Weight-loss Tracking

June 3, 2004 10:11 PM

Any good exercise/weight-loss diaries out there? I'm working out these days, and would like to track my progress (if any!) both in terms of weight loss, endurance training and weight lifting. Any suggestions? Online services or downloaded software are both fine.
posted by dagny to health & fitness (7 comments total)

The Hackers Diet has a set of excel spreadsheets that come with it that allow you to track your progress. It can create monthly/yearly/etc charts of your progress as well. I've unlocked the sheets to allow myself to add a few columns for descriptions of the types of exercise that I did on each day. I'd definitely recommend doing a daily diary like this if you're planning on trying to lose weight. I lost about 55 pounds in 9 months, and I attribute my ability to stick with it totally to having a daily ritual of tracking my progress. It really helps you see how trends in your behavior affect your weight.

I had also joined ediets when I first started, but I find that web interfaces take too long when all you want to do is a quick daily update of what you've done.
posted by freshgroundpepper at 10:29 PM on June 3, 2004

A few that I have seen/used/had recommended.

The Hacker's Diet on preview what freshgroundpepper said.
Weight Watchers Online, or the not-quite-kosher WWCalc (same thing, not approved, Palm based)
Men's Health Personal Trainer (obviously male directed)

I've used both the Men's Health, WW, and WWcalc programs and had success with all three but YMMV.

Good luck.
posted by karmaville at 10:33 PM on June 3, 2004

Anything PocketPC based??
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 11:33 PM on June 3, 2004

Fitday is is a free online (or downloadable) service that provides tools for tracking both nutritional intake and exercise. The one thing it doesn't have is a good system for tracking a strength-training program (progression of weight/reps/sets). Might be worth taking a look at, in any event.
posted by Kat Allison at 5:20 AM on June 4, 2004

I think that it is entirely appropriate to point out that one of MeFi's own has a weight tracking website up that I like a good bit: weightrends.com

This also has links to the Hacker's Diet, etc. Lots of nice stuff.
posted by ajpresto at 10:13 AM on June 4, 2004

I'm a big fan of fitday, although they don't keep track of sugars. After a while, it takes only minutes a day.
posted by callmejay at 10:57 AM on June 4, 2004

I'll second the FitDay.com recommendation. I've only been using it for about a week now to track my progress on the South Beach Diet, but I think it's great! Also, it's free.
posted by sanitycheck at 9:41 PM on June 4, 2004