I keep reading about how many who count calories use some form of online calorie counter like fitday, sparkpeople, dailyplate etc.
My question is how do you actually track them?
Do you get online in the morning and enter the day?
Do you enter your meals as you go?
Or do you do it all at night?
I do it the old fashion way, I have a calorie book and a paper journal and when I eat something, I try to look it up right away and write it down. I take my journal everywhere with me.
Just curious how others keep track of their calorie counting.
I just enter it online as I eat. I don't do that well with structured preplanned meals. I work from home so I can just hop online and record it right away. (I've used Myfooddiary.com for that but now I use the food logs for my BodyBugg)
I track breakfast and lunch in the mornings while I have my coffee and breakfast.
When I get home I figure out what I want for dinner, track it and add to it or subtract from it depending on where my cals are.
I have a basic formula for dinner of veggies + meat over grain, and I know the general calories of pasta, rice, couscous, etc. so planning dinner is easy.
I plan usually the night before (when I'm figuring out what dinner I'm going to make). I've been at it long enough that I can usually change things on the fly if the day changes. Although usually once it's set I don't often bother. The one thing I will do is estimate the fruit and adjust it later on.
I planned out ahead of time, then entered calories as I went. When necessary, I kept track in my head until the evening when I entered my calories for the day in Fitday.
I have a small calorie king book i keep in my car.I just use paper and pencil.I work 12 -14 hours days and dont always know if I will be able to get a meal in or where so I use my calorie book a lot since I dont always have internet access.
I use the pen and notebook method. I usually plan my meals in the evening for the following day. This takes about 5 minutes. I use calorie king for calorie counts and have it with me at all times.
I track on the bodybugg website. I make a point to log everything that happens before dinner actually before dinner, usually after mid afternoon snack, so I know exactly where I stand for evening. I tend to keep my calories pretty regular...300 c bfast, 200 c snack, 400 c lunch, 200 c snack, avg of 500 c for dinner, and then if I need an evening snack it's at 200 c or under...which puts me at 1800 which is my goal right now.
I record as I eat (I'm usually home for meals). If I'm away from home for a meal, I pick the most suitable thing off the menu and record it when I get home; if it's a buffet, I take the leanest thing I can find and plain salad.
I don't plan meals for the day in advance but I only keep stuff in the house that can be made into calorie-approprate meals.
I plan all of my food in advance but know the general calorie counts of the things I eat if I stray from the planned menu while out. I plug everything into DP in the morning, then make any adjustments once I get home from work.
So far I have been using a spreadsheet I set up on google docs, that way I can access it from work. I find the calories counts here on 3FC simple and easy to use. I tried Fitday a long time ago but just got frustrated trying to find foods. I plan my food the day before and make any adjustments as I go throughout the day.
Since I'm home during the day and a computer junkie, I track as I go. I never know what I want to eat when, so planning ahead is hard. I do try to ask my tummy/mouth what it wants to eat (from intuitive eating.)
As I prepare my meal, I have my scale ready, prepare the foods and weigh each of them. Write little notes on a pad of paper, and then I can enter each item into the computer. Yes, it's a bit obsessive, but I figure the more obsessive I am on a daily basis, the more relaxed I can be when I can't do it exactly (like when I go out and eat.)
I will occasionally start tracking dinner ahead of time if I know what we're having.
Tracking Your Calories?
