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Best online food macronutrient counter?



 
 
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  #1  
Old November 7th, 2010, 06:39 PM posted to alt.support.diet.low-carb
Tony S.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5
Default Best online food macronutrient counter?

Atkins since 9/25/10, (181, 173, 160), started with OWL

This is my 2nd time doing low carb. The last time was about 10 years
ago. Counting carbs is difficult by hand with a food journal, so I'm
wondering what online carb / macronutrient counters people are using.
I'm looking for one that's accurate, quick, and flexible.

-Tony


  #2  
Old November 8th, 2010, 03:33 PM posted to alt.support.diet.low-carb
Doug Freyburger
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,866
Default Best online food macronutrient counter?

Tony S. wrote:

Atkins since 9/25/10, (181, 173, 160), started with OWL

This is my 2nd time doing low carb. The last time was about 10 years
ago.


Restarting directly in OWL makes some amount of sense. If you followed
the process as written in the book the first time you discovered your
CCLL so you know what carb count to target to be in ketosis. If you
know you should target a typical count like 50 then it can work to go
directly there from the gate.

Often it takes some pressure to get into or out of ketosis. Think of
the snaps on a winter coat. You touch them together and they do not
stick. You push them. They snap together and the do stick. You pull
thhem gentlely and the stay together. You tug them. Theysnap apart and
they no longer stick. This process is called hysteresis and for many
ketosis follows the pattern. There's some resistance to entering
ketosis, there's a snap into it. There's some resistance to exitting
ketosis, there's a snap out of it. Anyways, the fact that it works like
that for a lot of people but not for everyone is in the list of reasons
the first time through the process starts as low as 20. It pushes the
snap into ketosis. It's a deliberate undershoot big enough to have that
pressure like pushing a snap together.

Counting carbs is difficult by hand with a food journal,


It does get easier with practice. I ended up memorizing the foods I eat
most of the time and as that happened I looked up fewer and fewer foods.
I went from weighing foods to learning the size of a weighed portion to
being able to judge by the size. It's a learning curve that gets easier
as the weeks pass.

so I'm
wondering what online carb / macronutrient counters people are using.
I'm looking for one that's accurate, quick, and flexible.


www.fitday.com was a very popular one for a lot of years. It's not low
carb focused so it offers more types of counts and statistics than most
folks ever need. Low carbing tends to focus on gram counts with a
secondary interest in total calories and that means percentages are a
distraction. Fitday gives percentages because there are other types of
plans that do focus on percentages. More numbers than you need can be
confusing until you learn which ones apply and which ones don't. Focus
on the useful ones.
  #3  
Old November 8th, 2010, 08:58 PM posted to alt.support.diet.low-carb
Tony S.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5
Default Best online food macronutrient counter?

"Doug Freyburger" wrote in message
...
Tony S. wrote:

Atkins since 9/25/10, (181, 173, 160), started with OWL

This is my 2nd time doing low carb. The last time was about 10 years
ago.


Restarting directly in OWL makes some amount of sense. If you
followed
the process as written in the book the first time you discovered your
CCLL so you know what carb count to target to be in ketosis. If you
know you should target a typical count like 50 then it can work to go
directly there from the gate.

Often it takes some pressure to get into or out of ketosis. Think of
the snaps on a winter coat. You touch them together and they do not
stick. You push them. They snap together and the do stick. You pull
thhem gentlely and the stay together. You tug them. Theysnap apart
and
they no longer stick. This process is called hysteresis and for many
ketosis follows the pattern. There's some resistance to entering
ketosis, there's a snap into it. There's some resistance to exitting
ketosis, there's a snap out of it. Anyways, the fact that it works
like
that for a lot of people but not for everyone is in the list of
reasons
the first time through the process starts as low as 20. It pushes the
snap into ketosis. It's a deliberate undershoot big enough to have
that
pressure like pushing a snap together.


