Fitday CD vs. Website...

[Lisa]

Which one do you like the best...the Fitday CD or the freewebsite? And...if you have the CD, do you think you have more options to play with?

[Greeneggs&ham]

Re: Fitday CD vs. Website...

I haven't purchased the PC version -- not into paying for something that I can use for free, especially if the free version is good enough. My two cons for the online version is all the "ads" littered around the page and the "sparse" interface, but I love the ability to share your daily stats with others.

Chicklady said she used the PC version in my earlier thread, but didn't expand on the advantages. Other options included sparkpeople.com and dailyplate.com, but I'm sure there are plenty of options depending on what options you are looking for.

[Adena]

Re: Fitday CD vs. Website...

I've heard that the bad thing about switching to the CD is that none of your custom foods transfer over. So, if you have a lot of those, you'll have to re-enter them.

[Elizellen]

Re: Fitday CD vs. Website...

I agree that not being able to transfer or import old data automatically including weights and custom foods are both 'cons' against using the pc version.
However it didnt take me too long to do manually - with two windows open it was fairly straightforward to manually copy my weights data/dates from one to the other.
And the custom foods I copied the first time I ate a food that I had customised online unless I had the package info handy.
Another con is that you can't get someone here to chek out your day's menus easily - have to do a screenshot then upload that as a picture.

The 'pros' are many - here are some that come to mind immediately.
More room for custom foods (I have a couple of hundred now I think) whereas the online version drops old ones off when you add new ones after a certain number of entries.
Very easy to add whole recipes as a custom food - just drag/drop the ingredients into the ingredients box, alter to reflect what you used then save the whole recipe as x servings.
You can make if automatically deduct your fibre to show net carbs
More types of reports
A 'History' section when you can bring up a previous day or week's food entries and just doubleclick on a food you had then and are having today to add it to the food log
But the main reason I got it was so I could use it when offline - I was going caravanning and though I would have mains power to run a laptop I would not be able to get online.

[Lisa]

Re: Fitday CD vs. Website...

Eric..thanks for your input and the links! I like the free site, too, for the same reasons you do, althought it's trying sometimes to put everything in in the short amount of time I normally have. I've been to sparkpeople before. I think it was kind of confusing to work with, but then again, it took me a looong time to learn fitday. lol.

Adena...thanks for your insight. I thought about having to transfer and put in all over again. That's a pain, but maybe worth it if I had it all done ahead of time.

But the main reason I got it was so I could use it when offline - I was going caravanning and though I would have mains power to run a laptop I would not be able to get online.

Thanks for your insight, Elizellen! I think this was one of the main issues I had in the past with logging on to fitday, inputing the information, and then finally getting around to the stats for the day...dial-up is my friend/foe


Thanks for everyone's help. I think I'll work with the website and save for the PC version. I like the idea of having it ready when I want it on my computer and not having to wait and fight over the phone line with my hubby and his computer. Yes, we're still in the early 21st century for now I also like hearing that it has more storage than the website does. That's really telling of being able to look back throught the files.

[Brook]

Re: Fitday CD vs. Website...

Add me to the list of Fitday PC fans. I wouldn't be without it.

All the benefits Elizellen listed are great reasons and some of the reasons I use it too. Others, for me, include:

The ability to break my meals down not only to breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks/etc, but I can add in the where I ate, when I ate, why I ate, who I ate with as well. It's nice for tracking behavioral trends.

Weight loss goal tracking.
Mood tracking.
Ease. It really is nice to be able to drag and drop information all over that program.
Report variety. I can pull a million of them.
And yes- portability. It goes where I go.

There are so many features that make it worth the money. I just wish they'd make it so we could interchange it with the online version so as to share menus/reports with others if we choose.

[TheDogAteMyName]

Re: Fitday CD vs. Website...

I often wonder if I should purchase the PC version as well. I think it will give me a lot more options. What about activity...does the PC version have more choices?