Dave's Not Here

He said “Tool”

by on Mar.18, 2010, under Dave's Must Haves, Workout Logs

Weight Loss Tools

A friend of mine was recently asking me about a tracker, and I realized that I have tried many online trackers out there, with varying levels of success.  So, I thought I’d share my findings.

But, first a caveat.  I am a daily weigher.  I religiously weigh my self every day, and now, I measure my %BF on the scale every day too.  So, I need tools that will average out all the movement to allow me to see trends, not water weight.

Weight Trackers & Food Journals

Daily Burn – I love all the trackers on this site.  I have tried fitday, weight watchers, mymedifast, and several other sites, but, Daily Burn seems to pwn them all.  Plus, if you have an iPhone, you can track right from your phone.  They track measurements too, but, it is a bit of a pain to enter everything, so, I moved my measurements tracking over to a spreadsheet, since I only track those bi weekly anyway.  The food journaling is even better than the weight / measurement tracking.  And, if you eat packaged meals, you can scan the UPC code with your camera, and instantly add it without having to “type” in the name.  Epic Win!

Ticker Factory – If you are a forum lurker, you gotta have a ticker.  While I’m not completely happy with the choices at tickerfactory, it does work.  If you find a better one, let me know.  Right now, my ticker is a guy “surfing” down some slopes, because I couldn’t find a snowboarder.

WeightWatchers I only list this one in case you are actually doing weight watchers.  They have a very full food database, with lots of point values computed.  But, if you’re not watching “points”, then there are better sites out there.

SparkPeople – Lots of people love this site.  The food database is large.  There is nothing wrong with it, but, I personally don’t need all the emails and annoying reminders.  They annoyed me away.

Weight Trackers – Daily Weighing

Hacker’s Diet Online – I used this for QUITE a while.  It was created by the author of theHacker’s Diet, which is an awesome sanity check for anyone trying to lose weight.  And, while there is nothing wrong with the tracker, it only tracks weight.  When I wanted something to track %Bodyfat too, I replaced it.

Physics Diet Tracker – This tracker was based on the hacker’s diet tracker.  But, they have extra fields you can track, better graphs, and easier data entry, even from my phone.  And, they have a banner you can use for your signature that makes you look über cool.

Information / Advice

Shrinkgeek – The “Elitist Jerks” of weight loss, but without the attitude.  The authors are all in varying stages of weight loss, and they have a lot to share.  The forums are a bit new, but still insightful.

exrx.net – EVERYTHING you would ever need to know about exercise.  Trying to exercise the muscle on the back of your hand?  They probably have a movement to do it.

Hackers Diet – A great sanity check on why all diets work, and why all diets don’t.

Other Stuff

Garmin Connect – I use this site to share my runs (or, I will, once I start running again)

Motion X / TrailRunner – Great GPS iPhone apps to track runs / bikes / etc.  I like MotionX over TrailRunner, even though TrailRunner is easier to use.


Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Looking for something?

Use the form below to search the site:

Still not finding what you're looking for? Drop a comment on a post or contact us so we can take care of it!