When I began losing weight and making lifestyle changes, using a diary to record my meals helped in several ways - I was less apt to eat something if it was too complicated to record; I started paying attention to all my caloric consumption, where before I ignored snacks and beverages; and I started appreciating how certain ingredients, like high fructose corn syrup, affected my body and mood. Most importantly, however, recording my meals forced me to practice awareness of my consumption habits - when I eat, why I eat, what I eat, what I crave, why I crave. Habits start as choices, then become habitual as we repeat our choices thoughtlessly. Recording my meals forced me to think about what I ate, which helped me make healthier eating choices and develop healthier eating habits.
Starting out, I just used a regular notebook and a calorie book. While fun at first, I quickly lost interest in flipping through a book to find each ingredient in my meal, then calculating my portions. I decided there must be a better way - surely there are online tools to make this easier! What I found was an overwhelming amount of diary sites to choose from, and no feature comparison to help decide which I would like the best. So, like any geek with a blog would do, I started making notes, taking screenshots, and trying out several of the services available.
First, I had to make some decisions about some general features I’m personally interested in. These would include:
- Record foods and beverages - ideally, record nutrition information in addition to caloric intake
- Record exercise
- Record other related information, including weight, amount of sleep, daily water intake, mood swings, etc
- Community features - forums, groups, etc
- Tools for calculating BMI, suggested caloric intake, suggested water intake, etc
- Topical articles written by nutritionists, trainers, featured community members, etc
- Reports for analyzing daily diet and exercise choices, including suggestions for improving diet
Additionally, I decided I would rate sites on different aspects. I’m starting with an incomplete list - I’m sure I’ll add rated features as I go, and assemble a large matrix at the end. To begin with, rated aspects will include:
- Ease of use
- Size and depth of food and exercise database
- Ability to add custom food and exercise entries
- Ability to assemble custom recipes from ingredients found in food database
One other choice I made - I would stick to free services. Perhaps after comparing some of the free services, I’ll revisit that decision and review what features pay services add and see if they’re worth paying for.
Do you have a service to suggest that you personally like? Are you interested in having features reviewed other than those listed? Let me know in the comments - I would love to make this review as helpful to you as it is for me.
Next up, I’ll start with a favorite for many people, Traineo.
Cris Harshman on 03-04-2008 
