Almost a year ago, I signed up with Fitwatch.com. It is free for basic tracking services which has been more than adequate for me. I found it while looking for a way to analyze calories in a recipe I was using. That option is one of the free ones on the site. In it you enter each ingredient, amount, like 1 cup broccoli, 1 can beans, and the number of servings the recipe will produce. It gives you the number of calories in one serving.

After using this tool, I looked around and found that I could track what I eat every day, entered by item like "apple-raw with skin- large(3 inches) " and the amount, ".5" and it records the choice and shows the calories in that serving. It shows a list on the "food" page with each item you entered, the serving, calories, carb grams and fat grams.

This saves me a lot of time over my method before last June. Pre Fitwatch I kept a small notebook where I wrote down everything I ate I'm a day. I would then go online and.look up the calorie count for the amount I was having, on a variety of sites. This took longer, although it still has it's good points, like portability, since I don't have a "smartphone".

Portion control remains an important factor for me as well. I will often look up an item before I eat it. FW will let me look at the nutrition label of the item when I pull up the item. If it has a USDA listing it will usually show the serving size in grams so I can decide how much of it I want to eat. Not everything has USDA info but it is still likely there will be listings that were entered by other users. You can also enter the data for something that has a label and is not there already

FW will also tell you, based on your height, age, current weight and activity level, how many calories you should need to lose/maintain/gain weight. I say "should" because their analysis is based on standard charts and do not account for personal life factors, such as history of yoyo dieting which may have driven your metabolic rate down. So, you may find their recommended daily intake is high for what you want to do, so you have to adjust downward until you get the response you want. They show 1309 cal as being an "aggressive" loss level for me but if I maintain that level regularly, I will NOT lose, even slowly.

There are several other free features on the site that I like, such as figure BMI, track your loss, set your goals. There are a number of tracking sites out there that I'm sure are just as good(maybe better) if you want to search for them but this one has worked well for me so I haven't looked to see what else is available.

I am at a similar point to yours, it has become increasingly difficult for me to lose even with.keeping calorie intake low. Partly that is because I have much less to lose than I used to and I have years of dieting behind me, not always in healthy ways. I am not concerned enough about the remaining pounds I want to lose, to try any drastic !methods but will continue counting and trying to stay low enough to get a little more off. With spring starting, my activity level should also go up some. That will help. Hope some of this is helpful for you.

@DotLewis Thanks for the details...that's Fitwatch.com, right?

[fitwatch.com]

@Robecology That's it.