Qs about fitday?

[EmDee]

I am using fitday religiously as suggested but am finding it a little hard to work with as far as matching what I eat with their categories.

If I grill a chicken breast, how do I describe that?

If I brown it in a tbs of olive oil, do I count the olive oil? (I count olive oil if I put it on a salad cuz then I know I am ingesting all of it...)

I sauteed a little peppers & onions in a tbs of olive oil, to put on the chicken, how does that count?

If I cut a hunk of cheddar cheese off the stick, how do I know how big it is?

LOL ~ dumb questions like that ~ I feel like I am doing a lot of estimating, is that ok?

[Brook]

They are NOT questions!

When I grill chicken I write it into fitday as chicken breast/broiled/skin not eaten.

If you use a tbsp of olive oil, add the tbsp of olive oil into fitday. Your food is absorbing most of it and really..in this game it's not a bad thing to *over* estimate what you're really eating.

I strongly suggest investing in a food scale. You don't have to a ton of on one. I picked mine up from Walmart for $20 and it does the job perfectly. Then I don't have to on things like cheese. I can weigh it and plug it into my fitday.

HTHS
~Brook

[Elizellen]

Originally Posted by EmDee

I am using fitday religiously as suggested but am finding it a little hard to work with as far as matching what I eat with their categories.

If I grill a chicken breast, how do I describe that?

I would enter it as 'raw' and add any spices etc I had used as extra items

If I brown it in a tbs of olive oil, do I count the olive oil?

When I started using fitday I measured the oil in tablespoons when I put it in the pan and measured what was left in the pan when it cooled, so I could tell how much had been used in cooking it.

I sauteed a little peppers & onions in a tbs of olive oil, to put on the chicken, how does that count?

Enter the amount of pepper and onion you used, and if you didnt pour all the oil onto the chicken with the veggies, measure how much oil was left in the pan so you can calculate how much you ate.

If I cut a hunk of cheddar cheese off the stick, how do I know how big it is?

If you dont have a kitchen scale to weigh the cheese before you eat it, look at how heavy the whole block of cheese is and divide into equal sized smaller pieces and calculate how heavy each piece is. So if you have a 8 ounce block of cheese cut (or mark) it into half then half again and then halve each of the 4 pieces so you know that each piece weighs one ounce.

I feel like I am doing a lot of estimating, is that ok?

If you can measure things to start with you will find you become better at 'eyeballing' foods in time.
Even now I check now and again to make sure my estimates are not growing!

[EmDee]

Thank you ladies! A scale is probably a good idea (but psychologically it feels much more limiting than this WOE has so far...the fact that I am not "dieting" is one of the best features of Atkins IMO.)

[Hoping]

Fitday is so complicated....but they say it gets easier with time

[Brook]

I hear you, Emdee, but in truth, you'll find you can eat quite a bit MORE with a scale! I was really shocked to learn that

Fitday is a pain in the butt to get set up with the foods that you eat- but once you get those things entered in, it's really a breeze. On the online version, using the recent foods list is a mega time saver - and on the PC Version (which I highly recommend), using the previous weeks entries makes it a snap!