I am a med student with crazy credit hours (22) of really really intense courses. In undergrad, I have tried to track my calories, and I would be good for a week, then I would start eating badly, give up and stop. What I did was write down the night before what I ate, and then the idea was to modify the journal the next night and put in exactly what I ate if it changed. The problem is, I got frustrated when I didn't do it EXACTLY, and if I overate, I a) couldn't remember portions of things cause I didn't keep track b) was too discouraged to put it in. So lately in the past 6 months, I have really turned my life around, lost 15 lb, and am not writing it down at all, and try to keep it in my head. I do weigh things on a scale as much as possible, and try to stay really really conscious about portion size.
I was wondering what everyone considered the quickest way to track calories since I am so busy because I want to keep track manually somehow because research indicates it is the best way to maintain weight loss. Is a website better, or is a hand journal faster? Are there any websites which are particularly easy to navigate and get around? I did have a journal on about.fitness, but it just took too long to enter everything in.
Any advice??

I have been using Diet Power for about 2 months. It downloads to your PC, but is Not available for Mac. You use it offline which can have its advantages. You can get a free 15 day trial which is what I did. It only takes a few minutes a day. Other people use apps on their I touch or I phone. I tried FitDay free online version for awhile but I think DietPower is much faster and fits me better and is not cost prohibitive. Technology is so much easier than writing down or looking up data like the old days.

Good luck. My grad school daughter just started using the software and she has never calorie counted before and eats lots of meals out...she really likes it too.

I use a standing word document. I always just have it minimized on my laptop. Each day goes...

Wednesday December 8th, 2010
B: Food (calories)
L: Food (calories)
S: Food (calories)
D: Food (calories)
Water: amount oz.
Total: total calories

It's really easy to add new things and quickly check how many calories I've had! Good luck!

If you have an Android phone, or maybe iphone but I'm not sure, there is an app called my fitness pal. It's amazing. I just started using it about 5 days ago, but it is amazing. I have tried everything from a journal, to post-it notes with just calorie counts, to fitday.com, to keeping everything in my head. By far, my fitness pal is the best and easiest to keep track. It also tracks your nutrition, so you can see if you are carb heavy or not getting enough of any nutrient. It also tracks your exercise and nets it against your calories for the day. On top of all that, they have a website that works even better than the app. Try it if you are able!

I used to track online and i used 411fit and sparkpeople I love both but I don't take the time to enter everything. I switched over to the grand paper and pen method and it seems to work best for me! Maybe keep a small journal with you so you can write everything down quickly when you eat it? Then when you get the chance you can enter everything online.

Are you planning your meals? Are you making a big pot of brown rice, some chicken or tofu and a bunch of veggies some night when you are home so that throughout the week you can throw stuff in a tupperware and know what the cals are? Do you have fruit stocked and some cheese sticks?

if you choose from the same thing most days, cal counting is easier.

that's what i was going to say. have it all portioned out for the week. you could make a soup, or something in crockpot, or stirfry. then just vary it abit some of the days. if you can do legumes like lentils (curry lentils is sooo yummy!) then you'll stay full a really long time.

maybe you could figure out why it must be perfect? do you have triggers?

Congrats on the med school thing. I'm in law school right now, so I'm feeling the same time crunch pressures. I can't seem to write things down and try to keep a running total in my head. The best thing I do for myself:After getting all my food home from the grocery store, I break it up into individual portions. I break open my boxes of cereal, almonds, etc. and measure them out right off the bat and write the calorie count on the bag. That way, during the week, I can easily grab things on the go or stash them in my bag and know exactly how much I've eaten.

Congrats on med school! There is a med student who posts in the Featherweights thread under Weightloss Support. From your weight it looks like you would be a featherweight (those who have a few lbs to lose).

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/featherweights-197/

I'm not in med school, but I am in business school and work full time. I can't use one of those online tracking sites, I find them tedious and time consuming. I get counts online or off the package and keep track in excel or on a piece of paper. I sit in class and Google calorie counts on my phone and just tally it all up with the calculator on my phone if I'm not in front of the pc to use Excel and the real internet.

It helps to remember how many calories are in each thing - like I don't measure almonds, I count them out. Each almond is 6 calories. So it's pretty easy to keep track of how many I am eating and just do the math in my head. I try to bring things like Luna bars, cans of almonds, greek yogurts, applies, fruit, etc with me places and remember to bring my lunch and dinner. I used to eat out a lot, but now I try to make my food the night before and pack it in the fridge at home. I eat a lot of the same things - whole wheat bread with natural peanutbutter, carrots, apples, greek yogurt, salads with grape tomatoes, bagels (i only eat half at a time) and Amy's frozen dinners.

I do what I can...it's not a perfect whole foods diet, but I get pretty close with the time I have.

Good luck!

I would say a small notebook that you could keep in your purse to jot down what you eat throughout the day along with a program online or on your computer that you could put things from the notebook in each evening!

Thanks guys for your wonderful comments! I will def. check out spark people, and I am seriously considering the small notebook idea....since I carry a backpack.

Haha, I eat greek yoghurt too!! I just found it this year, and love it because it is so creamy, has less sugar than plain yoghurt, and less Na

Anyway, thank you busy people for sharing what works for you!!!!!!

I use the pad and pencil as I can use it anytime and don't have to be online. The most important thing though, is planning. I plan my menu the night before or in the morning before I start the day. This takes about five minutes. And remember I write it down BEFORE I eat it, It is too late if you are writing it down afterwards.