I don't know if this has been discussed before but I have found a really good alternative to Fitday.com that for me is easier and faster and REALLY CHEAP.

The program MasterCook isn't really a diet program per say but it works great and it is so inexpensive (I think I got mine on Amazon for $10.) The great thing about it is that... well, there are a number of good things:

You can enter your own recipes for stuff and then add in a serving size of it into your "day" really easily (for example, today I made a batch of low carb truffles. I have the recipe in the program so I just was able to quickly say that I had eaten two of them and I knew that it was going to be just the right amounts etc)

It isn't online so you can go faster and not have to worry about crashing or getting disconected

It doubles as a recipe analysis program which is really helpful when you're figuring out new recipes or tweaking old ones.

It's on board database of ingredients is more extensive and more intuitively organized (IMOHO) than fitday.


What I usually do is enter my day of food as if I'm creating a new recipe (you can call it by date and save them for future use). Then from the "Tools" pulldown menu choose "Nutritional Analysis" and it will give you all the amounts and percentages.

One nice thing is that any ingredient can be edited and modified (as well as new ones added) so if there is a known labeling error you can correct it. You can also add you favorite brands and their specific stats.

I find this program to be a great tool when I'm not sure about a foods analysis (especially vegies and such).

Not sure if this will be of interest to anyone, but it is certainly helping me!

Heatehr

I am a MasterCook fiend as well. It has helped me track all kinds of hidden carbs, like coffee.

Also, you can take 'regular' recipes and tweak them until they're low carb!

I loaded it on my machine at work too, so I never let a day go by without tracking all that I've eaten.

The perfect accompaniment to MasterCook is a food scale - so if you 'sneak' one or two nuts or berries you can count them into your day.

Thanks for the info....will check that out.

I use another alternative, a program called LifeForm. It's pretty extensive, although their food dictionary tends to include a lot of prepared foods and fast foods I don't use, so the first time I use some foods I have to enter them.

But - it allows you to enter and store recipes, and provides nutritional analysis, as well as entering and saving "new" basic foods.

It tracks a HUGE variety of nutritional info - not just carbs, calories, fiber, etc...but breakdowns on vitamins and trace elements as well.

It also has built in trackers for measurements, like weight, and actual body measurements, and it will calculate base calories used based on activity levels, age, etc...and then add in caloric values for an exercise you log.

There are a lot more features, like tracking mood, sleep amount and quality, etc... for those who are really looking for a holistic view of what's going on for them.

It's a little more pricy, I think $39.95 when I got it, but it's been worth it for me.

Fitday and Mastercook have separate roles, however, I think Mastercook is a great accompaniment to fitday.com. I fill in my recipes on Mastercook, then from their nutritional information, make a custom recipe on fitday for the entire recipe. Much simpler that way. Besides, I would miss all the reporting and charting information in fitday if I only used Mastercook.

...did you know that you can save an entire recipe as an ingredient in Mastercook? This helps greatly when entering an entire day of food.

Hi hetoame:

Not sure I'm clear on that .... do you mean when using Mastercook as a replacement for fitday?

I just find the process is faster in Mastercook...you don't have to wait for the internet.

Ah hetoame, I forget how lucky I am to have high speed! I couldn't imagine doing almost anything on the internet without it. But then, I am extremely impatient.

Hope Mastercook is working out well for you. I'd really like to look into getting everyone who uses Mastercook together for some recipe exchanges. I get tired of all the copy/paste from other recipes to Mastercook without the import feature. I think that would be kinda cool.

You sound like a Mastercook expert. When making a sauce, is there no way for Mastercook to give you a roughly estimated yield for the sauce so you can divide the recipe into tablespoons instead of servings? It'd be easier this way than having to measure out the recipe after it cooks (or having to add up the individual ingredient measurements and then divide the total to get a tablespoon measurement).

Ah yes, I spent QUITE a bit of time trying to figure out how to make the program figure out how many tbsp or cups something was without having to measure it by hand. I finally realized why this is impossible. It's all about water. When you cook something the water evaporates. If you cook it more, more water will evaporte. Thus, it is impossible to predict how much volume you will end up with when you have this variable "in the mix" so to speak. Does that make sense?

Hi Hetoame:

Ya, that's why I said "roughly" estimated. It's very annoying to have to measure out the entire recipe cause it's very hard to eyeball 1/16th of a serving.

You'd think Mastercook could plug in simmer time into their yield equation taking into account evaporation rates. Besides, I'd give up a little accuracy to save me that hassle.

Ah well, no sense complaining.

Thanks,
Wanda