Best Online Diet Trackers

Well, here I am back to normal in my job and life after a glorious three-week vacation in sunny Mexico. My tan is quickly fading already, but my relaxed mood will hopefully carry on for days to come. It was the best vacation yet.

As you all know, losing or maintaining your weight when you go on vacation is nearly impossible unless it is specifically a holiday for losing weight like the ones I wrote about in my post “Weight Loss Vacations“. I was absolutely dreading my weigh in this morning. When I left I swore to stick to my diet and I didn’t do too badly, not great though, but what really lacked over the past three weeks was exercise. I tried my best, but in the hot Mexico sun exercising is twice as hard. Unless it’s in the water, it’s almost unbearable.

Before I left for vacation I had just reached my goal of losing 30 pounds in three months. My weight at my last weigh in (now four weeks ago) was 206lbs. At this morning’s weigh in my weight was…

214 lbs

I’m devastated, but at the same time I was expecting at least an eight pound weight gain, maybe even more. OK, that’s enough of feeling bad about this, now it’s time to do something about it.

Diet and fitness trackers are an excellent way to keep track of your weight loss progress.

I’ve never used an online diet and fitness tracker before, but I have seen many people using them and was interested in giving one a try. This morning I signed myself up with FitDay.com, which is a free diet and fitness tracker online. I am really impressed by the number of things you can track here other than just your weight. For example, you can easily track not only calories but how much fat, carbohydrates and protein is in the foods you eat. It also tracks your physical activities and the amount of calories your burn, your moods, your body stats (e.g. waist size, bicep size, etc.) and more. Of  course there is also a weight loss journal where you can keep track of your personal thoughts and feelings as you go along. All and all, fitday.com looks really fun and I am excited to give it a try as I work towards my new weight loss goal of weighing 170lbs by August 23rd, this means losing 44 pounds in four months (this was the goal I set for myself before I left on vacation – see the post “The Best Time to Start a Diet“). Now I really have my work cut out for myself, but I think that using this new diet tracker will prove to be much more beneficial than writing everything down on paper every day, or not keeping track at all.

If you have ever carried around a booklet to keep track of calories, or perhaps a notebook to write down each thing that you eat, you know that keeping track is a great way to stay on course with your healthy eating and fitness plan. You also know that this can be a pain and can mean a lot of complicated math. Today, whether keeping track of calories or miles walked, there are great online trackers that take most of the work out of the endeavor for you while keeping the most accurate count you can get. Take advantage of some of these useful and sometimes free trackers to make your life more simple.

Fitday.com: This site has over four million users. If you look for advice on trackers online, you will probably see this site mentioned more often than not. Not only is Fitday free, it has a paid version that you can get if you wish. However, the free version is very good and is usually all that someone will need. Not only can you track your calories and nutrition, you can track your exercise as well. Fitday also offers a free online journal.

Prevention.com: Prevention is a great health site that deals with all aspects of health and well-being. They have free health trackers that you can use if you sign up for an account. Not only can you track food and exercise, you can track measurements, mood, stress levels, caffeine intake, or just about anything else you think might help you in your fitness or weight loss goals. They have graphs and reports to help you understand how well you are doing and what you may need to improve upon. Prevention also has a monthly magazine that I am a subscriber to. It is one of the best health magazines out there for women and is a great read.

iGoogle: Most people are already familiar with Google, but they do not know that they offer a calorie counter. Though this is not as extensive as some of the other trackers you can find online, Google’s calorie tracker may be all that some dieters need. You enter your foods and find out how much you are eating in calories each day.

OnlineFitnessLog.com: This site is not free, but it may be worth the membership fee. You can get a free trial when you sign up to see if this site is right for you. They give you the tools that you need to keep track of your diet, exercise, and can even help determine your basal metabolic rate. You can customize your foods, exercises, and they help international users convert their units of measure. They also offer detailed reports to let you know how you are doing as you go.