Tracking What You Eat - Lose What You Want

In the blog world, there have been a lot of posts recently from folks like Jason Calacanis on their weight loss successes and recommendations.

I have some similar experience that I'd like to share. Even with all the exercise I do, I still have to monitor my overall calorie intake and expenditures if I want to maintain what I consider a healthy weight. 

The idea I've been following to maintain my weight is by taking in no more calories in a week then I use up. 

In this system, if you want to loose weight then you must have a deficit of calories.  The higher the deficit the more weight one can lose.  It is my experience that you can achieve deficits by eating healthy portions of the right types of food and exercise.

The tool I have been using to do this is Diet Organizer for Windows.   It helps with tracking meals, the calorie counts, statistics, and logging.  The interface is pretty straight forward and simple, but it does have some great power features like creating template meals or reoccurring food choices.  The data entry process  has been streamlined as much as possible to make it fast and easy.

I have used this twice over the last couple of years to lose 10-15 pounds.  The most recent time was last spring when my weight went up to 189.  I was able to get down to 176 in less than 10 weeks eating healthy foods in quantities that made better sense. 

Since then I've been using it periodically to track a week at a time to make sure I am still in the approximately zero calorie gain after a week. I have been within plus or minus 3 pounds of 176 since mid-summer so it does help in re-syncing with good eating habits if you follow your overall calorie intake and expenditure.

One clarification, I really only used this tool to focus on overall calories and trying to maintain the recommendation weight/calorie balance  from Diet Organizer based on my body size and age.  You can also dig in deeper with the software to measure types of fats, sugars, and other items.  Each person is different, but I think this tool is flexible enough to support many different types of scenarios.

Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or other suggestions.

Comments

[dilucdn]

Great tool for tracking personal diet regimes. Enjoyed reading your post about your personal weight loss victory. Most people find that when they document foods they have been eating, including calories, it makes it easy to understand where they went right or wrong.

[Sarah]

Hi, I found this website - www.bodytrace.com , its starting in 3-4 weeks, but its an awesome weight tracking site with time-lapse video...
Take care,
Sarah

[total cleanse]

There are a lots of technique that a weight conscious person can do. All of the informations and ideas can be found and available on the internet or books.

Perseverance and discipline are the qualities that a person must have in order to attain the weight or the figure she wanted. Even though the person follows the prescribed or planned diet, without exercise, the person wouldn’t achieve it.

Some people think that those persons who are into diet deprive their selves by not eating sweets like cakes and ice creams.

Just be happy with your weight, as long as you are comfortable with your body then be proud.