Alright guys! SO I have made the decision to transition into Calorie Counting from the diet I am. I feel I have had a good jump start of 45 lbs lost and I am ready to make this a lifestyle instead of a diet.

I will be using fitday and I am deciding whether or not to buy the PC version. What is your experience with it and why is it better than the free one? I like hearing personal experience as I know many of you use it.

I'm excited about this because I used to eat so healthy and then I quit.....I'm not sure why..maybe stress? Anyways...I have learned to deal with stress by exercising and anything other than food/smoking/drinking. I'm excited about the first week of tracking my calories to see how I do....the first week I'm going to work just as hard but I'm going to focus on, not losing weight but, learning how many calories I need to sustain me in a day...especially on my weight-lifting days. I am chosing this avenue because the diet I am on is not providing enough protein and carbs that I need and I found myself feeling VERY sick after my weight-lifting session today. I also know I don't have as much energy as I could.

Encourage me!!! I think I'm making a very wise decision!

That's great Sheila! I'm glad you've decided to make the transition! I don't use Fitday, so I can't speak directly to your question, but since you're switching to all your own foods for the first time, I recommend that you do LOTS of planning. Plan out a week's worth of meals and snacks ahead of time so that you have all the food you need, and so you can tinker with your carb and protein levels.

You're going to do great! And come join us in the Calorie Counters forum.

I use the PC version. I like the fact that it had more reporting available than the web version, plus I don't want to depend soley on the Internet in case I can't access it.

With either one you'll have to spend sometime setting up foods not in the database - I eat out a lot (working on that) or eat frozen foods so I had to input the stuff I eat the most. but you would have to do that as well if you cook.

It will be the same with exercise, I use a heart rate monitor and the values are way off for me.

The pc version has an option to track moods/energy - like you I am trying to gain more energy and find a pattern.

It needs an update though- it does not track transfats or omega 3 fats and I don't think I can add that in. Nor does it graph heart rate or blood pressure.

I use the free version but want to buy the pc version. I don't have internet at home so i can't change my foods around on the weekend. I have to wait until i get to work on monday. On the plus side, that makes me very aware of what i was planning to eat on the weekends and what i end up choosing to eat on the weekends. The funny thing about buying the pc version is you can download it on your computer from the interent. But since i don't have internet at home and i don't want it downloaded to my work computer, i have to pay $10 extra dollars to have a cd mailed to me.

But, i have heard from alot of people who did buy the pc version that their is just much more information and more reports you can do with that version. I would try the free version first and get the hang of it and then maybe later buy it. (by the way, i checked ebay and nobody is selling it. )

Thanks so much for this info...I guess it would be good to try the free version first and THEN buy it. Makes sense.

Even on the diet that I'm still on, I am supposed to plan things out for the week. I hate doing that because what I want changes from day to day. Say I said I was going to eat carrots and I REALLY want Brussel sprouts. Every single plan I have made has been changed. But I guess it would be good for having an idea of calorie intake...I will DEFINITLY be planning at first. I don't want to go over or under-board.

I've just been finding on this diet that I crave more protein, like a small piece of chicken or a 1/2 cup of FF cottage cheese, and my daily piece of dove dark chocolate. I have found if I have my piece of dark chocolate, it keeps me from EVER craving chocolate. Does that make sense? All these things are really good for you in moderation but it's "cheating" if I eat them on my diet. I hate that, but I KNOW I need more protein and carbs...my body (not my eyes) say "Please, please PLEEEEASE eat this!! I need it!!".

I'm so ready for this!!!

I've found it pretty easy to adapt to changes in my plans or what I want to eat, because calorie counting makes me more aware of what is really exchangeable for what. So I know that having this piece of fruit rather than that piece of fruit or this one of my standard snack options versus that one will work out about the same and won't throw the whole day off. For example, my afternoon snack is usually yogurt and muesli but when I don't have time or I'm away from home, I'll have a Balance bar instead, and I won't have to retool all of my dinner plans.

