Who doesn’t have a spare 10 pounds of weight that they’d like to lose? I’m committed to dropping 10 extra pounds by November 15 and all that I was lacking was a tool to help track the loss.

In the past I’d used pencil and paper to track weight. Each morning I’d step on the scale and view the results of my previous day. That method worked well – except it was all “after the fact” monitoring. There was no way for me to plan my daily meals plus exercise. I’m a big believer that the secret to weight loss is exercise more and eat less. Thankfully I found what may be the ideal weight loss tool for me – MyNetDiary.com.

Starting off with MyNetDiary is simple.

Enter in your current weight.

Enter the weight you want to be (weight goal).

Select a target date (the system warns you if your goal is unrealistic).

Once you’ve entered your weight – you’ll receive the bad news.

In my case, the system tells me I’m 5 pounds overweight. In order to lose weight and meet my goal I must consume 648 less calories per day. This can be in the form of more exercise – or less food.

Next you can setup your daily calorie allowances. I’ve found this to be the weakest point of the program. You cannot just select a smaller calorie number. The site requires you to individually reduce your fat, carbs and protein — which then add up (via a formula that computes calories based on a set number of calories to each gram of respective nutrition).

I’d much rather have the site give me some options to reduce the fat/carb/protein in similar proportions.

Diet is one half of the weight loss equation. The other way to lose weight is via exercise. MyNetDiary has a massive database of activities so if you select to walk 7 day per week for an hour – the system will automatically fill in the calorie burn of 340.

Once you’ve entered in your “PLAN” items — the system will provide you with what it calls your daily energy balance.

Here’s where the system tells you the net calories consumed (or hopefully lost).

MyNetDiary isn’t free.

Their plan costs are as follows:
$ 42 for six months
$ 24 for three months
$ 9 for a month to month membership

This online service also interfaces to your iPhone via a free iTunes Store application. The link is completely wireless and you can update your meal plans and exercise routines through your iPhone.

In addition to tracking your daily calorie and exercise consumption, MyNetDiary tracks historical data. If you want to see what you ate last week — the information is all tracked in their database.

I’ve used “calorie counter” programs in the past and the reason I’ve always stopped is that their database was not broad enough. If I couldn’t find the food that I consumed in the database I’d stop entering the information. With MyNetDiary most of the food I’ve eaten (including restaurants like Chilis and Subway) have the nutritional data pre-entered.

If your food isn’t in the database, you can enter it manually into the system.

One of the most useful data entry tools in MyNetDiary is the ability to copy the food you ate on another day into your current meal. I tend to eat similar meals and this data entry shortcut is great (Note: The shortcut only works when entering data via the web – the iPhone client does not support copying prior meals).

You can also view a pop-up menu (web version only) of recent foods you’ve eaten – and select from prior menus. This makes data entry much easier – and the easier the data entry the more likely you are to continue using the program.

MyNetDiary might be met with skepticism by some. The thought of counting calories can bring up memories of manually typing in nutrition information from the back of packaging – and guessing at restaurant meal contents. With MyNetDiary I haven’t had any trouble entering in data (though my diet is admittedly not as varied as some).

The benefit of using MyNetDiary?

As I enter information into the program, I view my status for the day. More than once I’ve decided not to snack, or chose to exercise simply because I knew that the plan called for it.

The program will warn if you set unrealistic (or unhealthy) goals which include trying to lose too much weight too quickly.

Link: MyNetDiary

Price: $7 to $9 per month (depends on length of time you subscribe for)

What I Like:
- Extensive database
- Free iPhone application that updates wirelessly
- Simple interface
- Constant feedback on daily diet actions

What Needs Improvement:
- Not able to copy prior meals from iPhone App
- Need a way to modify calorie consumption plan according to various diet plan (currently have to do this manually)
- Would benefit from “meal suggestions” to recommend healthy meals based on the calories remaining in your daily plan

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