**CONTROVERSIAL ** Calorie Trackers vs. Meal Planners
Hi all,
I've been viewing the 3 fat chicks message boards for the better half of the last year and decided to finally take the plunge and actually register! I've been using a lot of diet and weight loss apps for my iPhone and here are my thoughts for the 3 best ones for each category.
I've separated them into traditional 'calorie trackers' and 'meal planners.' Calorie trackers are ones where you have to log in everything you eat. Meal planning apps automatically create you a diet plan.
Anyways, here are my top 3 favorites:
Calorie Trackers:
#1) MyNetDiary (this has the most comprehensive nutrient tracking). Macro nutrients like carbs, protein, fat are important, but this tracks vitamins which are essential. Other apps like lose it, my fitnesspal, and livestrong don't have as strong functionality in my opinion.
#2) Lose It
#3 MyFitnesspal
Meal Planners:
#1) intelli-diet (this is by far the best meal planner in my opinion because it is based solely on the foods you actually have in your kitchen)
#2) Dietitican
#3) FoodTrackerPro
I would love to learn which ones you like the best!
I haven't tried some of these. I'm always interested in seeing what's out there, though. Thanks for alerting me to these.
I'm happy using Fitbit, because I can enter my calories and it compares it to my activity automatically, but I'm also interested in using this in connection with MFP or LoseIt, if they are integrated. The barcode scanner and the community are interesting to me. The FitBit is the best $100 I've spent in years -- it takes all the guesswork out of how much I can eat.
I haven't tried some of these. I'm always interested in seeing what's out there, though. Thanks for alerting me to these.
I'm happy using Fitbit, because I can enter my calories and it compares it to my activity automatically, but I'm also interested in using this in connection with MFP or LoseIt, if they are integrated. The barcode scanner and the community are interesting to me. The FitBit is the best $100 I've spent in years -- it takes all the guesswork out of how much I can eat.
I'm not familiar with fitbit... I thought fitbit was a scale. How does it take the guesswork out of how much you eat?
That is why I've been having some pretty good success so far with the intelli-diet app for iphone.. because it tells me exactly the portion size I should eat for each food during the day.
I am a picky eater so I can't do meal planning. Plus I have 2 picky boys and I don't want to make 2 different meals. So I keep it a bit easy. I just aim for 1800 calories and call it good. I use Myfitnesspal.com for tracking.
I am a picky eater so I can't do meal planning. Plus I have 2 picky boys and I don't want to make 2 different meals. So I keep it a bit easy. I just aim for 1800 calories and call it good. I use Myfitnesspal.com for tracking.
Fair enough. But my problem with calorie counters is that they treat all calories as equal.
Sure, theoretically calories count for weight loss, but I believe that nutrient density is more important.
i.e.. breads, cupcakes, and refined grains equal to 1800 calories are not as good as 1800 calories from fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains
that's why I like using meal planners like intelli-diet and foodtrackerpro because it's making sure I have high nutrient density in my foods AND keeping my calories below my needed threshold to lose weight
it's the best of both worlds! (provided you're not a picky eater! but you can still swap things out an improvise.
it at least gives you a good template to iterate off of
I'm not familiar with fitbit... I thought fitbit was a scale. How does it take the guesswork out of how much you eat?
That is why I've been having some pretty good success so far with the intelli-diet app for iphone.. because it tells me exactly the portion size I should eat for each food during the day.
Fitbit is a little gadget that you wear on your bra or pants pocket, and it basically acts as a pedometer - it senses how many steps you take, measured against time, so it gives you some kind of measure of calorie burn. If you enter your calories consumed on their website, it tells you how many more calories you can eat, depending on how active you've been that day. It takes the guesswork out for me, because some days I'm sedentary, and some days I run half-marathons (and need more food).
I guess it's a major issue for me -- a few years ago, I ran several full marathons a year, and I gained weight in those years. It was hard to eat enough to stayed fueled, but not overdo it. (Many of my marathoning friends struggle with their weight!)
But even without the extreme running, it's been a great help. I've lost all my extra weight.
I'll check out the intelli-diet and foodtrackerpro. They sound interesting!
Last edited by Queen Sarah; 01-02-2012 at 10:29 PM.
Fitbit is a little gadget that you wear on your bra or pants pocket, and it basically acts as a pedometer - it senses how many steps you take, measured against time, so it gives you some kind of measure of calorie burn. If you enter your calories consumed on their website, it tells you how many more calories you can eat, depending on how active you've been that day. It takes the guesswork out for me, because some days I'm sedentary, and some days I run half-marathons (and need more food).
I guess it's a major issue for me -- a few years ago, I ran several full marathons a year, and I gained weight in those years. It was hard to eat enough to stayed fueled, but not overdo it. (Many of my marathoning friends struggle with their weight!)
