Alternate titles to this blog is: The Lazy Blog Author's Guide to Fitness, or Get Your Own Darn Information.The internet has opened up an enormous world for all of us, and those looking for fitness helps are no exception. However, you have to proceed with caution about information on the internet. I mean, I'm giving out fitness information, for pity's sake! Trust your source! This is one of my favorite quotes:
"We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true." Robert Wilensky
He said it! Anyone with a keyboard can launch any information into cyberspace! I will try to steer you to some good websites that go in line with my third (and so far, final) mantra for Fitness Friday: Knowledge is Power (you KNOW you want to sing the School House Rock theme now! :-)
Fitness requires paying attention to many things: your current weight/ body fat percentage, how many calories your body requires, how many calories you're taking in, calories expended while exercising, as well as how hard you need to exercise for it to do any good. All of these things are information you need to be aware of so that you can take control of your own fitness. None of them are indictments about your current fitness level, they are simply information.
Some websites I have really utilized:
fitday.com -- I like all of the graphs and charts! Oooh -- and I LOVE that it's FREE!! You can track your daily weight, caloric and nutrient intake, and exercise/ calories burned -- or any combination of the three. I currently only track my weight -- my chart is making a nice ascent lately!
nutritiondata.com -- more FREE! You can find nutritional info for pretty much any food in existence on the planet. More graphs and charts (love those things! :-) You can also add foods to your "pantry", then, using foods from your pantry, determine the nutritional information of a recipe. Cool!
dietfacts.com has nutritional info about many restaurants. However, I generally just google the restaurant name + nutritional info and can come up with the restaurant's own nutritional info.
A great site if you are trying to boost your exercise level is coolrunning.com. I, personally, love their "Couch-to-5k Training Program!"
I'm not running much anymore, but mapmyrun.com will keep track of your distance walking with a clever little map!
Many other, non-free places are available if you would like specific guidance about your diet (and occasionally exercise). I utilized ishape.com for a while, but the "personalized" part of it was quite lacking and I basically used it like I now use fitday.com -- to record my weight and exercise.
weightwatchers.com is a place to be a member without ever attending a meeting. Great program, I'm too cheap to use the website (I've never paid for a meeting, either -- I use info you can find on the internet!) so I can't speak to it, but I feel certain it's great and I know people who have tremendous success using the web site.
ediets.com seems to be pretty good -- but I have no personal experience with it, nor know anyone who does.
All in all, there is EVERYTHING out there. Do you have any favorites I haven't mentioned?
4 comments:
Hi Sarah. Thank you for mentioning my website, DietFacts.com, in your blog! I noticed that you also had FitDay.com in your list. Did you know that you can add items from DietFacts into your custom foods list on FitDay? This feature was added just a few months ago. To use it, scroll down below any Nutrition Facts label and press the Add Custom To FitDay button. The first time the FitDay window pops up you'll have to log in and press the button again -- but after that, it's quick and easy. Thanks again for visiting DietFacts, and I hope you'll continue to come back. :)
Okay--I have not EVEN read the post--but I have laughed until I coughed (I know you can probably hear me wheezing all the way in Abilene) over the alternate title. . .EGADS, Sarah. So funny
Okay, I'm LOVING Fitday.com--it is a visual reminder that one mini bag of M&Ms has not killed my progress--especially since I PLANNED my one mini bag of M&Ms. My little weight graph is DESCENDING nicely. . .and I have set "custom nutrition goals" which is a handy way to see which vitamins I need to take to supplement what I'm not getting enough of--like B-12 and folate.
I can also see that all of my fiber-full foods are adding up to between 29-40 grams PER DAY. . .I will definitely check out dietfacts.com, because Fitday.com seems a teensy bit off on some of their calories--and they don't have Hershey kisses listed as one of their foods. As if. . .
I want to check out the running sites. I really want to get back into running but I don't seem to be getting anywhere fast!
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