Machka 

I have remained the same weight for months now despite quite a bit of exercise, so I decided to start counting calories. All week I maintained a deficit of a minumum of 300 calories a day, and often around 500-600 calories a day.

And ..... I'm 2 lbs down from where I was last Saturday morning!!

Yeah, I know ... 2 lbs is nothing to get excited about, and could just be water weight, but it's been months since I've been the weight I am today, so I'm pleased ... it's a start.

I'm tracking my calories (and other nutrients) on FitDay ... and has that ever been an eye opening experience!! I've pinpointed several "problem areas" with my diet, and have been working to fix them. I plan to keep logging my diet and exercise there for at least a few more weeks to help me become more aware of where my food intake difficulties are.

https://www.fitday.com/

rOOster14

i started messing around with fit day, i dont think i like it though, its not accurate enough/too cumbersome for me, i think im just going to stick to using an excel sheet or something because its just a pain in the butt to log onto fitday all the time.
good luck getting over your plateau though.

aham23

not so much anymore. however, i did in 2006. i tracked it all. everything that went into my mouth. i have almost 200 custom entries too. if i ate out i would look up the nutrition info and enter the item in my Fitday. i was sort of obsessed. i lost 70 pounds though !

most people have no clue the amount of calories they take in. it really is an eye opener. some tips; enter sleep as an activity as it decreases your BMR. over estimate what you eat and under estimate what you burn.

later.

Machka 

It is a little cumbersome, but I'm making it easier to use and less cumbersome by customizing my foods. I eat much the same food every day, so that speeds things up.

All I want it for is to ensure I'm not eating too much.

Right now, for example, I'm about to enter what I've eaten today to find out if I have room to eat more, or if I will have to call it quits now. FitDay helps me with that decision.

It also helps me see what vitamins and minerals I'm taking in. Evidently my iron levels in my blood are low, with FitDay I can see whether or not I'm consuming enough iron ... or at least I can have a ball park idea.

mccook

I use the desktop version and have for a couple of years now. It's gotten me from 18% bodyfat to 8%. It's all about tracking the numbers.

philski

Do you weigh yourself daily?

I don't calorie count, and while you are correct that you could have 2lb of water weight (although if you are maintaining a calorie defecit, I doubt it), what I find is best is to take my weight daily and then plot it out using a spreadsheet program like Excel, then I can see a trend. Yes, it varies from day to day sometimes fluxuating as much as a pound, but look over the course of a few days or a week and you see a useful trend: are you flat, gaining or losing? and then you can adjust your diet or exercise.

Machka 

My weight was remained exactly the same ... and has been since the middle of March. It will go up after a long ride like a century or brevet, of course, but 3 days later it drops back to the same weight, and remains the same until I do my next long ride.

My last 5 weeks of cycling have looked like this:

322 kms cycling, 10 kms walking
182 kms cycling, 10 kms walking
270 kms cycling, 12 kms walking
288 kms cycling, 10 kms walking
111 kms cycling, 14 kms walking

And it has only been in the 111 km week (+14 kms of walking, + weightlifting) that I've really been watching what I eat (and logging it on FitDay), and have finally started to lose weight.

rodrigaj

I got the desktop version of Fitday and used it for 3 months. I found it extremely helpful in understanding portions.

The nice thing about it is that you don't need to do it forever. A three to six month period is really all you need, unless you are really overweight. I've lost about 10 lbs since March 1st.

The metabolism numbers are definitely off, but using weightware https://www.weightware.com/ helped me see the calorie deficiency.

It's all about calories in versus calories out.

Jarery

I use it during periods of time (2-3 months where I want to focus on weight loss. Rest of the year i abandon it. But a year later if I want to lose 5-10 lbs, its still there with all my custom entries.

As Aham23 mentioned, use sleep as an activity, overestimate food portions, underestimate exercise and it works well. People generally eat less than 100 items repeatedly, more likely 50 items. So once you have about 50 custom foods set up, its quick and easy. Its only tedious at the start.

daredevil

Fitday was instrumental in helping me lose the 35 lbs I gained after quitting smoking. Once I had accomplished that, I didn't need it anymore. I had developed the necessary habits by then to remain steady.