That makes good sense. My CCLL is about 60, but I'm targeting about 40
for now, just to keep discipline from the start. I wanted to start in
OWL because I don't have a huge amount to lose and I mainly switched to
low carb again to feel better.

Counting carbs is difficult by hand with a food journal,


It does get easier with practice. I ended up memorizing the foods I
eat
most of the time and as that happened I looked up fewer and fewer
foods.
I went from weighing foods to learning the size of a weighed portion
to
being able to judge by the size. It's a learning curve that gets
easier
as the weeks pass.


Memorizing could work well, and my be less trouble in the end than
trying to enter everything in an online journal. Not sure what others
do, or what is truly the easiest.

so I'm
wondering what online carb / macronutrient counters people are using.
I'm looking for one that's accurate, quick, and flexible.


www.fitday.com was a very popular one for a lot of years. It's not
low
carb focused so it offers more types of counts and statistics than
most
folks ever need. Low carbing tends to focus on gram counts with a
secondary interest in total calories and that means percentages are a
distraction. Fitday gives percentages because there are other types
of
plans that do focus on percentages. More numbers than you need can be
confusing until you learn which ones apply and which ones don't.
Focus
on the useful ones.


Thanks for the advice. I saw fitday, and do think it would be
interesting to know other stats, but just focusing on the carb count.
FitDay PC looks really good too, but I like using both Macs and PCs so
would want anything to be compatible. Probably the most flexible is to
use a spreadsheet and roll my own.

-Tony


  #4  
Old November 8th, 2010, 10:30 PM posted to alt.support.diet.low-carb
Tony S.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5
Default Best online food macronutrient counter?

"Tony S." wrote in message
...
"Doug Freyburger" wrote in message
...
Tony S. wrote:

Atkins since 9/25/10, (181, 173, 160), started with OWL

This is my 2nd time doing low carb. The last time was about 10 years
ago.


Restarting directly in OWL makes some amount of sense. If you
followed
the process as written in the book the first time you discovered your
CCLL so you know what carb count to target to be in ketosis. If you
know you should target a typical count like 50 then it can work to go
directly there from the gate.

Often it takes some pressure to get into or out of ketosis. Think of
the snaps on a winter coat. You touch them together and they do not
stick. You push them. They snap together and the do stick. You
pull
thhem gentlely and the stay together. You tug them. Theysnap apart
and
they no longer stick. This process is called hysteresis and for many
ketosis follows the pattern. There's some resistance to entering
ketosis, there's a snap into it. There's some resistance to exitting
ketosis, there's a snap out of it. Anyways, the fact that it works
like
that for a lot of people but not for everyone is in the list of
reasons
the first time through the process starts as low as 20. It pushes
the
snap into ketosis. It's a deliberate undershoot big enough to have
that
pressure like pushing a snap together.


That makes good sense. My CCLL is about 60, but I'm targeting about 40
for now, just to keep discipline from the start. I wanted to start in
OWL because I don't have a huge amount to lose and I mainly switched
to low carb again to feel better.

Counting carbs is difficult by hand with a food journal,


It does get easier with practice. I ended up memorizing the foods I
eat
most of the time and as that happened I looked up fewer and fewer
foods.
I went from weighing foods to learning the size of a weighed portion
to
being able to judge by the size. It's a learning curve that gets
easier
as the weeks pass.


Memorizing could work well, and my be less trouble in the end than
trying to enter everything in an online journal. Not sure what others
do, or what is truly the easiest.

so I'm
wondering what online carb / macronutrient counters people are
using.
I'm looking for one that's accurate, quick, and flexible.


www.fitday.com was a very popular one for a lot of years. It's not
low
carb focused so it offers more types of counts and statistics than
most
folks ever need. Low carbing tends to focus on gram counts with a
secondary interest in total calories and that means percentages are a
distraction. Fitday gives percentages because there are other types
of
plans that do focus on percentages. More numbers than you need can
be
confusing until you learn which ones apply and which ones don't.
Focus
on the useful ones.


