Editing Diet tracking

{{Topic Infobox}}
'''Diet tracking tools''' help when engaging in the common practice of diet tracking, whether for weight-loss or in relation to health issues and chronic conditions that require particular diets. A variety of tools try to enable the tracking of food eaten, often attached to databases that enable additional data such as calories, macro/micronutrients and other things. Additionally, they can allow tracking micronutrients which are supplemented with [[Supplements]]. 

==Types of data recorded by diet tracking tools==
What exactly is recorded by the tools can depend on the exact tool used, but frequently recorded information includes:

*calorie intake
* macronutrients: carbs, proteins, fats
*micronutrients: iron, calcium, vitamin D, etc.
*brands and manufacturers
*enjoyment, circumstances, environment surrounding eating
* Degree of processing<ref>https://world.openfoodfacts.org/nova</ref>

==Projects and results from these tools==

*Greg Pomerantz [https://sethroberts.net/2012/11/07/journal-of-personal-science-how-much-salt-should-i-eat/ tracked the impact of sodium/salt in his diet on blood pressure and other metrics]
*[[Quantified Diabetes]] did some rigorous tests on the impact of different diets on blood glucose
*Winslow Strong used diet tracking in [[MyFitnessPal]] to [https://quantifiedself.com/show-and-tell/?project=155 observe how a low carbohydrate/paleo diet impacted his body]

==Patients and communities that need these tools==
Weight loss<ref>https://old.reddit.com/r/nutrition/</ref>is a very common goal. Additionally, there are communities affected by stomach and liver problems for which diet tracking is relevant<ref>https://old.reddit.com/r/ScientificNutrition/wiki/index</ref><ref>https://old.reddit.com/r/FoodNerds/top/</ref>.

==Diets==
There are many different diets for which tracking food intake will be relevant, e.g.
*Keto<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/wiki/faq</ref><ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/ketoscience/wiki/index</ref>
*Intermittent Fasting<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/fasting/wiki/fasting_in_a_nutshell/dangers_of_dry_fasting</ref>
*Juicing<ref>https://old.reddit.com/r/Juicing/top/</ref>
* Plant Based<ref>https://old.reddit.com/r/PlantBasedDiet/top/</ref>

==Tips and guides to using diet tracking tools==
Typically most tools are somewhat self-explanatory after installation. Beyond this, there are some tips and advice on how to consistently track diet:  

* Buying a kitchen scale can be useful to accurately track the amounts eaten, in particular if you cook yourself or eat at restaurants that don't have standard food quantities. Fractions of a package too. 
*Frequently, people engaging in diet tracking find that the manual labor of recording their diets becomes too onerous and quit after a few months. [[User:DG|DG]] suggests regularly repeating meals as this a) speeds up the speed of logging data as it will be a 'recently used meal' (e.g. as available in the tool [[Bitesnap]]) and b) also can help find patterns in the data. Wildly inaccurate measurements are still better than nothing, especially for things like eliminating a food as a problem. 

== Table of common diet tracking tools==

This table is adapted from the [[Quantified Self]] forums<ref>https://forum.quantifiedself.com/t/recommended-food-tracking-apps/252/38</ref> and might in places be outdated. Empty cells are unknown information. Yellow check-marks indicate some basic functionality of this type. The different columns indicate: 

* '''Quantity''': Allows changing food quantities
* '''Timestamp''': Gives a detailed timestamp on when food was eaten
* '''Export''': Allows exporting data in the form of a file
* '''Notes''': Entries have a free-text field to give additional information (e.g. where it was eaten, whether tasty or not…) 
* '''Offline''': Does the app (mostly) work when not being online?
* '''Price''': How much does the app or a subscription to it cost?
* '''Search''': Can one search by food name?
* '''Favorite/Recent''': In the menu to add food, is there the list of foods ordered by most likely?
* '''Barcode''': Can food be searched by scanning the barcode on it?
* '''Micronutrients''': Does the app include details on micronutrients?
* '''User-added food''': Does the app include user contributions to expand their food database?
* '''Custom food''': Can you add your own food that's missing from the database?
* '''Water''': 

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+
A table of common diet-tracking tools.
!Tool
!Quantity
!Timestamps
!Data export
!Notes
!Offline
!Price
!Search
!Favorite/Recent
!Barcode
!Micronutrients
! User-added food
!Custom food
!Water tracking
|-
|[[Bitesnap]]
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|free
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|-
|[[MyNetDiary]]
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|Paid
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|$50 / year
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|-
|[[Waistline]]
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|open source
|{{Ya}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Na}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|-
|[[Cronometer]]
|{{Ya}}
|Paid
|Paid
|Paid
|{{Na}}
|
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|-
|[[MyFitnessPal]]
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|Paid
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|$40 / year
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|-
|[[LooseIt]]
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Ya}}
|
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Na}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|-
|[[SparklePeople]]
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|Paid
|{{Na}}
|
|
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|-
|Fooducate
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|Paid
|{{Na}}
|
|
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|-
|FatSecret
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Na}}
|
|
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|-
|EatThisMuch
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|
|
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|-
|Glucose Buddy
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Na}}
|
|
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Na}}
|-
|My Diet Diary
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|-
|MyPlate
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Na}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|-
|Smart Plate
|{{Na}}
|{{Na}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{Na}}
|
|
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Na}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|{{MaybeCheck}}
|-
|OpenFoodFacts
|{{Na}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|
|open source
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|-
|YAZIO
|{{Ya}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Na}}
|{{Na}}
|free
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|{{Ya}}
|}

=== Databases ===
https://www.foodrepo.org/ Community-driven for barcoded food products.

https://world.openfoodfacts.org/ Open source collaborative originally from France. Derived scores for amount of processing and nutritional quality.

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/ US government.

===References===
<references />



[[Category:Topics]]