Calorie Counting Websites

[Emma-Leigh]

Lots of people often ask about tools to help track calories - and there is now a myriad of websites dedicated to this... So - I thought I would combine a list of sites + do a quick review of the ones that I was familiar with....

A few Points on Tracking Calories:

• Calorie tracking online ISN'T 100% necessary - so you don't have to do it... What matters is that you are eating appropriately for your needs, what ever way you do this (eg: via portion control, via spreadsheet, via diabetic exchange lists)
• Calorie tracking is only as accurate as you make it! So if you neglect to track the foods, or leave out snacks, or only half fill in the days then it isn't going to work.
• It doesn't *really* matter how accurate the tracker is - what matters is that it is accurate to what you DO and that it gives you something to monitor and change if required.... (that is - similar to bodyfat tracking - even if the number is not *right*, if you are logging over time and it is going in the right direction, then this is all that matters)
• You don't have to track every day.... especially if you eat the same thing most days. So just doing one or two logs/ week to see where you are is perfectly fine.
• When you track - look at the TOTAL CALORIES and then the GRAMS of PROTEIN, FATS and CARBS. It is NOT about the 'macro %' you hit... Your body doesn't CARE what % comes from different macronutrient groups - what it cares about is that you are getting enough to support your lean mass/ bodyweight... and this comes down to grams per unit weight (either total weight or lean mass depending on what method you are using, your total bodyfat% and a few other variables)
• DO NOT change things too quickly... if you decide to make a change to your calorie intake - you might want to give yourself 3-4 weeks before you expect to see significant change.... If you keep changing things 'looking for something that works', you'll probably never see results...

A GUIDE TO FOOD LABELS:
READ ME


A Few of the Calorie counting Sites:

• NutritionData
  Most accurate/ detailed, Lots of natural foods
  
  
• CalorieKing
  Lots of information on commercial products
  
  
• Calorieking.au (aussie version of above)
  As above, only for the land downunder
  
  
• Nutridiary
  Good basic and accurate tool that allows you to create favourite meals for ease of logging. Tracks exercise and water intake too
  
  
• DailyBurn
  Easy to use, Accurate, Good range of foods, Very funky additional applications such as bar-code scanning
  
  
• CalorieCount
  This has a cool recipe tool where you simply type in a list of foods and how many servings you want and it calculates it out. < VERY handy!
  
  
• Fitday
  Inaccurate in regards to calories from carbs/ fibre and can give false information on servings sizes... Ok if you log all your own foods
  
  
• TheDailyPlate
  
  
• My Calorie Counter
  
  
• SparkPeople
  
  
• LiveStrong
  
  
• MyfitnessPal
  
  
• Calorielab.com
  (thanks to Camaron2er for the link)

[Nefariousx1]

i hate fitday....i seem to be the only one in existence with this disposition lol. Nutritiondata.com is my jam imo it is probably the best one out there

[JDkeystone]

Why isn't thedailyplate up there? That one kick ass IMO (way better than fitday)...

[Emma-Leigh]

Why isn't thedailyplate up there? That one kick ass IMO (way better than fitday)...

? It is.

[in10city]

? It is.

You have it labeled as "DailyPlanet" up there Clark

[mehdi84]

You have it labeled as "DailyPlanet" up there Clark

That was actually pretty funny.

BTW, Daily Plate == LiveStrong.com now

[johnsocr]

oh cool websites dude, nice

[xAlphax]

FitDay.

[phal]

One less sticky for everyone to read :P jk, I'll use this a lot (ctrl v spam) in hopes people read or use it.

[mommalu]

The Daily Plate ROCKS!!!

http://www.livestrong.com/

[scoops1515]

thanks for the websites guys.

[Ripnlean]

Dailyburn.com, IMO

All foods all exercises, brand names, grocery store type names! Favorite foods, recipies all for free!

[budnik22]

Hey guys, I just started my workout/diet and wanted to utilize one of these websites.

One challenge I have is because of my job (outside sales) i am on the road 3-4 days a week, and I have to eat out for all these meals. Which website would be best for when I don't have a food label to reference?

[xAlphax]

Hey guys, I just started my workout/diet and wanted to utilize one of these websites.

One challenge I have is because of my job (outside sales) i am on the road 3-4 days a week, and I have to eat out for all these meals. Which website would be best for when I don't have a food label to reference?

This sticky is a guide to calcount websites, not a Q&A. No website would be best, it would be inefficient taking your situation into account, but try them all out.

[Jess40]

My favorite is DailyBurn

[Emma-Leigh]

Hey guys, I just started my workout/diet and wanted to utilize one of these websites.

One challenge I have is because of my job (outside sales) i am on the road 3-4 days a week, and I have to eat out for all these meals. Which website would be best for when I don't have a food label to reference?

If you are eating a lot of natural foods (eg: grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables, meats etc) then www.nutritiondata.com would probably be the most extensive.

If you are eating out a lot - something such as http://calorielab.com/index.html would have a few more options for you.

[budnik22]

Then you can incorporate that data into FITDAY PC V2 ON A LAPTOP IF CALORIE COUNTING ON THE ROAD IS A HASSLE.

Thanks. what does this program provide? I signed up for dailyburn after explorering a few, simply due to I liked the layout and it seemed to have a good set of choices.

[Kyle_CM]

I didn't know there were so many websites for tracking food outside of fitday, lol.

