|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.7 Months Ago
|
|
The new food journal is now available for review from your home page (or from the link at the top of the old food journal page). The new food journal is not backwards compatible with the old version, however the old food journal will remain available for review at any time in the future.
I'm finding with my own limited use so far that it is VERY easy to start using and provides lots of new information I never really gave any consideration to. As an example, my sodium intake is through the roof :-)
I'm working on some reporting functions today that will allow you to see a summarized average 7 day report and 30 day report so you can see your own diet over the long term instead of just one day at a time. These one sheet reports can be printed and taken to your doctor or nutritionist.
There are also times when using the food journal is just not practical. I will create a solution that will fill in an average daily number of calories based on your history on any day that you don't have a food record, so the daily report will still be useful on days you can't update your food journal.
I'd love to hear your comments as we move forward with this upgrade. |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.7 Months Ago
|
|
We will not be getting rid of the old food journal. I am building an option into settings that allows you to select which food journal you would like to use. Moving forward, if you have been using the old food journal you will be given the option of using the new food journal. At any time you can switch back to the old food journal as a reference. There have been quite a few people concerned about losing data from the old journal. No data will be lost in the old food journal and it will remain available for the long term if people just want a simple tracking option. |
|
|
|
|
Beverly
MO
Member Since:
05/31/2005 Total Posts: 1143
15.7 Months Ago
|
|
I'm checking it out now :) ... from first glance it looks really great! Thanks for the ability to add foods. Will the foods entered be available to other FJ-ers? Thanks Chris! |
|
|
Jim
CA
Member Since:
08/27/2005 Total Posts: 637
15.7 Months Ago
|
|
Hey Chris - I sampled it.
I think it is excellent, and I would like to get into the habit of using it. My sodium today was sky high (Seemingly), but I have nothing to gauge it to. Is there a way to tell if you are way outside of daily guidelines?
What about a quick instruction on the most efficient way to enter? The way I was doing seems a bit tedious. I kept doing searches for everything I ate that day.
Your the best!
Jim |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.7 Months Ago
|
|
Any food you add will be available to the FJ community. The more people that utilize the food journal, the larger our food database will grow and the more useful and easy it will become.
Jim, you asked about notifications of high values. On the daily reports if you are above the suggested levels for a typical diet, the results will turn red. As an example, if your sodium is above 2400 your sodium value will be highlighted in red for that day.
You have the right idea with searching for foods that are not in your pantry. Each time you add a food, it ends up in your pantry and becomes very easy to access the next time you need it. After you have your most common foods listed in the pantry, it only takes a few moments to make a meal entry. |
|
|
Jim
CA
Member Since:
08/27/2005 Total Posts: 637
15.7 Months Ago
|
|
Now that I can see the second day, I can see how it carry's over the foods, so I am liking it more and more.
Can I enter foods through out the day without deleting the foods I already put in?
For example, can I enter my protein shake in the morning, then come back at noon on the same day and enter lunch? Or, does the whole day have to be entered at one time?
JC |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.7 Months Ago
|
|
You can enter your foods throughout the day and it will all show up on the same day's report. As an example, after you eat breakfast, you can add just your breakfast meals, then you might eat a snack or lunch, you just enter the foods that you have not logged yet. You will notice that it will keep track of servings on the main page (orange juice will be listed only once, even if you had 2 glasses, and your servings will now be listed as 2)
|
|
|
|
|
Jocelyn
CA
Member Since:
05/01/2007 Total Posts: 1
15.7 Months Ago
|
|
Hi Chris. This looks like a great idea. However, I would like to be able to use a combination of the two food journals since there are foods I eat that aren't on your food list that I don't know the nutritional value for, and therefore would not want to customize them for everyone's use. For instance, there isn't really anything to choose from on the list for eggs but I want to list eggs as part of a meal. Or if I make fish with a sauce, I can use the fish in my pantry but cannot account for the sauce I made. I would normally take a look at the ingredients I used and just estimate calories (better than not counting it at all). Currently, I don't see anyway to add foods to my day without customizing them with all the information for everyone's use. Am I just missing it? |
|
|
Jim
CA
Member Since:
04/08/2007 Total Posts: 3
15.7 Months Ago
|
|
Diddo, but for a different reason. When I eat out, I rely on my ability to estimate calories. On the old journal, I can just enter an estimate w/o creating an entry that impacts everyone else... So, here's my thought (if this is problematic for the database, feel free to delete my entry). I'm going to create a new food called "Estimated Calorie Consumpion" and give it a calorie value of 100 per serving. Then, if I (or anyone else) estimates a meal at say 730, it would be easy to enter a portion quantity of 7.3 (7.3 portions x 100 calories = 730 calories).
