Healthy Living: How to Use Eatracker

Food

I had taken a nutrition class in College a few months ago and learned way more than I had expected. It was really interesting to pick apart my daily diet. I had learned exactly what was in the food I was consuming. We did this by using eatracker. It is a great website that you can enter in your daily food items and it will not only give you the calories in that item but the complete nutritional break down.

First you will have to sign up for eatracker. This is a fairly easy process. Just click the sign up button and enter your information. Yes, your information is important. Especially your height, weight, and sex. As this will help determine you requirements.

Once you have signed up you can begin entering in the foods you have eaten today. Click on the "My Food" section and begin. This morning I had a glass of whole milk, two eggs and one slice of of roast (rye bread).The more specific you can get the more accurate your results will be. I typed "whole milk" into the search and it gave me a list of 58 search results. Go down that list and choose the most accurate choice. I chose " Milk, fluid, whole, pasteurized, homogenized, 3.3% M.F.". Under Qty (meaning quantity) I entered 1 and under size I chose "1 cup" as I had one cup of of whole milk. There are plenty more options under "size" to help you get as accurate as possible.

To the right, in blue, there is a section that says "add to". This is where you add your food item into the appropriate meal section. Click the arrow and it will give you the options "breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, and evening snack". Since I had milk for breakfast I chose the breakfast option. Only click your option once. If it does not appear to be adding your food item to your list look to your left and click on "my pantry" you can see that it has been added. Clicking on the option more than once will double, triple, ect. your food item.

I then searched all of the rest of my food items and added them to my menu. So my breastfast menu is now complete. If you look up to the top of the page it will give you a breif overview of what you have eaten so far today. I have already consumed 328 calories, 16 grams of fat, 17 grams of protein, and 29 grams of carbohydrates.

If you have already eaten more than just breakfast. Add all of your other meals to your profile using the same process except this time use the other meal choices such as "morning snack or lunch". This also includes any water or vitamins you have consumed today.

You can add you vitamin and supplements by clicking on the "vitamins/supplements" options on your left.

Once you have added all of the food items you have eaten today. You can check out the "My eating feedback" section on your left. I clicked on the first option called "food groups". Since I have only eaten breakfast I have only eaten 1 grain product, 1 milk product, and 0.5 meats and alternatives products. In this category it will also give you the recommended amount of servings for each food group.

I have now clicked on the option "nutrients", located underneath food groups. Here you will find a detailed list of nutrients you have consumed today. For example, I have already consumed 14.6 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fibre and 323.9 milligrams of calcium. Here is where you find the break down of what you have consumed today. You can also see on your far right how much of that nutrient is recommended. And at the very top, right hand corner you can see how many calories your body requires each day to stay at your current weight.

Note: notice how you do NOT need any sugars, cholesterol, trans fats, or saturated fats.

Underneath the nutrients option you will see the option "calories". Here you will find how many calories you have consumed, how many calories you need to consume to maintain your weight, and a complete calorie break down. As I stand right now the bulk of my calories consumed so far have come from the nutrient fat. And the food item whole milk with 149 calories for my one cup of milk. If I wanted to loose some weight I could easily change my high calorie whole milk to a lower calorie skim milk.

Once again on your left hand side underneath calories you will find an "eating history" option. In this option you will find your food groups history. This will include any previous days that you have entered into eatracker. If this is your first day only today will show up here. This is helpful in determining whether or not you have been improving in your food choices over time.

Exercise

Now that you know how entering your foods works. We can take a look at exercise. At the very top of the page you will find a "my activities" option. Just like entering your foods you can type in a type of exercise you have done today. This will then give you a list of search results. Look over this list and choose the most appropriate option.

I took a morning walk today after breakfast. So I have typed "walking" into the search. And selected "Walking, slow to moderate pace - e.g. walking the dog (4.5 km/hr or 3.0 mph". As you can see there are many different options for exercise. You can even include activities such as "shopping". You will also have to estimate how many minutes you have done this activity for. And enter this number in the "duration(mins)" section . I took an hour walk so I added 60 minutes in this section.

At the very top of the page you see that your activity has been placed into a "low, moderate, and high effort" section. Above this you will notice how many calories you have burned off while doing these activities. I have burned 166 calories walking for 60 minutes. So I burned off my cup of whole milk.

On your left you will notice an "activity feedback" option. If you click on that you will get a breakdown of your daily exercise. And how much exercise is recommended. Notice where is says that low effort activities don't count towards your active physical activity. So pick up the pace a little.

You will also notice on your left that there is an "activity history" option. Just like your eating history. This will show you your activity levels from today and previous days. As well as how many calories you have burned through exercise.

Now that you have a basic idea on how eatracker works you can help keep track of your health. There are also other areas of eatracker that are not mentioned above that you can check. Such as the "my recipes" option where you can enter in some of your favorite recipes and have them analyzed. There is also a "my coach" option where you can find your own dietitian to help you stay healthy.

I personally found eatracker to be a big eye opener. Its amazing just how much sodium you consume without even being aware of it. Eatracker is a great tool to help keep you healthy. And is very simple to use. I hope this helps you get started with a healthier lifestyle!