Bite by byte

Whether you want to lose or gain weight, run a marathon or just get fit, keeping a food journal is one of the first things many dieticians and nutritionists will suggest.

Just as so many forms of communication and record-keeping have moved online, so have food diaries, but by moving this information online, you don't just track what you eat and how much. Webbased programs allow you to calculate a plethora of information that would take much longer to find out by hand.

For example, on many sites, you enter what you had for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the program will tell you how many of your calories are coming from fat, if you're getting enough vitamins and minerals and, on some of the more sophisticated sites such as MyFoodDiary. com, find out what the effects on your body would be if you ate like that every day for a month or even a year.

Jenni Balthrop, 27, was using Weight Watchers but stopped seeing progress about a year ago. She felt that the program oversimplified nutrition. "You're only looking at certain attributes of food," she says in reference to the Weight Watcher point system. "And if you're an active person like me, you aren't getting the complete picture."

Balthrop, who is now training for a half-marathon, had a different goal in mind when she started using SparkPeople.com in January. "I wanted to look fabulous for Elton John" at one of his concerts in March. The online food tracker took into account her Pilates classes and running, and she got off the weight-loss plateau.

Another Central Texas dieter, who preferred not to be named, is a 35-yearold in the tech industry who lost 30 pounds. He also lowered his cholesterol and got his sodium intake under control using MyFoodDiary.com, one of the few companies that charges users.

"I wasn't brought up to understand what foods do to our body," he says. "At the end of the day, it tells you if you continue to eat this way, you will be likely to have a high risk of this disease or another problem." When he was able to see the long-term effects of his eating habits, he was motivated to alter his food choices.

He says he learned that you cannot work out enough to compensate for a poor diet. "You have to face the results every day" when you track your food intake every day, he says. "You have to be honest with yourself. We want to forget the dessert or queso," but keeping the online journal keeps you accountable for every bite.

This dieter stuck with the program for three months, which he felt like was enough time to learn what he needed to learn and change his behaviors. Several years later, he's kept the weight off.

It can be annoying to input everything you eat, but the payoff is worth it, most people said.

To make it easier, most companies offer nutritional information on food items from popular restaurants and hundreds of brand-name products, so you don't have to read the labels and enter that information yourself. For the home chef, many sites allow you to save certain dishes that you cook frequently so you don't have to input the ingredients each time you prepare it.

Nearly every diet tracker has a place to input exercise activity, including the exercise you get by doing simple things like walking around the office or household chores, so as to more accurately track your progress and calculate calorie intake recommendations.

Sara Robertson, 31, says she never kept a food diary because she didn't think she could stick with it. "I don't even keep a checkbook balance," she says. When she started using TheDailyPlate. com in February, it took more time to enter food data because she hadn't built up a quick list of foods she usually eats. "You kind of eat the same foods over and over again," she said, and The Daily Plate allows her to store her favorite foods.

Robertson, who lost about five pounds using the online journal, said having to track what she ate made her more aware of portion size, which many dietitians say is a big key to managing your weight. "I figured out what a cup of something or what 4 ounces looked like," she says. She also wasn't sure how many more calories she should eat on the days she exercises.

Most online food-diary programs offer a social media or support component, where you can join virtual groups or chat on message boards to find other people who have the same nutritional goals.

Food journal sites at a glance

• TheDailyPlate.com: Database with nearly half a million foods help you track what you eat and calculate calorie, protein and carbohydrate intake. It will also suggest healthy alternatives based on your nutrition goals. Free, but you can sign up for a gold membership for $60 a year.

• MyFitnessPal.com: Free service relies on user-generated food library to calculate nutritional information of food intake. Also offers forums and allows users to blog about their experiences.

• MyFoodDiary.com: In addition to the services provided by other free programs, MyFoodDiary.com focuses on long-term nutrition goals, allowing you to track the short- and long-term impacts of current eating habits. $9 a month.

• TweetWhatYouEat.com: Very basic free service uses Twitter updates (either via the Web or SMS text messages) to keep track of what you eat, how many calories a food item has and how much you weigh.

• MyPyramidTracker.gov: Free government sponsored diet tracker offers basic calculation of nutrition based on food diary.

• FitDay.com, SparkPeople.com: Free programs analyze calories, carbs, fat and protein from the food data that you enter while taking into consideration your activity level, to recommend calorie intake to reach nutrition or health goals.