I spend a lot of time showing fitness professionals how to use all of the features on the dotFIT Me program; there are a lot of them. When we designed this program, we really did try to be everything to everyone. Now I know they say (whoever the heck they are) that that cannot be done, but I must admit, we did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself (and I apparently do….gotta love a blog). In doing so, there are so many cool things this program does that I thought I would share a few of the more convenient features, starting with the nutrition section.
Nutrition Tab: Clicking the Nutrition tab along the top brings you to the nutrition options. These include:
- Overview: when you first hit the nutrition page, scrolling down will show you the calories and percentage of protein, carbohydrate and fat for that day. Clicking a different day on the calendar will let you see the overview for that day (as a trainer, I use this feature to get a quick snapshot of what my clients are doing…or not doing).
- Preferences: clicking this link on the upper left will give you access to numerous special features, such as:
- Meal types: click this to select the actual meals you will be eating and logging. There are seven possible meals, select or de-select as appropriate.
- My saved meals: view the meals you have saved. For example, many people eat the same breakfast everyday during the work week. Saving a meal is done from the food logging screen by clicking on the plate and silverware above that meal.
- My Menus: your saved menus from the reference menu selection.
- My Food: you can add foods to YOUR database that cannot be found in the CalorieKing database. Also, this is where you can add/delete the foods you have previously added.
- Detailed View: this allows you to track specific nutrients and aspects of your diet, such as fiber, calcium and sodium. Clicking the blue “detailed view” button in the upper right side of the logging screen will allow you to see the detail you selected for each food item, meal and day.
- Reference Menus: also on the upper left side. Clicking this will give you access to eight unique eating styles with calories appropriate to your goal.
- Click the menu that interests you. If you want to use it, click customize menu in the upper right. You can then edit the menu, adding new food items, changing serving sizes or deleting foods. When finished, click “Save My Menu“. It will now be found in your saved menus section and via the link to my meals from the food logging screen.
Next time, we will look at some of the helpful features of the supplements tab.