But even without the extreme running, it's been a great help. I've lost all my extra weight.
I'll check out the intelli-diet and foodtrackerpro. They sound interesting!
It looks like tipb just posted a giveaway contest for intelli-diet so you may be able to get it for FREE!
tipb.com/2012/01/03/app-giveaway-intellidiet-app-weight-loss-app
I am a picky eater so I can't do meal planning. Plus I have 2 picky boys and I don't want to make 2 different meals. So I keep it a bit easy. I just aim for 1800 calories and call it good. I use Myfitnesspal.com for tracking.
The way I meal plan is by eating generally similar foods for each meal B, S, L, S, D, S. Dinner is the one that changes daily. I just make dishes, label and freeze them into portion sizes, and pull out what I want for dinner.
If you're picky, wouldn't you just plan out foods you know you like?
I just put myfitnesspal on my iphone and I was really disappointed because their nutrient database is all or partly (not sure which) provided by users. That means that if someone else puts bad info in, you might rely on it. But the thing that I was bummed about was that I had just made this big pot of soup with something like 9 or 10 ingredients. I had a list of the ingredients all in grams, but myfitnesspal has whatever random measurements their users put in, so there were things like "10 green beans 4 inches long". And then if you find one that looks useable, like say "30 g of green beans", it turns out not to be unless you've got exactly 30 g of green beans in your recipe. There's no way to use that unless you've used exactly a multiple of 30. Ugh!
I'd love to find an app where I can enter any food and any number of grams or ounces or cups/tablespoons/etc. Those are the units most of us measure with, so it seems like it should exist. Anyone know?
It looks like tipb just posted a giveaway contest for intelli-diet so you may be able to get it for FREE!
tipb.com/2012/01/03/app-giveaway-intellidiet-app-weight-loss-app
Unfortunately, when I investigated, it seems that this is an iPhone app, and I have an Android. But I'll keep looking at the Android apps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rubidoux
I just put myfitnesspal on my iphone and I was really disappointed because their nutrient database is all or partly (not sure which) provided by users. That means that if someone else puts bad info in, you might rely on it. But the thing that I was bummed about was that I had just made this big pot of soup with something like 9 or 10 ingredients. I had a list of the ingredients all in grams, but myfitnesspal has whatever random measurements their users put in, so there were things like "10 green beans 4 inches long". And then if you find one that looks useable, like say "30 g of green beans", it turns out not to be unless you've got exactly 30 g of green beans in your recipe. There's no way to use that unless you've used exactly a multiple of 30. Ugh!
I'd love to find an app where I can enter any food and any number of grams or ounces or cups/tablespoons/etc. Those are the units most of us measure with, so it seems like it should exist. Anyone know?
The Fitbit database is user-entered, too, but you can edit the entries to add different units for serving sizes. So if someone enters it in cups, I can go in and say so many grams = so many calories, and then it will give grams as an option. (any number of grams). This is why I haven't found any other app that works as well for me. I understand that they're working on integrating FitBit with some of these other apps, like MyFitnessPal and LoseIt, so maybe I'll soon have the best of both worlds.
intelli-diet: I bought this app after reviewing it on the website, and I am quite disappointed in it. It doesn't allow me to enter the food I have at home & the food base is small.
I will probably not use it now that I have purchased it.
I'd love to find an app where I can enter any food and any number of grams or ounces or cups/tablespoons/etc. Those are the units most of us measure with, so it seems like it should exist. Anyone know?
BodyBugg works this way. They also have a repertoire of foods, both basic, brand name shelf products, and restaurants/fast food. They are not put in by users so you can rely on them more, but I still spot check them and if not 100% accurate by my label, I will enter it as a custom food. It then saves it for me and I can recall it from my personal foods any time I need it. And stuff pops up via character recognition, so you don't have to scroll search for it, it self populates as you type, so that's also a time saver.
I use fatsecret dot com. It has an android app with an integrated bar code scanner. You can save meals that you eat all the time and enter all or part of them for any meal. It breaks down fat/carbs/protein/sugar, allows you to enter your exercise and integrates it in. And it's all free. I like it.
The way I meal plan is by eating generally similar foods for each meal B, S, L, S, D, S. Dinner is the one that changes daily. I just make dishes, label and freeze them into portion sizes, and pull out what I want for dinner.
If you're picky, wouldn't you just plan out foods you know you like?
that's a good idea. and it appears that that is exactly what the intelli-diet app does. you can plan it to do stuff, but it can also just randomize the things you say you like.
anyways I ended up winning the Tipb app giveaway contest, but I had already bought it!! So whoever wants the promo code, first come first serve. Just e-mail me!
**CONTROVERSIAL ** Calorie Trackers vs. Meal Planners
I use Myfitnesspal.com for tracking.
