Nutrition Programs

baylian

baylian

Cathlete
I need to lose 15 and I know that diet is where I am seriously sloughing off. SO - I know there are plenty of threads as to whom pick what and why but I am trying to make it as easy as possible to view it all together. Please post your reasons for or against these.

SPARKPEOPLE
Likes: 1. Easy to log and edit food diary (nutrients and such you wish to focus on)
2. FREE
Dislikes: 1. I find the exercise/fitness diary is not flexible enough


WEIGHT WATCHERS
Likes: 1. Easy
2. Decent Data Base
Dislikes: 1. You don't necessarily are looking at the big picture (nutrients, calories etc)
2. Costs

CATHE
Likes: 1. Easy
2. Ties in the Cathe workouts
Dislikes: 1. Costs
2. Haven't figured out how to edit my diary
3. Data base seems limited

MY FITNESS PAL
Likes: 1. Free
2. No nonsense site.
3. Huge data base of foods.
Dislikes: 1. Could not figure out the how to edit food diary

Any thoughts or comments welcome and thanks!!! I want this weight off by June 1!

Dawn
 
baylian said:
MY FITNESS PAL
Likes: 1. Free
2. No nonsense site.
3. Huge data base of foods.
Dislikes: 1. Could not figure out the how to edit food diary

Any thoughts or comments welcome and thanks!!! I want this weight off by June 1!

Dawn
Click to expand...

I love MY FITNESS PAL. What part of the food diary could you not figure out how to change?
 
I use Fitday. Mind you, it's the only one I've ever worked with and have had the PC version for years. I'm not familiar with the free online version, nor can I compare it to the others you've listed.

That out of the way, I really like Fitday. I can create and edit any food that isn't listed in the database, and I can keep track of macronutrients if desired.

I do have trouble with the weight management section and how it figures my daily caloric intake (it always urges me to eat way more than I think is necessary...anything over 1500, and I start to put on some chub), but I have the same trouble no matter what formula I'm using, so that's not a specific Fitday-problem. It's more a Lori-problem. :p
 
I second Linda- LOVE My Fitness Pal. I use it a lot for recipes to figure out the nutritional stats and it has a great database.

As for Weight Watchers, I have good and bad thoughts. I think they have a good program and I can't fault it because I lost most of my pregnancy weight (both times) with WW. But I was much less active then and I think the program is better suited for someone that does moderate exercise. Keep in mind this is MY experience- if someone out there does Cathe 6 times a week and manages to lose weight with WW and not want to eat their arm off then woo hoo! :) Once I started working out very hard, WW wasn't working. I wasn't eating enough and then eating tooooo much every 10 days or so out of desperation.

Anyway, I think WW taught me to feel like I needed to be hungry to lose or keep off weight. But it did teach me portion control. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I outgrew it. I needed to learn to eat more and to focus more on whole foods and I don't think WW did that for me. They have a Filling Foods concept now that I'm not familiar with as much so it might do the trick. But I do better now tracking calories at MFP. HTH.
 
baylian said:
MY FITNESS PAL
Likes: 1. Free
2. No nonsense site.
3. Huge data base of foods.
Dislikes: 1. Could not figure out the how to edit food diary

Any thoughts or comments welcome and thanks!!! I want this weight off by June 1!

Dawn
Click to expand...

There is now a delete button on the food diary page located at the bottom to delete foods you no longer use. They just added this feature just the other day.

 
Hi-
I only have experience with Weight Watchers, not the other 2,but I thought I 'd throw my comments in.

I am in total agreement w/ Patti on if you workout strenously, WW might not work so well for you. I work out pretty hard 6x/week and found myself ravenous. I attributed this to the fact that by using the points, you don't get as "good a deal" on using them for protein or good fats which will keep you more sated, so you load up mostly on veggies, and fruits to keep your point count down.

That being said, I firmly believe that it is a great diet for learning portions AND for instilling the habit of eating more fruits and veggies.

Instead of signing up for a diet plan, have you ever tried just journalling what you eat and getting a good book or going on line to get the nutritionals counts for your foods? For me, I find that I start to obsess too much and it takes more time to try and do this. But I can also understand that if you are trying to have a new way to approach weight loss, this might work for you.

If you decide to forego the specific diet plan and would like some help coming up with a more "freestyle" plan, let me know and I'd love to throw some tips your way. ( No, I am not trying to sell anything and while I have a college degree in Food Science and Nutrition, I am not an Registered Dietitian. I have struggled w/ my weight my whole life and know the challenges all too well! :)

Take care, Lynn M
 
With WW, some of the issues can be that depending on how much fiber and fat a food has, something from (approximately) 30 calories to 80 calories can be 1 point. I've found that, for myself, with trying to lose the last 10 pounds, that I need to be super precise with the cals. At the beginning of this year I start using WW (for the second time) and I found that it did motivate me to start tracking again but my weight loss didn't really start until I decided I really need to track every calorie.

Like Lynn mentioned about journaling...I've also found that for myself, I've been consistent with calorie tracking now that I'm just using a small notebook and pen and writing out the food and calories only. I've found that sometimes logging protein/fats/carbs/cals for every piece of food (in a program like fitday if you eat something not in the database) gets a little tedious and might be unnecessary.
 
if anyone has the google/android smartphone, there is an awesome app called calorie counter that i've been using for a few weeks now. it's fantastic and ties in with fatsecret.com so you can synch with your phone & website.. you can add anything to their database, which is huge already. fantastic app!
 
Another source you can check out is www.ediets.com . They offer many different programs, for a monthly fee (sometimes a special rate for a limited time). YOu can choose what type of program you want (including some WW programs, for example) and your food likes and dislikes and/or any allergies, and they come up with a weekly menu with recipes.
 
Tamrahan said:
There is now a delete button on the food diary page located at the bottom to delete foods you no longer use. They just added this feature just the other day.
Click to expand...

Wow,i was just on there and i didn't even notice this...gotta go check it out,thanks for letting us know!

I also love myfitnesspal...great site!:)
 
Thanks for the reference to MyFitnessPal I went and signed up. Now hopefully I can become consistent with using it.

I also like SparkPeople but more for the articles and blogs. And I like racking up points.

Jenn
 
I don't calorie track anymore, since starting Precision Nutrition (which doesn't involve tracking) but I was using SparkPeople before PN. Once I got all into SparkPeople and started reading here about some of the cool features of other sites I realized I probably should have looked around first. But, after entering all my favorite foods info (a loooooong process) I'd already invested too much time and energy.

My advice would be to experiment with all the sites recommended to see which best suits your needs and is fastest and easiest to use before committing too much effort.
 
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