I have a general question about counting calories/monitoring food intake.

Do you keep a journal, kind of gauge what you eat, keep really close track?

I have been following Weight Watchers for over a year and lost 34 pounds but I have always had hard time with the tracking. I put my mind to it and do it but then always always slip. I guess I just don't really like that part.

Curious about what you do and how you keep track.

I made a schedule of what to eat throughout the day. It's a bit repetitive, yes but I have lost fat with it, and it has enough protein to enable me to build muscle simultaneously.

I made a microsoft excel template that I use as a food diary. I type in everything I eat, its calories, and sometimes its carbs and protein grams. It automatically totals the amount of calories and tells me how many I have left for the day-1200. I can't stick to a diet without writing down my calories and this saves me because I'm not doing math all the time. Send me a message if anyone wants a copy.

I'm the same. i just don't know where to figure out how many calories are in the foods i eat other than the labels on some of them which is why my calorie intake is an estimate. Right now i am focusing on exercising more and eating more healthy with portion control .when i got that on track i will start some serious calorie counting.

Matt, i think i wll do that too. keep a log of what and how much i eat. then maybe see a dietician to see what i can improve or have to cut.

Anybody know any good sites that have food calories listed??or any good books?

http://www.amazon.com/Doctors-Pocket-Calorie-Carbo hydrate-Counter/dp/1930448074

This is a great book, very complete, very cheap, very small. I use it several times a day. its quicker to use the book than the internet to find calories of foods I've found.

its called "The Doctor's Pocket Calorie Fat & Carbohydrate Counter" by Allen Borushek

I've also had a lot of success tracking my food, exercise, and water consumption over on another site, after looking for something like what you're talking about for some time. It's called The Daily Plate and it will also help you determine what your caloric intake should be depending on how much weight you want to lose in a week (max 2 lbs/wk I think). It has a huge list of foods and serving sizes, so you can search for lots of foods and generally have luck. Additionally, you can enter in any new items to their database. A list of frequently eaten items is saved so you can call them up easily, without having to retype them every day. You can also adjust your servings consumed, that kind of thing. It's free, and you can go back and look at daily, weekly, and monthly nutritional breakdowns (sodium, carbs, calories, sugars, etc). It's been very easy for me to use and I can access old days as I need them...I'm sometimes really bad about losing papers LOL.

Thanks. Those will come in handy.

Caloriesperhour.com is a great resource.

Thank you, everyone!! I am going to try counting calories and force myself to be better about it. I'll check out the webistes.

www.calorieking.com

www.startyourdiet.com