An (early) Christmas present for all of you! (WinZip)

[WhiteCollarBoy]

Hey everyone!

With festive holiday spirit I thought I'd help some people out with tracking calories and macros, etc.

I made a spreadsheet which allows you to select what you've eaten (or plan to eat for the day or the next day) and it'll populate the values of calories, protein, carbs, and fats for you in a neat meal-plan format that is ready to print.

No need to fumble with nutrition books or worry about logging onto FitDay or things like that anymore.

The spreadsheet has the capability to track up to EIGHT (8) meals, and of course, with some Excel knowledge you can modify this to your needs to add more meals if you eat 8+.

You can also add foods you enjoy eating or that you cannot find on the existing "Food List". Just follow the instructions on the first tab of the file, and voila- the next time you eat that food, it will be on the drop down for you to select and track within your daily intake.

Steps to use the file:

1. Download the attachment
2. Save it to your desktop or preferred folder
3. Open the file
4. Click on cell D5 and notice a little drop down arrow pops up in the corner
5. Select food(s) that you ate or are about to eat or plan to eat
6. Analyze/track your macros per meal and per day.

Further steps:

For those of you who have set target calorie and macro goals, scroll down to the bottom and enter your target values in the YELLOW shaded cells.

For example, 2500 calories, 40% protein, 40% carbs, 20% fat. Enter: "2000", "40", "40" and "20", respectively.

Once you enter your targets, use the drop downs to make your meals and see how close you come to your target by looking at the variance lines below.

Enjoy, and happy tracking/holidays!

(Yes, this is what I do at work with my finance/Excel skills when I get bored!)

[ReeBPM]

Repped, fantastic contribution and this will come in handy for me this week starting my variation of LEAN MASS DIET!

Off topic, legs look awesome man!

[jth16]

Thanks a lot bud, I'll give it a try.

[WhiteCollarBoy]

Glad I could help. I know this spreadsheet made things ALOT easier for me. I basically print out my daily diet and keep it all in a binder.

Just remember, when you insert a new food, do it WITHIN the range. Don't add it to the top of the list, or at the bottom. Add it right into the middle. You can sort alphabetically by column B (Food Item[s]) after you make the insert.

Reason being is that the spreadsheet works via VLOOKUP() formulas, and they can be very fickle.

Like the Cut Diet re-feeds, don't mess with the spreadsheet! It works the way it works because it is set up in a specific manner.

[Cape1]

WCollar,
Reps! what a nice thing to do.

[nic6paul]

Just curious how you got the food database in there? I have wanted to make something like this for myself using the calorieking food database.

[WhiteCollarBoy]

Originally Posted by nic6paul

Just curious how you got the food database in there? I have wanted to make something like this for myself using the calorieking food database.

I typed it all in.

By the way, the calories and macros are of RAW values.

[nic6paul]

Oh i thought you might have downloaded a database from a site.

[WhiteCollarBoy]

Originally Posted by nic6paul

Oh i thought you might have downloaded a database from a site.

That would be like Re-gifting.

[MoEcho]

Hey WCB!!

That spreadsheet freakin' rocks! Thanks! I already have tomorrow's meals plugged-in! SWEET!!! Merry Christmas to you too!

Regards / Heidi

[Beast]

Dude this is awesome!!! I love it and will be adding some foods to the list for me

PM me your address, I want to send you a present in return.

[jaim91]

WHOA!! Thank you sooooooooooooo much! <3!!!

REPS!

[whatnow5]

Originally Posted by Beast

Dude this is awesome!!! I love it and will be adding some foods to the list for me

PM me your address, I want to send you a present in return.

Thats awesome! WCB you are one lucky sob!

[NBrown84]

This is probably one of the best nutritional tools I've ever seen. Thanks a lot for sharing.

[WhiteCollarBoy]

Originally Posted by NBrown84

This is probably one of the best nutritional tools I've ever seen. Thanks a lot for sharing.

Not a problem.

We all know how hard this stuff can be, so anything to help get organized and make life easier, ya know?

If any of you have any questions on how to use/update the sheet, ask them here in this thread. Also, if you have any ideas for improvement or added functionality, tell me and I'll see if I can work some Excel magic and add it in.

[AllGenetix]

so for 8oz sweet potato that is a raw value not cooked?

[WhiteCollarBoy]

Originally Posted by AllGenetix

so for 8oz sweet potato that is a raw value not cooked?

Yes sir.

The reason why I choose to use RAW VALUE is because you can't mess that up. Here's what I mean:

A piece of raw chicken breast that is 10 oz. will always be 10 oz.

A piece of chicken breast that was 14 oz. raw, which gets cooked to perfection and is nice and juicy could become 12 oz. cooked. However, if overcooked, that same 14 oz. of raw meat could become 9 or 10 oz. cooked. These variations make a difference.

