i created a spreadsheet (in Excel, now in Google docs) which makes things very easy. On one sheet i keep a list of things i commonly eat (in a column), with corresponding calories, fiber and protein (in adjacent columns)... then on the main page i have a vlookup function which, when i type an item in, auto inserts the numbers and allows them to be summed up (for the day). it was a little work to set up, but i use it all day every day, and it's incredibly helpful...

sewob

You'd be surprised! I tried it, and found that some days I go over 4000 calories!!! It is not easy tho, with food easily available at hands reach 24 hours a day, you do not pay attention to what you eat..
If you have weight problems (like I do) you should give it a try..

LordieLordie

I've been keeping one for the last week and found that Google Docs is perfect for this. Easily accessible with a click, so you can do it while you're thinking about it.

William Mize

I do this sometimes to track my intake. My consumption varies based on my goals. If I'm cutting, I have to plan and track things otherwise I end up overeating. Trying to put on weight/muscle is a different story. I just work to nail my protein and healthy fat intake. Anything on top of that is gravy.

Here's a great online site to track intake:
www.fitday.com

The interface is a bit strange, but it works well.

Christopher Davis

that's useful, sure, but what's even less time consuming and even more useful is to not buy things that are unhealthy for you. if you decide to go the list route, sure, do it... look at the list, notice you're consuming things like soda, cookies and chips, and don't buy them anymore when you go grocery shopping. you'll find you'll save money and lose weight.

also, what is your dietary perspective? calorie counting isn't nearly important as what you eat. and low fat is not the way to go. low fat usually means high carbohydrate, as animal based foods tend to get alienated in these low fat diets, which are actually beneficial for weight loss (fat and protein both are good for weight loss). if you eat only things that are good for you (veggies, meat, eggs, some nuts) then it's hard to over-eat on these foods and you won't gain weight.

a good website that talks about fats and clears up common misconceptions is www.westonaprice.org

in my opinion, calorie counting is useless.. soon enough you'll find you're starving yourself and go back to old eating habits. eat as much as you want, really, on one condition: that these are foods that are good for you (veggies, meat, eggs, some nuts)

pinkskittles

I've been using the My Plate portion of [www.livestrong.com] It has been working great for keeping track of everything. I started on August 5th and have lost 9lbs in 15 days. Only 14 more to reach my first goal.

I'm also using Traineo per another Lifehacker article to get some additional motivation and tracking custom things like sleep hours, stretching and glasses of water. I like pretty graphs! :)

gocyclones

Several studies support this. If you -just- write it all down (every bite) and do NOTHING else, you will start eating better. If you also meet weekly with other like-minded people, it works even better.

moe52

bah! A snack IS a proper meal. Optimum metabolism requires at least 5 small meals a day. We need more nutrition education, not more calorie counting.

dgouldin

mmmm iPod

eagleapex

did someone really eat an ipod and cd?

(sorry I couldn't resist poking fun at the picture)

geekgrrl77

I've actually been doing this for the past couple months now, and writing down what I eat has been immensely helpful in terms of reaching my weight loss goals. The hardest part about doing it is during days that I eat out because it's hard to guesstimate calorie content (unless it's available online). But it's a good motivator healthy, home-cooked meals where I could actually find out the nutritional facts more easily.

chareverie

@pinkskittles -
you said calorie counting isn't nearly important as what you eat. but I beg to differ. A pound of fat weighs 3500 calories - if you do not eat fewer calories than you burn.. 3500 fewer - over time.. you will never lose weight...
Speaking as someone who just lost 100 pounds... I write down EVERYthing I eat... and what time I ate it.
How much you eat is absolutely as important as what you eat - and a food diary is an amazing help of you're serious about losing weight and eating healthy.

asl4u

I lost 25 pounds in about 7 or 8 weeks by counting calories on the Palm Treo with Diet and Exercise assistant. I lifted weights and did cardio exercises 3 times a week, which helped burn more. I found that by knowing exactly how many calories I was eating, I was better able to get a feel for how much I could eat in a meal, especially if I skipped snacks. This helped me change my habits and keep the weight off because I now know how much each meal/snack will contribute to my overall calorie intake, even though I'm not counting anymore.

SillyMattchoo

I use Diabetes Pilot which comes with a huge food database and it's easy to add my own items or edit what they've got. Yeah, writing stuff down opens your eyes--downloading nutrition information from chain restaurant web sites and adding it all in is an even better wake-up call.

The Palm version is great, but don't bother with the desktop version imho.

infmom

@geekgrrl77: I did. The iPod was delicious, but ever since I finished the CD, I keep spitting blood.

I think something might be wrong.

galactus5000

- Doughnuts
- Coffee
- Pizza

All this talk of eatin' is making me hungry.

rscotta

@SillyMattchoo: Good call on the Diet and Exercise Asst. It worked great for me--until I stopped going to the gym and using the software. I'm getting back on the wagon, and these threads are sorta motivating (plus I have rockin new tunes on my Zen, so I am ready for some hard core stationary cycling).

