Suggestion for Fit Day Improvement
 

Good morning! I track my food on here every day and have two suggestions that I think would make the task a little easier overall. I think it would be great if the food log was a little more organized, i.e. maybe divide it into sections for breakfast, lunch, dinner & snacks (still all on the same log, just marked where one ends and another begins). I think it would be easier to review at the end of the day if you could clearly see what you ate for each meal. I often add foods that I plan to eat during the day and then change my mind and add new foods. So at the end of the day my meals are all mixed together. As for removing foods from my log, I think a check box removal system would be awesome, just like the one for adding foods, where you can check everything you want and then add them all at the same time. Sometimes when I have four or five foods to remove it's a pain to do it one at a time. Just a couple suggestions!! Thanks!

Welcome to the forums and thanks for your feedback!

Realistically, I doubt your first request is going to happen (I think it would be really complex to program) but as a workaround some folks create one or more "fake" custom food(s) and enter it where desired between actual food items such as:

---------- BREAKFAST --------
Wheaties
Milk
----------- LUNCH ----------
Double Whopper w/Cheese

and so forth.

As to your second request, that would be a nice time saver.

Regards,
Michael

Actually Mike, I don't think it's that complicated, I can do it simply enough with my excel program, and unfortunately for fitday most of the competitor site do have it. It would be really helpful, especially on days when I need a lunch or dinner to fit around an unplanned snack and I only have so many calories left for the day. Also one feature I don't see on the competitor sites is the pie chart for each meal. If that could be combined with the meal separation so I could tell the program, okay I need a meal with 30% protein, 40% carbs and it has to be under 350 calorie, now that would be a great feature. Maybe in addition to custom foods we could have "custom meals" as a feature?

PC program too small to read
 

I like the on-line program, because I can scroll the font to enlarge for my old eyes. Couldn't do that with the PC download. Otherwise love the program

I would also love to see a search option for my custom foods. I've been using fitday off and on for 3+ years, and I have A LOT of custom foods entered. I try to organize and name them in streamlined way for easy adding, but I still sometimes have a hard time finding things that I know are there. :confused:

I'm also bummed that the graphs for tracking weight and measurements will only go back 12 months. I can still look back at past weight/measurements/etc., but not in graph format, and I'm a graph kind of girl! ;)

All in all, I love fitday, but I would love to see a few updates and tweaks that would help us fitday veterans manage our years of data. :rolleyes:

They definitely need an improved search function, as right now it's very hard to find simple foods. I also wish they listed more simple dishes. They have all these super-specific foods like "Soup, PROGRESSO HEALTHY CLASSICS CHICKEN RICE WITH VEGETABLES, canned, ready-to-serve." But I can't find simpler things like just plain chicken and vegetables (without sauces or anything like that).

Tell you what would be handy, though I'm sure it'll never happen. The ability to filter out certain foods so that you never have to sift through them. For instance, in my case I'd filter out all animal foods and cooked veg, since they always assume fat and salt in the cooking and I just use the raw veg data instead. Probably the branded products, if I could figure out a way to do it, since we don't have the same brands in the UK.

I have been using FitDay for just a few days and agree with a few of the posters. 1. Organizing by meals would make it easier for me to see what I'm doing at each meal. One of the posters is correct that competing sites have this (ie MyFitnessPal). I should be eating 6x per day and it's far better to see what I'm doing at each meal as well as totals. I also agree that being able to create a meal for things that I eat the same way would save a lot of time. There are certain things I have for breakfast every morning and I eat them exactly the same way. On another site I was able to create a meal by adding the four ingredients I use consistently. Each day I can simply select the meal, drop it into "which meal" (ie breakfast) and I'm done. Your suggestion to create a "custom food" as a meal is far too time consuming. I am already struggling with spending too much time creating foods right now to have to create a meal by trying to figure out all of the ingredients, put it in a spreadsheet so as to aggregate all the data to create one single "custom food meal". I also agree that introducing consistency in adding and removing items from the journal using checkboxes would be very beneficial. I, too, have had to go back and delete a few items and add them back, far too time consuming. I really like all of the stats this system can generate including the graphs however I'm finding the overall learning and setting up curve to be very steep as compared with others I've tried.

