If I was attempting to lose weight (which I obviously am not, at 5′6″ and very underweight – I like how I look, but would like to get back to an average weight of 115 or 120), this would drive me nuts, especially if I was following the “rule” to only weigh myself once at weekly, biweekly, or monthly intervals! What might seem like progress could simply be an empty bladder, or what seems like a step backward can just be a heavier part of your menstrual cycle!

The tracking of progress via charts and graphs on FitDay seems like a very effective impetus for change, even just to eat more healthily rather than for losing weight. I know I could certainly stand to put more protein and certain vitamins into my diet. I may recommend this product to my mom. She’s been in and out of weight watchers for years without any real success from the program. She’s a nurse and I think she’d really benefit from seeing the nutritional break-down of her diet, rather than just counting “points”.

It did make me a bit sad though, because I realized that i have barely any pictures of myself from the last three years or so. The only pictures i have are my engagement photos from the end of October 08 and 10 lbs down. I really really dislike them because i look so big still…

You look good…

I agree, once I started counting calories and realizing how many calories were in product X, I started eating 1/2 or 1/3 of what I used to. Otherwise I was always going over my totals!

It has a huge database of foods already plugged in. So I don’t have to be on the internet looking up the nutrition stats for a tomato.

There is also a section where you can enter in custom foods. I do this for everything I eat, and I only have to do it once and then every time I eat that thing I just weigh it and plug it in. It’s really fast.

The coolest part about Fitday is that you can plug in recipes. So I put in all the ingredients, say what the total yield was (this is actually quite hard), and then I measure my portion and done! I cook a lot and so this is a great way for me to figure out the stats for my own recipes.

I took nutrition this fall and my professor wrote this book (http://www.amazon.com/Portion-Teller-Plan-Cheating-Permanently/dp/0767920791). I have never looked at food this way before, but it sounds similar to what you have done. By filling up with protein and fiber, there’s less room on our plates for white pasta and sweets. Her book talks about how portion sizes have grown and teaches us to use common items (fist, computer mouse, baseball, etc) to measure our portions. A muffin today isn’t the same as a muffin a few years ago!

One example about growing portions that I love is about a Betty Crocker cookbook. In the fifties, the SAME recipe made 50 brownies. The latest cookbook with the SAME recipe is for 24 brownies. Portion sizes are out of control and the best way to realize your own intake is through the stomach hunger!

Again – thanks for your continued honestly and humility. Always enjoy starting my day with your blog!

You should be really proud of all your hard work. The best part about losing weight is getting to enjoy it every day living in a fit healthy body

So, how does fitday work? Do you have to calculate the calories, fat etc. of everything you eat, or do you just enter what you ate and it calculates it all for you?

Thanks for sharing.