Software Tools for Nutritional Tracking? 54
Deagol asks: "After reading about it several times on Slashdot, I decided to start the Hacker's Diet this month. I've even lost 3lbs so far. I'm looking for software tools to make this thing easier. So far, I've been using Nut to track my calories and see what nutrients I need to balance. Though Nut has been invaluable, it lacks a clean recipe and menu interface (it has them, but it's light on features). I did the usual google/freshmeat/sourceforge search, but turned up very little. gnutrition looks promising, but it's 2 years unmaintained and uses an old version of the USDA database. My requirements are: that it use the current USDA database; have a flexible recipe and menu functions which tracks calories and nutrients; and finally that it runs under Linux (prefer OSS). Multiple-user support and easy of use would be nice, but not required."
fitday? (Score:5, Informative)
I kinda liked fitday when i was trying to gain weight. It's also free. You don't get to export/import data, but as a temporal solution, it works.
As for tracking who you are, you can lie on most of the info. Worst of it possibly is, they'll track an anonymous person's diet. Is your intake that sacred?
Btw, last time i checked was a year ago. YMMV.
Re:fitday? (Score:4, Insightful)
You will find that after using it for a month or two, you learn to pace yourself and eat corectly. Then, it becomes cumbersome.
Also note: it doesn't seem to be well managed by the admins. People have said it's next to impossible to get them to reply to any questions or problems, and they don't really add new features. They seem to be in maintenance mode, and some parts of the web site could really use improvement (the custom foods section for example, is limited in length...)
Re:Computer geeks monitoring nutrition? (Score:2)
Troll? Oh c'mon guys it was a joke! We've all heard a million times before here that geeks live on Skittles and Dr. Pepper.
Losing weight fast (Score:4, Informative)
So, how did I lose weight?? Subway... J/K!!
Actually I've just learned how to eat right more than anything, instead of eating hamburgers and fries (or panda express) I usually eat salad, most often without dressing, but sometimes I'll splurge and throw in a little bit of ham, or some fat free dressing. Once in a while I'll even eat a veggie sub.
Keep in mind that fat free != Calorie Free, and calories are what you need to avoid.. Most doctors will tell you to not go below 800-1200 calories per day, although I've been at under 500 for quite a while with no side effects..
And instead of eating a huge amount of anything I'll just eat a small amount of something, I've found that after doing this for so long my stomach has shrank so that it only takes about ten bites of something and I'm stuffed..
I've also cut down to eating no more than twice a day, in addition to that I fast at least one day a week. I've also started to excercise quite a bit (running, or swimming most often)..
As an aside, I noticed that I can start to see a 6-pack showing up, really cool because I've never been able to say that before.. Funny thing is that right now I weight 10 lbs less that I did in eighth grade..
It's pretty amazing how much better I feel too, I still smoke more than a pack a day, but for some reason I can run a few miles without getting really very winded at all (prob. partly because of the increased oxygen levels here).
But beleve it or not I really don't even think about "what" I'm doing anymore, it's just become normal.
So, if you can force yourself to do this, you too can lose an insane amount of weight in a short amount of time..
However, IANADoctor, so do this at your own risk, and don't be stupid about it, if you start to feel bad, eat something, just try to stay away from high fat- high calorie foods.. I'm the type to be a bit extreme about things, so this has worked for me, but a more moderate version would probably be better for most people.
Re:Losing weight fast (Score:4, Insightful)
Might I gently recommend that you visit your doctor just to make sure that you're not underweight? At least check out your body mass index (NHI BMI Calculator [nhlbisupport.com]). It sounds like you may be starving yourself or, worse, that you might be at risk for developing an eating disorder. You say that you tend toward extreme behavior so you really need to watch out for the latter, an eating disorder will just wreck your health.
Re:Losing weight fast (Score:2)
My ideal weight as you may have already figured out is about 160lbs, or 1-2% body fat.. The risk of developing an eating disorder is a non-issue for me, as most anorexic patients view food as evil, I simply view it as a package of calories that I must monitor in relationship to my weight..
I also should have mentioned that a regular intake of daily vitamins is es
Re:Losing weight fast (Score:2)
Besides, my goal isn't a crash diet. I want something I can tolerate plus something I can maintain for the rest of my life. I occasionally fast (seems to clear the head) for a day once in a while, but I find it uncomfortable. Currently my daily intake is 1500 calories, and that's about as low as I can t
Re:Losing weight fast (Score:2)
I'm shooting for the V figure, and I'm pretty close...
