Fit day pc doesnt seem to be as user friendly as I thought it would be ,
the calories arent matching up with those on the product. When I try to
customize a food it requires more info than I need to enter. then I cant seem to add it to my food intake. plus when you go to the calendar you see your daily calories etc, but cant pull up what you actually consumed to use for a reference. I'll give it a week or 2 but I am thinking an old fashioned pen and notebook would do better, along with a good calorie calculator like the one on the food network. Oh well I have 30 days for a refund. Am i doing something wrong?
I don't use FitDay PC, but I use the free version. I don't know if it's set up the same way, but I can give you some user tips based on the free stuff. First, I entered as a custom food all of the stuff that I eat regularly (like my cereal, bread, sandwich meat, etc). I used the information on the packaging. For nutritional facts that FitDay asked for but that the packaging didn't provide, I just left it blank. Personally, I'm mostly worried about calories, fat, protein, and carbs - and all of my packaging provided that information. Then, every day when I use those items, I find them in my custom food list and click "go." That adds it to my list of foods eaten today.
To review what you ate on a certain day, you can go to the calendar page, click on the day in question, and the foods eaten that day (and exercise and everything else) comes up.
I just got FitdayPC last week, and for the most part, I like it much better than the online version. It took a bit of getting used to, and there are a few things I wish they'd tweak, but overall, it makes recording sooooo easy!
I'd be glad to answer questions about my own personal experiences with it (obviously, I can't give "official" how-to answers, since I'm just a consumer) and how I get it to do (most of) the things I want it to do.
It's not perfect, but I'm liking it more every day.
Go to today's Food Log and click on the button up top called New Custom. That will give you a basically blank Nuitrition Facts form (looks like a regular food label).
Fill in as many blanks as you want. Don't forget to give the food a name (top of the page) and to define what measurement you're using (ie "1 serving", "1 cup", "1 oz", etc).
Hit Save (I'm not sure if that's absolutely necessary, but I do it just in case).
When you're ready to include that food on your Daily Food Log, pull up your log again and click on the button marked "Add Food". That will give you a drop-down menu with options like "Browse", "Custom", "Search", etc.
Click on any one of them to open a small window on the right hand-side of your screen.
Adding a food to your daily Food Log is as easy as clicking (maybe double-clicking) on a food in the list. Once it's on your Daily Food Log, yuo can tweak servings, time of day, etc. if you so desire.
You can also look at your history (so you don't have to enter the same food item every day). Click on an item and it will automatically go to your log.
I really like that I can enter my "morning coffee" as a recipe since it's the same everyday, every cup and don't have to enter coffee, sugar, cream every single time. I do this with my Monday-Friday breakfast also.
My first day or so I had my doubts but love it now. I think you probably will also.
I've been using the PC version of FitDay for a couple weeks now & I love it- it does take some time to get use to it & I'm still figuring out new things but I haven't had any major problems or complaints. When it comes to label versus what they have listed- its always better to go by the label, the generic listings in any nutritional software/book are averages for several brands; plus, even if its brand specific, ingredients change over time. What do you mean when you say it requires more info then you need to enter for custom foods? I always use the food label tab and its pretty easy- if you're not worried about tracking vitamins & mineral, you don't have to do that part; but everything is enter just as its listed on the package label. Once you finish entering, hit the save button up top and then Add to Log, to add it to your open food log automatically. You can also send it to Favorites; you can also send any other food to favorites once you have it listed on your Food Log- click on the food to select it & then click Add to Favorites. Make sure you create some folders in your favorites so you can keep things organized...you do have to be careful that a food doesn't end up in the wrong folder because it puts in the last one you looked at- but you can drop & drag it to the correct one easily enough.
