Logging: how long is it taking you?

I/ve tried keeping the site open all day and logging as I go.  I also jotted everthing down and waited til the end of day. 

It just seems like I have to spend a significant amount of time just for the basics.  (not including any group or journaling activities).  Spending about 1.5 hours just logging calories and activities.  Anyone having trouble spending so much time. 

One enhancement that would help w/b if in the tagged items, it had a check box next to each one.  That way you could go down the list and check the ones you need and all would  be applied with much fewer clicks. 

Another thing that is soooo annoying is having the program take you back to the food categorie each time.  Whether you are in the search area or the tagged items, once your done it always goes back to food items or activities.  This seems like such fundamental coding it really gets me frustrated.

If others have found a way to work around these issues... I'm all ears.

Thanks,

No.  I think that is gets easier with experience.  Do you "tag" foods so you don't have to look them up all the time?  

another idea for easy entering of meals is to make "recipes" out of frequent food.

One cup Cheerios with 6 oz of milk can be made into a "recipe" and posted in one tagged meal. Go to Foods...New Recipe. Do read how to post measurements if your recipe keeps getting the "warning" sign that some items did not post correctly.

The recipe section has a learning curve, but it's not very hard. Practice with a few things and you'll catch on!

I agree - check boxes in the tagged item list would be REALLY helpful.

It takes me only a few minutes to record my foods/workout.  I tend to eat similar items every day, but in different amounts, so it's just a matter of going into my tagged items and adding the food. Also, I update as I eat...I tried to enter a full day's food-intake all at once and found that I ended up eating 2-days worth of calories.  Updating immediately helps you see what you have already eaten. :)

You have some great ideas, I would also like to see the foods we add ourselves be able to change grams and have the nutrients/calories adjusted automatically like the foods already in their database.  As it is now, I have to do the math to figure out the nutrition differences in the foods I've entered.  Also, I've noticed that many of my (exact, same nutrients/calories/manufacturer, etc) foods are not in there.  That would speed it up recording calories even more.  I would really love that feature.

:)

it would take me FOREVER if I logged all my intake because I have a dial up connection.

Instead, I list my intake in my journal. I eat mostly the same things so I know the calories already. I do look up my burned calories but I do the calculations for my deficit myself in my entry.

I quickly realized that making recipes of my frequent combinations of food would be the easiest, but I am having trouble with that too.

For example, I can post the Light Cranberry Cocktail juice (1/2 c. - 20 cal) the regular way, but when I try to put it in a recipe, the program only comes back with an option that is 68 calories for 1/2 c. I can't find any way to get the proper 20 cal option in my 'recipe.' So although I think maknig recipes is a great way around posting a lot of individual items, I am finding a major bugaboo for a couple of my frequent foods.

Original Post by lee118:

I quickly realized that making recipes of my frequent combinations of food would be the easiest, but I am having trouble with that too.

For example, I can post the Light Cranberry Cocktail juice (1/2 c. - 20 cal) the regular way, but when I try to put it in a recipe, the program only comes back with an option that is 68 calories for 1/2 c. I can't find any way to get the proper 20 cal option in my 'recipe.' So although I think maknig recipes is a great way around posting a lot of individual items, I am finding a major bugaboo for a couple of my frequent foods.

This happens because the program recognizes the 'generic' version of the ingredient you listed.

AS per the Tips and Instructions in the New Recipe tab, the easiest way to correct this is to find the items ID and including it besides the measurement in brackets.. So your recipe would read like this;

1/2 cup light cranberry juice [113084]

you can find the ID number by doing a search of your chosen food item, and copying the number series that appears at the end of the search box (e.g. http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-ocean- spray-cranberry-cocktail-light-i113084).

To answer the OP's question, I've been logging on here for just over a year and it now takes me about 10 - 15 minutes to log my entire day. In my defense, I cook from scratch so it's fairly easy to find the items I need. I have most of my meals/drinks tagged and for new meals, I simply create a new recipe and I'm good to go.

I do have to say that when I first started counting, logging my food would take about 30 - 40 minutes depending on what I was doing, again still cooking almost all my meals but figuring out recipes and amounts took longer.

Great tips guys, thanks.  I'll try to work through the recipes area.  That should help at least some.

v_avila

Thanks! Especially for including HOW to find the item ID number. I think if I had read Tips & Instructions, I would have then been stuck at that following step.

Logging will go much more quickly now!

BTW - I am amazed at how quickly the recipe program calculates and analyzes the ingredients that are entered. What an amazing program.

lee118, you are most welcome!

The checkbox idea is awesome.  Better yet, make the tagged items accessible from the same page as the food log!

Another change I wish they would make is to the ""Date range" or "View last 7 days" in the food log stay set that way.

If I eat the same things several days in a row, I use the "add item again" button.  But then it goes back to viewing just the current day so I have to reselect the "view last 7 days". 

I didn't know about the recipe thing though, great info!  I'm glad I read this thread!

I have the exact same experience that you've described above, sherriphx. 100% agree that those would be another good target area for enhancements.

If the checkbox idea does get implemented (or even if not), it would be nice to be able to access the full list of tagged items, perhaps by scrolling - if you have (too) many, the list is curtailed and you have to access the item by clicking on one of your pages and hoping you hit the right one (so far I have 6 pages of tagged items and the r-hand list now cuts off at "tarte aux fruits," which, for some reason, appears on page 6, while much of the stuff on pages 4 & 5, at least, are cut off).