Machka 

Even fresh fruit and veg?

Rowan

So the science still applies but you choose to ignore your "kryptonite"? Hmmmm...

wolfchild

I know of only one large grocery store which has a little information booklet in their fresh produce section, it makes it easy to check nutritional info for fruits and veggies...But majority of grocery stores don't have that info on fresh produce. It easy and doesn't take long to go online and check calories for fruits and veggies.

GeorgeBMac

MyNetDiary might solve that issue for you as well as one you mentioned earlier (re-entering / copying food you had eaten previously).

It has 2 features you might like:
1) a list of "favorites" for each meal. For instance, each morning I eat a bowl of oatmeal with soy milk, apple cider, apples, bananas and raisons. I could enter that as a recipe called "George's Oatmeal" and just tap on it once. But instead, I pull my list of breakfast favorites and simply tap on each one of those ingredients. It takes about 10 seconds. Also, for quantity, you don't have to weigh anything. You can enter foods in cups, tablespoons -- or even a description like ".5 Small apple" -- and the program does the rest. (also, the nutrients come directly from the food label itself if you scan the bar code -- so you know exactly what nutrients you are taking in).

2) When I encounter a new food that is not on their already extensive list, I take a picture of the front panel, one of the nutrient label, and one of the bar code -- and the next day that food is in 'the list' for me to use... It's helpful because I've been eating a lot of stuff imported from India from my local Indian grocer -- and most of that is not listed.

You can do all that from a PC. But, to be done easily and conveniently, it takes an IPhone or its equivalent (and the IPhone version has a few more features than it does for that "other" kind of phone).

I'm not sure how much time I spend on it each day -- but it is no where even close to 30 minutes. But, I eat a lot of the same things each day -- so that makes it easier...

The only place where I have difficulty with it is when I eat in restaurants. Yesterday I had a soup and salad bar and my entries for that meal were very rough approximations and estimates.

And, for me, all that is worth it because I use it to track nutrients much more so than I do calories. And, I have used the results to fine tune the supplements I take (instead of guessing, I know which nutrients I am deficient it).

I also use it to track (and chart) things like waist size, weight, blood pressure, etc... (even cholesterol!)

Also, it is a good motivator to stay on track. Tonight I will be going past my very favorite ice cream place -- the best in Pittsburgh. I would very much enjoy a 'Health Bar Swirl" -- but I also know it will throw my whole intake off for the day and even mangle my average for the week. So, is it worth it????

I can't say that MyNetDiary is the best out there because I have only tried one or two others -- but it works for me and it works well...

Machka 

I don't own a mobile phone of any sort ... never have. In fact, I don't own any sort of phone at all.

GeorgeBMac

Then you have no leashes on you...

Mine is a leash for: people who want me to do this or that for them as well as one that bugs me to eat right or exercise more or harder...
... it is in total control. Those guys in 2001 thought that Hal was bossy -- but Hal was a wimp compared to this innocent looking little IPhone!

GeorgeBMac

Or, a little less flip...

Nearly 20 years ago when I decided to quit smoking I read a simple statement that said:
"Will power is not something that other people are born with. It is knowing how to accomplish a goal"

And, that is what my IPhone has done for me:

My goal is to optimize my physiologic and mental well being.

But, for most of my life I really didn't know how to do that. I might try this diet or that exercise -- but was scattered and without a strong direction -- or with any objective feed back which I find to be critical -- whether the project is medical or engineering, feed back is critical to success.

So, with my IPhone I am not only able to measure my nutrition and exercise fairly accurately -- but, with the reports and charts I get from my laptop, I get that all important feedback.

I am not saying that this is the right method for all -- but it has made a serious difference in my health and well being.

valygrl

Machka, try LoseIt, they have a web site and mobile app version. You can save custom food items, meals or recipies. The UI is better on the mobile app but the functionality is there on the web site too. I've never had it fail to save. 5 minutes per meal of data entry time is totally do-able, once you have your usual foods entered. I don't know about their non-US based database, but it's easy to read info off the package label and create your own custom food items that are available for re-use.

Also, things have changed a lot in 4 years, in internet time that's decades. If your interested in using a counter, it's worth checking the tools again. I bet even the ones that you already evaluated and rejected are better now.

Finally - having a mobile device that lets you enter calories at the table or in the kitchen is really a time saver and helps prevent the "oh oops, I ate what???" moment that can happen when you've sat down at your computer later to enter your foods. It also helps a lot if you are really keeping track carefully, because those one or two little bites you take while you are preparing your food, or the items you forget you ate because they weren't really a "portion" - really add up in the grand scheme of calorie counting. Those are where you can make or break your diet, you think you ate 1800 calories but lo and behold if you count every single thing, it was 2500. I know not everyone likes/wants/can to pay for a smart phone, but it is a very good tool for this, don't brush it off.

Petsamo

Here's a nice calorie calculator. No more guesswork is required.

BigAura

From what I've observed over the years, nobody counts calories unless they want to change their weight. It's a lot of work when you can easily cut to the chase and weigh yourself everyday. You do, however, need to basically understand the caloric content of the foods you eat, and adjust accordingly.

EthanYQX

In the 4000 range, depending. 185lbs, 5'8.

mrodgers

5'8" and 222.8 lb this morning. Started last summer at 247 and started riding the end of summer. I lost focus over winter and started logging again this past week.