Conversely, I would just like to put in my 2 cents asking FitDay to NOT separate the foods into meals. This is my first day using FitDay- my fiance suggested it after I voiced my frustration with the WebMD weight loss planner. I found that having everything in "meal zones" (on WebMD) made everything that much more complicated. If my first meal is at noon, and is a banana, is that breakfast? Lunch? My mid-morning snack? And if I have a bowl of cereal an hour after that, should I put it in the breakfast slot? I found I was trying to disregard the entire "meal zones" anyway, which created yet more problems. Hurray for FitDay, that recognizes not everyone eats the same way throughout the day! :)

Now that I've been trying this for 3 weeks would like to see a tracking space in Custom Food for Folic Acid and Pantothenic Acid.

Update items tracked
 

So would many, many more of us. At this point, however, it seems to be a cold hard fact that the powers that be at Internet Brands will not respond to requests of this sort. :(

I'd also like a way to filter all the foods listed. I never buy packaged for fast foods and I have to do a lot of searching just to find a plain vegetable without sauces and mixes. I didn't find plain hamburger meat easily either because I had to sift through all the fast food hamburgers, with cheese, without cheese, with bun, without bun, with ketchup, and on and on. What happened to plain real food?

Another suggestion if not filter is added, is how about listing the plain real food first, like a plain vegetable or a plain egg first before all the packaged and prepared options. It's healthier for us to eat simply and not packaged, it makes sense that the real food shows up first on the lists. Thanks,
April

Have you tried the "Food Browse" tab? I find that is often the quickest way to find "plain" foods.

Regards,
Michael

I have been using FD for about a month now it's not bad. I found that the nutritional information is rediculously flawed. You enter a food that has 25% vit A ( or any other nutrient) but when it comes out in the report it is a totally different %. Just get rid of the nutritional info if you can't get it right!

Also I find the forums are not always responsive to me but I see other's posts get responded to so it must be just me.

I would second any motion to improve the accuracy of nutrutional information. It is never going to be 100% in that your variety, brand or preparation may differ. I've been using Fitday about a week and find it very useful and enjoyable.

Along the lines of the above posters, I have been feeling it would be nice to setup a "starting template" for the new day. It would consists of whatever foods are normally eaten. This could be determined by the system, or done manually (an option could perhaps exist whether one wants this to be done, if it is automatic). The recent foods list is pretty good as a fall back method.

I can understand why people would want to be able to add whole meals, though mine vary quite a bit.

One small request on the calorie balance report (weekly, monthly, etc).
Is it possible to include the net balance for the period as a quantity of calories, and perhaps suggest approximate poundage? Obvously there
are other factors that could explain why your actual loss is less or more,
but the information is useful over the longer term.

THanks much,

FIN

P.S. Editing this, as I was also wondering about the inactivity timeout. I'm logged off pretty quickly - faster than my banking site. Or if the computer goes into standby. Is it possible that this could be customizeable if it isn't already?

Good Point...never thought of it that way!

Nutritional information is "always" a best guess. They are at best, averages. One grape same size and weight, depending on time of harvest etc will contain more or less of various vitamins, minerals, and sugars.

The same goes for all grains etc.

You can place some faith in quality control of what some companies provide but then again, it will be an average.

I find that most data contained in programs like this does vary, but so does the samples.

As long as you can track your "general data" you can get a pretty good best guess for yourself and your nutrition.

Physicians don't even have all the answers to nutrition. I believe what the software is truly about is giving you a "General picture" or "snap shot" over time of what your consuming. It's not meant as a replace for a lab.

People are always welcome to add their own foods from their own nutritional information, but be warned about the ingredients list and putting values in their proper places, like sugar alchohols, fibers, etc.

Good luck

I would like to echo this sentiment. Part of the beauty of FitDay is it's simplicity. Other sites try to offer more "features" such as meal breakdown and it just clutters the screen into a loud busy mess of tables and graphics. The simple food list table is in my opinion the GREATEST feature that Fitday offers. It is the reason I'm not using one of the other sites. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't go that route.

Come on people, if you enter your foods in order then you can see your meals by proximity. And anyway, it's mostly about WHAT you eat in the course of a day, not WHEN.

Fitday, please don't lose your niche by adopting an interface like that of your competitors. Thanks.

I second this motion. Or if there is a more structured format, it should be a configurable option.

It's funny that the PC version is being pitched as an upgrade. Most PC software is moving to the cloud. How different is the PC version? I like the web version because it's accessible from everywhere.

I messaged tech about your concerns. Always good to hear various points of view :)

I completely agree. I'd go mad if I had to slot everything in to meal time zones that suit other people - a free daily list is the way to go

Needs many improvements
 

What about Sugar?