I'll give this a try. Maybe this will help in Jocelyn's situation, too. :-)
-Jim |
|
|
Todd
CT
Member Since:
04/11/2006 Total Posts: 121
15.7 Months Ago
|
|
Hi Chris,
I just got back from vacation and took a quick sneek peek at the new food journal-it looks real good. I also like how everyones food items are listed in the data base.
I'll be investigating more in the next few days. Thanks for coming up with a better format. I was using nutritiondata.com but they are having real problems this year with a buggy system that has rendered it unusable.
Todd |
|
|
Todd
CT
Member Since:
04/11/2006 Total Posts: 121
15.6 Months Ago
|
|
Chris, a couple of things I noticed are
No total fat gram tally
No potassium entry
Also a percentage break down of fat protien and carb by meal and day is very helpful.
Thoughts??
Todd
P.S. I was remiss in applying my accolades for the tremendous job your are doing! |
|
|
Beverly
MO
Member Since:
05/31/2005 Total Posts: 1143
15.6 Months Ago
|
|
I agree w/Todd (and we appreciate all the work that's gone into this!) |
|
|
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.6 Months Ago
|
|
I've solved the custom entry VS public database. You can now create your own custom food entries that no one else will see. There is a checkbox that when checked, will publish a food entry for the entire community. Unchecking the public box will only allow this food entry to be seen or used within your own journal. |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.6 Months Ago
|
|
Total fat box has been added. If you leave this box blank it calculates the total fat based on the listings in the other fat boxes. |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.6 Months Ago
|
|
I've cleaned up the pantry and added first letter searching for all foods. I was finding that using the pantry was becoming harder the more food I had stored. I can now do a quick a-z search or just click on the "all" link to see all my foods. Instead of returning to the main overview after adding a food, I'm returned back to the same pantry page with a new message telling me that my foods have been saved to todays journal. |
|
|
Eve
CA
Member Since:
10/19/2005 Total Posts: 3
15.6 Months Ago
|
|
Hi Chris, the new food journal is great. First time I've ever used one as all other programs like this seemed like too much work. You mentioned there'd be a way to edit custom entries. How is this done?
I like the addition of "total fat" as that more closely resembles standard nutrition labels. The option to include the food or not in the general database is also good.
|
|
|
Running Fool
MN
Member Since:
06/19/2006 Total Posts: 9
15.6 Months Ago
|
|
Great job. BTW, If I find there isn't an entry in the database yet, and I need to find the nutritional data for the item, I can usually find the data out at CalorieKing.com.
I'm loving the new journal. I'll be able to lose the weight I put on since my marathon :) |
|
|
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.6 Months Ago
|
|
We are live with the new detailed food journal! Thanks everyone for your feedback. I'm working on the editing option for food journal as well as the reporting screens that will show up once we have more data to work with. The reporting features are going to be pretty cool. I'll keep you posted as I move forward with reporting.
This journal appears to be quite effective. I've been keeping track of everything for the last 5 days and haven't had trouble keeping up with the items I eat. Its a straight forward process once you enter a few meals in. |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.6 Months Ago
|
|
Ok I've just saved a step if you need to add a new food that is not in your Food List. Now when you search for and locate a new food, instead of needing to add it to your food list, and then adding it to your meal, you can add it directly to your meal AND your food list right from the search results. This cuts down the time spent adding new meal items significantly. |
|
|
Peter
ON
Member Since:
03/29/2006 Total Posts: 7
15.6 Months Ago
|
|
Looking good Chris!!! One thing I would like to see in the New Food Journal is the ability to click on the foods we consumed for the day and get the nutritional facts.This way we have a much better idea on what to cut out. |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.6 Months Ago
|
|
I have a new reporting script running in the background. Once every 24 hours it will collect all of the important information about weight, bmr, exercise calories and nutrition information and compile it into a nice neat record for the day. We will then be able to run some very cool visual reports looking at calorie expenditure over days, weeks, and months, more accurate date range weight charts and graphs.
