The tools to track what we eat while on a diet

If you've spent any amount of time trolling the diet web sites...or maybe that's just me... you've noticed that there are a bunch of free tools out there to help you track what you put in your mouth.

I've tried several of them so I thought I'd share what I've learned.

First let me say that whichever one you choose... CHOOSE one. Every successful dieter I know finds some way to keep track of things. At WW, they used to say "don't think that if you don't write it down, it doesn't count." And they are right. It's easy to "forget" about that one cookie or extra serving of something if you don't write it down.

The reward is that if you write it down (or in my case...type it in), you can not only see where your shortcomings are...but also where you succeeded. When I'm having trouble getting over the latest hurdle, I will look back a few days to see "what did I eat?" Or go back to a week that was exceptional and say "how can I make that happen again? What do I need to eat?"

SparkPeople (a funny name for a really outstanding weight loss site) has not only a good food tracker but a wealth of other tools as well. Their food tracker has a large database of foods to choose from that also includes fast food items as well as the usual things you will find in your fridge. SP will also let you track other nutrients if you need to. So if you are especially worried about sodium or cholesterol (more than the rest of us), then one check to a box adds it to the nutrient it tracks for you. What I really like about SP is that it is a great source of information about all areas of dieting. They don't care what program you are following. They also have an active message board and a place to start your own journal. The fitness section gives you suggestions on exercises specific to your goals, lets you track your calories burned and even has video demonstrations to show you the right way to do things. Bottom line is that SP does a fabulous job of covering ALL the bases of dieting and fitness without being preachy and best of all, they do it for FREE. Can't beat free, right? Oh, and if you are motivated by a points system, SP also gives you points for things you do on the site and when you reach various goals (not all of them scale oriented). So it's a fun little way to feel like you are getting somewhere instead of measuring your success only by the number on the scale. (WOW, did I really say that?)

FitDay is another great food tracker that I first learned about when I started Kimkins. Nearly everyone on the Kimkins boards uses fitday. The upside of fit day is that it's really easy to navigate for the food tracker. One caveat however about fit day, is that the default portions sizes are sometimes a little dumb. For instance, choose balsamic vinegar and the default portion size is a LITER. EWW! When in my life would I EVER need to log a liter of vinegar. So if you use fitday and the numbers look out of whack, check your portion sizes and edit accordingly. They also have handy charts and graphs if that is your thing. The fitness area is just OK and I think they try to cover the other bases but not as well. Their food tracker is their strongest feature. If you want more bells and whistles, you can pay extra for the paid version of their software but with other things out there, I don't really see the point.

Someone on the Kimkins boards recently pointed me to The Daily Plate which also has a great food tracker. You can sign up for a free membership which gives you the food tracker, some goal setting and permissions to post on the message boards. For $29.99 more, you can get a paid membership for 6 months which (again) gives you some more bells and whistles. What I really like about TDP is their database of foods because it includes just about EVERY brand out there. Because sometimes there is a difference between the Oscar Meyer turkey bacon and the Jenni-O variety and you might not have that package right in front of you. However, I've had some buggy problems with logging into TDP that are just plain annoying. It works fine on my computer at work but at home, I cannot seem to log in. I'm pretty computer savvy so I've tried all the obvious (to me) things to fix the problem but so far, no luck. A few generous people on the boards have tried to help but I'm still having problems. It's turning me off to the site (perhaps unfairly) because I'm basically impatient and I just want the darn thing to work without issue. Again... it could just be me so YMMV.

They all

• have large databases of food.
• Will track your weight.
• Will give you some way to track your exercise.
• Give you a way to manually enter foods not in the list and to keep a running list of those food you eat often.

Fitday has no water tracking. But the others do.

I've tried them all and I think that if you want an all inclusive site with a good food tracker, articles, message board, water tracker, goal tracking and fitness info, go with SparkPeople. But if all you want is the food tracker, you'd be safe with fitday.

As a funny little side note, I have to say that I started out using SP about a year ago and switched to fitday but now that I'm reading my own blog post, I think I'll switch back. Guess I'd gotten into such a habit with fitday, I didn't remember how much I liked SP until I started writing. Apparently, I've swayed myself.

If you know of others, please share.

Stay tuned for less of me.