An ancient Roman aphorism says: “ Hauritaquamcribro, quidiscerevultsinelibro”, which translated from Latin means “He who wants to study without a book draws water with a sieve.” If we slightly paraphrase this ancient wisdom, extending it to the modern realities of losing weight, you can make sure that it has not lost its relevance at all. “Anyone who wants to lose weight without a food diary draws water with a sieve!” This idea boils down to the statements of scientists who are tirelessly fighting the “plague of the 21st century” - the obesity epidemic.
When voicing the idea of keeping a food diary to their patients at the first appointment, nutritionists often encounter resistance. “Do I have nothing else to do?”, “Am I a mathematician, or what?”, “Do I really have to be tied to scales and a calculator now?” and even “Should I count calories right in front of the children?” - what kind of counterarguments are not used by those who are dissatisfied with this prospect and losing weight.
However, first of all, it is definitely worth it! Well, secondly, technological progress has advanced far enough to save you from using a calculator when doing calculations. What's more: you'll love counting calories!
Three main reasons to keep a weight loss diary
The inexorable laws of physics say that there is only one way to lose weight - “energy”. In order for “energy depots” in the form of fat reserves to disintegrate, the body’s energy consumption must exceed its intake. It is this fundamental connection that helps you clearly track your food diary.
As you know, energy is measured in kilocalories, or more simply put, calories. This means that the main task of losing weight is to reduce the amount of calories coming from food. Therefore, at the start of weight loss, experts set a “calorie threshold”, which should not be crossed until the extra pounds are completely defeated.
Typically, this limit is from 1000 to 1500 kcal. Determining how many calories we “eat” during the day (and sometimes at night) is possible only through a food diary, where everything we drink and eat is strictly recorded, including the weight of foods and, most importantly, their calorie content.
Those losing weight who at first try to shy away from keeping a diary ask the question: “Why don’t we eat exclusively healthy food?” It seems that the answer is obvious: everyone probably has friends who claim that they live on cabbage alone, deny themselves all gastronomic joys, almost starve - and for some reason their weight increases.
And only when they begin to scrupulously write down everything that they put into their mouths, the scales fall from their eyes: it turns out that in between eating cabbage they will either drink tea with cookies and sweets, or snack on cakes in a coffee shop, or be treated to dumplings...
And only when a person begins to keep a diary does he realize that each such “edible little thing” costs a good half of the daily calorie intake. And, as extensive practice shows, those who have “seen the light” immediately begin to successfully lose weight!
The second typical question from “dissenters”: “Isn’t it possible to determine the number of calories by eye?” Numerous experiments in which thousands of people took part show that it is possible, it is, of course, possible, but with a large degree of error - and always in the direction of a subjective reduction in the calorie content of the food eaten.
The “mistake” in the “by eye” assessment is from 30 to 50% underestimation of calories eaten! This applies to absolutely everyone, including nutrition professionals - be it a waiter, a chef, or even a doctor specializing in weight loss. Therefore, nutritionists recommend that in cases where there is no way to count the calories in a dish, double the estimated number that comes to mind. And keeping a calorie diary saves you from the need to wander in captivity of your arithmetic fantasies.
And finally, the diary will help you constantly make sure that you are on the right path: that is, you are eating what you need, and in the quantities that you need. In addition, the diary comes with a weight loss chart - in it you will triumphantly set milestones of your victories over fat. And even if there are few reasons for joy, you can always present your diary to a nutritionist, who will help you figure out what you are doing wrong and correctly adjust your diet.
Why do you need a food diary?
Unlike his prehistoric ancestors, modern man very often eats when he is not at all hungry. We eat because “the time has come,” for company, out of grief or joy, simply because there is nothing to do, in search of new taste sensations, and so on. As for the composition of the products they take, most people, unless, of course, there are strict contraindications related to health, do not pay any attention to this at all. Keeping a food diary allows you to think about these issues, analyze your bad habits and take measures to correct them.
The more we pay attention to what we put into our bodies, the more difficult it will be for us to stuff unhealthy and dangerous foods into ourselves. Of course, documenting your eating habits is not a guaranteed way to lose weight, but when combined with a healthy diet and regular exercise, it can have a very positive impact on your weight loss program.
How to choose your ideal calorie diary?
