How do you track your protein, water, etc...

I've been using FitDay.com to track stuff, then I found SparkPeople.com ... Lately, I've been using MyDailyPlate.com to track my exercise, food and water consumption.

It like the fact that you can customize it so that you can see if you are on track to loose 3 lbs/week, you are going to be consuming X calories, with a given amount of activity ... it's neat to see how many more calories you can consume/or weight you can loose by adjusting your activity levels.

So far, I think that I like the MyDailyPlate.com site best because it has such a comprehensive listing of stuff. For example, today I had a Lean Cuisine meal. I just did a quick search for it and "Voila" there it was. Click and it's added in and shows me my data, including protein. It "learns" your favorite foods and activities too. It also has a Water Meter you can use to track how many glasses of water you are getting. You can use their weight tracker which will graph your weight loss. All-in-all, I really like it and best of all it's free ... so far, all have a free version and a fancier version. I use the free version of this one, because I can use thinnerself.com to do what the upgrade looks like it does.

Another site that I have found really useful is one called thinnerself.com. This one was created by a fellow WLS patient for his own use and he has some tools you can use to chart your Weight, BP, and measurements. Very nice. Of course, no cost here either.

Hope you find this helpful.

I'd love to hear if you have other tools you use to track your intake, activity and progress.

Barb

It like the fact that you can customize it so that you can see if you are on track to loose 3 lbs/week, you are going to be consuming X calories, with a given amount of activity ... it's neat to see how many more calories you can consume/or weight you can loose by adjusting your activity levels.  I just wanted to comment on this because its something I discussed with my NUT. Basically those charts are just a GUESStimate and really inaccurate. It is especially inaccurate for WLS patients because of the change in our metabolism due to surgery. My NUT said this would also apply to those little meters on exercise equiptment saying how many calories you burned (my personal tariner agreed). There are metabolism tests you can have done.. you would really need a resting and exertion test done to see how many calories *your* body burns just living (breathing, heart beating ext) an exertion test would tell you how many calories you burn doing different activities that raise your heart rate (i.e. exercise). She suggested if I felt I wanted to have one done to wait until I was out of the losing phase and at least a year out. She said at that point my metabolism should be more 'settled' and your body more adjusted to the effects of the surgery. Its not cheap to have a workup done (when I looked it was around 250++ depending on how comprehensive you wanted it) so I would think waiting even further would be better... 1.5-2 years perhaps? Annnnnnnnnyways just wanted to pass that on!! I do think they are a good "guideline" but again take it with a grain of salt!

Agreed ... for me, if anything, it's more of an incentive to get out there move my tail. I realize that my body doesn't function like most.

Thanks again for your words of wisdom.

Barb

I've been using FitDay.com.  I've looked at SparkPeople, but I think I favor fitday, because that's what I started with.  SparkPeople has a ton of information, which is great, but I'm not using these sites for information, I'm strictly using them for tracking purposes and SparkPeople is almost too much for my daily tracking.  Too many ads, etc.  I like the simplicity of FitDay.  Anything that's not listed in there I just add as a custom food.   Good post though!  I had a friend that was just asking about tracking tools and I'll definitely forward these on to her!

Deb -

If you ever decide to try something else, look at www.mydailyplate.com because it has more stuff available ... I don't have to customize as much. It even has protein shakes and stuff.

Barb

OK, I'm checking out mydailyplate.  It does definitely have a lot more foods.  But I'm not seeing the ability to track specific goals like on fit day (precisely, protein and carbs).  Just calories, am I missing something?  I think I'll use them both for a few days...it may just take me awhile to warm up to it. Thanks Barb!

i use fitday as well. after reading your post today, i went and signed up at and looked around sparkpeople. i'll have to give it a few days of playing around with it etc. but i kinda feel the same way as the last poster. there is just almost too much STUFF on sparkpeople. i like that fitday is simple and easy. and i actually don't mind putting in my own food items. i feel like i get a better count that way.

I feel the same about sparkpeople.com. You might want to try www.mydailyplate.com instead, I think it's really easy to use and has a broader range of items available, including protein shakes, etc.

i bookmarked that site as well, but hadn't had the time to go look at it yet cause i was sorting thru all the STUFF at sparkpeople hehe. i'm make my way over....