NOTE: This is the same help you will find on the device, accessed via Start > Help.
Disclaimer &
Overview
Weight Loss Concepts
Basic Use
Main Screen Details
Calorie Input Panel -
Numbers
Calorie Input Panel -
Foods
Menus
Tips & Tricks
Purchase & Contact
Information
Future Features
support@glasslantern.com
http://www.glasslantern.com
Use is subject to the End User License Agreement provided
during installation. Children, heavily muscled, ill, pregnant
or lactating people may not be accurately portrayed by CalTrack
calculations. Always consult your doctor before significant
weight loss/gain.
CalTrack is a Pocket PC application designed to assist in
weight management by helping you to track the number of
calories you expend vs. the number that you consume each day.
In addition, CalTrack keeps a running counter of your total net
calorie history for multiple days, allowing you to balance high
and low calorie days. To assist in determining calories in
foods, CalTrack includes a USDA database of over 6,000 items in
over 11,000 portion sizes.
Food database source: U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Agricultural Research Service. 2001. USDA Nutrient Database for
Standard Reference, Release 14. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home
Page, http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp.
Weight control can be very difficult since it requires balancing the calories you eat and expend through physical activity. Precisely measuring the number of calories you expend can only be done in a laboratory. Therefore, CalTrack uses a standard formula (Harris-Benedict) to estimate your energy expenditure. Tracking calories consumed is also difficult, but is made easier by using the nutrition labels on all packaged foods in the USA and the CalTrack food database. Some useful facts & resources:
- It takes 3500 calories to gain/lose a pound of fat. To lose a pound every week, you have to eat 500 calories fewer than you expend every day.
- Losing more than 1-2 pounds per week or eating less than 1200-1500 calories per day is not recommended. If you plan to exceed these limits, definitely consult a doctor first.
- General information: FDA, CDC, and NIH, WebMD, Mayo Clinic, American Dietetic Association.
- Enter your personal information at the top-left of the main screen.
- As you eat throughout the day, tap the cells in the lower half of the screen and enter the calories that you eat.
- The big number in the upper-right corner tells you how many calories you have netted for the day. A negative number means you're burning fat; a positive number means you're gaining fat.
- Each day, do Reset > New Day... to get a clean slate for a new day of eating and exercising.
- Every week or so (preferably when you weigh yourself), reset your data to get a clean slate.
The main CalTrack screen contains pretty much everything you need to monitor your calories on a day-to-day basis. On the upper-left side of the main screen, enter your personal information, including:
- Activity level. Note that this shouldn't change from day-to-day -- think about it in terms of at least a week. Options for exercising (e.g. "Exer 3+/wk") describe the number of times you get at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise each week. If you have a physically demanding occupation, it should be factored into your activity level as well.
- Age & gender
- Height (inches)
- Weight (pounds)
- Target weight, for estimating weeks to reach your target.
On the upper-right side of the main screen, your current status is displayed:
- Net calories for the current day. If the net for the day ends up at 0, you should not gain or lose any weight that day. A positive net calorie number means you should gain weight; a negative number means you should lose weight.
- The number of calories you have eaten today (Eat).
- Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE): an estimate of the calories you will burn during the current day.
- Body Mass Index (BMI), a standard measure indicating whether your weight is healthy or not. Full information can be found from the National Institute of Health (NIH) website. In brief:
BMI
Meaning
<19
Underweight (negative health impact)
19-25
Good weight
25-30
Overweight (negative health impact)
30+
Obese (large negative health impact)
- Total net calories for the past n days. Each time you move to a new day, the current net calories are added to this number. If you go for many days or weeks without resetting, this will change to a daily or weekly average instead of a total net.
- Weeks to goal. Assuming you continue eating and exercising as your history indicates, gives the number of weeks it should take for you to reach your goal.
Finally, the bottom of the main display shows a grid of slots, each of which can be tapped to enter the calories for something you have eaten. When you tap one of these slots, you will see the calorie input panel.