Gone are the days when the “pioneers” of training and weight loss courses scribbled their paper diaries literally on their knees, surrounded by scales and calculators. The era of digital technology has opened up the possibility of unlimited access to gigantic amounts of information, including that necessary for keeping weight loss diaries.
Any Internet user can find literally everything about what he has eaten or intends to eat in a matter of seconds. To do this, you just need to have a computer, tablet, smartphone or any similar device at hand. The only “traditional” device that you won’t be able to give up yet is the scale. All you have to do is enter the weight and name of the dish or products it consists of and - voila, everything is calculated automatically!
It is not surprising that sites focused on helping people lose weight are enthusiastically including “calorie counters” in their services. Perhaps the most important criterion for evaluating them can rightfully be considered ease of use and functionality. Well, the absence of intrusive advertising, which makes it difficult to view content, slows down the operating system, eats up traffic and, finally, is simply annoying - an important plus.
It is gratifying that the matter itself, as a rule, is not limited to counting calories: the best sites concentrate a lot of virtual “chips” for the benefit of those who have embarked on the path leading to slimness.
Here are the main ones:
- availability of a mobile version suitable for portable devices;
- the opportunity to consult with specialists;
- additional help - topical articles, video tutorials, etc.;
- support of like-minded people through a forum with the possibility of communication;
- reviews from grateful users who share their experience of losing weight using a food diary;
- rich “product” database, which is regularly updated.
Next, we will test the seven most popular virtual food diaries for losing weight for the presence of the listed “digital amenities”, assign ratings to each diary, summarize them in a single table and find out which of these resources deserves the title of ideal.
Sample food diary
It will be more convenient if you divide your weight loss diary not only by day, but also into morning, lunch and evening. You should definitely note in it the amount of water you drink, your activity during the day, your well-being and all your meals.
Consider the most popular example of a weight loss diary.
Morning
- * What time did you wake up?
- * How many hours did you sleep?
- * What time did you have breakfast?
- * Your breakfast - weight of dishes, number of products.
- * Your well-being, mood, your emotions.
- * Was there a snack? If so, what did it include, and in what quantity?
- * Your well-being, mood, your emotions.
- * Amount of water drunk in the morning.
- * Physical activity - type, intensity, time of execution.
Dinner
- * What time did you have lunch?
- * Your lunch - weight of dishes, number of products.
- * Was there a snack? If so, what did it include, and in what quantity?
- * Your well-being, mood, your emotions.
- * Amount of water drunk during lunch.
- * Physical activity - type, intensity, time of execution.
Evening
- * What time did you have dinner?
- * Your dinner - weight of dishes, number of products.
- * Was there a snack? If so, what did it include, and in what quantity?
- * Your well-being, mood, your emotions.
- * Amount of water drunk per evening.
- * Physical activity - type, intensity, time of execution.
Please remember that this food diary is just a sample and can be modified depending on your needs.
Bormental.ru
This is a professional online resource for those losing weight from the No. 1 weight loss center in Russia “Doctor Bormenthal”. The site was developed and supervised by the famous Russian scientist Andrei Bobrovsky, a nutritionist and psychotherapist, candidate of medical sciences, author of the “Doctor Bormental” method, scientific director of a network of clinics of the same name.
- Convenience and functionality: 5 points
At first glance, the site is attracted by its noble design and complete absence of annoying advertising. In the footer of the main page, only significant projects of the Dr. Bormental weight loss center are tactfully announced. The interface is built clearly and harmoniously, at the same time it is simple and intuitive even for those who visited the resource for the first time.
The “Bormenthal” food diary itself is very flexible and detailed: here you can create a daily diet from both individual products and ready-made dishes, which are available in a wide range, including many delicious dietary recipes. The number of calories, their density (which cannot be found on other sites), as well as the content of proteins, fats and carbohydrates is taken into account - both in each meal and for the day (or any other time interval) as a whole.
Another “highlight” of the diary is the notes - you eat according to hunger, time or appetite, which allows you to track the relationship between food and emotional state. Not only food is taken into account, but also water drunk and physical activity. There is also a statistics section in which the calorie content of food and its fractionality are assessed, the “relationships” between products are analyzed, body parameters are determined, a weight loss and volume reduction chart is maintained, etc.