You are correct about the caloric minimum recommended by the CDC, although like I said, I've been at 500 for quite a while now and I've had no side effects (Except of course the inevitable state of keytosis) but if you were to try this, should you start to feel bad, just eat!
Food is not evil, it is your freind, but just like any freind too much of them will eventually t
don't listen to dead cows (Score:2)
Re:Losing weight fast (Score:3, Informative)
This is the one part of your "crash diet" that I'm going to strongly advise against, based on my own experience and the advise of others.
If there's one "magic" thing I discovered over the past few years, it's that fasting is the absolute worst way to get in better shape. Yes, it's counter-intuitive, but in reality when yo
Re:Losing weight fast (Score:2)
Re:Losing weight fast (Score:2)
I've never heard a good nutritionalist, fitness trainer, or doctor ever suggest that not-eating-then-gorging was good for you. Simply put, it's not natural -- we weren't designed to operate that way, and there are TONS of people who are in perfect shape, who have lost lots of weight, and who are very healthy who don't follow that type of eating schedule.
Now, that all being said, I have to ad
Re:Losing weight fast (Score:3, Interesting)
Interestingly enough though, the reason cited in their study as to a possible reason for the benefit was due to the fact that it's actually very natural to fast.. Our bodies were designed to handle the lack of food, and as a matter of a fact, we as a species have only very recently (in terms of our species history or course)started having enough food (or more importantly a steady
Re:Losing weight fast (Score:2)
'Ol Google News turned up the story you were mentioning:
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/conditions/0 4
http://www.ajc.com/health/content/h ealth/special/f asting0502.html
I should note that the CNN articles makes the following mention:
The dieting mice consumed 40 percent less food than mice eating normally and lost nearly half their body weight (49 percent) in the experiment, while the fasting mice weighed only
agreed. (Score:2)
What did I do you might ask...
I started running and lifting weights. I have always had a big appetite (about 3000 cal a day in the old days) and loved eating. I now eat 4000-5000 calories a day, I find the real secret was the marathon training. I lost some weight running no more than 3-5 miles 3-4 days a week, but the weight really started fa
Update the Database? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Update the Database? (Score:2)
Plus, I compilee it on RH9 and it bombed at some point when I ran it. The docs speak of RH 7.1 I think.
Men's Health (Score:2)
See: http://www.menshealth.com/weightloss2/index.shtml
It is really geared for men (obviously) but it's more professional, especially if you have exercise in your routine.
By the way, excellent magazine, IMO, and the web site also has a number of good articles on topics guys care about (sorry, no open source articles though
See for example 31 reasons why I'm still fat [mhmillion.com]
Re:Men's Health (Score:1)
The nice thing about it now is that you can do it all on-line. It's cheaper, and you get all the materials, plus there is a palm app that also helps you keep track of things.
The second thing I try
What's wrong with pencil and paper? (Score:2)
I really don't understand why you feel you need some piece of software to keep track of your nutritional information. I use pencil and paper and it works fine for me. There are countless websites that list the macronutrient and caloric data for a wide range of foods. Isn't that all you really need? Dieting and nutrition isn't complicated. The bookeeping should be simple. Why do you need a specially-designed piece of software?
GMD
Re:What's wrong with pencil and paper? (Score:2)
'Cause I'm an anal s.o.b., that's why. ;) I could use pencil and paper for my personal finances, too, but I prefer to use gnucash.
There are countless websites that list the macronutrient and caloric data for a wide range of foods. Isn't that all you really need?
Nut can do that, and it excels at the raw nutrient data. My biggest gripe wi
Deagol , Clay Deagol! (Score:1, Offtopic)
He got real big on burgers and fries.
Now he's down to a smaller size.
He's Deagol, Clay Deagol
He gets his might from his... um... OSS nutrition tracker... or something.
Re:Deagol , Clay Deagol! (Score:1)
Re:Deagol , Clay Deagol! (Score:2)
Watch out for the USDA Pyramid (Score:5, Informative)
The current USDA pyramid is flawed and promotes many unhealthy habits. Like much of the field of "nutrition", the pyramid isn't based on scientific facts, but rather conjecture and speculation.
Some of the main flaws with the current pyramid are the recommended amounts of complex carbohydrates per day, the dubious inclusion of potato as a vegetable, and the absence of "good" fats from the pyramid.
There was a very nice article with real scientific/medial data behind it [sciam.com] in Scientific American a few months ago. Take a look before heading into that new diet.
There is also a nice picture of the proposed new pyramid [sciam.com]. For those using Lynx, the base contains whole grain foods and plant oils. The next tiers contain vegetables and fruit, with the emphasis on vegetables. The middle tiers consist of nuts, legumes, fish, poultry and eggs and dairy. At the top, under "use sparingly" are red meat and the hacker diet, white rice/white bread/potatoes/pasta and sweets.
