3. Get personal. Add a personal food favorite when you can’t find your chosen food in the database. This tool is very helpful because you need to enter the information only once. Click on Create a New Personal Favorite and enter the food’s nutritional and caloric information.
| | Why is creating a Personal Favorite on the Food Log a good idea?
| Back to top |
| | The Personal Favorite option saves you time so you don’t have to reenter the same information more than once. Another way to make the Food Log less time-consuming is to select a food you’ve already entered from the pull-down list.
|
| | How can I edit a food selection once it’s in my Food Log?
| Back to top |
| | If you’ve made a mistake, miscalculated serving sizes or want to make a change, it’s easy to alter what you’ve entered. Click the Delete button in the same row at the far right and then reenter correctly.
|
| | How do I know what the correct portion size is when I log my food?
| Back to top |
| | Underestimating portion sizes is a common trap for dieters. That’s why each item in our food list describes a serving amount. For example, if the serving size next to the food says 4 oz and you consumed 2 oz, select ˝ a portion size for the food item. Our Meal Planner Help page contains tips on keeping portion sizes under control and detailed information on easy ways to make estimates. (For example, did you know that 1 oz of cheese is roughly the size of four dice?)
|
| | Are you planning to add a vegetarian meal plan?
| Back to top |
| | Our meal plans are flexible, so if you follow a vegetarian diet you’ll find ample food options to suit your dietary needs. Each food group has a pull-down menu of a wide variety of foods, including many vegetarian choices.
|
| | I follow a low-carb diet. How can I use the SELF Diet Club to meet my needs?
| Back to top |
| | Keeping track of carbohydrate intake is a low-carb dieter’s dreary task. With the SELF Diet Club daily Food Log, you can enter what you eat and easily keep track of the day’s total carbs. You can also analyze your diet to see where you stand for a given day or a longer period of time. Keep in mind that our Meal Planner at this time is not geared toward a low-carb diet and that your daily recommendations on the Analyze Your Diet page will not reflect your specific low-carb goals. But you will be able to easily see what proportion of your overall diet is composed of carbs.
|
| | How should I account for the snacks I eat during the day on the Food Log?
| Back to top |
| | Include your snacks as part of your daily meals. For instance, if you have an apple midmorning, enter it in either the breakfast or lunch section of your Food Log. For an afternoon or evening snack, choose either lunch or dinner.
|
| | What is the benefit of comparing my Food Log on different days?
| Back to top |
| | The Compare Days tool allows you to compare your diet on different days, which is an excellent way to suss out any patterns in your eating habits. Simply check the boxes next to the days you’d like to compare and select Compare Days at the bottom of the page to see graphs of your calorie, fat, carb and protein consumption. Once you have a clear idea of exactly how you’ve met your goals on certain days, it will be easier to repeat that success in the future and stay on track.
|
| | Is it possible to enter calories burned separately?
| Back to top |
| | Yes. You may now create a Custom Exercise on the Exercise Log. This is useful when you do an exercise that doesn’t appear in our Exercise Log list of hundreds of activities, or when you use a machine that gives you a different read-out of calories burned than what is shown in the Exercise Log list. Keep in mind, the number of calories burned during exercise is based on your specific profile (for example, the number of calories a 115-pound woman burns is different from the number of calories a 155-pound woman burns doing the same exercise).
|
| | Where does the SELF Diet Club come up with the recommended calories for the day?
| Back to top |
| | Every SELF Diet Club user is assigned a calorie recommendation based on her unique needs. We base the formula we use on the latest scientific recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The formula takes into account a person’s sex, age, weight, height and activity level (all of which are included in My Profile). If your activity level changes, you may update it anytime. Remember that your suggested calorie range is merely a guideline; the best way to know if you’re taking in enough calories (or too many) is to see if you can maintain your weight within the recommended range.
|
| | I’d like to be able to eat more on the days I work out. Is there any way to make this kind of trade-off on SELF Diet Club?
| Back to top |
| | Yes. Sometimes we feel like eating more or less and that is OK; we are human. You can always “borrow” calories provided you pay them back. So, for example, you might want to eat 200 calories more one day, which is fine provided you reduce your calories by 200 another day to pay back your calories. This allowance will provide flexibility for your daily life without exceeding your long-term estimated calorie needs.
|
| | Can I add the calories I burn during exercise to my daily calorie allotment?
| Back to top |
| | No, you may not eat those calories you burned through exercise. Your activity level is automatically factored into your recommended calories based on what you entered in your profile. If you find that your amount of physical activity has increased over time, be sure to update your profile so that you will be allotted more calories.
|
| | I lost weight and then my calorie recommendation changed. How come?
| Back to top |
| | Every time you update your weight, your calorie recommendation will change to match your new profile. If your weight goes down, your calorie recommendation goes down -- so you can maintain the loss. Note: It’s best not to update your weight more than once a week on the site because the number on the scale can fluctuate from day to day.
|
| | Can I print out my Food Log to take with me?
| Back to top |
| | Depending on the version of Windows you are using, you may be able to use your cursor to highlight the Food Log box and then print using the Selection option.
|
| | How much time should I allot each day to enter all my food and exercise choices?
| Back to top |
| | We want to save you time and energy; that’s why the SELF Diet Club is such a great tool. Your first few days and/or weeks will take about 15 minutes to enter in your food choices and exercise for the day. But the longer you use the site, the easier and faster you will be able to enter your information. You can also save time by using Option 2, select a food you’ve already entered. And if you don’t have time one day (or two!), be sure to enter your information the next (keep tabs on what you eat so you don’t forget). The beginning investment of time will pay off over the long term.
|
| | Why do I need to sign up again for the discussion forum on SELF Diet Club?
| Back to top |
| | The discussion forum is a great place to get some insight on how real women are staying healthy and losing weight. You don’t need to sign up to read the messages in the forum, but if you’d like to post a message of your own, you will need to register separately. It’s quick, easy and well worth it!
|
