Never counted calories before
 

I am new to this site and have never counted calories before in my life. Since coming to this site I have learned of two other sites - Fitday.com and Dailyplate.com. I have looked at both of them and I am not sure which one to go with and use. Do you have any recommendations? Do you have a preference of one over the other? And why? Any input would be appreciated since I am new to this.

I have used both (free versions only) and I have come to prefer Daily Plate.

There are already tons of foods in the database (brand names) and you can create meals that you eat often. Makes it easier to add.
I don't like the calorie deficit thing, though - where it tells you how many calories you have left to eat. It adds exercise calories to that, and there is no way to keep that from happening.

I think you'll find that some will depend a lot on your type of eating. If you buy a lot of brand name/pre-made meals then the Daily Plate is probably the best. I use FitDay, but the purchased home version. I find it easy to use, but most of what I eat is made from scratch, so it's easier. Either will work fine for you, however, watch the exercise calories on thedailyplate - I find them high. I just checked, and an hour of walking (2mph) using the same current weight gives the following:

FitDay - 222 calories
TDP - 509 calories

Probably neither are correct, but if using TDP don't let that number convince you it's okay to eat more. :)

I use TDP, and I cook a lot. I find it very easy to enter my recipes using the exact brand of ingredients I use (which is good, because I look for the healthiest stuff and I don't it inflated by, for example, chicken broth with a ton of sodium). I would say try both and see wht you like, but I planned to do that and ended up just saying with TDP because I loved it so much! Just go with your gut and if you don't like the one you picked, you can always switch.

I use calorieking.com and downloaded the software. It cost a bit but for some reason I like it better then fitday, it has more items.

I use a good old fashioned notebook. :)

Fitday is cool, but it takes forever to log your points when you are starting out. I made an excel worksheet and just type the # of cals for every meal and snack and it deducts it from the # of calories I eat a day so I know what I have left. But I'm a dork, lol.

I keep track of my calories in a small sprial notebook that I stash in my purse. On the inside covers, I write, very tiny, the most eaten foods and what the cals are. I do eat the same things over and over again, but when I buy something new, I check the package and write the calories down.

Most of the day I do not have a PC in front of me, so writing everything down is an easier option for me. If there is something I don't know what it is, like meats, I go to both FitDay and Daily Plate to give me some sort of average.

Keep up the good work - you WILL succeed.

Thank you all for your input. I appreciate it.