This holds especially true for rice, or oatmeal. If you add too much or too little water, it affects the final yield in serving size. I could add alot of water to 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal so that it yields 1.5 cups cooked! Some like their outmeal chewy, others soupy, like me. So with this example, that 1 cup of oatmeal is up to interpretation and cooking style.

When you measure things RAW, you know exactly how much it is, without the measurement being "tainted" or otherwise skewed by variations in cooking.

[BlueChip]

Great excel file! I've used Excel in Transportation and Logistics situtations and was wondering how you added the drop down menus to the excel sheet. Thank you once again!

[sf5410]

you've got some sick excel skillz, best xmas present so far. thanks!

[TigerStealth]

WhiteCollarBoy = Santa

Dude you are the man! thank you very much.

Just a quick question... I want to add in some of my own foods and their values to the food list. Can I just click on the food list tab, add in the name of the food and that food's macros and then have it available in the drop down list?

Also If i changed the macronutrient values of some of the foods in the foods list will it be applied?

thanks again

EDIT: I saw in your first post that I should "follow the instructions on the first tab of the file" What tab are you referring to? I cant find the instructions. thanks.

[willsong]

you the bomb whitecollarboy. I;ve been trying to do that with regular microsoft excel, total failure.

[And055]

This is so badass bro! Props for taking the time to compile everything and making the layout easy to use. Reps to you!

[jaim91]

Originally Posted by WhiteCollarBoy

This holds especially true for rice, or oatmeal. If you add too much or too little water, it affects the final yield in serving size. I could add alot of water to 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal so that it yields 1.5 cups cooked! Some like their outmeal chewy, others soupy, like me. So with this example, that 1 cup of oatmeal is up to interpretation and cooking style.

When you measure things RAW, you know exactly how much it is, without the measurement being "tainted" or otherwise skewed by variations in cooking.

But Derek and Marc say that the values in the cut diet is for cooked food...

[Ronaldinha]

Thank you very much! Have a Great Christmas!

[WhiteCollarBoy]

Originally Posted by TigerStealth

WhiteCollarBoy = Santa

Dude you are the man! thank you very much.

Just a quick question... I want to add in some of my own foods and their values to the food list. Can I just click on the food list tab, add in the name of the food and that food's macros and then have it available in the drop down list?

Also If i changed the macronutrient values of some of the foods in the foods list will it be applied?

thanks again

EDIT: I saw in your first post that I should "follow the instructions on the first tab of the file" What tab are you referring to? I cant find the instructions. thanks.

The instructions are hidden. You need to open up the hidden columns either by pressing on the "1" and "2" buttons up top, in the upper left hand corner, or simply opening them up by clicking on the "+" signs.

The first tab would be the tab that the Nutrition Template is on. The second tab is the Food List tab.

But yes, changes made will be automatically applied to the drop downs. And yes, you can add anything you want to the list. However:

1. You MUST add whatever it is into the MIDDLE of the list. Don't add something at the top, and don't add something to the bottom.

2. You MUST sort ascending (from A to Z) according to column B. You will mess up formulas/VLOOKUP if you don't sort it.

3. You MUST "range value" the food list if you incorporate formulas. Say, if you decide to add 1/2 c. of beans, and you also want to add 1 cup of beans. So you decide you just multiply the values of the 1/2 cup by two to arrive at the values for the full cup. If you don't range value the list, the formula gets awry and gets applied to other cells as well, basically screwing up the whole spreadsheet.

To range value, highlight the entire food list (all columns) and click copy. Then, in the same space, click Paste Special - Values.

Good luck!

[TigerStealth]

YES, I figured it out!!

Wow I am so happy right now, this is such an amazing tool. thanks bro, reps!

[WhiteCollarBoy]

Originally Posted by TigerStealth

YES, I figured it out!!

Wow I am so happy right now, this is such an amazing tool. thanks bro, reps!

No prob man.

This will be the most informative/productive section of BB.com, and I'm glad to contribute. I see alot of dedication in this section.

[jaim91]

Originally Posted by jaim91

But Derek and Marc say that the values in the cut diet is for cooked food...

Bump...most people on the cut diet only weigh their food after it's cooked, regardless of method of cooking. What do you suggest?

[AllGenetix]

Originally Posted by jaim91

But Derek and Marc say that the values in the cut diet is for cooked food...

i agree. the values in the books are for cooked foods, thats the only thing that confused me

[CluelessAsian]

Originally Posted by jaim91

Bump...most people on the cut diet only weigh their food after it's cooked, regardless of method of cooking. What do you suggest?

I would say that you should just put your own values for cooked foods.