Good luck. I hope you can keep the pounds off.
Re:Watch out for the USDA Pyramid (Score:2)
There are definitely problems with the food pyramid. Some of it is, as you note, because of conjecture and speculation in the field of nutrition. But some of the problems are also due to politics as the USDA needed to assuage various competing industries.
NPR's Talk of the Nation had a fairly interesting discussio
Re:Watch out for the USDA Pyramid (Score:1)
Re:Watch out for the USDA Pyramid (Score:1)
Re:Watch out for the USDA Pyramid (Score:2)
Notice the huge spacing between whole wheat bread and white bread. Almost no white bread, and a lot of whole wheat bread. That is very important.
Also notice that soda is not a food group.
A few more hints:
Cut down on anything that has High Fructose Corn Syrup in it. You really should remove it from your diet, since it does nasty things to your insulin.
Watch the SIZE of your portions as much as what you eat.
Remember you need fat, protein, and carbs! You
Watch out for science by lobby! (Score:2)
"lbs" (Score:3, Insightful)
I've even lost 3lbs so far
Interesting. Not that I have any idea how much a lb is.
Strange measurements systems aside, I found that the best way to lose excess weight is
I managed (a few years ago) to go from 85 kg to 77 kg and I'm now at about 78 kg: good enough, though I'd like to get back to 77 again.
JP
Re:"lbs" (Score:2)
Look at this image,
http://www.sweetsense.com/images/5lbs_fat.jpg [sweetsense.com]
that will give you some good idea as to how much it really is..
Re:"lbs" (Score:2)
Re:"lbs" (Score:2)
I just used Excel. (Score:2, Informative)
All I did was create a simple Excel chart that adds up the total calories, and use a new sheet every day, sorting through weeks in folders. You could easily expand that to include Nutrients.
You could also use any open source equilivant of Excel.
Where did I get the Nutrient information? There are several ways to get that:
Re:I just used Excel. (Score:1)
Forgot the last part of my post.
After a while you don't even need to look up the nutrition information for foods, you'll just know.
Also, you will only lose weight if your caloric intake is less than what your body needs.
That's IT!
A good site for estimating how many calories your body needs is here [hussman.org].
Re:I just used Excel. (Score:2)
Damn, I wish we'd had this thread at the end of last year. After a period of inactivity due to injury, I also wanted to keep track of things as I got back into shape. I set up an Excel spreadsheet back in January, tracking my daily food intake (including calories, amount of protein, carbs, fat and fibre, and how many portions of fruit and veg I was getting each day), my daily exercise (counting anything lasting more than a quarter hour or more as significant) and my daily weight. Would have been a whole lot
Crosstrainer (windows, proprietary) (Score:1)
gnutrition [sourceforge.net] looks like it's the best of the OSS bunch but unfortunately I can't as of yet get it to compile, but then again it's on my b
Re:Crosstrainer (windows, proprietary) (Score:2)
Calorie Companion (Score:3, Informative)
Hope this helps,
Paul
semi-related question (Score:2, Interesting)
It seems pretty obvious that a database entry stating that a can of Coke has X calories and Y carbohydrates,
one opinion (Score:2)
There sure seem to be graphs of people's weight if you search for eat-watch in google.
Here's a review [ciao.co.uk] that explains more details.
I wonder if there are scales that can transmit your weight back to a computer?
Fat free food is overrated. (Score:1)
You should get about 30% of your calories from fats, and since fats have 9 calories per gram, and carbs and proteins have only 4 your should get about 14% of your food by weight from fat.
Fat free foods often make up for the lack of fats with sugar. (a tasty but generally worthless food). Can you say sugar crash? diabetes?
Just get off the caffeine and sugar, and cut your calorie intake down to ~1500 per day, and exercise regularly.
(Every 3500 calories equals one pound, so if your wei
Re:Fat free food is overrated. (Score:2)
On days when I want to lose weight, if I cut it down to 1800 i'm fine. Usually I try to stay under 2000.
However, I also work out 4x week and used to run ~8 miles per week before I strained my calf muscle.
Re:Fat free food is overrated. (Score:2)
Re:Fat free food is overrated. (Score:2)
Yours would be around 1600-1700, I believe.
If you eat 500 calories per day, you are either anorexic, or you don't know how to count.
Re:Fat free food is overrated. (Score:2)
All about exercise (Score:2)
Nutritional and Cost-Effective (Score:1)