Food Log

(Full Instructions Are Below The Links)

Below is the link to the Excel spreadsheet containing a one-month daily food, activity and weight log. You will be able to enter up to 8 food choices for each meal, plus 8 for snacks during the day. You will also enter the amount of each food, and the calories.

The spreadsheet will automatically total the calories for each meal, and the total for the day. It can also be used for planning purposes.

There is a place for entering a BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), the estimated amount of calories your body burns just to stay alive each day, plus another for Daily Activities - depending on whether you are sedentary, active, extremely active, etc.

Below is a place for extra activities, above and beyond normal daily activities. These would be sports, exercises designed for burning calories, unusual activities that don't happen on normal days, etc.

The spreadsheet requires Excel to run. If you don't have it, here is a link where you can download the free Open Office software, which is a free replacement for MS Office. The Calc program there seems to run the FoodLog spreadsheet just fine.

Download the Free Open Office Software for Windows - In English

Download the Free Open Office Software for other operating systems and languages

Manuals, Support, Resources for Open Office


Food Log:

Get the current month only. When you are to the end of the month, download the foodlog for the next month. No need to download them in advance - they should always be available and since they get updated you will always want the most current version:

Download the Food Log for June
Download the Food Log for July
Download the Food Log for August
Download the Food Log for September
Download the Food Log for October
Download the Food Log for November
Download the Food Log for December



Here is a printable form that allows you to do hand entry of about a week of food information when you are not near your computer - later you can transfer the info to your Food Log. This is in PDF format which can be displayed with the free Adobe Acrobat reader.

Download the Printable Mini Food Log ".pdf" File

If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing ".PDF" files, you can get it from Adobe for free. Just down the page on the left side is a graphic that says "Get Adobe Reader":

Download the Free Adobe Acrobat Reader

FULL INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Save the foodlog to your computer - you can rename it as long as you keep the ".xls" at the end of the filename.
  2. Save it (File - Save) or Ctl-S each time you've entered data.
  3. Only put data in colored cells - do not enter, change or delete anything in white cells - if they show numbers, they have formulas and we don't want to change those. They calculate automatically and get their data from other cells.
  4. Click on the pink cell - upper left - that says "Your Name Here" and put your name.
  5. There are sections for 3 meals plus snacks - 4 sections, 4 different colors.
  6. There are samples in the breakfast and extra activities sections - they show you how to put the food, the amount, and the calories. Calories always go in the 3rd column for the day.
  7. Delete the samples and enter your own data.
  8. You must determine the calories yourself - either from your food labels, or websites online, such as: calorie-count.com/calories/ where you just enter something like SPINACH in the search box at the top and it will give you all kinds of choices, then the nutritional info.
  9. The spreadsheet automatically totals the calories for each meal, and for the day farther down. You don't have to do any addition.
  10. This can be used for planning meals too ... later you make any corrections after you've eaten to reflect what you actually ate.
  11. Below the meal section are some white spaces with various numbers. In the first column are two colored cells for BMR and Daily Activity. You will be given numbers to put there. Until you get them, leave the existing numbers. These are only estimates at this time.
  12. There is a row of pink cells for weight. In most cases, weigh yourself once in the morning, when you first get up, after going to the bathroom, before eating or drinking anything. Put it in the "calorie / date" column. You can delete the sample weight and replace it with your own.
  13. Below is a section for exercise, such as sports, exercise, burning calories, dancing, etc. Anything designed to burn calories or unusual activity that burns significant calories gets listed here. You can estimate calories at: caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.html - just go down to the green link for "activities calculator".
  14. There is a sample entry in the Extra Activites section so you can see how it works. Just delete the entries.
  15. Below this are a couple of charts (all the way to the left) that will make more sense as you have more data. We will discuss them from time to time. Daily weight changes are nearly always water weight coming or going.
  16. Enter your vitamin as a food at whatever meal you eat it with - zero calories.
  17. Be sure to save it each time after you've entered your data.
  18. Attach the file to email whenever you send one.