DangerousLiberal

ive been doing this for the last month using google docs, and my good friend checks it everyday and gives me stick if he doesnt like what im eating

the best thng about this is that you will avoid binge eatin or eating the wrong stuff, if youère honest, you would be too embarrassed to write it down

with the help of my food journal, ive dropped 20 lbs in the last month!

yazan

@gocyclones: I second this mention of MyPlate. I've been using it for 6 weeks or so, and not only have I lost 10 pounds, I've gained a whole new perspective on what portion-sizes SHOULD look like, and how many calories are in what kinds of foods... I've turned 3 friends onto it, and we're all losing weight.

wilberfan

Sparkpeople.com is my fave. That site has a lot of pre-packaged foods already in the database, and it allows you to import foods from other members. I hardly ever have to enter anything myself.

Kandy477

That's why I use Gyminee.com--best place IMO to track what you eat AND your exercise.

JuryDuty

Funny, I was thinking about this today during my noontime nap (lunch hour.) I write what I spend and what I eat in my Hipster PDA which is later transferred into my life logbook.

battra92

@JuryDuty: Agreed. I've been using Gyminee and lost 11 pounds and feel so much better since I started using the system. I have to say it beats the heck out of pen and paper or Google Docs since it does a lot of helpful analysis. It's really helped me build a healthy lifestyle with ease and I feel so much better for it. [www.gyminee.com]

jonny6pak

fitday.com is a good site for this sort of thing

Comms

I've been doing this for a few weeks with a nifty little Mac shareware program called Calories. Eliminating whole categories of food -- whether fat or carbs or whatever -- isn't really practical and makes it too easy to fall off the wagon. Calorie counting, as long as you don't restrict it too radically and are content with slower weight loss, is much more feasible. Calories averages out the intake for a week, so if I know I'm going out for some treat, I can balance it out with eating a little less the days before and after. I can moderate portion size if I really, really crave potato chips one day after a workout. With low fat or carb diets is too easy to say, "Oh, I ate a slice of bread, I might as well just run amok and have a pint of ice cream since I've already blown it." And because it's so hard to stick to them and live a normal life, that always happens eventually.

I'm kind of embarrassed I've never tried calorie counting before, since it turns out to be so much more realistic than the other methods. My progress hasn't been fast, but it's been steady and the diet is very easy to live with. Of course, my diet was already pretty good, with lots of fruit and veg and no processed food. (I cook most of my own meals from scratch.) I just never realized how much snacking adds up to. I still do it, but am now picking the foods more carefully and trying to keep the meals themselves smaller.

Lauram

Thank you, Adam. I found this technique very helpful when I first started dieting. Just knowing what I was eating encouraged moderation and led to about 12 pounds' weight loss in two months. I have kept up the daily intake recording habit, for five years now, and it still helps me keep on track nutritionally and within my calorie limit (or at least makes me aware when I fall off the wagon).

However, recording your intake with pencil and paper is ridiculous when there are some great, no-cost Web sites that make it easy and provide complete nutrition info about your foods. I started with Nutridiary, and have stayed with it because I built up a huge personal database of my foods and meals, which unfortunately can't be exported. (See my review in post #19 of my utilities blog.)

If I were starting out now, though, I would recommend trying such free sites as SparkPeople, FitDay, DailyPlate, or NutritionData, in addition to Nutridiary.

I hope this is helpful.

JonathansToolBarAndGrill

Great Idea. Some people find it inconvient at times to write everything down (no pen, forget later, etc.) which defeats the purpose.

I found Jott very usefull for this. Just hit your speeddial to jott after dinner or a snack and talk your meal. It translates it to text and sends to your email(and/or online folder) for review later.

Very easy

ErikH

Google Docs rocks for this. You can use a form tied in to spreadsheets accessiable from your mobile telephone. I have been tracking weight / diet / and exercise for months this way it the system positively works.

Beyond that I have gained so much insight to my food consumption that I am able to manage my intake and make permanent adjustments.

If we are talking about weight loss I am also a new convert to the belief that tracking your weight daily is a positive thing. It allows you to see the effects of exercise and intake daily. You can then make adjustments as you realize trends and areas that require attention. There is no better motivator than stepping on that scale and watching the pounds peel off - or - maintaining the same weight while shrinking sizes.

And I did start with paper and pencil. I converted to Gdocs and the form methodology after reading an article here on LH about personalizing a spreadsheet input form. I also found that I wanted to record items while not carrying the notebook.

Whatever you do, whatever system - just start. That is what matters.

royal8

I used this method to track down some weird food allergies. I found that cheese, yeast and some grains caused me problems. Anything that might have mold and/or grasses. It was weird.

Many here use online trackers, like Google docs or Jott but I found the best for me was to fold a sheet of paper [www.PocketMod.com] style. It fits in a pocket, so I always have it. After a few weeks it was easy to look back and see the causes.

Now, I use the PocketMod folding technique for any list I have to carry. Very convenient, only 1/8 the size of a sheet of paper, with lots of writing space.

ericsprojects

I can't believe no one mentioned [tweetwhatyoueat.com] - use twitter or plain IM to send food items you are consuming and it not only keeps a log for you but also calculates common food calories automatically.

