For you folks who use this Fitday program, or otherwise calculate carbs and/or calories, or keep a detailed diary of food intake, how much time per day do you spend doing these calcs? Not being judgemental, I just don't do any of this and it would seem to take a lot of time.

It can depend. If you have a slow internet connection and you're using Fitday on the web, it can be time consuming. I use FitdayPC, however, and now that my custom foods are entered and it's set up the way I like it, I can enter a meal in, oh, 20 seconds or less.

Im obbsesive.. so, all day long it seems like.

Probably not more than five-ten minutes a day to input foods. I don't journal over there, or record activities.

I use my fitday about 20 minutes a day. I actually do a few days at a time. My breakfasts are the same so I copy it for the week and 4 of my lunches are the same and I copy those too. It saves time. I don't do moods or why I eat. I basically just do weigh ins, food logs, and exercise logs, monthly I put in my measurements.

Hmm, mostly less time than I thought it would take.

I spend maybe 2 or 3 minutes per day total. The first few days take longer, when you're saving all of your favorite foods.

I have all my usuals in there already. For instance I made a custom entry for a hamburger patty with cheddar, mayo, and low carb ketchup- so I just double click on it, voila, I don't have to enter the ingredients separately.

Fitday: less than 5 minutes - most of my meals are customized.
Gym Log entry here: less than 5 minutes.

During the first period of my weight loss (losing 35 lbs) I have not used fitday. This summer I started a new program - with remarkable results. I started to use fitday to solve the secret of my new program, and fine tune it.

Something else. I am ready to share my menues, but it seems to me, that it is much more help if I can provide numbers too. (Considering my many ethnic meals, with unkown ingredients for most of people here.)

Probably 5-10 minutes a day or so.
That said, I was away for a week and didn't keep track at all. I ate foods I know to be good, didn't go off plan or anything, but I didn't bother writing everything down because I knew I'd never bother to punch it all in when I got back. And now I'm down a pound! I'm thinking I'll stay relaxed and not punch everything in for a while. If the scale goes up I'll get back to being strict.

I do believe it's because I was religious about punching stuff in for so long that I knew what to eat. I think it's a very good exercise, a way to learn shocking facts about the foods you think you know (chicken wings are REEEEEALLY high in protein, for example), and a way to hold yourself seriously accountable. I'd definitely recommend doing it, at least for a while.

I think it's a good idea, and it seems as though my calorie counts are always higher than those I'd estimated.

Nevertheless, I find the food database overwhelming with far too many choices. I eat a lot of salad and always struggle with how to account for it; that is, does anyone really measure out (for example) 2 ounces of Romaine, 1 ounce of grape tomatoes, 3 ounces of cucumber, etc., to get a realistic idea of the components in a salad? Or is there an easier way?

probably 20 minutes total, as i also use the journal fitday has.

I hardly ever use fitday, but I do keep a food journal and record everything I eat. It takes very little time, maybe 10-15 minutes a day.

For those of you who record everything you eat, what benefit do you glean from this information?

And do you record portion size? Estimate, or weigh cooked food, or prior to cooking? I've read where people are bad about underestimating portion size.

Thanks in advance for responding. Rest assured, this is not a veiled criticism of what you are doing. In fact, I am thinking of trying it myself.

As long as I'm consistenly losing weight, I eyeball measurements. But if I don't lose one week, all my food goes into a measuring cup or spoon or on the digital scale.

As for recording every little thing in my book, it may seem obessive, but it lets me know what works (plain meat and veggies) and what doesn't (nuts). When I have lost significant weight or am closing in on maintenance, I'll drop the journal, but you don't get as fat as I did by being honest with yourself, and my food journal keeps me honest.

I'm not being jugemental by any means. Just curious. And I can see where having a record could give you clues as to whats working and whats not. I know I couldn't remember what I ate yesterday, let alone for a whole week.