Everything on this site is impeccably subordinated to a single goal - to make the weight loss process as easy, effective and safe as possible. It remains to add that all the information on the site is scientifically substantiated and based on the most modern medical principles.
- Availability of a mobile version: 5 points
You can easily access the “Bormenthal calorie counter” not only from a PC, but also from mobile and tablet devices - that is, the diary is actually available at any time and anywhere where the global network operates.
- Possibility of consultations: 4 points
Consultations here are available only to VIP program participants. True, the fee for it is purely symbolic, although online appointments are conducted by well-known Russian nutritionists and psychotherapists.
- Additional help: 5 points
The arsenal of help for losing weight on the “Calorie Counter” is very wide: there are trances, webinars, video tutorials, articles, quizzes, slimming recipes and instructions to help beginners.
- Support of like-minded people: 5 points
There is a thematic forum on “Schitalka”, where people united by the goal of losing weight actively discuss any pressing issues, share successes and experiences, and exchange recipes for delicious and healthy dishes.
- Reviews: 5 points
https://youtu.be/-GMLsHvCdJ4
The “Bormenthal counting machine” has many loyal fans who have personally attested to its indispensability in weight loss in the “Book of Reviews” on the local forum, in success stories on the “Doctor Bormenthal” website and in videos on the YouTube video hosting site.
- Database: 5 points
The food diary is synchronized with the largest database in Russia - the online food catalog "GoodsMatrix". Therefore, the information about products and dishes in this diary is the most relevant and varied that you can imagine.
How to lead
Regardless of the form option you choose, keep in mind that it is not as important as the content. Therefore, before you start filling out a weight loss diary, you need to carefully consider its design. If this is a self-compiled table in paper or electronic form, then it is enough to simply enter the necessary columns and lines into it, and then fill them out in a timely manner. When choosing a mobile application to download or a website to work online, you should give preference to those that will best comply with the recommendations below.
Entering data
Making entries in a weight loss diary is not as difficult and boring as it seems at first glance. But before you start such a diary, you need to understand how to correctly reflect all the necessary information when entering data. To do this, you need to familiarize yourself with some important rules and recommendations:
- All consumed products and dishes are recorded without fail and written in a column indicating the quantity (in grams, since the calculation is carried out in them), calorie content (kcal), content of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
- If records are kept in a mobile application or online on a website, then there should be information about the energy and nutritional value of the products. When using a notepad or spreadsheet on a computer for these purposes, such data can be found on the Internet and saved in bookmarks, downloaded or printed.
- It is advisable to indicate the time of meals, which will help determine their frequency and diet in general.
- The mass of any food is determined using scales, measuring cups or other containers whose volume is precisely known. This will help you correctly reflect the amount you eat per day. You cannot determine your weight approximately (“by eye”), as this will negate the whole point of keeping a weight loss diary.
- You can roughly estimate the serving size only when visiting a restaurant or other catering establishments, but only if this happens quite rarely. If you constantly eat outside the home, you need to find ways to solve this problem (search on the Internet for descriptions of the dishes you eat, indicating the composition and calorie content, or ask a chef for help).
- Entries are made after every meal, snack, and even accidental consumption of food. If you do this in the evening, it will be difficult to remember everything that was eaten during the day, and the amounts of calories and dietary fat will not correspond to reality, which will also make keeping a weight loss diary pointless.
- Not only food, but also drinks are recorded. The volume of water drunk is taken into account separately, which will determine whether enough fluid is consumed to maintain water balance in the body.
- All physical activity is recorded, including home exercises, training in the gym, doing housework, walking and any other physical activity. In this case, everything that was performed must be described as accurately as possible. In addition, the number of calories burned and the effect of a particular load on appetite, food choice, and emotional state are indicated.
- At the end of each day, intermediate results are compiled - how much excess weight was lost (or gained), how many calories were received and how much was consumed. This will help you plan your diet and exercise for the next day.
All entries must be made daily and strictly according to the specified rules. Otherwise, you will never be able to achieve the goals that were set at the beginning of keeping a weight loss diary.