Why alcohol line item and no sugars?

I would like to see easier navigation, better food lists...and sugar!

I would like to see the option of dividing the food log into meals. It is commonly suggested to break your calories up into 6 smaller meals a day. This would be a nice feature to have. You don't have to call them breakfast, lunch, etc. just simply meal 1, meal 2, and so forth.

Plus being able to plan your meals in advance would be nice as well. I'm also irritated by the "too hard to program" comment. There are FREE sites I have used that have this feature and they seem to think it at least cost effective to add it. What's FitDay's problem?! I expect MUCH more from a site I pay for!!! Don't give us excuses, your customers have a need/demand its your job to try and make it happen. That's a good way to lose business. I hope I don't see much more of that kind of attitude or I'll find somewhere else to give my money too that will make a reasonable effort to provide the services their customers request!:mad:

lepale,
Please tell me that you are not calling out Michael and saying that it's his job to make things happen. I'd hope that before you decided to show your ass you would have taken the time to read the forum rules!
FitDay Free Calorie Counter and Diet Journal:FitDay Forum Rules In case you didn't you should check it out first before you decide to call someone out.
You'll see:

13. Do not complain about the rules. Any public discussion of specific cases will be removed and you will lose your posting privileges (temporarily or permanently). This is a privately owned forum and we created the rules based on years of experiences with thousands of members. Moderators and administrators are unpaid volunteers who spend a lot of time making sure our forum is safe, clean, and supportive. If we decide that your post is inapporpriate, it will be removed or locked. Please don't argue and please don't keep posting along the same line otherwise you're gone too.We reserve the right to disable posting abilities of anyone that violates any of the terms of membership, without warning or notice.


So, this isn't HIS JOB! He has his own job and a family to tend to. He is a forum member just like you (well maybe not) that volunteers HIS TIME to HELP YOU and the OTHER MEMBERS! He owes you NOTHING, got it? He does this out of the goodness of his heart just like the other moderators so show a little respect or gratitude next time. FitDay is offered for free if you are a paying member and not satisfied, try it for free, if you are still not satisfied then go elsewhere, it's that simple.

Time stamp on food log
 

Hello fitday users,

I wanted to add to this post instead of starting a new thread since I was thinking along the same line as the OP.

My thought is that it would be a simple implementation of adding a time stamp of when food/activity was entered into the 'log book'.

The time would just be automatically be pulled from PC's time- just a few lines of code to add.

I think it would help dieters figure out if they truly are hungry or just thirsty when they see when they last ate.

Thank you again for this site!

---EDIT---

Just to add after reading more on this thread since I also read the same thing on another post:

Please add sugar content on the nutrition facts for custom foods. It will help trememndously

I like the program the way it is. I do not need to know when I ate something I just need to know I did. I like to plan my food day one day ahead and add or delete items as needed.

what hapens to printer friendly
 

Why can't I do the printer friendly format more than once , if then. I wanted to take my reports to my dietician and the printer thingy don't work.
I like most everything else ok though. I tried to just print the page and it takes a ton of paper doing that. Can any one help?

I imagine your browser setting is at fault -- try clearing your cache and refreashing the page?

I agree with those who say that looking up foods can be difficult. Why are the packaged, more junky foods easier to find than the simple, raw food? This doesn't make sense, especially if this is a site to help people lose weight and be healthy. A raw apple should be much easier to find, and always at the top of the list of APPLE over anything pre-packaged including apple. I make nearly everything I eat from scratch and sometimes I have to hunt a long time to find the raw ingredients for what I eat.

Other than that and Hot Yoga and Pilates not included in Activities, I do LOVE FitDay!

Hi Bastzine,
Like you, I make almost everything from scratch and it can indeed be difficult to hunt down all the ingredients in their raw forms. One thing I've noticed over the years of using FitDay as well as the USDA's National Nutrient Database (which functions similarly to FitDay) is that you sometimes have to search for a raw food in its plural form if the singular doesn't work at first, or vice-versa.

So, when I search APPLES in FitDay all kinds of processed food appears, but a search for APPLE comes up with the raw food at the top of the list. Similarly, the USDA's database comes up with all kinds of crazy food-like substances when I search for STRAWBERRY, but a search for STRAWBERRIES produces the real deal.

