[AquaWarlock]

If restaurant calories are not available on their respective web sites, I don't really count them, but try to practice good eating out habits (self portion control, not ordering anything too heavy, etc.). I tend not to trust third-party sites for restaurant nutrition info since restaurants are always tweaking their recipes & formulations, so those get dated really fast. And given that I only really eat out once every 1-2 weeks, I don't think it makes a big dent in the grand scheme of things in weight control (and I've been doing this so far for months as still losing pounds).

For most other foods I prepare at home, I use nutritiondata.com -- which is good for calorie counts and finding out all the other nutrients that food contains.

[Sun_Flower2]

I used to use fitday, but now I use thedailyplate.com, it is much more user friendly, it has a free version as well. I love the weight chart, you click on it and you can go over your past weights. I use it everyday, it is super easy because you can add any item, but tons of items are already on there from other users. I've lost 9.4lbs since May 7th. And I really have not been eating well or exercising very much. My goal is losing 2.8lbs/week so it says I need a deficit of -1400 total. You can add exercise cals lost too. Most days I don't get that much of a deficit but I'm working to learn to control my food intake.

This past month has really like been a starter month, it has been really interesting and difficult for me to change my eating habits, but I'm learning how to everytime I do eat right. I have notice how easy it is to see how when I am eating good the weight just drops off, and when I'm eating bad it jumps back up. It is so motivating to see it go down when I eat right.

If I can lose over 9lbs with out really trying very hard, I hope I can lose 10-12 over the next month by adding more exercising and getting my net calories to -1400 of what my recommend max is. Right now TDP says I can eat about 1500 calories to be at a negative of 1400, so if I burn 400, that means I can eat 1900 or less. When I eat healthy it is actually alot of food! One day I ate alot and couldn't eat anymore and I was at a net intake of 1200cals with exercise. I couldn't believe it! But I'm happy now if it's anything under 2900cal, because that means I'm not gaining! (According to TDP).

When I first started I couldn't believe how many calories I was eating, a good day was 2700-2900, and lots of days it was in the 3200-3400 range. After doing nothing but logging my food intake for a week, I realized, "No wonder I weigh 2 hundred and 40 some pounds!!!" I realized that's why I've gained about 20lbs every year or two for the last 8 years! I eat like a mad woman! :P

But seriously if you find any sort of method to track your calories, it opens up whole new possiblities of weight loss.

[AnneH]

I use Spark People - used to use fitday but it's too plain. Dailyplate seemed good but anyone can enter foods so I can't trust the info on there.

[JayEll]

Just a word of caution--all of these calorie sites are using estimates. I use FitDay, but the way I had it set initially, following their directions, I was eating too many calories and therefore not losing. So it's nice when a site like TDP or a program tells you you can eat a goodly chunk of cals, but it may not work that way.

Jay