Online tools to fight the freshman 20 - Back to School

Off to college and dreading the inevitable 20 pounds or so of fat that comes with drinking binges, lack of exercise, all you can eat dorm food and late night snacks? Hate the thought of not being able to wear your favorite jeans come winter break? Relax, here's a round up of good online weight management tools which might be able to help you stay on track.

1. The Daily Plate - A calorie tracking tool from LIVESTRONG.com, this site helps you track your calories and burn rate via your personal online food diary. Once you register, you can input the foods you eat and the database will automagically provide the calories. Nice interface and there's even an iPhone and iPod touch (Blackberry too) app for $2.99 if you want to track on your mobile.




2. FitDay - is a free online calorie/exercise tracker. The interface is OK, a little ad crowded, and it lacks the social networking tools Daily Plate offers. It does have a nice report feature that puts your food intake into a pie chart so you can analyze your nutritional intake.

3. Traineo - a social networking approach to weight loss. Traineo sees the food log as burdensome and instead, asks questions to help you chart if you made healthy food decisions. They claim your "Diet Score" will help you see you progress over time. You can join specific college groups to help you on your journey. The site is clean and clutter free, but for me, I think a food log and nutritional analysis is pretty key for weight loss. Just saying.

4. CalorieCount - from About.com is a nice site, albeit somewhat ad cluttered. If you register, you can track your diet over time as well as your calories. They also have a mobile app so you can get calorie counts on the go and they also have a text message version. You can get a graded food analysis so you know exactly where you stand as far as your food GPA.

5. FatSecret.com - a social networking site with food and exercise tracker and diary options. You can connect with a community interested in the various popular diets and join groups that share your interests. I like the challenge groups you can join to help motivate you and keep you focused. Nice site - no ads! They have Blackberry and Android Calorie Counter apps that sync with Fat Secret, as well as an add-on for Firefox and a widget for iGoogle.

I posted 5 free online tools. What are some of your favorites? Are there others worth paying for? Let us know.

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