Calorie Input Panel -- Numbers
The input screen allows you to enter the calories you have
eaten. At the top of the input screen, you can type in a
specific number of calories. Below the type-in area, you see
the last five custom calorie numbers you typed in, since you
are likely to use them again by eating the same food. Finally,
you can choose one of the preset buttons to enter that number
of calories quickly.
Note that there are negative calories on the bottom of the
input screen, in case you do an unusual amount of physical
activity, such as run a marathon -- negative numbers allow you
to enter the calorie expenditure.
If you don't know how many calories are in the food you just
ate, tap the apple button in the command bar at the bottom of
the screen to search the food database.
The food database allows you to search for over 6,000 foods to find their calorie values.
- Type at least three letters into the box at the top of the panel, and matching foods are displayed below. You can search for as many words as you like -- only foods that contain all of the words will be displayed. (For example, "blue cheese" will only display foods that contain both "blue" and "cheese".)
- Tap the food you are looking for in the list of results, then choose the portion size in the dropdown. Note that the complete description and portion are displayed in case they are cut off in the list or the dropdown.
- Finally, choose how many of the portions you ate. For example, if you have eaten 1.5 bananas, tap the right arrow to increment the number to "1", then tap ".50" to indicate the half a banana. The total calories are calculated and displayed in the calorie cell you tapped in the main screen.
When you return to the foods panel in the future, you can access previous searches via the dropdown arrow in the search field.
When you are done eating for the day, use the Reset menu at the bottom of the screen to move to a new day. This adds the net calories from the current day to the n-day net history counter, and clears all of the information so you can start entering information for a new day. The complete functionality of the Reset menu is:
|
Menu Option |
Functionality |
|
New Day... |
Moves to a new day, adding net calories to the n-day net history counter. |
|
Reset Data... |
Throws away all of the calorie information for the current user. Preserves personal information such as age and height. |
The only option is to switch between users. Since each user's data is independent, multiple people can use the same device to track their calories. Or, you can use one of the other users to do "what-if" scenarios without altering your real data.
- You don't have to enter calories into adjacent slots. Instead, use the different positions for different types of calories. For example, use the first row of slots for breakfast, the second for lunch, the third for dinner, and the fourth for snacks. Or use the columns...or...whatever makes it easier to track your day.
- Reset your n-day net history counter when you weigh yourself. Then, you can use the counter as an estimate of what your weight should be at your next weighing. (Divide the net by 3500 to get pounds of fat you should be losing...)
- Use the n-day net history counter to "save up" calories for special events. For example, if you know you're going to a party on Friday night, use the n-day net counter to track how many extra calories you can splurge on by being careful the previous few days.
The trial version of CalTrack will gradually disable its
features. To re-enable all of CalTrack's features and prevent
the About... panel from being displayed as a reminder, purchase
a registration key at http://www.glasslantern.com.
You must register within 21 days of your first use of CalTrack.
Once you have purchased a registration key, enter it into the
About... panel and tap OK. If the key is valid, all features
will be enabled and you will not see any purchase reminders. If
the key is not valid, you will continue to see reminders and
some features will not function.
Send bug reports and comments to support@glasslantern.com.
Please include:
- The version you are using. (See Options > About... to get the version number.)
- Which Pocket PC model you use.
- The EXACT steps to reproduce the problem.
- What you expect to happen instead of what actually occurs.
Some of the features being considered for future releases:
- Metric input option.
- Track fat, cholesterol, vitamins/minerals, etc. in addition to calories.
- Add calibration (e.g. +5%) option for fine adjustment of TDEE.
- Better pickers for age, weight, etc.
- Better trending - allow going back to previous days?
- Write a file of raw data for later analysis, charting in a spreadsheet, etc.
- WHO vs. Harris-Benedict TDEE calculations. (Different calculation methods - currently only Harris-Benedict is supported.)
- 7-day chart showing data for the last 7 days
Send new ideas or comments to support@glasslantern.com.