Thanks for this list!

I've been using Fitday for about a year, but I'm thinking of making the transition to Nutrition Data or Dailyburn

Which would be better for strictly calorie tracking & macro breakdown in your opinion?

[Emma-Leigh]

I didn't know there were so many websites for tracking food outside of fitday, lol.

Thanks for this list!

I've been using Fitday for about a year, but I'm thinking of making the transition to Nutrition Data or Dailyburn

Which would be better for strictly calorie tracking & macro breakdown in your opinion?

Nutritiondata is very accurate - but doesn't include as many commercial foods.

Unless you purchase the pro of dailyburn you don't get fiber - so that is where it's major downfall... But it has funky apps (eg: barcode scanner) which makes it very easy to use when out and about.

Nutridiary has fiber and good functionality, as well as the ability to create meals that you can add each day for ease of use... But it is, however, much more cumbersome to work than dailyburn - slower and harder to add foods....

Livestrong/Dailyplanet is similar in that it is slower to use and harder to add foods... It also has lots of adverts on the site - which makes it less appealing IMO.


ermmm.... and I cause that didn't answer things did it...

[nappyjim]

I use FitDay but I make custom foods for anything I eat. I dont trust what they/others say...I read the label and input it myself. Plus I eat roughly the same 20 things or so, so once you get them in as a custom food, its not bad at all.

[andrewpoleon]

Emma if I may add to this:

DO NOT change things too quickly... if you decide to make a change to your calorie intake - you might want to give yourself 3-4 weeks before you expect to see significant change.... If you keep changing things 'looking for something that works', you'll probably never see results...

Just like in a scientific experiment, only change on variable, don't do 2 to X adjustments and see what happens, becuase you won't see what worked, and will keep on second guessing your desicions.

[Kyle_CM]

Nutritiondata is very accurate - but doesn't include as many commercial foods.

Unless you purchase the pro of dailyburn you don't get fiber - so that is where it's major downfall... But it has funky apps (eg: barcode scanner) which makes it very easy to use when out and about.

Nutridiary has fiber and good functionality, as well as the ability to create meals that you can add each day for ease of use... But it is, however, much more cumbersome to work than dailyburn - slower and harder to add foods....

Livestrong/Dailyplanet is similar in that it is slower to use and harder to add foods... It also has lots of adverts on the site - which makes it less appealing IMO.


ermmm.... and I cause that didn't answer things did it...

Oh, no, it helped . Thanks Emma.

[nappyjim]

what do you mean FitDay is "Inaccurate in regards to calories from carbs/ fibre" ?

[Emma-Leigh]

what do you mean FitDay is "Inaccurate in regards to calories from carbs/ fibre" ?

Ermm.... what do I mean? That it is inaccurate - ie: it calculates incorrectly.


Doesn't take into account fibre calories, nor add them correctly to your calorie count.
It also doesn't correctly / accurately calculate measurements to grams (so it states a food measurement has x weight, when it actually has closer to y weight). Thus it often underestimates calories consumed.

[chicktastic]

Just thought I would mention that Livestrong also has an app for the iphone and one for Blackberry devices in case anyone is looking for something that can travel with them. I believe the Livestrong app is around $3. There are also some good free ones available on iTunes.

[rbdwarf]

Does NutritionData give you the option to subtract fibre from carb counts so that your precentages are more accurate for keto?

--
Rob

[Emma-Leigh]

Does NutritionData give you the option to subtract fibre from carb counts so that your precentages are more accurate for keto?

--
Rob

^
You get a really comprehensive breakdown of your foods - but not a 'magic net carb' number...

Although you can do that yourself....
Total carb - total fiber = non fiber carbs.
Non fiber carbs x 4 = non fiber calories
fiber carbs x ~ 1.5-2 = fiber calories
(non-fiber calories)/ (total calories) = % from non-fiber carbs
^
To me - the above is mostly meaningless => considering you:
1. still get energy from fiber
2. could be eating so many calories overall that you still maintain a low carb% but you are not, in fact, in keto...

[Lukas13]

^
You get a really comprehensive breakdown of your foods - but not a 'magic net carb' number...

Although you can do that yourself....
Total carb - total fiber = non fiber carbs.
Non fiber carbs x 4 = non fiber calories
fiber carbs x ~ 1.5-2 = fiber calories
(non-fiber calories)/ (total calories) = % from non-fiber carbs
^
To me - the above is mostly meaningless => considering you:
1. still get energy from fiber
2. could be eating so many calories overall that you still maintain a low carb% but you are not, in fact, in keto...

Thank you, very helpful.

[IrishPilot]

Always been using fitday (though I custom add the foods myself). Just started dailyburn today (really dislike the layout of nutritiondata). So far it looks good...though none of these websites seem as user friendly as fitday.

Great thread Emma...thanks!

[ra2commando]

Do you guys find calorie counting at all difficult?
I mean I am absolutely anal about my approach. I made up a spreadsheet some time ago with all the foods I use and use the info from NutritionData or similar to get the calories per gram and the corresponding pro/cho/fat %. I then use the scale to get w/e it is my spreadsheet says.

I mean my estimating skills are sh*t, and I would otherwise under or over eat. The difficulty lies in if I am forced to travel, etc then I cant figure out what and how much I'm eating.
Just wanted to get a notion of how other people do this.

Cheers

ra2