Additionally, some other information should be noted that will be very useful when conducting analysis to correct eating behavior. For this purpose, it is recommended to indicate:
- sensations 15–20 minutes after consuming each product or dish, including well-being and the rate of satisfaction of hunger (the appearance of a feeling of fullness);
- feelings and mood before each meal to determine the presence or absence of a tendency to overeat due to emotions, as well as the food that is preferred at such moments - sweet, fatty or other;
- the degree of hunger before and after eating to compare the amount eaten in cases where the body was really hungry and when there was no strong desire to eat.
All this information will help identify and correct errors, significantly accelerating progress towards the goal. In addition, a weight loss diary can be very effectively used to control financial expenses if you add another column to the specified data and record the cost of products in it. This will significantly save the family budget by refusing those purchases that harm both your figure and your wallet.
Information analysis
To get the most out of a weight loss diary, it is critical to know not only how to write your daily entries, but also how to use them in the future. Entering data is only half the battle, since it must be systematically analyzed and based on the results obtained, nutrition and lifestyle adjustments can be made.
Attention! A brief analysis should be carried out when summing up interim results at the end of each day in order to slightly adjust the diet and slightly change physical activity. If you do this daily, then with the help of such small steps you can easily and without stress for the body achieve the desired weight.
For a more detailed analysis of the information entered in the weight loss diary, it is necessary to determine:
- Caloric content of the daily diet and the ratio of incoming and expended calories. Increasing your energy deficit by 500 kcal/day will allow you to lose 0.5–1 kg of excess weight per week. This can be achieved by reducing the energy value of food or increasing the level of physical activity.
- Dietary patterns that require correction. To do this, you need to establish: how this or that product affects your mood (the “negative” ones must be abandoned); what food causes satiety faster (should be preferred); what situations lead to overeating (they need to be avoided or controlled).
- Number of snacks during the day. This will allow you to establish what was clearly unnecessary in the diet - a pack of nuts in the morning, a chocolate bar in the afternoon, a pack of chips in the evening in front of the TV. Without a weight loss diary, such “small” snacks are not given importance, and they contain a lot of calories.
- The quality of food consumed. If you don’t have the time or conditions to prepare fresh homemade food, you need to think through the menu in advance, including healthy snacks, and take food with you so as not to look for something (usually not very suitable) to satisfy your hunger during the day.
- Meals on weekdays and weekends. Some people tend to overeat on weekends, while for others, on the contrary, their eating habits “spoil” on weekdays depending on their work or school schedule. If you don't have time to cook on weekdays, you should prepare more meals on the weekends to ensure you're eating healthy during the week.
- The relationship between emotional state and food intake. If food choices change during times of stress or depression, you need to find other ways to improve your mood. It should be taken into account that certain foods can cause negative emotions. You need to give them up and track the results. For example, excessive coffee consumption can increase nervousness and irritability.
At the same time, it is possible to establish the body’s reaction to a particular food, as well as poor tolerance of certain foods. These factors do not have a direct effect on the process of weight loss, but can significantly worsen the condition of the gastrointestinal tract and digestive system as a whole. Most often, negative consequences occur after consuming dairy products in case of lactose intolerance or cereals and flour products with increased sensitivity to gluten. If symptoms appear that can be caused by certain foods, you should show your weight loss diary to your doctor and consult with him about adjusting your diet.
Diets.ru
This is a specialized social network that offers those who are losing weight to achieve their desired weight through various diets.
- Convenience and functionality: 3 points a
Once you open the site, it immediately becomes clear that advertising and marketing function well here. Right in the header of the site there is a call to join the gardening project, under the header - to ride reindeer, and in the left sidebar - to buy cats, shoes, jewelry, etc. It is not clear what all this has to do with weight loss. When navigating through the pages of the site, the user every now and then stumbles upon the ubiquitous Yandex Direct.
However - to the food diary! On the website, its menu is modestly located between gardeners and deer. Here, thank God, there is a calculation of the calorie content of ready-made dishes and products, and accounting for calorie consumption during a particular physical activity, and weight control statistics. But the direct functions of the weight loss diary are rather weak and are lost against the background of the general diversity.
For example, the fields for filling out the diary are initially designed for only one meal - users will have to “conjure” adding meals. But along the way - the name of the site obliges you to “comply” - there is a large number of unbalanced diets that are potentially dangerous, and besides, they are not needed for weight loss in principle: all that is needed is a balanced diet within the calorie range.
