Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

4

I realize that some people don't look at nutrition data at all, and that is wonderful, but I find that I do better when I check a few times a week to see how well I am eating. I have used Fit Day in the past but it seems so slow and cumbersome. I tried a snazzy-looking website called caloriecount.com which has a handy iPhone app, but it gives you grades (like an F for butter) that I didn't agree with so that site was too irritating.

Does anybody have different nutrition tracking product to recommend and why?

flag	asked Jan 19 2011 at 18:55 texasleah 4,809●1●14●34

	I'm sure that the F stood for "Faileo" (not!). ;) – familygrokumentarian Jan 19 2011 at 23:37
	I use the Calorie King desktop app. It is quick and easy to use. – JP Flores Mar 28 2011 at 12:36

PaleoGran · Answer 1 · 2011-01-19 20:15:17Z UTC

4

Some like Cron-o-meter.

http://spaz.ca/cronometer/

As it is software which one downloads, it can be used without being on the internet.

answered Jan 19 2011 at 20:15

PaleoGran
1

sherpamelissa · Answer 2 · 2011-01-19 19:05:09Z UTC

2

I used Fitday for four years and their food database is just lacking to me. They are great people though and the guy that runs the site actually got me in two magazine articles about weight loss.

I moved to Livestrong last year because it allows me to have "friends" and we can see each other's food logs. The food database there is a wiki though, so you have to be super careful to pick the right foods. Their app is slow, I use it on my regular computer.

answered Jan 19 2011 at 19:05

sherpamelissa
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	yes, that is my problem with Fitday is that it is slow and I always have to add custom foods. I have often wondered if paying for the premium membership would eliminate those issues. I would be happy to pay for it if that was the case. Thanks for the suggestion, I will take a look at Livestrong. – texasleah Jan 19 2011 at 19:12
	I actually pretty much added all my foods on Fitday as custom foods, but I ate a lot of the same stuff, so once they were in, I was golden. Another commonly used site is Sparkpeople.com - they had too many bells and whistles for me, the site was way too busy, but I have no heard anyone have problems with the database or accuracy. – sherpamelissa Jan 19 2011 at 19:26

Jodi · Answer 3 · 2011-01-19 21:29:10Z UTC

2

For iPhone and iPod Touch users, Tap & Track is a great app and easier to use than Fitday. You can set macronutrient goals, track weight, enter custom foods, etc. The food database is better than Fitday's in my opinion.

answered Jan 19 2011 at 21:29

Jodi
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chantilly · Answer 4 · 2011-01-20 00:39:39Z UTC

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I use myfitnesspal iPhone app to track goals and progress. You can set your goal macro ratios and caloric levels as you see fit, it's great.

answered Jan 20 2011 at 0:39

chantilly
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	how is the food dbase? or can you at least add your own and make recipes? – texasleah Jan 20 2011 at 1:34
	The food database is very extensive and you can easily add to it, either specific foods, recipes, and meal combinations. – chantilly Jan 22 2011 at 3:28

Paul · Answer 5 · 2011-01-20 01:09:36Z UTC

2

I use DailyBurn and I really like it. The database is huge and updated by users so it's always growing. The goal meters, charts and reports provide great information and the rest of the site (workouts, motivators, groups and discussions) are pretty good too. They even have a few groups dedicated to paleo and primal.

answered Jan 20 2011 at 1:09

Paul
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	can you set your macro ratios? – texasleah Jan 20 2011 at 1:33
	Yes, you can set a range for total cals, fat, protein and carbs. If you pay for a premium account (it's free otherwise) you have advanced tracking that includes things like sugars, sodium, fiber, sat. fat, etc. For each day, it shows you a pie chart of your percentage of fat, carbs and protein and gives you a warning if you're about to go outside your set range. – Paul Jan 21 2011 at 0:23

Amber · Answer 6 · 2011-01-19 19:33:08Z UTC

1

Daily Plate on the Livestrong website.

answered Jan 19 2011 at 19:33

Amber
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Jon Thoroddsen · Answer 7 · 2011-01-19 21:19:45Z UTC

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After using fitday for a while, I gave up on it, mainly because I couldn't do recipes. I tried out livestrong and dailyburn for a week each, and have been using dailyburn since. It just suited me better.

answered Jan 19 2011 at 21:19

Jon Thoroddsen
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	I have daily burn on my ipod touch and couldn't deal with it. I don't remember why, but I deleted it. There's a workaround on Fitday for recipes, but obviously you don't need it anymore. :) – sherpamelissa Jan 19 2011 at 21:25
	i use fitday whenever i wanna run a query. not often so it suits me well. – ben61820 Jan 20 2011 at 0:12

Travis Culp · Answer 8 · 2011-01-19 21:48:02Z UTC

1

I try not to count anything in my diet except for how many golfball-sized purple potatoes I eat per day (3).

answered Jan 19 2011 at 21:48

Travis Culp♦
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maybe I will get there one day ;) – texasleah Jan 20 2011 at 1:34

PKN · Answer 9 · 2011-01-19 22:41:53Z UTC

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I use Livestrong daily too, I find it has about the biggest database of foods. i think a lot of their articles are written by idiots however.

answered Jan 19 2011 at 22:41

PKN
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I don't read anything they send me! If you want someone to look at your food and make silly comments, friend me! I'm sherpamelissa there too. :) – sherpamelissa Jan 20 2011 at 1:02

familygrokumentarian · Answer 10 · 2011-01-20 01:13:57Z UTC

I have a Droid smartphone and use the Sparkpeople app and Sparkpeople.com (all free) to track my weight (provides a nice little graph over time), and have used it in the past to track my food intake with decent results. The only caveat is that the foods listed are a wiki, like Livestrong, so you need to have a general idea of what you're consuming anyway lest you accidentally chose an inaccurate nutrition profile out of the list of possible choices. You can also chose your favorite meals and foods, and create food listings of your own.

My favorite feature within Sparkpeople is that you can customize your desired daily goal macronutrient ratios within the free membership (protein/carbs/fat), which is something that it looks like Livestrong won't let you do unless you pony up the $45 for annual gold membership. You CAN see your ratios consumed that day in Livestrong; you just can't change your desired goal ratios for a basis of comparison, so within a free membership Livestrong analyzes your macronutrient intake against the standard 2000 calorie USDA recommendations.

qualia · Answer 11 · 2011-01-20 09:05:09Z UTC

1

i like http://nutritiondata.self.com - has very detailed data about the nutrient profile of a food, incl. different kinds of sugars, fatty acids, sub-classes of vitamins, alcohols, etc

answered Jan 20 2011 at 9:05

qualia
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ScottMGS · Answer 12 · 2011-01-20 05:50:53Z UTC

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I use Absolute Fitness by Aqua Eagle on my Palm Pre webOS smartphone.

answered Jan 20 2011 at 5:50

ScottMGS
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Casey · Answer 13 · 2011-01-31 04:59:06Z UTC

I haven't seen http://www.loseit.com represented yet. It's nice because it's got an iPhone app as well. Has tons of foods, restaurant and store brands, but entering custom foods is easy as well. There's also a vibrant "friends" community, unfortunately there's rampant SAD/CW misinformation throughout their forums (OMG keep your carbs up! OMG lookout for "starvation mode" etc). I've seen a few other paleo/primal folk in there, though - and I've already converted one of my real-life friends who's also on loseit.com :)

What nutrition counting website/software do you use if any?

13 Answers