Online Food Diaries.
January 28, 2008 by Teri Cosenzi
Filed under Women's Health
A
health insurance plan that I was on a few years ago had a great program to track you daily caloric intake and exercise. Unfortunately, when we changed insurance carriers, I could no longer access this service. I remember that I liked using it, and it was a great tool in helping me lose some weight.
In my search for similar options, I found a few online programs that are similar. Some are free, and some are not.
Here are the programs I am considering:
MyFoodDiary.com
This one looks to be the most comprehensive with some pretty fancy reports, but it costs $9 a month. If I knew it would be a huge help, I would not mind spending over $100 a year for it, but with so many free or cheaper versions, I would rather try one of those first.
FitDay.com
This program is free, and has an online version plus a PC version that is said to be more advanced, faster to use, and has more reporting features.
My-Calorie-Counter.com
Another free online program, that looks like it even be used as a firefox plugin. This one has lot’s of ads though, and are getting in my way as I am just exploring the site.
SparkPeople.com
The online journal and fitness tracker look to be only a part of this community – and I am really not looking for information central.
If you have tried any of these programs or are currently a user of one, please weigh in. I like real people opinions. 
I’ve tried them all. Plus some others that you didn’t mention. But the bottom line is that I keep coming back to two. Fit Day (the free online version) if allI want to do is track food. I like that one best. But Spark People is a terrific source for health and fitness articles. I especially like the exercise video demos when I’m looking for something new to do before I get bored with exercise. Spark People has a great food tracker too but sometimes I’m not interested in the whole community thing and I just want the down and dirty track my food and get out.
I started using sparkpeople at the beginning of the year and have become addicted to it. It’s fun to earn spark points and easy to track stuff. I used to use fitday, but I found sp alot easier to use.