You can make it as private or public as you want too, if you need that extra motivation of accountability.

TechTalk WRLR 98.3FM

I don't really need to lose weight, but it would be useful to be able to track down what gives me diarrhea. :P

Ortzinator

I don't track what I eat-despite occational bouts of diarrhea-but to manage my budget I do write down all my spending.

BreadBoy

Another vote for Gyminee. Their "Challenges" feature is (literally) healthy competition. Nice webapp for the iPhone, too (and I hear they're coming to the app store).

Kajo

Totally agree about the tracking. My wife tells me that it's at the heart of WeightWatchers as well.

I've always found the pad and pen in the pocket as the best way of avoiding 'forgetting' the sneaky bits of food intake... although looking forward to my iPhone delivery to see if I can use some of the apps referred to here.

'Chaining' is a good way of keeping the routine going: Essentially you play a game with yourself to see how long you can keep your new routine going (Food diary/ diet etc.) Mark Forster's blog explains: [www.markforster.net]

It got me fascinated about how as humans it's the simplest things that enable us to hack life. I wrote about it here: [justseventhings.com]

and [www.dontbreakthechain.com.]

Just7Things

Don't forget the camera on your phone! I am rather lazy and didn't always have pen and paper handy when i started a food diary. What i did instead is use the camera on my phone to take a picture of everything that i ate that day and put it on a spread sheet at night. The quickest benefits I found was it made me more conscious of what I was eating, i didn't want to take pictures of fast food. It also acted as a reminder, if you remember snacking the night before (the red highlighted square in my spreadsheet) when you want ice cream today you are less likely to eat it. I lost 30lbs combining this with exercise. I took most recipes and exercises from the ABs Diet (Zinczenko) and ate basically the same thing from breakfast and lunch from a month. By then i was confident in my food and recipe knowledge to vary things up without having to think too much and waste time planning when going to get groceries. I tired to burn more calories then i took in everyday, and reminded myself to be patient (the hardest part), days past just grinding on and not feeling improvement, occasional disappointing weeks without a dropped pound on the scale, but then one day 4 months later it hit me as i looked at an old picture of my face and the one that I was used too waking up to; dang... i am skinny! Your mind's eye gets used to what you look like day to day, your emotions get involved, and soon it lies to you even if you think that you are paying attention. Sometimes you lose weight when gaining muscle, and your scale is correct but you don't notice. If i were to do it again i would take a before picture so i would notice the slow weight loss (heck maybe take a picture a day and make a flip book for youtube)

KodyArtimus

I have been very successful in losing weight and now maintaining that weight by writing down what I eat. I think my success is at least partially the result of keeping it simple. First, my system is paper and pencil. With this, I'm not tied to a device, just a piece of paper that is always on and can always be close by. This eliminates the possibility of "forgetting" to record that quick snack. In addition to food and beverages, I also record my morning and evening weight, how much sleep I got, and type and length of exercise performed. Second, I don't try to keep track of amounts or calories. That would be another opportunity to "forget". I just write down what I ate and drank e.g. turkey sandwich, chips and diet soda . The only time I write down amounts is when I've done something extreme, like having three servings of cake on my birthday. Back to the success - since I can carry my system everywhere, I'm consistent with getting everything recorded. With this consistency, I find that I feel extra guilty writing bad things (snacks) and thus avoid most of them. For instance, I get a good feeling writing "apple" and feel bad writing "Snickers". I think that if I had to enter this info in my lap-top or blackberry, or calculate the calories, that I would probably "forget" to record a lot of the bad stuff. Rick

HarrietParthenopeus

...on a side note, in addition to using www.fitday.com, I use www.calorieking.com to look up nutrition information for general foods and chain restaurants, then enter that information into FitDay, which allows you to save "custom" foods.

XylonLark

I use www.fitday.com to keep track of what I eat. The site also offers activity tracking, goal-setting, and body tracking (i.e. entering your measurements), all for free. It will also run reports for you on your calories burned/eaten, nutrition intake, and progress in activities, weight loss and measurement changes for up to 2 years I believe. Great site.

XylonLark

I did this in January when I started working out with a personal trainer, but I went a step further and recorded the calories I burned each day exercising. I could then compare calories consumed with calories burned (intentionally not taking into account the calories we burn just staying alive).

I lost 9.5 lbs in the first three weeks because I realized how poorly I was eating and started modifying my diet appropriately - without making any sudden, jarring changes that might keep me from continuing. I'm down 25 lbs now and less than 10 lbs from my goal. I also have a much healthier diet.

Gradual changes and slow, steady improvements in both diet and exercise are the way to go.

chuckiemac

The best site for keeping track of what you eat is thinjoy.com. Its a newer generation of food diaries as everything is part of an application so its easier and faster to use than the old html sites. I also really like the strategies feature & how you can make your own (I'm big on local food & this is the only site I've seen that lets me make that a part of my diet).

jane9000