diet spreadsheets

I was wondering how many of you use nutrition spreadsheets like fitday.com or calorieking.com?  I tried fitday for a few days but found it to be a little bit of a pain to keep entering custom foods, so I tried calorieking.com because it has a lot of pre-packaged foods and restaurant foods already in the database.  I am working on my 7 day trial right now.  Have any of you used both, and which did you prefer?  Or is there some other program our there that you like even better.   In the past I've made my own excel spreadsheet to keep track of everything, by month, but it was a headache so I definitely like a program that does a lot of that for you.   Thanks! Jennifer

I've been using the calorieking program on my PDA for about 15 months now and I love it.  I suspect the desktop version is the same or similar, but can't say for certain.  The things I like about the calorieking program are: * easy to use and navigate * ability to add my own custom entries in a separate db, so if I have the nutrition information for items that aren't in the calorieking db, I can add them myself. * ability to store/save "meals"; if you have regular meals or snacks that you eat frequently, you can save it in a file that's very easy to get to.  then instead of having to add each item individually, you can select that meal from your file and it will load everything at once.  (think turkey sandwich w/ and apple - slice of bread, turkey, cheese, mayo, lettuce, apple - w/ a saved meal you can load everything in two clicks!) * ability to see graphs for the following time periods:  1 week, 4 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year * ability to see graphs of weight, energy consumed, energy expended, carbs, fat, fiber, protein, fluids * the thing about the graphs that I really like is that they help me see long-term trends (how protein, carbs, exercise, etc. are affecting my weight).  This helps me figure out what I might be able to change to get my weight loss moving again.  I also believe this will help me learn how to maintain once I'm done losing.

I hope this information is helpful.  Good luck finding something that works for you! 

Kellie

Thanks Kellie, that is very helpful info.  I haven't messed around with a lot of the calorieking options yet, but I do like what I've seen so far.  I hope that the program will help me the same way it is helping you!  I didn't even think about putting it on my PDA! 

Having the software on my PDA makes it easy for me to keep track of stuff I eat while I'm out and about during the day.  It wasn't expensive - $20-30 - and it's super easy to use.  I particularly like having the PDA when I'm trying to navigate food choices when I'm dining out.  I also like that I know at a glance how many calories/carbs/fat/fiber/protein I've had for the day; it helps me make better snack and meal choices because I love when those numbers are "right" at the end of the day.   Good luck finding something that works for you! Kellie

Jennifer, I used fitday faithfully for about a year and a half.  I loved it.  And yes, it was a bit of a pain to put in all the custom foods, but, that is not so bad after the first couple of months.  I do like the idea of calorieking working on a pda though.  Whatever you do, keeping track of your protein grams is super important and the accoutability is great too.  Think I'll go back to it. Lori