If all else fails, I highly recommend using the "Browse" function until you are super familiar with how this site works. However, there are a few examples when combining "Browse" with "Search" is your best option on FitDay. Try browsing through FRUIT & JUICE-->BERRIES, for example. You'll find there is no selection for STRAWBERRIES, RAW, but a search for STRAWBERRIES will work. In other words, have patience and give yourself some time to figure out the site's quirks.

I also recommend checking nutrient values against the USDA database if you are unsure whether or not you've selected a food in its raw form. It is also fascinating to see the nutrient values for foods in super "high-def", if you're into that sort of thing anyway. Here's the link to the database http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/ (hopefully not a problem to post this since it is USDA research, not a competing site -- I think FitDay uses the same data for many foods).

Hopefully that helps! Happy logging!

I have been using FitDay for years, both online and on my PC, and there are two enhancements I would really like to see:

1) The ability to group items into a meal. For example, I frequently have Cheerios, fresh fruit, almond milk and coffee each morning. Rather than having to enter each of those items every day, I would like to create a "meal," call it what I'd like (ex: Cheerios Breakfast), and only have to make the single entry each day

2) The ability to delete custom foods without having to go into each food I want to delete and execute the delete item by item. Exactly the same way one can tag/select items in their e-mail to be deleted

FitDay PC will do Number 1 using the recipe builder feature.

I, also, would like to see Number 2 implemented.

Regards,
Michael

I've brought it to the attention of the developers. Not sure if that is on tap for New FitDay.

Fiber
 

I Love this site and the only thing I would add is a place for sugar & fiber for those that subtract it in our carb count, I know itis listed on each foods but to have it right there would be WONDERFUL Thank you all for the hard work & free site...:D

Love Fitday. Have been using it for over a year. It's the best way for me to lose weight. I lost 10 kg but once I stopped writing down what I ate I gained most of it back. I can't wait to get back down to my goal weight and then stay on fitday as a maintenance tool. Tried the beta, but it gave a ridiculous amount for 'weight still to lose'. I'm 69 kg and it says I still have 87 kg to lose. But the old version never really worked well in kgs either. Would also like to see body measurements graphed for longer than 2 months. Cheers!

fasting blood sugar graph
 

As an improvement to the site I would like to see a place where I could enter my fasting glucose number and then generate the graphs to see how well I'm controling it over time.

Part of a Meal
 

Good idea for a workaround but I don't think it's that complex. When entering a custom food, there could be an optional dropdown list selector for "meal" allowing one to select "breakfast", "lunch" , etc. and possibly to create your own custom meals e.g. "morning snack". Such a solution would not clutter the interface and should not bother anyone who does not care to have their foods listed in that way.

Hi kathleen, you can go to 'Stats' tab, select 'Blood Sugar' and click the 'Track Button' then enter your values over time and see a graph. Premium members can create custom items to track in addition to the many already available.

Hi, I contacted Fitday a long time ago, asking that they restore the check-boxes for the auto delete, as well as increasing the amount of food per day you can include--or at least making it proportional to the # of foods you delete if you are at your max (if I am at max and want to add 2 more items, I should be able to delete 2 items, add 2 items in. They emailed saying they will look into this--esp the checkboxes for the delete (they used to have this--i hate individually deleting 10+ items and waiting for the page to reload each time). They haven't gotten back to me since. Anyone else heard anything back from them about check boxes?

This is the message I originally posted in April 2011:

Hi! I have been using Fitday for over 8 years and have a request. Before you made some changes, you used to allow MULTIPLE deletions of daily food items. Please bring it back! You used to be able to check mark the boxes beside the foot (just like when you go to recent foods or custom, and can click multiple foods to add at once). It is such a pain having to individually click on the X to delete each item one at a time, especially when you are deleting more than 14 items and are redoing your meal plan. I think this would be a very easy fix, as you already had it implemented before.

Another recommendation I have and would love to see is to fix the "you have reached maximum limit of food allowed". Please expand the amount of foods one is allowed to add, and most importantly please make sure that the system recognized that you have in fact deleted a food item, and therefore you should be able to add another item back. Many times it says "you have reached the limit", when I only want to add one more food. Instead of allowing me to just remove one, I have to delete about 15 foods to accommodate the one I wanted to add. Even after I have deleted 7 items that I had already added, it still says "maximum limit reached" when I try to add back one (after deleting more than 6). I am sure this is an easy fix as well, and would be much appreciated. Thank you very much!!!