T Nation

Keeping Track of Your Diet?

Supplements and Nutrition
#1

Anybody have any suggestions/experience with diet tracking software? I’d like to find something that allows me to set goals for calories with p/c/f breakdowns.

Seems that it would also be nice if I could set goals for bulking or cutting and have it suggest calories.

Also, I’ve read a little about caloric cycling and amping up your metabolism, then cycling calories to keep your body running at a high metabolic rate. So I’m curious if there’s any software that suggests such a program.

I’d like for it to automatically access a database, rather than having to hand enter all the data.

My training made huge progress when I started religiously keeping a training log. I think diet tracking software or some sort of tracking method would help me make breakthroughs in that area also.

Any suggestions?

#2

I’m using a program called fitday. I believe you can download it for $29. Try a google search. I’m pretty happy with it. It will calculate your BMR for you. It also has an activity log and shows your calorie balance. It has tons of foods and automatically inputs the macros and calories of each food. You can add custom foods if it doesn’t have something you eat. It also calculates your daily macro breakdown. There’s even a body log where you can log your measurements and keep track of changes over time.

The only thing I don’t like is that it won’t allow you to set a weight gain (bulking) weight goal. (only a weight loss one). But this isn’t a big deal as I know how many calories and what macro split I want, and I can still track them through it very easily.

[quote]futuredave wrote:
Anybody have any suggestions/experience with diet tracking software? I’d like to find something that allows me to set goals for calories with p/c/f breakdowns.

Seems that it would also be nice if I could set goals for bulking or cutting and have it suggest calories.

Also, I’ve read a little about caloric cycling and amping up your metabolism, then cycling calories to keep your body running at a high metabolic rate. So I’m curious if there’s any software that suggests such a program.

I’d like for it to automatically access a database, rather than having to hand enter all the data.

My training made huge progress when I started religiously keeping a training log. I think diet tracking software or some sort of tracking method would help me make breakthroughs in that area also.

Any suggestions?[/quote]

#3

Expensive but worth it. Nutribase software. It will let you set goals for your self. Cut bulk maintian etc. and will give k/cal intakes for them. as well as for what ever macro breakdowen you want.

Even lets you track you training and adjusts k/cal needs for those expended.

It will even give you foods and recipies for every damn day of the week if you want. You can pick from different diets. Atkins the zone etc. or add your own.

Also has a breakdown of every food imagingable even restuarants. You can add your own such as Grow! and Surge. Even the exact amino profiles, etc…

Well enough blabbing bout it. Check the thing out. www.nutribase.com.

I suggest the personal plus version for starters. It will allow you and maybe 5 or six clients. You also get regual updates and downloads. $80 I think. Takes some time to set up but once you are trollin its simple as can be. You can save whole days or weeks of meals.

Have fun, hope it helps,
Phill

#4

Oh forgot it will allow you to say you want to not only bulk ior lose but a certain amount say 10 lbs in a month and give you a target for that. Trak it and adjust as you reach or dont reach your goal.

Ltr,
Phill.

#5

[quote]Phill wrote:
It will even give you foods and recipies for every damn day of the week if you want. You can pick from different diets. Atkins the zone etc. or add your own. [/quote]

I love the idea that it gives you actual recipe suggestions. Sounds very cool.

Anybody else?

#6

You can save your own recepies as well. So if you eat it again you can simply click on the whole meal/day, week, etc…

Sound like I’m pushin it or work for them.

I havnt even been using mine lately but it is an AWESOME vauable tool.

Phill

#7

Can this be used for endurance training as well?

#8

Uh, I use a little nutrition thing lately thats free. and it seems to work perfctly

www.fitday.com

check it out

#9

Yeah-this is what I was talking about. You can also download a version from the website for $29. It’s basically the same thing, but there’s a much more extensive list of food in the database, and it’s more user friendly. There’s also some additional features like the body log (measurements).

[quote]Rookie21 wrote:
Uh, I use a little nutrition thing lately thats free. and it seems to work perfctly

www.fitday.com

check it out[/quote]

#10

I am really considering the Nutribase software…

but 69 vs 29 … hmm

#11

Good news. If you call Nutribase they will let you have a trial membership to their diet software to try it out.

Number’s on the website.