Thanks for the advice. I saw fitday, and do think it would be
interesting to know other stats, but just focusing on the carb count.
FitDay PC looks really good too, but I like using both Macs and PCs so
would want anything to be compatible. Probably the most flexible is to
use a spreadsheet and roll my own.

-Tony


Tried using Fitday.com, but it didn't find even my common breakfast
foods in it's database, and it doesn't seem to have a way to enter
sufficient information in the custom foods to support a true net carbs
calculation: it lets you enter Total carbs and Fiber only, not sugar
alcohols or net carbs given on low carb specific products, which I eat
occasionally.

-Tony


  #5  
Old November 9th, 2010, 03:28 PM posted to alt.support.diet.low-carb
Doug Freyburger
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,866
Default Best online food macronutrient counter?

Tony S. wrote:

Tried using Fitday.com, but it didn't find even my common breakfast
foods in it's database, and it doesn't seem to have a way to enter
sufficient information in the custom foods to support a true net carbs
calculation: it lets you enter Total carbs and Fiber only, not sugar
alcohols or net carbs given on low carb specific products, which I eat
occasionally.


Different people calculate net carbs differently so the word "true" for
a net carb count is a misnomer. I experimented on myself and concluded
that my body absorbs sugar alcohol as carb grams so I count them fully.
I also distrust net carb claims on some labels and I consider their
claims carefully before accepting them. In the end I decided that the
only deduction I'm willing to take is for fiber.

This is part of the deal with fitday being a generalist tool not
specific to low carb. I think you want one that is specific to low carb
and one that has decided to calculate net carb grams based on your
decisions about how to do that. I don't know of such a tool off the top
of my head.
  #6  
Old November 10th, 2010, 12:24 AM posted to alt.support.diet.low-carb
FOB
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 231
Default Best online food macronutrient counter?

The dowload version that resides on your computer is much easier to add
custom foods to. Then when you have put in the custom ingredients you use
you can put in a whole recipe and get the stats for any portion of that
recipe. For things like LC bars you buy you just put in all the components
from the nutrition info on the label. Like Doug I have been doing this long
enough that I pretty much know the content of what I am eating but if I get
a new recipe it's handy to put it in to get an accurate count and it's good
to check yourself once in a while for carb creep.

Tony S. wrote:
|
| Tried using Fitday.com, but it didn't find even my common breakfast
| foods in it's database, and it doesn't seem to have a way to enter
| sufficient information in the custom foods to support a true net carbs
| calculation: it lets you enter Total carbs and Fiber only, not sugar
| alcohols or net carbs given on low carb specific products, which I eat
| occasionally.
|
| -Tony


  #7  
Old November 10th, 2010, 12:28 AM posted to alt.support.diet.low-carb
FOB
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 231
Default Best online food macronutrient counter?

With Fitday you can put a custom ingredient in at the value you use for it.

Doug Freyburger wrote:
|
| Different people calculate net carbs differently so the word "true"
| for a net carb count is a misnomer. I experimented on myself and
| concluded that my body absorbs sugar alcohol as carb grams so I count
| them fully. I also distrust net carb claims on some labels and I
| consider their claims carefully before accepting them. In the end I
| decided that the only deduction I'm willing to take is for fiber.
|
| This is part of the deal with fitday being a generalist tool not
| specific to low carb. I think you want one that is specific to low
| carb and one that has decided to calculate net carb grams based on
| your decisions about how to do that. I don't know of such a tool off
| the top of my head.


  #8  
Old November 10th, 2010, 02:12 PM posted to alt.support.diet.low-carb
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 993
Default Best online food macronutrient counter?

On Nov 9, 2:45*am, Feranija feranija@net... wrote:
On 11/07/2010 09:39 AM, Tony S. wrote:

Atkins since 9/25/10, (181, 173, 160), started with OWL


This is my 2nd time doing low carb. The last time was about 10 years
ago. Counting carbs is difficult by hand with a food journal, so I'm
wondering what online carb / macronutrient counters people are using.
I'm looking for one that's accurate, quick, and flexible.


