Ok, so for about a year now I have managed to maintain my weight at 255. I know, still not good but it was a step down from being near 270. Well I had hit a bump in the road and even though I was not loosing anything I had managed not to gain, and then about a month or two ago I suddenly started putting on weight.
Chalk it up to the holidays,
Chalk it up to stress,
either way it happened and now it's time for me to do something about it.

I am thinking about using the app "lose it" to keep a journal of my calorie intake, unless someone else has a better one I might not know about? My main gripe with "Lose it" is it can be kind of slow. But it remembers your meals and allows you to make custom ones as well as having a huge journal full of restaurants and stuff to choose from.

Thoughts and feelings?

Also, although I am not "new" I have been absent for a while and a lurker for a while. I reccomend this page to anyone who ever comes to me feeling they need help with weight loss and I decided I should take my own advice, heh.

I personally use the sparkpeople calorie counting app, don't really know why. first one i came across and stuck with it.

Honestly, I've been battling being overwieght for a LONG time, and I just strted a new lifestyle and i myself want to shed a lot of weight. But from the amount I've done so far, this app has been a lifesaver. I never understood portion control or portion sizes. And i never really realised how much I put in my mouth everyday.

I've gone as far as measuring the tablespoon of ketchup im about to consume. I scan barcodes like crazy and learn so much about food. it has been the one thing thats kept me motivated and confident that I can do this. I used to keep a food journal but all that did was track what i ate and possibly the calories. Now I have a restriction and scale of proteins, carbs and fat. As well as water and exercise.

From my small experience, an app to count whatever you are counting (calories, carbs, fats, protiens ANYTHING). is going to be huge.

Just my honest opinion.

Good luck on your weightloss

Myfitnesspal.com and the app is also free.

I don't use the app I have very much but it is called MyFitnessPal and it came highly recommended.

Edit: oh Novangel beat me to it.

I've been using a calorie counting app all through this whole fun journey. I used LoseIt! for five months and lost 28 pounds with it. It's a good app and gets the job done. I switched over to MyFitnessPal a week ago because it has more to it and has a larger database of foods. When foods weren't already in LoseIt!, the internet often led me over to MyFitnessPal's database. I'm glad I made the switch.

I use Lose it, and I LOVE it. You can put your own recipes in there and it counts the calories for you. It gives you more calories to eat when you exercise and has an exercise list. You can put your goal in and it calculates how many calories you can have a day, plus a chart showing your weight tracking. The phone app syncs with the online site and it's all free. VERY user friendly.

Thanks guys I'll check out "MyFitnessPal". Seems to be popular.

I don't really have anything to contribute that people haven't already said (I was using MyFitnessPal, but it doesn't have many Japanese brands/the entries are inaccurate if people submit their own, so at this point I just jot down the numbers from labels in a notebook) ...I just wanted to say that I just looked at your deviantart and think your shading's pretty badass. I wish that I had talent... >.<

I love lose it! It keeps me so motivated, I love all the little tools they have and being able to use it on my phone.

I use lose it as well.....68 pounds down so far. It eases your calories down gradually as you lose and I love the label scanner.

Hey guys, been a few days and MyFitnessPal is working great. I went out today with my best friend and had kinda an "eff it" day where I was not obsession over counting every calorie before I ate it. It worked out well. I managed to go out to eat, have something I wanted and still stay well below my calorie count.

@Hotaruchan: Thank you! I seem to have trouble getting noticed on DA so I forget about it sometimes. I'm glad you liked what you saw. I am sure you can do just as well, you just have an awesome job keeping you busy. My dream is to be commissioned for a Magic Card one day .

@kierr: I agree about the gradual decline of calories being a nifty thing in lose it, but it also bothered me because it seemed that sometimes the calories it allotted for a day could get dangerously low. MyFitnessPal is winning my heart because of the amount of foods it has meaning I don't have to put it in by hand. I feel like When I have to punch stuff in by hand it rips the app from the background of my life to the foreground and puts me in danger of tossing it aside. I know it's silly but soo true.