Try Cronometer for Diet Tracking

Every once in a while my weight gets a little out of control. I'm not talking about packing on 50 pounds or being noticeably overweight. I eat obsessively well. I exercise. But at 6' tall, anything much over 195 pounds is too much. And at this time of year, after the holidays are over and the winter has started in earnest, I seem to be prone to gaining more weight than I am willing to carry. Also, I have learned from experience that the longer I let it go, the harder it gets to fix.

So when I got on the scale about two weeks ago and it flashed 204 at me, I knew it was time to do something.

When I say "do something", I mean count calories. No matter what you may hear, losing a little weight is nothing more than burning more calories than you consume. It is as simple as that. But there is often nothing easy about it. Because I hate counting calories. HATE!

The last time I had to do it was several years ago. I was successful and got to my target weight, but it was miserable. So once I accepted the need to do it again, I went searching for a tool that would make it less awful.

The last few times I used a web site to track what I ate and the exercise that I got, calorie by calorie. I knew the net calories (consumed less burned) I had to live with each day to lose weight at a healthy 1 or 2 pounds a week and the site let me record and track it all. In about 3 months I was back down to my goal weight.

But it was a pain. I mean a real pain in the ass. A lot of the foods that I was eating were not listed in the site's database and it was rare that the portions they used matched the way real people (e.g., me) ate. I was spending a lot of time creating food and exercise entries, converting units to match their pre-set idea of a portion and generally finding it annoying. I really, REALLY wanted to avoid that this time if possible.

And it was possible!

It turns out that technology, especially smartphone technology, has improved a lot in a few short years. There are dozens of apps to choose among now. Some of them sync with your FitBit and Apple Watch. Others create meals and menus and shopping lists for you. All of them allow you to track what you eat, your exercise and where you stand as you go through the day.

But I wanted something dirt simple, and I found that too.

I wanted to know my calorie target day by day, to quickly see where I stood against my targets, to be able to very simply and easily enter the food I ate and the exercise I did without having to create it all myself or use a calculator to translate portions. I also wanted a good summery of the nutritional breakdown of what I was eating.

I found everything I wanted in an app called Cronometer. (Full disclosure: I am not a marketing affiliate of Cronometer and receive no financial or other compensation from them. I just really like it.) It did everything I wanted, and syncs automatically with my tablet and computer as well. In almost 2 weeks I have had to create only 3 custom foods (my nutrition shakes and a "dinner salad"). The portion drop down menu has exactly what I need 95% of the time. I keep it current in just minutes a day.

And I lost 3 pounds in my first week using it.

It also taught me a lot about how I eat. But that is for next time.

If you are looking for a convenient, easy to use, comprehensive tool to help you lose a few pounds, Cronometer is worth a look.