Web-based diet trackers, compared

I struggle with my weight.  Who doesn’t?  (Well, some people clearly don’t, but not anyone I know.)  Keeping track of calories consumed each day isn’t much fun.  I’ve managed it in the past fairly well with a Moleskine notebook and a pen.  But, since I’m a web-based person, I’m always looking for web-based solutions.  I’ve tried three different ones so far:

• FitDay
  This is the first web-based tracker I ever tried.  It has some nice features.  The interface is spartan–very clean and stripped down.  It’s not pretty, really.  But at least it’s not distracting.  You can search its database for foods as well as create custom ones.  You can do likewise for exercise activities.  It tracks your weight and your calories burned due to exercise.  You can define weight loss goals and track your progress toward them.  There are ample reports that you can run.  There’s a free version, which is feature complete.  The commercial version is desktop-based but also integrates with the site (I think).  

  The only real drawback of FitDay (the online version, as I’m too cheap to pay for anything) is that its database is fairly limited.  So, in my case, I ended up spending more time than I would have liked creating custom foods (based on the Nutrition Facts labels of the products I consume).  It’s got a good selection of foods in general (“apple” yields nine pages of hits).  But if you eat out much or eat a lot of packaged foods, you’ll end up spending some time on the front end, setting those up (“smart ones”  yielded only one of the dozens of frozen meals they make; “jason’s deli” had no hits at all).  

• SparkPeople
  This one was obviously conceived by a marketing department, because it’s so blinky and full of ads tucked into every nook and cranny, that I really could only stand using it for a day a day or two.  The tag line should be clue enough:  “Make your life an adventure.”  I wonder how they resisted the temptation to add a string of exclamation points.  No web app is going to make my life an adventure.  Nor would I want one to.   

  But, gripes aside, SparkPeople has all the features of FitDay, plus a water-consumption tracker.  Its database is more complete, including many packaged and restaurant items.  It divides the exercise tracking nicely into weight training and cardio.  It’s also a community site, so you can find some peer-to-peer support in your dieting/fitness efforts.  It’s free and feature complete.  And it’s probably a decent tool (or, to be fair, suite of tools), if you can get past the busy design and wide-eyed enthusiasm.   
   

• TheDailyPlate
  Finally, my favorite (and the one I’m going to keep using for a while).  To me, TheDailyPlate combines the best features of FitDay and SparkPeople, but does them both one better.   The design is classy, but simple, using AJAX and Flash only when appropriate.  There are ads, but they’re not distracting.   Neither is the design distracting (nor the tagline:  “Helping you eat smarter”).  What sets TheDailyPlate apart is its community-driven database.  Any user can submit or edit a food in the database.  Moderators check the entries for accuracy.  If a food hasn’t been checked for accuracy, you’re told, but you can use it anyway, if you like.  This is genius, because most anything you might think of eating (from scratch, packaged, at the restaurant) has already made it to the DB.  There are also traditional forums where you can interact with other dieters, but it’s allowing users to edit the DB that makes the app strong in an area where its rivals are weak.   

  The other really clever thing is that you can create saved “meals” from any subset of foods in the database.  So, instead of entering bread, tuna, and mayo as separate items each time you decide to have a tuna salad sandwich, you combine those items into a meal (with whatever name you like).  Foods and meals that you eat often are kept in a sidebar and sorted alphabetically or by frequency eaten.  So, my morning protein shake is always at the top of the list.  

  The upshot of this is you spend far less time setting things up, which gives you more time to put the app to its proper use.  And, the lack data-entry hassle and easy of tracking makes the application itself fairly motivating.   

  There’s a pay version, but the free version is feature complete.  I haven’t really felt the lack of the pay version yet.   The only thing it ads that would be nice is weight goal tracking.  But I have a calendar for that.