I’ve been a member of My Food Diary for quite awhile and have found it to be a valuable service. However, having said that, I don’t think it’s necessary to remain a member for a long time to benefit from the tremendous value this site provides.

Image via WikipediaThe name of the site says it all. The primary service is a user-friendly system for maintaining a detailed and accurate food diary. You are provided with all the tools you might need to keep track of the calories you consume and the calories burned each day. In addition, there is a personal notes section to journal your thoughts and feelings with respect to your weight management challenges.

You might wonder why you should bother with a paid service when you can keep track of this same information on your own or with a free service online such as FitDay.com.

Here’s why. Like the free food diary services, this site is particularly well designed for the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) crowd whether you are completely on your own or following a specific diet plan. The quality of the service you receive however far outperforms what you might have on a free food diary site. And the calculators and tracking tools make the task of recording what you eat much easier than doing it on your own.

When you are just starting with a DIY weight loss diet, the more information you have about your current habits, the more likely you will succeed in making the necessary changes. If I remember correctly, the well-known T.V. personality, Dr. Phil likes to say, “You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.”

Keeping a food diary, an ACCURATE food diary that includes a way to track your physical activity and calories burned as well as what you have eaten, is one of the most important things you can do for success. Spend the first week or two tracking your normal diet and physical activity. I guarantee you will be amazed at what you can learn, what you don’t know about your current habits.

From gaining a better understanding of exactly how much you are eating, to complete surprise at learning the actual number of calories in some of your favorite foods, to having an accurate concept of how many calories you burn each day, you will learn specifically what has to change. This is priceless. Successful dieters work with the facts. They don’t guess and then wonder why the weight isn’t coming off.

Does it take time to keep the food diary. Yes! Is it tedious at times? Yes. But it’s absolutely worth it. After the first day or two it becomes much easier. Most of us are creatures of habit. We tend to eat the same foods more often than we might think.

O.K. I hope I’ve at least gotten you to consider the importance of keeping a food diary. Now let me share the many reasons why MyFoodDiary might be the place for you and why it is such a great value at only $9.00 for one month.

First of all the food database at this site is BIG with 45,000 food items. I can find just about any grocery store item (in the United States) I might want. However, if a food item is not in the database, I can easily add the information. This goes for recipes as well as products. And something I absolutely love is the Fridge.

After a week or so of tracking, it becomes much easier to record the foods you eat daily or fairly often because your Fridge will get filled up with your regular food choices. My Food Diary keeps your food data stored in the Fridge for easy access for as long as you remain a member.

In addition to the food database there is a detailed database for determining calories burned with more than 600 different activities. You won’t likely find a free or paid database better than this. All of the information you record about your diet and activity can then be turned into detailed reports about your calorie intake and energy burned with just a few mouse clicks. This beats tallying things up by hand.

The reports include detailed information about your nutrient intake as well as calories! This feature alone is worth the price of membership! I may be a nutritionist but I am not a walking computer and I have moments when the food or exercise choices I’ve made turn out to not be as good as I might have liked. This helps me to make adjustments and will help you too. When the choices I’ve made are good, I get smiley faces on the reports. Love this! Who doesn’t appreciate getting a few pats on the back?

I’d like to wrap up this blog post but before I do I need to at least mention some of the many other features you will find on MyFoodDiary.com. Most of these other features are not unique and are available elsewhere but they do serve to round out the membership benefits. You’ll find plenty of weight management calculators, sample meal plans, lots of great tips, and many weight management articles. Probably the best value-added feature is the forum. This forum is very active! I noticed that yesterday, there were 60 different topics or threads with hundreds of replies (just one day!).

If you like the DIY approach to weight loss, My Food Diary is something you won’t want to be without. Go now and give it a try. It’s never too soon or too late to get started!