Tracking what you eat: tools

If the key to losing weight is tracking what you eat, then here are a few tools to help you do it.

• Paper and pen.  Don't get caught up in lots of fancy tools if it's keeping you from actually getting going.  A spiral bound notebook and a pen will work just fine!
• Lifeform. If you regularly sit in front of your computer this software will really help you track what you eat.  The food database is very comprehensive and includes restaurants as well as purchased foods as well as homemade food.  You type a few letters and it shows you all the matching options.  For the foods you select, it shows you food ingredients and composition. Adding custom foods or common meals is extremely easy.  In addition it has some nice graphing capabilities - you can visually track calories in and calories out.  Or you can track percent carbs vs protein vs fat.  Or any other combination of the data it tracks.  It's available to download for $29.
• Fitday.  An online tracking tool that you can access from any computer.  It also lets you share with other users.  It's free online and also has a more powerful version available for purchase.

Track what you eat for best weight loss success!