Does anyone know of any quality software for the computer that could help with keeping a food log? Anything that could make my life easier by not having to search for the nutritional content of everything I eat. If there are no other options i’ll do what I have to. Im just looking for some ideas. Thanks!
I’m not aware of any offline tools that help you with a foodlog.
Online however, fitday.com has the foodlog and a large amount of articles to browse through, as well as the option of adding your own.
HTH
- Tom
fitday.com also sells desktop software that is supposedly alot more detailed than their online version. If you go to the website you can view screenshots of the desktop software, I think it sells for $19.95.
I work in a college library doing computer support and some nutrition professor has us install Foodworks College Edition on some of our computers for their students. Ive never actually used the software other than to make sure it works but now that I’m poking around it looks pretty cool. The version I have is kind of old but the new version looks like it has a pretty big food database. Lots of information when you analyze your food log.
http://www.nutritionco.com/NCframe1.html
It looks expensive though. $199 for a single user ($169 for students). Youch!
Before we switched to Foodworks we had NutriQuest. Not sure how much it costs but you can get it on their website.
The other software I know about is Nutribase. Never used it so I don’t know how good it is but their website assures me it is the best. Then again they all say that so your guess is as good as mine.
http://www.nutribase.com/homepage.shtml
This software has different versions with different price schemes. The personal versions seem reasonably priced.
I have been testing Calorie King for Palm OS the last 10 days. It’s pretty good, for 19.95.
There is a large (they claim the largest) built-in database of foods: lots of brand names and even some pretty obscure foods (chitterlings, poi). You can add your own foods. This feature is necessary for me, since I use a lot of Trader Joe’s brand stuff that’s not in the database already, as well as Biotest Surge, Grow, etc.
Browsing the database is a pain, but the search works pretty well and fairly fast, too. Search is the ONLY way to go here. Another plus is that many foods have choices for how servings are measured (cups, ounces, etc.). You can also choose Imperial or metric units, but this is done via a global preference.
One very handy feature is the ability to save, and later load, your own meals. I entered all the ingredients for my chili recipe, and then can load a meal and adjust the serving size each time I eat some.
For each day, in a column on the right, you can see the calories for each meal as well as the total at the bottom. You can also change the names of your meals (e.g., “Snack” becomes “PWO”).
You can change from calories to view protein, carbs, fiber, or fat from a drop-down list, meal-by-meal and daily total. You can also track fluid consumption and your weight. You can set daily targets for each macronutrient, and total cals, but you can’t tailor it for workout vs. non-workout days.
You can track energy expenditure by picking exercises from a built-in database. I haven’t used this because I don’t trust those calorie numbers. Also, the program will automatically subtract your exercise calories from your food calories. I don’t want to see that; I want to see how many calories I’ve eaten, period.
You can generate lots of reports or charts, for a day, a week, a month, even up to a year (!), tracking calories, carbs, protein, fiber, and fat. It will also report your macronutrient ratios.
I wish that this software broke down fats into sub-categories. It would be really neat if you could also get reports on other micronutrients. Also, I wish there were a way to record other supplements, with little journal entries or something.
I am now going to test the other highly-rated Palm OS nutrition software and see how it compares to Calorie King.
I use Cross Trainer
I got a neat spreadsheet with pull down menu’s and the entire usda database put in.
It’s updateable too (from usda), I just haven’t tried since I live in europe so it’s just not relevant for me.
It can also calculate your calorie needs based on JB’s recomendations.
Best thing is -it’s free so just give me a pm and I’ll e-mail you a copy.
Can’t look for nutritional info of all the foods you eat? How many different foods can you possibly eat? Most people eat very similar foods on a daily basis. You can Use excel as nutritional software.
First page can be for all the foods you eat. The next worksheets can be for daily food log. You would copy the foods you ate from the first nutritional info page to the daily food log pages.
You set up the worksheet to calculate everything for you. Then you can copy it every new day and clear the foods starting all over.