Image how cool it will be to view a monthly average report showing you how you have done over the last 30 days with your workouts, nutrition, and calorie expenditure either positive or negative. I'll link up a reporting button as soon as we have enough data to play with. |
|
|
Todd
CT
Member Since:
04/11/2006 Total Posts: 121
15.6 Months Ago
|
|
Wow Chris, you're burnin it up!
Go man, go!
Awesome job!
Todd |
|
|
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.5 Months Ago
|
|
From the "My Food List" you can click on the item description to find out nutrition information on this item. I expect I'll expand on this info page in the future to provide more options but this is a good start. |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.5 Months Ago
|
|
There is now an EDIT BUTTON located on the My Food List page that will allow you to go back in and edit your custom foods. |
|
|
queenpegeen
NJ
Member Since:
04/18/2007 Total Posts: 27
15.5 Months Ago
|
|
Hi, Chris,
This new food journal is AWESOME -- just in 4 days it is keeping me much more HONEST! I was saving notes and didn't realize where to send them. I'm still in the 20th century that way.
Here are some notes on an incredible effort.
-I'd love to be able to customize the BMR - i it’s too high for me as I’ve had the breath test which indicates my BMR is approximately 1100 (sadness), not 1367 as is calculated basedon my stats on Fitness Journal. I LOVE the little "how you did today" listings and boxes, but they always say I'm doing better than I am -- I know it's wrong, but it's on the screen :)
-The only element I miss from the old journal is the "meal groups" - it was easier to remember that way. Any chance of organizing the listing?
-For the rare instance of trans fat listed on the label, could there be a line? (or is trans fat really going away?)
-Could there be an EDIT under Actions (not just REMOVE) as several times I realized the quantity was wrong (or ate more later) and wanted to change it?
-What do the green highlighted numbers mean? (fiber & protein were green) I know red means over the RDA.. but green?
Thanks so much for all your work on this!
Pegeen
|
|
|
Beverly
MO
Member Since:
05/31/2005 Total Posts: 1143
15.5 Months Ago
|
|
Ditto on Pegeen's comments and one more...the old journal had check offs for water and vitamins...these would also be great! Thanks Chris :) |
|
|
Julie
MO
Member Since:
07/27/2007 Total Posts: 17
15.5 Months Ago
|
|
Can you add Trans Fat to the Fat breakdown in the new food journal?
I really love the new food journal. I had been using Nutritiondata.com to track and provide a more detailed look at my daily food intake but now I do not need to do double entry. I can use Fitness Journal for that. |
|
|
|
|
Julie
MO
Member Since:
07/27/2007 Total Posts: 17
15.5 Months Ago
|
|
Is anyone else having problems entering a custom food?
I entered all the information from the package and hit save. When I went back into the entry, all the information has changed. For example, I entered 250 in the calories field and when I checked back, it had changed to 162.
I also noticed that the main overview page is ignoring what I enter in Total Fat field if I enter something in one of the other fields like saturated fat. Some packages do not breakdown the individual fat amounts beyond Total Fat and Saturated Fat. |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.5 Months Ago
|
|
Re custom foods. Are you having trouble in adding, or editing the custom foods? I'll check out the problem you reported and see if I can replicate it. Thanks for reporting!! |
|
|
queenpegeen
NJ
Member Since:
04/18/2007 Total Posts: 27
15.5 Months Ago
|
|
Hi, everyone,
I'm having a little trouble like Julia -- embarassed to say, but I added Woeber's Honey Mustard, easy stats: Serving Size 1 TBSP (6.2g), Calories 20, Total Fat 0, Sat Fat 0, Cholesterol 0, Sodium 30mg, Total Carbs 4g, Dietary Fiber 0, Sugars 4g, Protein 0g. I actually had 3 servings (overdosing on the honey mustard) and entered 3 and it came up as 3 calories (wish that were true!). I changed it to 1 serving thinking maybe you couldn't have 3 servings listed like that and it said 1 calorie.
