My recomended calorie intake is 2100 but yesterday I only consumed 1500... I can't go below 2100 in the slider... can you guys modify this thanks

Hi Bart,

We're actually working on a custom calorie value input box right now, and it should be ready before the weekend is out.

Thanks!

Maxwell

great good work on the site

Any update on this? I definitely would love the ability to input a lower number of calories than the Suggested Daily amount.

Agreed, I second this.

I would love it if you did this. I am on a rapid weight lose calorie restricted diet and I am consuming 800 cals per day.

Thanks.

what's going on with this? you guys said you would try and get it done 2-3 weeks ago

yah the calorie thing is def too high, mines listed at like 1800 and it wont let me slide below that but i personally aim for about 1400 and that works well for me

Hey Bart... It's there, and it works. It's been there for a few days now... You click on "Use Custom Figure" in the "Suggested Calorie Intake" box. Can you not see that?

Hi Bart, Jon,

As Scott says, we rolled this out about 4 or 5 days ago - traineo has only been live two weeks! You can set a custom base calorie value, which will be remembered, so you can work within your own range.

Thanks!

Maxwell

I think that this is a terrific feature. Thank you for being so responsive.

It seems to me that the suggest calorie intake should fall in/near the middle of the sliding scale instead of being the lowest figure you can input. The Suggested daily calorie intake should be what is required to maintain current bodyweight; that you can accomodate people who want to lose or gain weight.

Great site; have already recommended it to friends.

Great add-on! I really appreciate how you guys respond to requests and gripes quickly and professionally. My wife and I love it, and the only thing we use sparkpeople for now is the Meal Plan. Thanks!

I also agree with Steve that the suggested calorie intake should not be the absolute minimum that you can input. I would just put my "suggested intake" to something extremely low like 0 calories, which would give me the full sliding scale, but this then affects my total score on the graph.

Great website, and I'm happy to see the developers are so responsive to feedback in the forums! Excellent work.

Hi Eric,

If you set your minimum to 0, 0 will become your 10/10 and anything above it will be a lower score.

The idea of the suggested intake is that it's your goal - it's what you should be aiming for - and setting it yourself is just like setting a custom target to aim at.

We've actually just rolled out an update that changes the behaviour of the custom target slightly - it now remembers what your target was every day, so there's no more screwy scales going on, and it all makes more sense as a whole.

The goal which is set for you by default is based upon your weight, your height and your weight loss/gain goal - overeating is penalised, whereas undereating is not, but offers no additional score gain (we can't really endorse/reward undereating, for obvious reasons).

Hope that helps, feel free to bounce any more ideas/thoughts around, though!

Thanks,

Maxwell

Max, suppose your goal is to gain weight. If you were to enter 6,000 as your goal then consuming/entering 7,000 calories (while technically better) would result in a lower score than entering 5,000.

I realize Traineo is currently aimed at people trying to lose weight; however I have a lot of bodybuilder/weight lifter friends who want to gain weight. I can't really recommend them to this site as much as I love it for myself.

There ought to be a way in the future to accomodate both ends of the spectrum. Thanks.

Hi Steve,

Very good point, and it is something we have considered. At the same time as we roll out the meal planner/tracker (it's coming, it's just very, very complicated (for us, not for you guys!!)) we're planning on doing a slight over-haul of the calorie/diet system, and providing a few different ways to use it that should cater for a wider variety of needs and uses.

Thanks,

Maxwell

Another vote for making the "goal" calories be in the _center_ of the slider, allowing you to specify an intake lower than your goal. Over-eating calories is only one way to miss a goal -- you can undereat as well. Since most people using the site are trying to lose weight, I'd even go so far as to say that under-eating should be weighted less when it comes to scoring, unless you go below a certain threshold.

Otherwise -- great site! I totally appreciate the simplicity of it. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with for a food planner. I actually appreciate the fact that Traineo DOESN'T currently have that feature -- as I find all of the online food planners (and I've tried a lot of them) to be really annoying. Entire sites are dedicated to that one feature, so please don't get sucked in too much.

Another vote for making the goal in the center of the scale. In addition to recording when you may have gone under your caloric goal, this would allow incremental additions throughout the day, as opposed to totaling strictly at the end of the day (i.e. eat lunch, bump it up 500 calories, etc).

Another way to make that even easier for the user would be a simple text box for calories with an "Add" button that would bump the slider up. Then the user doesn't have to do any math if they are tracking incrementally. Although I would be happy just to have a scale that starts at 0 with my target in the middle.

If I'm missing something please tell me, but right now I don't see any way to follow this type of workflow.

wait is there anyway to
set your custom calorie intake ; and then record it lower ?

sorry if that was stupid ; i just didnt read the last few posts completely [lost attention]

Hey Spencer,

No, not at the moment - the idea is that you should be always aiming for your the value you set - we can't 'reward' eating below a proscribed level, although we are working on a way to let you select a calorific intake lower than that which is specified by your value, without improving your diet score.

Thanks

Maxwell

Just chiming in for the calorie intake scoring to be affected by not eating enough in addition to eating too many calories.

I want to be able to track my not-enough-food days against my moods and behavior and so forth.

Hi Max,
First, let me say Traineo is really freaking awesome. The AJAX is spectacular, and the overall Web 2.0 style is very well executed.

The question I have is regarding the Suggested Daily Calories. Is this calculated based upon solely on BMR and reducing the daily calorie intake?

What I mean is, if I eat XXXX amount of calories, without excercise, will I reach my target weight by my target date?

I'm not saying this to "get out of" working out, but I'm more curious as to what this number is dependent upon, etc.

Also, perhaps a tooltip stating what this number is based on would be helpful.

Thanks Max,