-Tony


I swear by Australian online nutrition calculator athttp://www.foodstandards.gov.au/foodstandards/nutritionpanelcalculator/
You will need few click before it gets you to the actual calcualtor
(agreement etc..)

You may also tryhttp://nutritiondata.self.com/orhttp://www.calorieking.com/

or get some nutrition calculator application.


I just used one of the pocket sized guides available at book stores,
drug stores, online, etc. It's small and has enough of what I
need. I also have used the USDA food database online to look up
items. Those together with what's on the packages of food, was
sufficient. For me, having to screw around entering stuff and
keeping track online would be too much of a hassle.

Also, if the main focus is low carb to feel better, not lose weight,
carb count isn't all that critical and you may be making things harder
than necessary.
  #9  
Old November 16th, 2010, 12:39 AM posted to alt.support.diet.low-carb
Tony S.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5
Default Best online food macronutrient counter?

wrote in message
...
On Nov 9, 2:45 am, Feranija feranija@net... wrote:
On 11/07/2010 09:39 AM, Tony S. wrote:

Atkins since 9/25/10, (181, 173, 160), started with OWL


This is my 2nd time doing low carb. The last time was about 10 years
ago. Counting carbs is difficult by hand with a food journal, so I'm
wondering what online carb / macronutrient counters people are
using.
I'm looking for one that's accurate, quick, and flexible.


-Tony


I swear by Australian online nutrition calculator
athttp://www.foodstandards.gov.au/foodstandards/nutritionpanelcalculator/
You will need few click before it gets you to the actual calcualtor
(agreement etc..)

You may also
tryhttp://nutritiondata.self.com/orhttp://www.calorieking.com/

or get some nutrition calculator application.


I just used one of the pocket sized guides available at book stores,
drug stores, online, etc. It's small and has enough of what I
need. I also have used the USDA food database online to look up
items. Those together with what's on the packages of food, was
sufficient. For me, having to screw around entering stuff and
keeping track online would be too much of a hassle.

Also, if the main focus is low carb to feel better, not lose weight,
carb count isn't all that critical and you may be making things harder
than necessary.


True, mainly I'm eating low-carb for health. But I think counting is
good to establish discipline, and to learn what you're really eating.
I've been entering macro ingredients of everything I've been eating for
a week now into an excel spreadsheet. A simple VB macro allows me to
copy the counts and scale them using a food code and quantity. Works for
me and is as flexible as I can get.

I'm tracking, per food label, in order Calories/Fat Calories, Fat
gms/Sat Fat gms, sodium mg, Carb gms/Fiber gms/Sug Alc gms/Net Carb gms,
Protein gms. I thought it would be interesting to have all these values
on an excel pivot-table to play with. Very illuminating: my carb count
was higher than I thought, and this easily lets me see protein gms and
fat gms just for a nice overview. Fiber and sodium also interesting.

For foods with a box or label, I either take a photo of it with my
cellphone, write down the above quantities per serving size, or, lacking
that, use the old Food Counts book I have, though I can easily look up
any food on the net too while I'm entering data. Time consuming, but as
I build up my food codes, it's getting much easier to enter. For example
0.75 GB means 3/4 of a cup of green beans. The macro fills in the date,
looks up GB in previous entries, then copies each of the numbers,
scaling them to match 3/4 cup.

Here's my averages for last week:
Fat gm 170
Prot gm 181
Ncarb gm 57
Fiber gm 47
Carb 141
Calories 2,780
Sodium 3,540

Way higher for overall carbs than I would have thought, and yes to those
who say sugar alcohols are tricky. Just plain eating too much. Also ran
about 5 hours that week; bike riding about 2.5 hours. FYI I'm 5'9 174
currently.

-Tony


 




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