Fantasy Eating Website

This is not a healthy man. Gone are the days of the 2-pound burger challenges, 4-pound lasagna-eating contests, and ranch dressing chugs...for now...depending on how much money is on the table.

With fantasy baseball, most blogs, and many UGA message boards blocked at work, my newest internet diversion is both healthy and educational. After losing 8 pounds in 10 days, I adamantly endorse http://www.thedailyplate.com/. My brother got me into this fascinating "Food Diary" website that helps you set health and weight loss goals and then helps you track nutrition information throughout your day, week, month, etc. It quickly becomes a game or a personal challenge. And it gives you something to do when you're bored at work. During lunch and breaks only, of course.

Realistically, I recognize that the first few pounds are the easiest (been down this road a few times myself), but having to chronicle everything you consume in a day is motivating to say the least. With a daily calorie goal of about 1700 calories, it only took one day of free food at work and a night at a Mexican restaurant to recognize just how absurd the occasional 5600-calorie day is (and how quickly you can undo the first 3 pounds you lose). Even my couple of 3000+ calorie days (what were probably pretty normal days for me before last Monday) left me feeling sufficiently guilty to clean up my act for a few more days.

How it works: create a free account at http://www.thedailyplate.com/ (part of Lance Armstrong's http://www.livestrong.com/), enter basic information about your age, height, weight, goal, and activity level (they give a description of what they consider lightly active, moderately active, etc.), and let the website calculate your daily calorie intake goal. As you enter what you eat, it counts down how many calories you have left for the day and tracks all the other little things to which I never gave a second thought (sodium, cholesterol, carbs, protein, etc.).

Other interesting features:

The site has an impressive nutritional information database of brand name foods, common chain restaurants, and specific ingredients you would include in your own home-cooked meals. It makes accuracy more than reasonably attainable. The farthest I've had to stretch is substituting Zaxby's boneless chicken wings for the Loco's boneless chicken wings I ate last night. They also have generic food items like burritos and tacos. If you're honest about portions (I usually eat more than a literal serving of everything) and err on the side of caution (selecting the 500-calorie generic "burrito" instead of the 250-calorie one), I'm confident that you will see results pretty quickly.

There are also more graphs, charts, and statistics than you can shake a carrot stick at (of which, by the way, I have yet to eat any). The bar graph showing your calorie goal and intake by day for the last week is always fun (even while the 5600-calorie days are still visible). Even more fun is to update your weight daily (which tweaks your goal) and check out the weight graph with a calorie intake graph overlaying it. I'm sure this comes as news to us all, but there is a direct correlation between daily calorie intake and weight loss and gain. Don't believe me? Just ask my calorie intake on May 5 (5600 calories) and my weight increase on May 6 (3 pounds). Shocking, right? I know! Who would have thought?

It also allows you enter exercise information and factors in the calories you burn each day. I haven't used this feature as much as I probably should have, but that's mainly because I don't exercise. I will say that 1700 calories isn't much, so on days that I want more than one fairly heavy meal, I have been far more motivated to get to the gym. When you're down to those last few calories for the day, 30 minutes on a stair-stepper machine can be the difference in dinner at Taco Stand or half of a ham sandwich...without the bread.

Anyway, there are far more tools and useful information on this website than I can describe here (or have even explored yet), so you should definitely check it out for yourself. Before you know it, you will find yourself neglecting your fantasy baseball teams and blogs. Maybe you'll get a little healthier as a bonus.