Hi All...some questions about FitDay--tell how it has helped in your weight loss....

* do you love it or hate it?
* is it easy to use?
* how much time does it take a day to use it to the full advantage?
* is it helping you?
* how do I get started?

Others will probably have more questions but this is a start....

That's a good question. I love it NOW after I've entered about 100 custom foods.

Things I like

• Keeps me accountable, knowing I have to keep track of what I've eaten can sometimes keep me out of off plan food
• I like having a record every day of what I've eaten
• It's fairly easy to use
• Now that I've entered the foods I normally eat every day, it takes about 2 minutes to calculate my food for the day
• I like to enter my food several days in advance. That way, I can tweak the calories/protein/healthy fat in advance so I know I will meet my goals each day. I love the ability to see a day's meals in advance and plan accordingly

Things I don't like

• Can't re-order your food for a day. If I get everything entered and realized I forgot to calculate the bread for my sandwich at lunch, I have to add it to the end of the day
• Search functionality is just weird. Trying to find plain grilled chicken is tough.
• Sometimes, things I want aren't listed, like bokchoy or orange peppers
• Fitday doesn't track a lot of health benefits I would like, such as alpha carotene
• Adding custom recipes is annoying. For me, it involves using an Excel spreadsheet to calculate each item separately and then summing the totals (although I hear the PC version is a big improvement in this area)
• If you're someone that eats a lot of whole foods and cooks a lot at home, it can be maddening to add all the custom foods/recipes at the beginning

I agree that the search function is terrible. Sometimes you just have to browse and improvise.

I don't use it religiously. I check in maybe once a week just to make sure that I know what I've been eating or occasionally if I'm particularly hungry late at night. That way I can tell whether I've only had 1100 calories and can have a pretty substantial snack or that I've eaten plenty and am just feeling nibbly.

It's easy to use and easy to get started; I'm just not the sort of person who has interest in tracking every single little thing she eats every day.

I started out using the web version of fitday. I found it somewhat difficult to navigate at first and thought 'aw screw that' but, eventually I tried again, and got used to it.

I found some of the calorie info was not realistic (Turkey breast grilled does NOT have 11 g of fat, sorry). I found a lot of foods really hard to find, even using the search feature. Wish that it had kept my 'frequent foods' that I put in custom, in alphabetical order.

out of 10, I'd rate the web version a ..6/7

NOW.. about 2 weeks ago when I was on there, it came up with an offer for me to buy the PC version for $19.99... so I said what the heck. I thought it might be nice to keep it open all day long and not have to log in every couple of hours.

PC VERSION/PAY VERSION COMMENTS

rating 9/10
There are still a few things I'd like to see in this one, like the turkey/fat rating thing is just sooo way off. They add 'salt' as part of a lot of recipes when you call them up, and I have to keep deleting it. I never add salt. I never add fat. It's just not easy to use their pre-inputted foods, if they are meat.

What I DO like (so many things)
* It asks you which meal each food was for, and you can make notes on why you ate it, such as: craving, sugar craving, emotion (what kind), habit, triggered by.. , meal time, etc. So, it shows you what you ate, meal by meal, and then adds up each total per meal, and then the grand total for the day. (the web version does not allow you to put "breakfast, lunch, dinner"

* it shows you a calendar at a glance with all of the calories and breakdown each day, all on one screen

* you can input a goal with a start/end date, and it gives you a graph of how you're doing, then shows you what it estimates your weight would be for the next 4 and 12 weeks based on your inputted data so far.

* It keeps a list off to the side of your previous history of foods, you can just click on a past day and drag a food right over to your current list

*much more customization, and searchable/alphabetical. You can save favorite lists of foods grouped into folders and call them up at a glance, very easily

.. the list would go on and on. this program is really worth buying if you are serious about losing weight, or have a long time to go, like I do. I plan to keep logging when I reach my goal (and I need to keep reminding myself that this IS going to happen.. shut up negative inner voice)

the bad points:
* would like it to be able to have a password. I use MY computer but it's personal info, so I'd rather it have a password feature.

* would like to see a 'print report' menu type of option where you can print your foods on a paper that you could put in a binder. You CAN print each view you are on, but it's not the way I'd like it to be. Not a BIG problem, just a small want.

