This tool is an online calorie and weight tracker.
Recording what I eat, my physical activities, and my weight has been the most successful method of weight loss for me that I've found. If tracking helps you, feel free to use this tool too.
I used a popular weight loss service previously and liked it a lot. It lets you track food, activity, and weight but also had physical locations where you can weigh-in and go for support. I'm a very shy person so I unfortunately never made use of the physical locations.
A big feature of theirs is that they use their own made up numbers for tracking. A lot people are flustered by large numbers so using their own simpler numbers means that it's easier at a glance to see how healthy a particular food choice is. It also means they can easily adjust food values. (A large stalk of boiled broccoli has the same number of calories as a shot of vodka, but they can give broccoli a better number because it also provides fiber and a little protein.)
The content they were providing me (recording my stats and providing access to their numbers) never seemed worth the monthly fee though. I figured I could make a free version of their service pretty quickly as long as I didn't have to come up with a database of values for thousands or millions of food items. Good news: I didn't have to!
The USDA created a National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference.
The data is in the public domain so I downloaded their latest revision: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2016. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 28. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page (abbreviated as SR28) and use it for my calorie values. There are a lot of foods (including some I'd have considered common) that aren't included, but I've found that Googling "calories in ____" for the missing foods is a pretty easy, quick, and reliable way to fill in the gaps.
There are so many different weightloss/dieting/fitness plans out there but nearly everyone agrees that the basics of weight loss is this: if you consume less energy than you expend, you'll lose weight. Tracking the energy you consume and expend in a tool like this will help you do that. First you need to know the baseline amount of energy you burn if you rested all day. (You still burn calories even if you sleep all day.)
In order to calculate this base budget estimate, the tool needs you to enter your weight on the weight screen and your height on the profile screen. The result is the number calories listed on the main screen that represents the estimated number of calories you need to eat each day to maintain your current weight. If you then bike 10 miles, you can eat more that day and still maintain your weight.
I weigh about 200 pounds. Because I am a 33-year-old male about 5'11" tall, this means I can expect to burn ~1900 calories on a lazy day. The plan I chose on the profile screen removes 800 calories from that budget but biking to and from work adds about 60 calories. As long as I eat food that provides fewer than 1160 calories, I can expect to continue losing weight!
Each morning I weigh myself and enter the number on the weight screen. After a ride or walk - or less frequently a run - I enter the approximate number of calories I think I burned on the activity screen. Before each thing I eat, I estimate its caloric value and enter it on the food screen. After each step, I can see how I'm doing with the chart on the homescreen. A lot of blue and green means I'm doing well. A lot of red means I've eaten a lot (or it's late in the day.)
The USDA's SR28 provides values for protein, fat, fiber (and tons more) in addition to calories, so it would be pretty easy to calculate my own "tracker number." More and more studies show though that it doesn't matter as much what "kind" of calories you eat to lose weight, as long as you eat fewer calories than you burn. Also, I know from experience that it's quite a bit more energy consuming to Google "calories, fat, fiber, and protein in ___" and punch the results into a calculator...
That being said, the health tracker calculates "net calorie values" that don't include calories from dietary fiber.
Start typing the name of your food item and this page will try to find it in the database. Choose the best result and the page will offer calorie values for common portion sizes. Choose your preferred portion size and the page will attempt to fill the remaining fields. If you modify the quantity, the form will try to help by adjusting the calorie value proportionately.
The food recorded each day is listed at the bottom of the page.
The activity recorded so far each day is listed at the bottom of the activity page.
Your daily budget before any activity is what the tool estimates you will burn if you don't do any additional activity. Any additional activity you record rewards additional calories. This means biking to campus earns you enough calories you can eat additional snacks and still stay within your budget. (Be careful though - a majority of dieters who exercise offset the exercise with too much eating.)
Click on the "Map movement" link to calculate your calories in real-time using your device's GPS sensor.
A note whenever you calculate calories: calories you'd burn sitting still are already included in your daily budget. You might burn 150 calories walking, but if it takes you a half hour, you might have burned 40 calories sitting still anyway. The "map movement" tool will tell you to record the 110 earned calories so you don't over-budget.
The whole point of this site is to help one lose (and eventually maintain a low) weight. This page though, turns out to be the simplest. Enter your weight and choose the "Record" button. The weight entered will be recorded and added to the chart that shows at the bottom of the page.
I live in the United States and have weighed myself in pounds for my entire life. If hundreds of people weighing themselves in kilograms express interest in this tracking tool, I may add a "unit" selection option eventually, but for the sake of simplicity I've kept the tool in lbs.
Of course, you can use the tool as it is even if you like using kilograms. (The chart doesn't care which unit it's displaying.) Your calorie budget will be off though and you'll be given the calories of someone half your weight.
The chart at the bottom of the weight page will show your progress over the past 6 months. Click on or hover over points on the chart to see the weight recorded for that particular date.
Use the profile page to change your height or your preferred health plan.
The plans are very simple. The "lose weight quickly" option just removes 800 calories from your daily budget. "Lose weight" removes 500 calories from your daily budget. "Maintain weight" makes no positive or negative adjustment to your daily budget. Choosing "gain weight" will result in 500 calories being added to your daily budget.
Your height is required for calculating your daily calorie budget.
Nothing anywhere in this tool can be interpretted as medical advice.
Clicking on the daily progress pie chart on the home screen status pie chart takes you to a page that lists your food, activity, and weight records for the past 3 months. If you make a mistake recording something or want to make a change, use this log page to remove the entry and then record a new one on the appropriate screen.
Yes.
In Chrome or "Internet," open the menu and choose "Add to Desktop" or "Install web app."
This will add an icon on your homescreen.
Choosing this new icon opens the tracker in it's own app window. Use it just like you use other mobile apps.
Tap the share button on the browser toolbar and choose the Add to Home Screen button (with the plus icon.)
Clicking on the icon created will open the health tracker in it's own app window. Use it just like you use other mobile apps.
Click on the gear icon to open the Tools menu. Choose "Add site to Start Menu."
You'll find a new icon for the health tracker in "All Programs" in your Start Menu.
Once you've opened the tracker in it's own window, right click on it's icon in the taskbar and choose "Pin this program to taskbar" to make sure it's icon stays.
Pull up the app bar. Tap the star icon and then tap the pin icon. Choose the "Pin to Start" button.
A tile for the health tracker should now appear on the Start screen.
Tap the More (…) button in Internet Explorer and choose "Pin to Start" in the menu that appears.