I don't use fitday's numbers for anything... except like meat & fresh veggies/fruit which has no nutritional info on the package. If I take it out of a package the numbers on that package is what I use. 99.9% of the things on my fitday are custom foods.

I'm also a calorie counter. I find it to encourage accountablity while also being flexible (I can't do diets that restrict carbs, etc). Counting has also taught me what normal portions look like. It has also taught me to plan, which I truly believe is critical for success. Congratulations to you!

calorie-count.com has a great feature called "recipe analyzer". Punch in your ingredients and the amount of servings and it will figure it all out for you.

Thanks all. It's seriously amazing. When I jumped on the scale this am and it read 239.6 Seeing what I can eat and how much more I can eat when I excersize makes me WANT to excersize. I still don't like it, but I see how benificial it is and know that I can have a decent dinner when I do excersize bc I can allow more calories. I have it set for 1349 calories a day, and shooting for 3lbs a week to lose. I'd love to lose another 30 lbs before my sisters wedding, which is July 5th. It's hard to imagine that when I was fitted for the dress back in Aug they told me that the size only went up to 28 and they may have to add fabric. I cried once I got to the car bc of that. Nobody should have to go through that. And now I have to have the dress taken in. I have tears in my eyes now, just sharing that! Thanks to all the members here. You are all so inspirational, and it proves to me that I and anyone can do this!!

What a wonderful accomplishment.. you sure showed them at that dress shop didn't you! Good Job!!!

I found it was especially important for me to count the starchy veggies. I used to love to eat sweet corn and think it was low-cal, but it really isn't. It was really good for me to see the figure in black-and-white when I entered it in FitDay, though I wasn't happy on that day!

My basic "diet" plan has been counting calories and writing down everything I eat (and exercising too, of course). It's the only plan that's worked for me - I can't do low-carb or anything like that. Counting calories is just the simplest thing, and it really works for me.

LaurieDawn, I'm with you on the starchy veggies. I love them, especially corn and potatoes, but they're so easy to overeat.