* you can only have 1 active goal at any given time. You can type in multiple goals but only 1 at a time can be on your chart for comparison, so it lets you have only 1 marked as 'active'. again not a huge prob.

* would like them to add a feature for you to input photos, so you can store them at particular weights as you go

I must add that for me, though I am an advanced computer user, I found this program highly user friendly. There are help files included, and if you have any questions, they answer them quickly.
I wrote to them and asked if there was any way I could import my data from the web version to the PC version, and they said there was not. It had to be all put in again.. I'm still working on that, but I got all of the weight status in there, just have to finish my food details.

Hope that helps you decide, and if anyone else wants to know any info about the program.. features I mean, let me know!

~ Angie


PS - for anyone doubting why they should count calories...
I have never done this prior to this diet. I have tried all kinds of diets but never counted. This has been a HUGE success tool for me. it has made all of the difference.

Thanks, Angie, good to know! I was just thinking about purchasing this.

I used fitday.com a few years back when I was making a half-hearted attempt at weight loss, but I quit after a few weeks. Now that I've lost some weight, and started to slip into some lazy habits resulting in a plateau, I've started to use it again in an effort to pinpoint some habits, keep me accountable, etc.

I really enjoy it.

Also, http://www.dietfacts.com/ offers an option to add their foods to your fitday account! Woohoo! That's a cool feature.

I love it!

But my menus are fairly simple when m in the prosess of losing weight. Whole foods, not alot of recipes that are comlicated to figure out.

If I dont use it I tend to overeat or not count my calories correctly.

* do you love it or hate it? .... I love it
* is it easy to use? ... yes, now that I've gotten used to the goofy search and have entered many many custom foods. I eat 'plain' so that helps. It is annoying to figure whole recipes.
* how much time does it take a day to use it to the full advantage? ... on a slow dial-up day, still less than ten minutes. If I've eaten very familiar foods, less than 5. I use the reports a lot. That takes time for reading and thinkin'.
* is it helping you? Oh yes! I've learned sooo much about the actual content of foods (and crap eatables). I've learned a lot about serving sizes and the difference 'just a bite of this or that' can make.
* how do I get started? Sign up. When you have a little free time, play with it. You can put in imaginary meals ... assess them and remove. When you have a bit more free time, enter as 'custom foods' the things you eat on a regular basis. Use the drop down menus!

I've been thinking about buying the pay version. I just have one question, is it portable? What I mean is, can I take it with me on a CD? I have several computers that I use (work/home), I'd like to be able to keep it all saved on a CD, and then just work off the CD at whatever computer I happen to be working on. I read all the info on the site, but it didn't address this. anybody know? I'd hate to have to 'choose' a computer to download it on, and then be restricted to only that computer to use it.

One problem might be in custom foods ... if you entered your favorite recipe on your home computer, it would save it to your C: drive and you would have to re-enter it all on your work computer. Could be kind of a hassle.

hmmm....good info, I hadn't thought of that.

Re your question about running it from a CD:

Well, the program is installed into the computer so I am not sure if it installs any dll files, etc that might need to be kept in the windows directory.

I'd suggest emailing them and telling them what you'd like to do with it, and they will answer your question.

When it installed it in my computer, it makes a 'file' called your working file, which it opens every time. So, each user can have a personal file. the data goes with the file, not the exe. Kind of like if you use an accounting program, it saves the data within the company file, not in the executable part.

So, in theory, as long as you always saved the same file over itself, then your data would stay intact. Saving to CD though, is a problem, unless you use a CD-RW. Once written, a regular CD-R cannot be overwritten.

Some thoughts for you, but I'd consider writing the company and they will answer you pretty quickly like they did for me.

Wow I had never heard of this site, very easy to use and helps with fitday alot thanks so much for sharing!

You do have to be a power user on Windows XP with install rights to install it, so if your system admin at work has you as a restricted user, you may have problems installing it. It does have to install to the drive, I don't think you'll be able to run the program from the CD

As Abbeycat says, it creates a working file with your data in it. You can save that data, copy and paste it into the correct directory on your computer and open it up each time. You could use a CDRW, but I either use a thumb drive or I email the file back and forth between work and home. It's definitely not as portable as the web-based fitday, but the custom foods make up for it.