- Availability of mobile version : 5 points
There is a mobile application.
- Possibility of consultations: 4 points
The site has a column of free consultants, but among them there are no nutritionists - only psychologists.
- Additional help: 3 points
In addition to the already mentioned diets and psychological consultations, you can only find thematic articles here. Well, and “joint purchases,” as usual.
- Support of like-minded people: 5 points
But here you can’t argue: this is a social network with all the necessary “accessories” - vigorous communication in groups and through personal correspondence, competitions, photo galleries, the opportunity to speak out and receive comments in the “Diaries” section. Although in essence these are blogs, not food diaries, and the fact that different sections are called the same is somewhat confusing.
- Reviews: 4 points
On the review site Irecommend.ru there are entirely laudatory reviews, although in style they are more reminiscent of professional journalistic articles. But the website has a photo gallery of the participants, clearly demonstrating their figures before and after losing weight.
- Database: 2 points
The base is very meager: there is only food, and there are only 12 ready-made main courses, and their list includes mainly boiled vegetables. If we are guided by the saying “cabbage soup and porridge are our food,” then when searching for the calorie content of porridges, only ready-made porridges from McDonalds and Nestle “helpfully” pop up, and there is no trace of cabbage soup in the database.
How to keep a food diary for weight loss - sample filling
Beginners sometimes wonder how to fill out a food diary. At first this may seem like a problem. Weighing portions, counting piece goods, counting calories - all this is done automatically after a while, since most of the food we eat is standard and repeated day after day.
Filling rules
These are common no matter which form of record keeping you choose:
- All foods consumed for each meal are recorded in a column in the current day column. Opposite each is indicated the weight (in grams) and calorie content (for a given mass of the product or dish).
- In addition to the calorie content, it is very advisable to indicate next to the amount of nutrients (separately proteins, fats and carbohydrates) in the food eaten. This is important for determining the balance of BZHU, which is one of the principles of rational nutrition.
- A separate column records the time of each meal, including all snacks. In the future, this will allow you to adjust your nutrition schedule. Ideally, the time interval between meals should be at least three hours.
- In a separate line you need to record the amount of liquid you drink per day. This indicator is also important, since water directly affects the level of metabolism in the body.
- It is necessary to record data immediately after each meal, without leaving it until the end of the day. Information may disappear from memory. Therefore, you should always have a diary at hand.
- In the “training” line, write the type of physical activity and its duration. Ideally, you should also indicate the energy consumption for this type of activity, taking into account their duration.
- You need to fill out a nutrition and exercise diary every day for several weeks. Otherwise, all sense of keeping a diary is lost.
Sample and template of a table for one day
In the photo below you can see an example of filling out a food diary:
It reflects only food data. In a more complete manner, such a table should also contain data on physical activity. They are contained in a nutrition and training diary - this is a more correct weight loss diary. You can download it from the provided link:
Food and workout diary template for weight loss
download free for printing
There are different table templates and different ways of displaying information:
- in a notebook or notebook
- in a program on a computer
- via mobile application
- online on a website about weight loss
Beregifiguru.ru
This Internet project is presented to users as “a site for calculating figure indicators, weight, proportions, ideals and consumption.”
- Convenience and functionality: 4 points
The site is quite simple - a typical set of online calculators. And this is good, since the service is not “cluttered” with an abundance of varied information. Everything is clear: a fairly convenient and detailed food diary, calorie consumption tracking, statistics of weighings and measurements of body volumes, keeping graphs for clarity, etc. True, advertisements for foreign language courses hang over the header, advertising screensavers intrusively flash in the left sidebar, and Yandex Direct is spread out freely in the basement.
- Availability of a mobile version : 3 points
There is no mobile application, since, judging by the administration’s assurances, “the site is optimized to work on mobile devices.”
- Possibility of consultations: 3 points
Consultations are provided, however, only with trainers, and not with doctors. However, the website honestly states that it is “intended for informational purposes and is not a substitute for medical advice.”
- Additional help: 1 point
Not observed - as they say, “the situation is strict, nothing superfluous.”
- Support of like-minded people: 5 points
There is a thematic forum where, by the way, everyone can publish their personal weight loss diary for public viewing and discussion.
- Reviews: 4 points
On the forum you can find that a number of users liked this resource, and their sincerity is beyond doubt.
