for future use, it has great trackers and charts for weight and consumption (carbs, net carbs, fat, protein, et.) and really awesome, supportive forums. It's very easy to customize to meet your needs!

I've been using them for years and have tried other sites but like my
Food diary best.

Jess

[Christina*]

I love Fitday because I've been using it for years and have tons of custom foods entered (though now that I eat mostly fresh foods it's much easier to find things in the database).

People seem to really love myfitnesspal.com, dailyburn.com and the daily plate. They have extensive databases.

[MalPaz]

Chron-o-meter. It's a free dowloadable program based on nutritiondata.com, which is in turn based on the USDA data for most foods. Has extensive listing of micronutrients, you can enter your own foods and it highlights them in a different color, and is reprogrammable to adjust for what YOUR intake of ANYTHING should be. Also tracks amino acids and omega 3s and 6s.

+1 you get the best breakdown, vitamins, minerals, you can custom and alter, you get an Omega 3:6, amino profile etc