I've found that one of the most valuable motivators for me is the logging process. It helps me to see that my exercise is trending upwards over time and that I'm mostly maintaining my diet.

As time goes on, I think I'll be able to tell when my exercise levels off and how that will affect my weight loss. I think I'll be able to find the right balance of exercise and diet to help maintain a steady weight loss.

I've seen a lot of people who don't log and I can't imagine they're getting the full benefit of traineo!

So log, people, log! It'll help in the long run!

Hi Kelsey,

My take on this topic: Life is to short to count calories, track heart rate and calories burned.

It can be very simple:
1. Eat the right food. Enough to feed hunger - avoid eating as a source entertainment (which is my weakness) and avoid starving
2. Exercise. Cross train if possible because it keeps your body guessing and ensures you get the benefits of different forms of exercise.

If I overdo or underdo either of the above, my body tells me so. In no uncertain terms. My previous logging efforts have never lasted more than a fortnight.

To do justice to this topic, I must confess, I have my own log. I step on the scales every so often. I track whether I worked all body parts in weight training (I tend to forget calves and pay insufficient attention to core). And the number of hours per week that I worked out. I am not sure traineo has a custom log where I can track stuff besides weight. I saw the calorie in/out tracker and said to myself "Sheesh, forget this."

Vrinda

You can log most anything else alphanumeric with the feature at:

http://www.traineo.com/customlogs

I agree that this is a very useful feature, and one that I wish I used more. It is sometimes difficult to find the time to log everything, but is something I really should take the time to do. It makes tracking my progress much easier, and lets me know when I'm starting to slack off too much.

Hi Vrinda,

You don't need to manually work out your calories/track your heart rate/count calories - the exercise log will automatically work out your calorie expenditure based upon what you did, how long you did it, and how hard it was - the diet tool calorie slider is largely indicative - you don't have to be accurate with what you enter, although obviously it helps.

We've tried to make things as simple as possible, but if it's still all too complex we're open to suggestions.

Thanks

Maxwell

I love the custom logs. I track my bicycle mileage and my daily blood glucose readings. What I would like would be a way for my custom logs to be included with my motivator reports. For me my blood glucose is very important and the one question I usually get asked is "How is your blood sugar?". Other then this I have been very happy with the site and the simplicity of it.

I think this site is like any other site: you'll find some people who are really into it and believe in what it does and so they participate actively; and you'll find the majority try it out because it seems like a cool idea, but they either lose interest or just don't really have the time/motivation to regularly participate/track their progress.

I'm (trying to) actively participate and track my progress and I think this site is fantastic. That said, if I had come across it a year ago (if it had existed), I probably wouldn't be participating/logging because at that point in my life I just wasn't really committed yet to getting healthy.

Maxwell: To use a cliche, "It is not you. It is me." I am here mainly for the forum.

Your calorie tracker is fine. People who want to be approximate can do so and those who want to be specific can do so too.

If you took the effort to create a calorie calculator (considerable design and programming effort) where I select food, select how it was cooked and enter quantity for BINGO my calories, I still would probably not use it.

Let me take a closer look at the tracking features and write again if I have any suggestions.

I dont know any other forum that is so open to suggestions. That was really nice. Thank you.

Ron, Thank you too.

Vrinda

I love the custom logs, too. I use them for keeping measurements of just about every part of me, except my head.

i know what you mean kelsey, i log ALL the time, and I have a girl i motivate that doesn't very often. Makes it kind of hard to be the "motivator" if I don't know what's going on! lol

I think different people are motivated (or keep consistent) by different means. I'm sort of an analytical thinker, and I love collecting data. I weigh myself every day and track it. I also count every calorie that I put in my mouth and where it comes from and track it, as well as every detail of my workout, down to how long I rest between sets. I've kept all this up pretty well since January of this year. I have excel spreadsheets that make my head spin. . .

I love looking at trends in the data, but this sort of mentality is definitely not for everybody.

My philosophy is to find what works for you and stick with it - everybody is different.

By the way, I love the "diet score" scale that takes into account how much you ate and how you felt about what you ate. It's very informative to see it.

-Brian

I fully intend to start logging my measurements as soon as I am motivated enough to get off of my couch and look for a measuring tape :-P