And conversely, it's made much more aware of what isn't exchangeable - so that if I decide I want a giant cookie rather than my muesli and yogurt, then that does mess up what I had planned to eat for the rest of the day, which in turn helps me to be aware of the impact of the cookie and more conscious about my decision about what to have as a snack...

good point Sarah! I guess I'll learn that in this whole process. Mmmm...I can't wait to have yoghurt and cottage cheese and FF milk with whole grain cereal and Ezekial bread and couscous and wild rice, and and and...good stuff like that!! Obviously in moderation..most of what I eat is fruits and veggies so I may very well have a hard time filling my calorie quota. We will see!! This is the last week on my diet..yay!

Congrats on your 45 lb weight loss...awesome!

I use the pc version of Fitday...I love it. I don't know about the internet version, but the pc version has a diary portion and TONS of reports. It's really helped me. However...it would be nice to be able to enter my food from any computer. I just got back from a trip and I couldn't enter any of my food for two weeks. I am still a fan of the pc version though, and don't regret my purchase. I think lumifan4ever had a great idea of trying the free version first.

Reports etc aside, I like the pc version because it is MUCH better with the custom foods. It doesnt holler at you if the rounding errors make the grams from food labels not quite add up perfectly. And custom foods are in the database so they are intermixed with database foods and searchable (and it always puts custom above regular in the search). So I dont have to remember if kraft 2% singles are a custom or a regular food, I just type "2" and it pops up.

Sheila...what diet are you on again?? I don't remember. But whatever it is...looks like it has really helped. You are doing an awesome job. And I can't imagine that having one little piece of Dove chocolate could hurt your weight loss. Sounds like you are able to say no to a second piece...so how can that be a bad thing??? Keep up the awesome job!!

If you google "HMR diet" you'll find the info on Hackley Management Resources. That is the diet I'm on, and is it good for those who NEVER had structure to their diet and need to learn what it takes. I needed the reminder and now I don't think that it's benefiting me AS much. It was great though. I loved the support group.

It's just kind of annoying when you aren't used as an example because everyone thinks you're crazy for doing that much exercise or crazy for eating so many fruits and veggies and that maybe you're fibbing just a little bit. So we're supposed to burn 2000 calories a week, right? Well...the whole time I've been in the group I've been burning 6-10 thousand a week where everyone else is struggling to get in 2,000. Yes, I know...I'm crazy but with not having a job I have nothing better to do!...well, other than look for a job (which I got today!!!!). So now I get to transition into a job, new foods and changing my exercise routine. This should be interesting! One thing about the diet too is that I had to be able to come on Mondays at 5...that's they only time they meet and what if that day doesn't work for me? Then I cannot do the diet, that's just not working for me. Now if I continued not working, yeah, it would work. But now I have an unpredictable schedule, which is to be expected upon starting a new job.

So anyways. Thanks for the encouragement guys! And, no, one OR two pieces of chocolate is not going to hinder my diet....it's good for the heart...if it's DARK.

I'd say the biggest problem I have with the PC version is that if you have the online version (like I do, for when I'd be at work and couldn't access fitday), you have to reenter everything into the PC version once you get home. They don't communicate at all.

Otherwise, I love it.

I have been using the PC version for about 6 months now and love it. I like seeing the pie chart and the break down in percentages of what my overall eating has been. It is easy to add custom food, except you can't add in a recipe. Therefore, what I do is use this site http://www.calorie-count.com/calorie...ubmit&count=41 this gives me the calories and all the nutritional stats and then I just add that to the custom Fitday food list. Sometimes I keep the recipe and sometimes I delete the next day if the item was a one-time thing. Makes it easier than having to plug in 10 ingredients from a recipe. Just be careful to double-check the items in calorie-count because I have known it to go way off base on some food items. But for stuff like my veggie stir-fry’s it works so great!

Another piece of advice if you don't have this one already is to get a scale and weigh your food. I keep a scale, measuring cups, measuring spoons, and a pad and pen right on the counter where I prepare food. Make things much easier for when I go enter in the numbers.

Congrats on getting the job Sheila!!!! That is wonderful. Just make sure you find some time for excersizing!! You are going to do wonderful. I just know it. Congrats again!!!

I use the PC version of Fitday and have since the beginning. That way I don't have to have internet access to keep track of things--which can be useful when traveling where I can't easily get to the internet.

Like today--I'm saying hi from a library computer--and if I had the online Fitday I could enter all my foods as well--but I like having the program on my own computer to use anytime.

I also like the custom foods and the way the planning module works.

Jay