- Database: 5 points
The product base pleases with its breadth: for each product and dish there are dozens of varieties, including the same “cabbage soup and porridge”.
dietadiary.com
The goal of this site, as stated on the home page, is “to provide a simple, easy-to-use tool for managing your weight.”
- Convenience and functionality: 3 points
The site is an example of a typical calorie counter with all the tools to automate the counting: food diary, calorie tables, calorie calculator, graphs and rulers. It’s a pity that the diary is “tailored” to only one product—you have to add the rest of the data about products and meals yourself. In addition, the service does not pay attention to movement, and, consequently, energy costs.
Among the most annoying disadvantages: in the header, the “carousel” of banners flickers so much that it dazzles your eyes, and when you navigate through the pages, advertisements for “cash loans” and other things that are inappropriate here pop up here and there. In general, the site gives the impression of overload, being essentially a simple calculator with an attached forum.
- Availability of mobile version : 5 points
Diet diaries, as the site rightly claims, are “accessible to anyone, from anywhere.”
- Possibility of consultations: 1 point
Not provided.
- Additional help: 2 points
Featured articles only.
- Reviews: 4 points
Some users do not skimp on publishing their words of gratitude on the site. There are also reviews on Irecommend.ru, but they are clearly custom-made.
- Support of like-minded people: 5 points
Well, the friendly mutual assistance and communication here is at its best: there is a dietary forum with many topics, and you can also exchange messages, keep blog diaries and read recipes, blogs and food diaries of users.
- Database: 3 points
The table of calorie content of foods, as the website assures, “contains more than 1000 items.” True, there are no basic cabbage soup on this list, and there are only five types of porridges, as well as soups. It is proposed to add “culinary” information, which is clearly in short supply here, on your own.
Takzdorovo.ru
This is a very respectable representative of our review - the official resource of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, embodying the state program “Healthy Russia”. There is also a section with food diaries.
- Convenience and functionality: 5 points
At first glance, the “official” food diary serves as an excellent illustration of the aphorism “Everything ingenious is simple”: the section menu is in plain sight, no diversity, confusion or annoying advertising (the Ministry of Health, of course, does not need advertising).
But upon closer examination, it turns out that initially the diary is designed for only one product or recipe, and the remaining products are added independently. But this is more than compensated for by many other interesting and useful options: a movement diary with a database of types of activity and energy expenditure, training planning, a weight chart, as well as tests, surveys and personal recommendations.
- Availability of a mobile version : 3 points
We were able to find a mobile version only for those who want to quit smoking, and not for those losing weight. But on the website you can download a health diary to monitor your diet and exercise.
- Possibility of consultations: 5 points
This service is at the highest level - doctors with academic degrees, researchers, and heads of federal medical centers provide free consultations via online conferences. You can also get feedback via a toll-free hotline or email.
- Additional help: 5 points
In addition to the already mentioned tests, recommendations and online conferences, you can find many articles, news and expert columns on the site. They cover the topics of weight loss, proper nutrition, movement, healthy cooking, etc. And what is especially gratifying is that all this information can be confidently trusted, since it comes directly from the Ministry of Health.
- Reviews: 4 points
There are few comments on the well-known review site Irecommend.ru, but they are all positive.
- Support of like-minded people: 4 points
No forums, no chats, no blogs with comments can be found on this site. Here is an exclusive luxury - to receive online advice approved by the Ministry of Health itself!
- Database: 3 points
But the product catalog let us down: there are not so many ready-made dishes. If we talk about porridges, there are only four types of them, as well as three types of cabbage soup and four types of soup. The only meat is rabbit and turkey. Apparently, knowing this flaw, the administration added a note: “If the required entries are not found on the site, enter the products yourself or write to us.” Or it is simply suggested to read the labels on food packages.
Tvoytrainer.com
This is a resource with a sports focus, presented as a “site that trains.” In addition to sections about training, there is a food diary and a calorie consumption counter.
- Convenience and functionality: 4 points
The interface of the local food diary is noticeably different from its counterparts on other sites. The main inconvenience is that initially only breakfast is included in the diary, and you have to add the rest of the meals yourself. But the control zone here includes not only calories and dietary fats, but also micronutrients, and fats are sorted by type. You can keep charts for weight loss and volume reduction.
