Question:
Which is the best on-line diet journal/support to use?

I am just shy of 10 months out of RNY, and the weight loss is starting to slow down a bit now. (which I am fine with) I'm doing great, but I now want to try one of these daily journal/support websites for the extra encouragement and push to keep me going strong. I really want to reach my goal which is only 40 (short) pounds away! (I SO can not believe that!) So, I am asking for your opinions on websites such as; Sparkpeople.com, Fitday.com, thedailyplate.com, myfitnesspal.com, or any others that you may know of and want to share. Which one is your favorite and why? Have you tried several and have a favorite? I plan on setting this up for Jan. 1st to start my year off right. I appreciate your help, suggestions and opinions! Happy New Year 2010!    — thegoodlife (posted on December 27, 2009)

December 27, 2009
You might consider Weight Watchers. It's not free but they have both online and on location support. I also like SparkPeople.com for their daily food journal and calorie oounting. They also have support groups online. Haven't tried the others you mentioned. Best success.
   — Janell C.

December 27, 2009
You have a fitness tracker and nutrition tracker right here on OH, have you tried it yet? Staying with this site gives you the WLS support you need and the tools you are wanting as well. Cathy
   — motomom_73069

December 27, 2009
I use http://www.livestrong.com/ It works great for me.
   — Gary Deutsch

December 28, 2009
thedailyplate.com is a free website to track your food and it even lets you create your own recipes. I understand that it has the biggest data base for food too.I have been using this website since I was maybe a couple of months out. I love thedailyplate it even lets you keep track of you exercising.
   — azreggie

December 28, 2009
I use SparkPeople.com. It's INCREDIBLE. It has places for you to log your food, add foods that are not in their lists, make your own "favorites" list and "food groupings" list so that you don't constantly have to search through theirs. The food log also keeps track for you of calories, carbs, fats, proteins, sodium, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium, folate, or anything else you want to track, for 7 days at a time. You can also make notes on what you've eaten each day (for instance if something makes you sick, or if you couldn't get in all your protein on a certain day for some reason, or you just want to keep some kind of food journal notes). It will also print out a "grocery list" based on what you've been logging. You can log your cardio exercises, and log your strength training exercises, and you can add your own exercises (I do physical therapy exercises, so I log those, too). You set up your own Spark Page, and people can give you "Spark Gifts" (virtual "goodies") to say hello, welcome, good job, give you inspiration, award your performance, etc. You can journal there, make appointments and have reminders sent to your email, you can blog about anything and read other peoples' blogs, you can read health news articles, and information about just about any kind of health issue from "A to Z"; you can enter your favorite recipes, and as long as you have the number of servings the recipe makes, it will come up and give you a "nutritional label" for a single serving just like you'd see on the store packaging of something you were buying. You can save the recipes to your own recipe box, or share them with others, and you can search the recipes others have entered by several criteria in addition to searchwords like "curry dishes" or "spaghetti" or whatever. You can answer health trivia questions, and take polls, and the best thing of all is that you can watch video clips of about 100 or more different exercises, so that you know how to do them. They show weight machines, using the balance ball, and the resistance bands, and they show exercises you can do without using ANY equipment at all, like "wall pushups". It's an incredible site. A neat thing about all this is that for each thing you do on the site, you earn "points", and for each level of points, you get a virtual "trophy". And best of all, it's all FREE!!! I got totally addicted to the site, and I do everything there! You can do some of the same stuff at these other sites, but no other site I've come across has all the bells and whistles of SparkPeople.com.
   — Erica Alikchihoo

December 28, 2009
Thank you for all the good suggestions! I am looking forward to getting started. Happy New Year!
   — thegoodlife

December 28, 2009
I LOVE myfooddiary.com!! It's $9/month, but has SO much to offer. You can build your own recipes and it will tell you the nutritional info. You can add your favorite foods to your "fridge" for easily adding them to your daily menus. You can also track your body measurements, physical activity and so much more! Great reports to take your information to the doctor appointments. Just such an easy, wonderfully useful site!
   — Melissa C.