I love to share things that work for me. Fat Secret is quickly becoming my favorite partner in my weight loss journey. I have been a member of Spark People for years. It just doesn’t work for me. I need simplicity.
I recently started watching old episodes of The Biggest Loser. I have been reminded that anyone wanting to lose weight needs to know what they are eating every day and not just guess at it. Somewhere in between The Biggest Loser and my re-start into Low Carb I found Fat Secret. It is a website that helps you track foods eaten and the nutrition totals. I like the website’s straightforward layout. I liked that some of my “go to” foods were already there and I didn’t have to input the information for them.
Knowing myself like I do, I kept thinking, I’m going to have to write down every food and drink that I consume and then enter them at some point during each day. UGH! I know myself well enough to know I won’t keep that up for very long.
As luck would have it, Fat Secret has an IPod App that make this so simple!
As this graphic from their site shows, they have many tools to let you input your data without logging into the website each time. I can only speak on the IPod app, so that’s the one I’m singing the praises of today! But by all means, check it out if you have a smart phone, Facebook account, or any of the other things shown!
Here are some of the things I love about this app:
*It syncs with the website so that your recent entries are always updated.
*Entering frequently used recipes in “my cookbook” is quick and the nutrition information is accurate. The way I see it, this serves two purposes. First, it is wonderful to have the nutrition counts available in a few clicks and secondly, should I desire, my cookbook is at my fingertips for meal prep reference. No more dragging out the cookbook or digging through the huge stack of Low Carb recipes I have printed through the years!
*Barcode scanner. This is fun! As of right now, when I try to use it, it gives me a message saying that the scanner is not optimized for my device. That’s okay with me though, because it gives the option to manually type in the barcode. This is fun! I know I said that already, but I find amusement in the simplest things
. Anyway, type in the barcode and all the nutrition information pulls right up. Love that!Cons:
The app version does not show fiber count, which for a low-carber is important. I can’t see net carbs without the fiber count. I have not found a setting to change the view options.
I’m not understanding the activity part of this thing. Not on the website. Not on the app. It seems to be allowing for 24 hours of activity by default. If I don’t input anything, then it has me sleeping for 24 hours and burning calories the whole time! Now I do not know a lot about burning calories, but I think I know enough to know that I’m not burning 2400 calories per day while doing nothing. I’m looking for information on this as I can, but as of now I see this as a glitch in the system. One that I’m o.k. with simply because I am not tracking my activity right now.
I’m finding that I do know what is good for me to eat, but tracking it reminds me of just how often I’m willing to “cheat”. Hopefully if I continue with inputting my food daily, I will be less likely to allow myself the all too frequent cheats. 20 pounds is one of my goals New Year’s Resolutions, so I’m still actively pursuing it!
Do you really know what you are feeding your body? Are you on track to accomplish your goals for the year?
If you are interested, you can see more of my Low Carb helpers here.
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