As far as I am concerned, it's simple. Calories in, calories out and you have to track it.

C_Heath

4 years now.

Machka 

The thing is, I never used to have to track it. In past years (up to and including last year) I would slowly put on 20-30 lbs over the winter ... and in May I'd lose 20-30 lbs. It was like clockwork. And I could eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it, through the whole process.

This time, I put on 20 lbs over the winter as usual .... but I haven't lost it yet, and May has come and gone.

mccook

Welcome to getting old.

-Devil-

i use it, but i only update it about once a week ... i just keep a log in a little book of what i eat and drink during the week.

DataJunkie

I use it periodically when I want to loose weight or see how my diet is working relative to my riding.
Good tool.

Machka 

All in one year?? Somehow I don't believe it.

DataJunkie

Your body is attached to itself.

aham23

wow. that is a bunch to put on. i fought it hard this past winter. i was hurt, lacking time, and eating lots. i managed to gain very little. good luck to you. later.

Machka 

I've been doing that 20-30 lb gain and loss every year for years! I did it to some extent when I was a teenager, stopped for a bit in my early 20s when I just put on a lot of weight and didn't lose it, and started again in my late 20s and have been doing it ever since. It's just normal for me.

mccook

When I was 28 I gained about 30 pounds. I wasn't really doing much differently. My body just decided it wanted more fat.

Machka 

I was actually referring to growing old all in one year ... gaining weight like that I have no problem doing.

startedspyder05

Having a tool like fitday is a very good thing for someone that wants to keep track of their intakes and "out-takes" in my opinion. I think that just because it's there, it can be motivating for a person to keep going at it since they can easily see it all (and people are always on the internet).

Unfortunately I'm not the person I described, and so trying to keep track of calories was making me crazy. Plus I'm only 19 and only have prolly close to 5-10 lbs of fat that I would like to get rid of (it's hard for the young kids too)

telebianchi

FitDay helped me drop 30 lbs in six months last year. I used it less religiously Jan - May but even putting in my numbers a couple days a week helped to keep me focused. I only gained about four or five pounds back before dropping it again when the weather allowed almost-daily cycling again.

As said above, take FitDay's calorie numbers with a grain of salt. I enter my weight about 5 pounds below actual to bring the daily normal use more in line with other calculations I've done. If I have any question about food, I always over estimate (is this apple a medium or large? Large.). For the activities part, I use a HRM to get the calories burned and then just fiddle with the time in FitDay so the numbers match. Every activity I've used in FitDay over-estimates calories burned (cycling, mountain biking, running, tennis, hiking, swimming, lawn mowing, racquetball, basketball, etc.).

But, with those "customizations" I dropped a consistent 5 lbs/month for six months. So I got the numbers to work out well.

And I very much agree about the nutrition portion of FitDay. While I could probably use Excel to just count calories FitDay has made it much easier to look at fat/carb/protein ratio, track vitamins and minerals, and limit sodium and cholesterol. I have no proof of this other than my own personal experience, but I think that the nutrition part of FitDay helped me to keep up a large physical workload and improve biking performance, while still dropping weight. I think that if I just limited calories without paying attention to the rest of it I would have a harder time building muscle and recovering.

I just use the on-line version so that I can update things whether I'm at home, at work, or on the road without my own computer.

Most embarrassing custom entry in FitDay: Doritos.

UmneyDurak

Yep, I use FitDay. Those little "snacks" do add up fast don't they? One thing I noticed, at least for me, is that it's very hard to estimate portions. For example 40 grams of uncooked rice is 160 calories. How much is it in cooked form? I did an experiment and it comes to about 115-130 grams. I then brought home some food from a chinese restaurant. It really didn't seem like that much rice, but ended up being around 350 grams! Thats about three servings.

telebianchi

And that's where using FitDay or any other calorie calculator really helps. Before I started working off my weight, I wasn't eating many bad things....just too much of it. I have now found things that I can eat large portions but which have low calorie content: soups, squash, pumpkin, sweet potatoes. So when I get that occasional feel to binge I'll make a big pot of pumpkin lentil soup or spaghetti squash with spinach or tomato soup with a can of tuna. I can make up more than I can eat in one sitting and yet the whole thing might still be under 800 calories.