An undoubted advantage is the presence of a detailed training diary, which contains many thoroughly described exercises for various muscle groups. There are practically no advertisements here, and this is encouraging!
- Possibility of consultations: 4 points
When paying for a VIP subscription, consultations with fitness trainers and a nutritionist are provided.
- Availability of mobile version : 5 points
There is a calorie counter application for Android and mobile operating systems.
- Additional help: 3 points
Among the free services to help those losing weight, the website contains instructions on nutrition, training, journaling, etc.
- Reviews: 4 points
Success stories confirm the presence of a grateful audience for this site. They are published by real users in the appropriate section and illustrated with photographs of them in the process of losing weight.
- Support of like-minded people: 5 points
The site has blogs, communication in the feed, a competition for the best diets, and a database of dietary recipes for users, equipped with photographs of dishes.
- Database: 5 points
The catalog of ready-made dishes amazes with its diversity: there are a couple of dozen types of notorious porridges alone, and even more cabbage soup! Plus, you can check the calorie content of foods, their chemical composition and nutrients with two reference books at once - Skurikhin and USDA.
What is a weight loss diary
The classic version of a weight loss diary is a notebook or notepad in which all the necessary information is entered. A simple student notebook is often used, but nutritionists recommend having a bright, beautiful diary for these purposes. It will be enough not only for basic notes, but also for entering other useful information and your own feelings. You can decorate your notebook colorfully and attach a photo that will serve as a good incentive on the way to achieving your goal. Good options: online diary for weight loss, using office programs.
There are several options for keeping diaries to record the entire weight loss process. For example:
- low cost;
- ability to quickly enter data;
- mobility.
- it is difficult to analyze data due to the lack of automatic calculation of results;
- It’s inconvenient to make entries on the road.
Calorizator.ru
This portal is dedicated to healthy eating. The closest attention is paid to calorie counting here.
- Convenience and functionality : 5 points
The site presents a whole range of calculators-analyzers: individual products, recipes, dietary supplements, calorie consumption, etc. The recipe analyzer is especially convenient: in its field you can enter with one click all the products included in the dish being prepared, and adjust their specific gravity in the dish to the appropriate one calorie level.
As for the food diary, it is accompanied by statistics on BJU, a chart of weight loss and volume reduction, a nutrition calendar that shows the entered data for the week and month, and reports on all parameters regarding weight loss. Therefore, despite the dominance of Yandex Direct and other advertising, the diary as a whole deserves praise.
- Possibility of consultations: 1 point
Unfortunately, consultations with specialists are not provided on the portal.
- Availability of mobile version : 5 points
There is a mobile application.
- Additional help: 5 points
The portal has a lot of information to help those losing weight: articles, videos, diets, illustrated recipes, etc.
- Reviews: 4 points
On the review site Irecommend.ru there is an abundance of admiring comments, and not all of them are custom-made.
- Support of like-minded people: 5 points
In addition to the forum, where a lot of pressing topics are discussed, there are blogs of participants about losing weight, exchange of recipes, a lottery, gifts and awards, competitions, surveys - in general, a lot of interesting things.
- Database: 5 points
The grocery list is very rich - this applies to both individual products and ready-made dishes.
Results
And now, as promised, we will summarize all the ratings of the most popular online food diaries for all significant parameters into a single rating table.
Name of the site | Convenience and functionality | Possibility of consultations | Availability of mobile version | Additional Help | Reviews | Support of like-minded people | Database | TOTAL |
Bormental.ru | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 34 |
Diets.ru | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 26 |
Beregifiguru.ru | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 25 |
dietadiary.com | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 23 |
Takzdorovo.ru | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 29 |
Tvoytrainer.com | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 27 |
Calorizator.ru | 5 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 30 |
professional Bormental.ru and Takzdorovo are deservedly in the lead in this list . ru , however, the “amateur” Calorizator.ru also has something to be proud of. There are no obvious outsiders in this rating - other similar portals also have certain advantages, and you are free to choose the virtual diary that suits your taste as a companion to your slimness.
We hope that the diary you love will support your enthusiasm, make the weight loss process easy and fun, help you find new like-minded friends - in general, it will mean much more to you than just a calorie calculator!
Add it to the wall!