Keeping a Food Log

Welcome back to Fitness Fanatic this week we are going to discuss counting calories using a food log. There are many different options for keeping a food log whether that’s using a notebook or an app on your smartphone. People who keep track of what foods and how many calories they eat a day tend to have an easier time reaching their goals whether that’s to lose, gain, or stay the same weight. Keeping count of your calories is very easy and will make all the difference in the world. Food logs not only keep track of calories but other nutrition facts such as how much protein, fat, and carbohydrates you are consuming a day all of which are important when trying to lose weight, gain weight, or build muscle. Now let’s discuss some of the different types of food logs.

The traditional food log using a notebook and keeping track of calories on your own is a lot of work but a great learning experience. Counting calories and nutrition facts in a traditional notebook style takes more time and requires the understanding of how to read a nutrition label. Over time you become familiar with nutrition labels on food, so you know whether a new snack is healthy or not. Using a notebook and keeping track of calories allows you to write down the exact number of calories, proteins, and serving sizes so you can get the most accurate daily calorie count compared to many phone calorie counters that are less accurate due to rounding of numbers. Traditional food logs are not as common today because most people don’t like caring around a notebook when they can just use their smart phones. Now that we have covered the more traditional food log let’s move on to the more modern phone app food logs.

Here is an image of a traditional notebook style food log.

There are many types of mobile phone app food logs that keep track of calories, fat, protein, sodium, sugar and more. Phone app food logs are much easier to use than keeping track using a notebook. With the phone app, you will always have your food log on you if you have your phone and to enter calories all you must do is search the food and the app knows the nutrition facts. These apps will automatically add up and count your daily intake and will show you if you stayed within your target goal for the day. Some of the main apps we are going to cover are MyFitnessPal, Lose It, and Fit Day.

MyFitnessPal tracks your weight and calculates your daily recommended calorie intake. It has a huge nutrition data base with over 5 million foods. You also have the option to customize foods. For example, maybe you have your own favorite homemade smoothie you drink every day. In this situation, you would add the smoothie using the customizing tool. MyFitnessPal is a free app on the app store so give it a download and try it out.

The picture above shows a few screens of the MyFitnessPal app. As you can see in the middle image theres a calorie counter that keeps track of your daily intake.

Lose It is a very easy to use food log. You type in your age, weight, and goals and it will provide your personal recommended calorie intake. The app also reminds you to log your meals and snacks throughout the day which is a very nice feature. Lose it is also a free app you can try today!

Here is an image showing what the Lose It! food log looks like with a calorie counter and food log.

The third and final app we are going to discuss is the FitDay app. I have personally used FitDay and have found it very easy to use. It is very similar to the MyFitnessPal and Lose it apps where it gives you your recommended calorie intake and shows how many calories you have consumed throughout the day. It is very easy to add and find food when searching. The app also has a customize tool similar to the MyFitnessPal which lets you enter what fitness activities you did throughout the day and takes the calories burned into account.

This image shows how you can also keep track of exercise throughout the day showing how many calories you have burned.

All of these different food logs are great ways to count calories to help reach your goal. Which one should you use? Well that’s up to you! They are all free so give each of them a try and find the one you like the best.