I wanted to get a rough estimate on what I normally ate for meals so installed MyFitnessPal. I try to overestimate but I don't weigh food. For meals we eat all fresh homemade and a lot home grown. My wife might buy something packaged but then next time, she is replicating it from scratch. We rarely eat out and rarely eat fast food. Our beef is grass fed and raised by my father-in-law. We had chickens but got rid of them when my wife was pregnant. We jumped into the chickens again for eggs but they ended up all roosters so I butchered. We now get fresh eggs from my brother-in-law. What we don't grow in the family is organic when we can.8

MyFitnessPal told me I should eat 1800 calories to lose 1-2 lb per week. I found that I ate about 1600 breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That means the weight gaiin was all junk food. It is a real eye opener when you actually look and realize those 5 Oreos you just ate, then the 5 more you ate because the first 5 were so good is more calories than you ate earlier for dinner. Junk food is an easy way to eat an enormous amount of calories very quickly.

I don't know how accurate I am estimating, but last year while using the app, I was losing 10 lb per month.

MyFitnessPal if the food is in a package, you can scan the bar code to get the info. For nonpackaged food, I searched and would select the largest calorie number.

If you eat the same meals often, it is very easy. It shows you recent anf frequent foods that you've selected. You can also copy a meal to another day. Most of our meals are meat, starch, and veggie so I'm not having to log a bunch of stuff to make my meal.

If I ride, sometimes I'll eat something in the evening, not all the time. If I am close to the 1800 net though, I won't eat anything. Without logging such as over winter, I would eat something just because I like food and don't have any numbers to say, "hey, you shouldn't eat that."

GeorgeBMac

+1
-- except I use "MyNetDiary" instead of My Fitness Pal. But it really opened my eyes as to what I was putting into my belly (as well as ON my belly!)...

Also, to eliminate belly building snacking I have done two things: Got rid of the "high fat, salt, sugar" junk food in the house: crackers, potato chips, candy, sugary drinks, nuts, etc... But I added healthy, fiber rich foods such as: apples, raw cauliflower, edamame, etc... Those foods are filling and satisfying but add relatively few calories because they have such a high fiber to calorie ratio.

In short, I didn't eliminate snacking -- I just changed what I was snacking on...

Weatherby

Don't worry, we can still track you.

G4 service and a Smartphone would cost me almost $2k per year. That is almost two good meals.

mrodgers

A big problem I have is called Wifeand2kids. She buys stuff for the kids for their school lunches. Then it's real hard to open a cabinet and see that stuff and snack on it when I'm not in tune to my calorie intake. My wife also bakes, and my daughter is in home economics so she is wanting to bake stuff a lot. That's the real dangerous stuff right there because I don't have the willpower to defeat that, LOL.

I don't care about being able to surf the web when I am driving or riding the bike, so I don't care about data. I have an Android smartphone and it costs me $10/month. I have 3 of them in the family and its $34.80 with tax total.

You can get any prepaid Android that are out now cheap and not activate them with service. Then you can download the apps on wifi and use the various things like MyFitnessPal, Strava, MapMyRide, etc. The phones are only $50 to $100. You can even do it with an iPod Touch. No need to have the cellular service to have a device for recording nutrition info or mapping ride data.

Spld cyclist

So did you figure out how to use the Android as a phone without having a data plan, or do you just use it as a minicomputer and carry a separate phone? I did a little online research and found it hard to identify a way to use a smart phone with just cell service and no data plan. I think you can do it with Tracphone if you just buy the minutes and don't buy any data cards. Is there another/better way?

GeorgeBMac

Yes, that is hard... I probably wouldn't be able to do it...

But, one technique that helps me is to eat BEFORE I start getting overly hungry (where the hunger takes over reason and logic) because, when my mind is telling me that I HAVE to eat that cupcake, I simply don't have the will power to argue. (Sort of like the technique of always eating before going grocery shopping).

mrodgers

I don't know how the Tracfones work as I switched before they had smartphones available. I've heard it both ways where now the cards include minutes and data or you need a seperate data card. I switched to AT&T GoPhone a few years ago.

With GoPhone you have to purchase a call, text, and data plan. You can pick just $0.10/minute which I do since I only need to make calls in emergency situations. We only use text and you can only have data if you purchase at least the $25 calling plan (250 minutes) thus, I don't have data.

You have to upload money (or buy a card like with Tracfone) to keep the phone active for the month. The smallest amount is $10. From your account balance, you buy the call, text, and data package. The $0.10/minute would deduct from my balance when I make a call. I buy texts on my phone and my daughter's $5 each month and my wife uses more texts than the rest of us so it cost $10 from her account. every thing unused rolls over as long as I upload money to keep the phones active.

Any of the prepaid phones you can just purchase at Walmart and not activate on the network and use them as like an iPod. It would be the same as if you bought a used phone or got a new phone and gave your old phone to the kids to play games on without it being on a cell network.

krobinson103

No idea. Ride 250-500km a week (commuting and fun rides). I eat a lot but still keep getting skinnier. If I don't eat I don't have the energy to teach kindy for 5-6 hours a day, ride to 3 places and still be able to keep a happy face on (and sing and dance for half the day...). Current weight 84-87kg depending on the time of day and what I did. 190cm in height.

bmontgomery87

I used myfitnesspal when I used to track my calories. It was easy to use, and probably only required 5-10 minutes of my time each day to keep up with. I was more concerned with my macronutrient profile, but overall calories were a factor too. Now that I'm not trying to gain/lose much, I just eat based on how my body feels and what my goal is.

I'd say I'm typically around 3,000 calories for the day at 5'7" 165ish pounds.

Spld cyclist

Thanks mrodgers. I'll keep that in mind if I make the leap to the 21st century!