[silverose1209]

I jsut opened up an account..And so far am finding out in balck and white I need more fresh fruits and veggies....
Anyway..It seems a bit confusing though if you had a homecooked meal or any sort of combination..Even simple things seem hard to find..For teh life of me I could not find grilled boneless skinless chicken breast..
ANy tips on using this site..The concept is great as long as I am honest about what I eat...Cause it sure does add up.
Also why does it not ask for sugar amounts..That is something I relaly need to cut down on and was hoping this would help. Thanks for any help.
Amy

[srmb60]

Hi there. I need to get ready for work but I'll keep an eye on this thread and help you. Fitday really is a wonderful tool. I add a lot of custom foods. Just keep playing with it. We'll help you.

[srmb60]

OK I've got ten minutes.
Custom add any plain foods you use all the time. They'll stay in that drop down menu and you'll never have to find them again. I use the labels or another site called calorieking.
As for sugar, I don't know. If you find that your carbs are HUGE ... you'll know that something is wrong. Get the hang of finding things or putting custom things in that you use all the time. Tweaking can come later.
Gotta go brush my teeth

[jtammy]

Chicken breast is "chicken breast roasted skin not eaten". I use fitday PC but I'm pretty sure the food database is still identical. It used to be. I have entered many many (hundreds) of custom recipes and it definitely gets quicker and easier. I don't think I spend more than 10 minutes per day doing it now.

You are right that it doesn't track sugar grams. I would like to have that information also.

[jillybean720]

I actually pu tin a custom food for my chicken. Even boneless skinless chicken breasts can vary in nutritional info depending on what you buy. I buy the 99% fat free ones, so they are slightly lower in calories than others.

If you don't want to add it as a custom food, I would probably use "Chicken, broilers or fryers, breast, meat only, cooked, roasted" only because to me, "skin not eaten" means it was cooked with the skin on, in which case, it might have more fat. Either way, though, they don't give you very good measuring amounts, so I still like to just add it as a custom food so I know for sure.

As for sugar amounts, even if a product does list the sugar as a sub-category of carbs, you can never differentiate between those that are healthy/natural and those that are processed. For example, an apple has 16g sugar, but I certainly wouldn't count it as bad, ya know?

[jtammy]

Originally Posted by jillybean720

If you don't want to add it as a custom food, I would probably use "Chicken, broilers or fryers, breast, meat only, cooked, roasted" only because to me, "skin not eaten" means it was cooked with the skin on, in which case, it might have more fat.

Nah, actually, ounce for ouce, "skin not eaten" has one calorie less than "meat only" per fitday. I'm sure that's a weird fitday thing, but using "skin not eaten" doesn't add more calories than using the other options.

[sirak]

It just takes time and patience. I agree with using the "custom foods" as it faster than trying to find things in their data base. It's a great tool.
If all else fails, remember 3fatchicks has a database right here

Once you get going you can go to "recent foods" and click on "all recent foods" That will load you the list of foods that you normally eat. You can click off a list rather than waiting for one thing to load at a time. It took me almost two months to figure that out.
For my own recipes I have a program called "Mastercook" that I put a recipe in and it gives me back the nutritional data, which then I put into "custom foods".
You can do the same thing by entering each ingredient of a recipe and dividing it by portion.
I keep a notecard with my nutritional goals written down so at night if I am really short of something I can add some protein or carbs.

[Lunalore]

Oh good, it's not just me having trouble with FitDay. I've found that if I take the extra time to put in Custom Foods than it works okay. I guess I just need to give My FitDay a little more time & patience before I give up completely... but it's still easier to just write down stuff in my little blue notebook.

[jillybean720]

Originally Posted by Lunalore

Oh good, it's not just me having trouble with FitDay. I've found that if I take the extra time to put in Custom Foods than it works okay. I guess I just need to give My FitDay a little more time & patience before I give up completely... but it's still easier to just write down stuff in my little blue notebook.

I love the custom foods becaus eI only have to enter it in once and then it's there for whenever I need it in the future. I have a TON of custom foods entered into mine--I definitely use more custom foods than I do any of the foods in their database

On a ocmpletely non-related topic, Lunalore--Reston, VA?! That's awesome! Hello to a fellow NOVA chick (I live in Alexandria, work in Fairfax)

[silverose1209]

Thanks..I guess I will jsut spend soem extra time for a while entering custom foods.
Thanks for the advice.
So since there is good sugar and bad sugar how do I lower my bad sugar intake?

[jillybean720]

Originally Posted by silverose1209

So since there is good sugar and bad sugar how do I lower my bad sugar intake?

Well, you should really be able to tell what foods have good sugars (natural) versus bad sugars (processed/refined). I mean, a banana will have good sugars, and a bowl of 100% whole wheat pasta will have good sugars. A cookie or a candy bar will have bad sugars. Things like bread can be tricky--it is important to just spend some time reading the ingredients on the package. I like to avoid things where the ingredients include sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and "enriched" flours. Instead, look for things sweetened naturally using things like honey, fruit/fruit juice, or artificial sweeteners if you are not trying to avoid them. I also don't remember what it was, but the ingredients of something I bought recently included stevia as the sweetener, which is natural as well, butnot as commonly found in processed foods (though you can buy it yourself to add to things as a sweetener).

Some people actually won't differentiate between natural and processed sugars and won't even eat much fruit because of the sugar content, but that's really a personal decision. I think the nutrition and lower calories in fruit far outweigh the natural sugars. But it all really depends on your personal goals.

[srmb60]

Silverose? I don't really understand tracking sugars ... can you tell me the why's etc?