This is also happening with spinach and strawberries although that may be because I put in a fraction of a serving. Is that taboo?
Thanks for any help, Chris -- I do love this detailed diary!
Pegeen
|
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.5 Months Ago
|
|
It appears we have something going on with the math on the edit screen launched yesterday. I should have this problem resolved by this evening. Thanks for your patience!
- Chris |
|
|
Eve
CA
Member Since:
10/19/2005 Total Posts: 3
15.5 Months Ago
|
|
The changes are great, being able to see the data for each food and edit a custom food. Thanks. |
|
|
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.5 Months Ago
|
|
Found and fixed the calculation problem with the edit screen. The problem has to do with how we view VS how we store our calorie information. We are using the USDA database as our base. All calorie values are stored in "per 100 gram" increments (number of calories found in 100 grams of food). We convert BACK to 100 gram increments for storage. In the case of our edit screen, it was displaying our 100 gram stored increment instead of our re-calculated serving size calorie value. This is now taken care of and you should see what you originally typed for a calorie serving size on the edit screen. Let me know if you run into any additional problems, I'm glad to assist! |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.5 Months Ago
|
|
I have 2 of the initial reports up online. I had to re-run the last 9 days of records this evening because sugar grams where not picking up. This will affect your weight readings for this report. Weight readings are captured from your current daily weight. Any variations in weight will not start to show up until the record for August 10th.
There may be additional tweaking required for these reports (they may not be perfect at this point), but they are available for your review. If you have not been actively entering data in your new food journal, your results should pull from a default calorie value of 2000 calories per day. If you want to change this value, you can do so from the settings menu. |
|
|
Running Fool
MN
Member Since:
06/19/2006 Total Posts: 9
15.5 Months Ago
|
|
Cool. The reports will be VERY VERY helpful. Already, at a glance, I can see where I need to improve!
Thanks! |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.4 Months Ago
|
|
Two new updates. First added a reporting update that allows you to add past meals from previous days and still have it show up in your report (even if its days or weeks old). Just visit your meal overview screen after making an update and your report record for that date will be automatically updated.
Secondly, I found that I needed a new submit button on the add a meal page for my master list. it was just too much food to scroll through. You will find a new "save meal" button at the top of the page as well. |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.3 Months Ago
|
|
Here is an interesting fact. As a group we have added over 500 new food items to the food library since launch. That is in just over a week! Every time you add something to the food library that does not exist, it helps everyone! At this rate we should increase our food library by several thousand items by the middle of September. Keep up the great work! |
|
|
|
|
Todd
CT
Member Since:
04/11/2006 Total Posts: 121
15.3 Months Ago
|
|
Chris, I can't say enough how nice this feature is. It just rounds out the whole journal, no need to go anywhere else.
One last feature that I would like to see is a receipe function that will allow you to save food groups under one heading. For instance, I usually have a turkey sandwich for lunch. Instead of allways clicking 2 breads, 4 slc of turkey, 2 lettuce,1 cheese, could this be selected and then saved under a seperate RECEIPE heading under, say turkey sandwich, Then I could just make one selection and get all the ingredients with one stroke.
Again I hope we don't sound too critical, the work you are doing is superb.
FJ'er for life.
Todd |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
15.3 Months Ago
|
|
Todd:
I totally agree with the whole recipe function. While we don't have a lot of combinations of food, we do have all of the core ingredients already in the database. I've been using the food journal myself for the last 2 weeks for every bit of food I consume and already thought that it would be cool to be able to make combinations (a certain type of sandwich as an example) that I could just call under one header. I think that this is an absolute essential feature for the very near future! |
|
|
Jim
CA
Member Since:
08/27/2005 Total Posts: 637
15.3 Months Ago
|
|
Hey Chris - As I have seen your "favorite" sandwich, and the combination of items that go with it, I can see where this would be a necessity. :o) haha
JC2 |
|
|
Julie
MO
Member Since:
07/27/2007 Total Posts: 17
15.3 Months Ago
|
|
Chris,
I really love using the new food journal and reports! I have some blood pressure issues and the sodium tracking is helping me control it with my diet.
