Where Do You Food Journal?

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  • Curious where others on this board keep their food journals? Do most blog or log it in FitDay? (I thought I read that FitDay got hacked the other day so now I'm afraid to use it).

    I know I could easily write it down in a journal at home but for some reason the thought of a website geared toward keeping track seems more appealing.

    Any recommendations? I know I need to start but I keep putting it off.

    Thanks as always for advice!
  • I do it on 3FC, in the maintainer's forum.
  • I just use excel spreadsheets - so each month gets its own tab.

    On the spreadsheets I keep track of whether I have binged, whether I have done XXX exercises... etc as well as what I've eaten for meals + snacks with a guessed calorie intake at the end w/ a running total for the month at the bottom.

    I tried using the journals provided on the internet, but I found using excel is a lot faster and more flexible. Plus I love color-coding everything and it makes me happy to see that I have a lot more green boxes than orange/red. Since I'm not really a 'calorie-counter' and just guess my calories I find Excel quicker, but if you are wanting to accurately count calories it might be easier to use the online ones as they have more information re calorie content.
  • Livestrong dot com. I love it.
  • Myfitnesspal.com and the app on my phone. Love it!
  • I have been using Sparkpeople.com for a long while now and just love it!!

    I track my food and fitness and it is very easy to use.
  • Quote: Livestrong dot com. I love it.
    Do you HAVE to have your facebook connected to your livestrong account? I am trying to register, the website looks very nice but it seems like the only way is to register through facebook. I absolutely do not want my facebook to have ANYTHING to do with my weight loss or journal!!

    EDIT: Nevermind! Figured out how to do without facebook!
  • Quote: Do you HAVE to have your facebook connected to your livestrong account? I am trying to register, the website looks very nice but it seems like the only way is to register through facebook. I absolutely do not want my facebook to have ANYTHING to do with my weight loss or journal!!

    EDIT: Nevermind! Figured out how to do without facebook!
    I use it without facebook as well for the same reason you state. I cannot blame you for that either.
  • I figured it out and I have to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for recommending LiveStrong! (In fact thank you to ALL for your advice and recommendations)!

    I am not sure if the other journals are like LiveStrong but I am totally blown away that you can type in a brand name!!!!! That makes tracking SO much easier I almost feel like crying its so amazing!! I shop at Aldi a lot and thought - no way will they have their random brands like Millville or Happy Farms BUT THEY TOTALLY DO! I compared the nutrition facts on all the stuff I entered and almost all of it matched perfectly. There were only a few foodstuffs that differed in some way and only by a very little - small enough margin of error that I can live with. This is amazing! I can already see that today for my weight and height I have gone over the recommended sodium! I figured that was happening Wow. I'm so excited about this - they make it so easy to use - I have never seen WHAT I am consuming presented so clearly before me!!

    Yayyy, Happy Dance - one more awesome resource to help me on my weight loss journey! I am seriously so excited about LiveStrong's "My Plate" !! THANKS!
  • I learned about Livestrong a few months ago. I was watching a vlog on Youtube done by a man in the UK who was dieting. He lost over 100 pounds and he showed a screenshot of his food journal in his vlog one time and I asked him what food journal that was. He told me Livestrong.

    I also love that you can type in brand names and measurements of foods in different amounts. I also love that I can track my water and my sodium and sugars. I will never go back to Fitday and I wish I had of known about Livestrong back in 1999 when I first started dieting. Then maybe I could have looked back in my food journals and wonder where and why I faltered and fell off the wagon after 10 months of being so good.....but I ramble.
  • A table in Word. I keep it really simple. I don't track so much as plan for the day. I even erase what I ate after the day is done to make room for tomorrow.

    I like mine offline because when the internet goes down, I still have it.

    To get calorie counts, I just Google it. Like, "calories in mango, peeled." Works like a charm. Or I go to USDA nutritional sites.
  • I cannot say enough about myfittnesspal. It has been the BEST FOR me. I cook a lot of stuff from scratch so I don't have nice little labels with information laid out for me. MFP has a food database that members contribute and verify. I was shocked to find they had nutritional content on flour I bought in a little shop in Truckee, CA. This site saves me SO much time by having almost every ingredient I've used already in their database.
  • I use myfitnesspal.com, too. Like you, I buy a lot of aldi stuff and do scratch cooking, so I love that it has the more obscure brands. In fact, there has never been anything I've eaten that I haven't been able to find-- the specific brand, even.

    I use the recipe function for stuff I make more often, so it saves time. If I had an iphone, I would be downloading the app. My friend says it's even easier using the app.

    I would imagine both websites are similar. I used to use sparkpeople, and that worked well, too. I haven't tried livestrong. I also like journaling online. My particular diet is not a calorie counting one, but I like to see the breakdown nutrient-wise of what I'm eating nonetheless, and once I shift into maintenance and add some foods back in (I'm doing a low-carb variation), I will be calorie counting, so it's probably good to get in the habit anyhow.
  • I write it in a journal what I carry with me.. I really like scribbling things in notebooks, so it's pretty fun for me.
  • I use Fitday when I track (on my current plan, I just have to eat foods from a list of specific foods and don't need to track). I've used Fitday on and off for so many years that it's got just about all the foods I eat now set up, including most of the homemade food I cook regularly so it would be a big pain to have to convert to another system. And when I started using it all those years ago, it was pretty much the only game in town! lol!