The calender view is just a quick overview- if you want to see what you've eaten on past days, you can either change the date on your food log or use the History tab in the Find Food column on the right hand side of the food log. That way if you eat the same thing 2 days in row, you can easily enter it the second time. Also, in every section, play around with the View tab- I thought I was missing a lot of features at first, only to find out I didn't have them checked to be viewed...I felt silly when I figured it out For Food Log, I have FInd a Food, Food Details, & Day Summary checked; you can also decide which columns you want displayed- everything from the basics to why you ate, where & with what companions. At the bottom of my Food Log screen, for Day Summary, I like to keep it on Weight Goal- then it shows me how many calories I've eaten vs burned vs goal for the day, along with a table with % of cals, actual calories, & grams of fats, carbs, & protein- there are other options, but that one seems to give me the most info quickly.
I hope this helps with some of your questions- I had used the free FitDay 4-5 years ago and decided I would rather have it on my own computer and start with the PC version when I switched to calorie counting recently.
I've tried both, and so far Fitday PC works a little better for me -- if only because there's the option to enter food in grams, which isn't available for every food in the online version. I've always had a hard time to figure out, for example, my cereals intake when I only have measures in "cups" (cereals here are measured in grams all the time, including on the packages themselves). At least now it's easier for me, since I can use the measures I'm used to.
On the PC version, in Food Exployer- pick New Custom and then select the Ingrediant tab instead of the Nutrition Lable (or whatever you usually have up). Give it a name & then use search to find the ingrediants and drop and drag them into the Food Name column- making sure you adjust the amount correctly. Its the same way you would do if you wanted to save a meal you eat regularly- like a certain brand of yogurt with a certain type of cereal or a specific sandwhich, salad & drink combo. I usually include extra info in the name I give a custom food- like what a serving is or how much of the main ingrediants are in it. It can be hard to remember later what you meant by 1 serving- was it the entire flat bread pizza or half or did you use low fat cheese or fat free?
One quirk I have found is that they don't account for the water in drinks & food in your daily total. I understand not counting the amount in foods- most people don't, but I was surprised when it didn't show any water for the day when I'd had apple juice & a diet soda. I ended up customizing them so I get credit, but I'm glad I caught it early enough so that I get in the habit right away. I have tried a couple other softwares, but most of them cost a lot more and didn't really offer anymore in the long run. A lot of the other softwares seem to track even less, though some have better databases- but in reality, we tend to eat the same things over & over, so once its enter in, that's really not an issue. I really like how FitDay PC lets me keep track of how I'm doing on so many things like weight, measurment, daily journal & different nutriants- wish I could specify a few more vitamin & mineral, but for the price, FitDay does a great job.
The more I use this software the more I like it, it does take some getting used
to at first. I think this will be a change in lifestyle insteady of joining and quiting weightwatchers all the time, this software is mine to keep and I dont have to pay a monthly fee. Just a little added bonus. I agree with the water thing though wish there was a place for that, and maybe somewhere to email suggestions to the company. Do they ever make improvements on in and send downloads to you or is what you see what you get.
The funny thing is that the water is included on some beverages and not others- who knows why I just started double checking by putting them on an empty day and if I need to add the water, I customize it & put it on my favorites list. Really, once you have the basics on your favorites list, that will be were the majority of your choices come from. I'm sort of giving myself these first couple weeks to get it set up and learn the ins & outs so that hopefully by March 1st, I'll have it set up the way I want and be able to keep things organized.
Interesting that several of us who like FitdayPC all start with the same thought... "It takes some time to get used to".
Once you get it sorted out and customized, I think it really is wonderful! The idea of sending Fitday an email of suggested improvements is a really good one!
I down loaded fit day pc today...
For Food Log, I have FInd a Food, Food Details, & Day Summary checked; you can also decide which columns you want displayed- everything from the basics to why you ate, where & with what companions. At the bottom of my Food Log screen, for Day Summary, I like to keep it on Weight Goal- then it shows me how many calories I've eaten vs burned vs goal for the day, along with a table with % of cals, actual calories, & grams of fats, carbs, & protein- there are other options, but that one seems to give me the most info quickly.
I just started double checking by putting them on an empty day and if I need to add the water, I customize it & put it on my favorites list. Really, once you have the basics on your favorites list, that will be were the majority of your choices come from. I'm sort of giving myself these first couple weeks to get it set up and learn the ins & outs so that hopefully by March 1st, I'll have it set up the way I want and be able to keep things organized.