I do have two questions/comments:
1. Is the Calorie Expenditure graph that appears on the main page going to link to the detailed food journal? Right now I only see it on the front page when I use the simple food journal.
2. Can you change the Total Fat to be a manual enter field rather than a sum of the three Fat fields? A lot of custom foods that I am entering only list the Total Fat and Saturated Fat. When I enter the custom food, I only have those two value so I leave the others blank. When I add that food to my journal and check the totals on the main food journal page, the Total Fat value reflects the Saturated Fat field rather than the true total fat. |
|
|
Kathy
PA
Member Since:
08/10/2007 Total Posts: 3
15.3 Months Ago
|
|
One of the options in this post said you can toggle between simple and detailed.
Am I correct in saying when you start a day, you must choose which format you want to use? You cannot start a simple entry and toggle to detailed halfway through the day, right?
How will this print out if you have a mixture of simple and detailed entries?
Are most people sticking with one format?
Thanks in advance for any replies!
Kathy O'Donnell
|
|
|
|
|
Kathy
PA
Member Since:
08/10/2007 Total Posts: 3
15.3 Months Ago
|
|
Another question -- In the detailed posting, how can you create a specific meal that has several parts to it? I'm adding items to my food list and can pick from there, but it just enters them as an ongoing list of food on my main overview screen.
I like to see what I have for "breakfast" (coffee, protein shake, fruit) and have that named as 1 meal that I can choose everyday I have the same thing. It helps to see a breakdown of how many calories I'm taking in at each meal.
Thanks again!
Kathy
|
|
|
Allison
NY
Member Since:
10/02/2004 Total Posts: 44
14.8 Months Ago
|
|
What am I doing wrong? The only thing that shows up accurately is my calorie count. I'm freaking out my nutritionist by posting carbohydrate, sodium and potassium totals at three times my intake. I've entered the nutritional information right off of the label. |
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
14.8 Months Ago
|
|
Hi Alison:
I'll take a look at your entries and see if I can figure out what is happening. |
|
|
Jan
TA
Member Since:
02/07/2007 Total Posts: 17
14.8 Months Ago
|
|
Alison (and Chris)
I gave up using the new journal for the same reason.
Jan |
|
|
Allison
NY
Member Since:
10/02/2004 Total Posts: 44
14.8 Months Ago
|
|
Thanks, Chris. Please no judgments on the amount of sugar I've been consuming this week! |
|
|
|
|
Todd
CT
Member Since:
04/11/2006 Total Posts: 121
14.8 Months Ago
|
|
I'm having problems also. Food journal doesn't show breakdowns. Only calories and that seems to bee in error.
Todd
|
|
|
Chris
CA
Member Since:
01/19/2004 Total Posts: 719
14.8 Months Ago
|
|
There is a little additional information required on the base calorie value. On a day where you have not entered any food journal information, you start with a base calorie value. This value is controlled from the settings menu (by default its set to 2000). As soon as you enter your first food for the day, this value will be replaced by your actual consumed calories.
I'm still working on the problems that have been reported, thanks for everyone for providing such great reports.
|
|
|
Todd
CT
Member Since:
04/11/2006 Total Posts: 121
14.7 Months Ago
|
|
Ahhhhh, thanks Chris>
Todd |
|
|
Rick
CA
Member Since:
08/25/2007 Total Posts: 2
14.6 Months Ago
|
|
When you enter a custom food choice it should be per serving. The program lets you enter everything per serving, but then once you click save the program convertes everthing to this "grams/100 grams." Why does it do this. It causes some very high numbers in certain areas. I did not read all the replys to your post so I do not know if I am repeating something that someone else has all ready posted.
Thank you,
Rick |
|
