I just had a couple of recommendations to make. I had bought one called NutriBase a few months back. I have to say, I really didn't like it much. Very complicated to use, seemed like it lacked functionality for things I wanted to do commonly. Adding a food to your eating log was really clunky and cumbersome. It doesn't display break downs of nutrients like vitamins and minerals unless you buy the extremely expensive version (my version cost about $49 I think).

Then I finally got fed up with it and downloaded Fitday's software. All I can say is WOW! Only $19.95 and so much better. I really like the calendar and how it shows you your calorie deficiet! I wish it would let you copy one days food log to another, but adding foods isn't too horrible fortunately. Really nice program!

Click the first food, hold down the shift key, and click the last one. Hit Ctrl-C. Then, go to the day you want to copy it to and hit Ctrl-V.

I love the fitday software, too. Very user-friendly. The only improvement I'd make is listing the custom foods alphabetically, but that's no biggy. To add the food, all you have to do is start typing the name of it, and it'll bring it up automatically.

I love how easy it is to add your own recipes.

You can also select from the past week's foods on the history tab.

Fitday PC is so WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was using the trail version of Calorie King and pulled out of my 1-2 lb per month rate. But on Feb 2, I got Fitday PC. I'm averaging 2.26 lbs per week since getting it. My weight chart looks like it's nosediving, and in the past 10 lbs I've actually gained 4 lbs muscle and lost 14 lbs of fat.

Fitday PC isn't just good for tracking intake, it makes it really clear what your overall calorie in/out balance is. I'm eating well (much better nutritional balance and moderate portion control, but my exercise is way up since I've been able to see so clearly whether I'm on track with calorie balance.

Every morning I print 2 copies of the 14 day overview. One is left at home for my hubby to look at and post proudly on the fridge. One goes on my clipboard at work so I can pull it out at a glance. I'm getting really public about my weight numbers because I like showing off my "report card" to friends at work. When I get to goal, I'm going to start hanging the report card on my file cabinet (maybe doing a 4 month overview) so it is clear to everyone I know if I'm drifting. Nobody wants to mention stuff like that if they see the weight coming back on, but witht he chart up it becomes pretty clear that I do value my friends support and comments.

I was just telling my husband last night that this has got to be the best $20 I have EVER spent. I was looking at a goal date in 2005 or 2006 before. After Calorie King, I changed it to November. On Fitday, I had to change it to August 14 because I'm losing so well, and I'm currently on track to come in as early as Mid July. This software has been LIFE CHANGING for me.

Lynda

Thanks for the tip on copying food log entries! I looked in the help but couldn't find anything.

One thing that has me puzzled is it shows a -158 calorie deficiet for one day and a -450 deficiet for the next yet the summary says a number that isn't a sum of those two number.

Here's a screen shot of what I mean:

http://nmcs.com/images/ss1.jpg

Is that a bug?

Calories burned for the week includes background/digestion/logged for the days you logged things so far, and background for the days to come where you haven't entered any food data yet. The software assumes you will always burn your baseline.

This will also affect the goal stats report. Your Average calories will be right, but your calories burned numbers will be a mix of actuals and predicted (based on your background value.)

I check in overview, using a custom date range, to look at intake and burned if I want a true measure of burned. Also, in calendar view, you end of the week summary will be correct after all 7 days are filled in.

Lynda

I really like the idea of Fitday, but Fitday on the web is enough to make me scream, mainly due to recipe building.

Does the Fitday PC version have an actual recipe builder?

You can set up a recipe as custom food that is made up of particular amounts of each individual ingredient.

I don't care much for Fitday on the web. The PC software is so incredible, though.

Lynda

To be honest, the PC version of Fitday is far superior to the online version in ALL respects. It is highly customizable and has so many report functions on all of the nutrients you consume in a day, it is mind-boggling.

I installed it on a USB flash drive (it only takes up 20MB of my drive's 128 MB size, so I'm sure it will fit on there just fine indefinatley. Plus, I can take the drive with me in my pocket since it is only the size of a cigarrete lighter and use it on ANY PC, thus allowing me to enter foods at work, on the road, etc. You can also easily allow multiple users to use it with the single purchase because it allows you to create additional profiles. And you can easily install it on several PCs too! There are no additional licenses required to be purchased to do so.

Since I have started using the PC version, I have fallen behind in entering my foods online, simply because I find the PC version so much better and useful. And for only $20 - the price to benefit ratio just simply can't be beat.

If you seriously want to track ALL of your daily food consumption, along with your weight, measurements, moods, activities, and even daily thoughts for a very nominal investment, I would seriously encourage anyone to download the PC version of fitday and give it a try.

The site even offers you a 30 -day money back guarantee!! If you don't like it within thirty days, they will refund your money, provided you fill out a form stating you have uninstalled and destroyed the software.

But Fitday does the rest and tracks EVERYTHING wonderfully. Hope this helps. I honestly believe that you can't get it much simpler than Fitday and be confident that your data output is reliable and accurate.

The initial stage can be frustrating, I know, but the KEY is to create custom entries for those things you eat on a regular basis. Once those are created to be the item and quantity you want, then it is a simply matter of re-choosing them each time.

With the Fitday PC version, it is even easier, because you have a Favorites folder which allows you to simply drag and drop your Custom items onto your daily food log. (after you create the custom food entry for the first time, of course).

It only takes me less than a minute to enter my breakfast each morning now, and that is with 10 separate entries! I currently have 70 Custom entries on my Fitday PC version. I find myself adding new ones as I try new things.

Again, IMHO, a simpler, more accurate method doesn't currently exist and for my $, Fitday (especially the PC version) can not be beat. And, heck - the online version is FREE!

And yes, you can easily create custom recipes and even entire MEALS with Fitday. Once it is created, you simply drag and drop it into your day's food log. So this way, I can either enter 10 separate items for breakfast or make a custom "Favorite Breakfast" entry and simply drag it over each morning I have it - with ALL 10 items listed and accounted for. Awesome.

JFF

Ok, I checked it out and downloaded a copy. I LOVE it. This is so much easier than the website. Thank you so much for the info, folks!