#12

how specific do you get with this stuff??

Do you add sleeping? walking? standing?

#13

Coach Charles Staley has a kick-ass one that tracks both diet and training. Check it out:

http://www.myodynamics.com/product/dataorder.html

#14

For the $29 fitday, you input your height, weight, and (I think) bf%. It will give you what it estimates as your BMR. It also factors in digestion. You then put in your background activity (Sedentary, Seated, Standing, etc…). Based on your BMR, you get a calorie count for your Background Activity. Then it’s time for you to log your exercise (weights, running, biking, whatever you do that day). It adds up 1. Digestion, 2. Backgrond Activity (which includes your BMR), and 3. Logged Activities to give you the total calories burned.

You put in all your food to get total caloires eaten. You can get a representaion graphically or otherewise of your calorie balance, and see your caloric surplus, deficit, or equilibrium (if that’s what you’re shooting for).

[quote]TriGWU wrote:
how specific do you get with this stuff??

Do you add sleeping? walking? standing?
[/quote]

#15

[quote]jsbrook wrote:
For the $29 fitday, you input your height, weight, and (I think) bf%. It will give you what it estimates as your BMR. It also factors in digestion. You then put in your background activity (Sedentary, Seated, Standing, etc…). Based on your BMR, you get a calorie count for your Background Activity. Then it’s time for you to log your exercise (weights, running, biking, whatever you do that day). It adds up 1. Digestion, 2. Backgrond Activity (which includes your BMR), and 3. Logged Activities to give you the total calories burned.

You put in all your food to get total caloires eaten. You can get a representaion graphically or otherewise of your calorie balance, and see your caloric surplus, deficit, or equilibrium (if that’s what you’re shooting for).

TriGWU wrote:
how specific do you get with this stuff??

Do you add sleeping? walking? standing?

[/quote]

I got that far… but is it worth going through and putting in every minute detail of activities?

I am working with FitDay and I started logging everything but eventually just narrowed it to longer walks/sleeping/training

#16

Oh wow, the Nutribase system… I just set up the EZ version, which looks like plenty for me… and it syncs up with my Palm Pilot. I think I’m in love. Now, instead of carrying around a piece of paper and writing everything down, I can just enter it into my Palm and do a HotSync when I get home.

And this version is only $29 bucks.

Very sweet.

#17

[quote]jsbrook wrote:
I’m using a program called fitday. I believe you can download it for $29. Try a google search. I’m pretty happy with it. It will calculate your BMR for you. It also has an activity log and shows your calorie balance. It has tons of foods and automatically inputs the macros and calories of each food. You can add custom foods if it doesn’t have something you eat. It also calculates your daily macro breakdown. There’s even a body log where you can log your measurements and keep track of changes over time.

[/quote]

I use Fitday myself and am very pleased with it. Very easy to use and user friendly.

#18

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
jsbrook wrote:
I’m using a program called fitday. I believe you can download it for $29. Try a google search. I’m pretty happy with it. It will calculate your BMR for you. It also has an activity log and shows your calorie balance. It has tons of foods and automatically inputs the macros and calories of each food. You can add custom foods if it doesn’t have something you eat. It also calculates your daily macro breakdown. There’s even a body log where you can log your measurements and keep track of changes over time.

I use Fitday myself and am very pleased with it. Very easy to use and user friendly.
[/quote]

CT,
Do you bother including every minute daily tasks or just the basic training. etc?

#19

[quote]TriGWU wrote:

CT,
Do you bother including every minute daily tasks or just the basic training. etc?

[/quote]

No, I just enter my workouts and any significant physical activity I might have. Their caloric expenditure is somewhat approximative, so I realyl only use it as a log, not as a guide on how much calories I “burned”

#20

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
TriGWU wrote:

CT,
Do you bother including every minute daily tasks or just the basic training. etc?

No, I just enter my workouts and any significant physical activity I might have. Their caloric expenditure is somewhat approximative, so I realyl only use it as a log, not as a guide on how much calories I “burned”[/quote]

I agree. I don’t bother with the minutiae. I just want to make sure I’m getting enough calories for my bulk. I also am not sure how accurate their BMR calculation is anyhow, so any attempt to use it to strictly monitor energy balance might be a little off. But overall, I find it to be a great resource.