Most people who have at least attempted weight loss have probably heard of this tool/app.
It was designed and run by the fantastic people at Under Armour, a relatively newish sportswear company.
MyFitnessPal primarily works as an app on your apple or android smart phone. It is primarily and essentially a calorie counting tool. In the past, calorie counting was extremely difficult to do without any app involvement. You were pretty dependant on these little but fat books you'd get out of the library that had calorie and nutritional info on foods incl the more common fast food type stuff. But restaurant food? Forget it.
Calorie counting is drudgery BUT, MyFitnessPal I think has gone to a lot of effort to make it as effortless as possible. The perks:
- The barcode scanner. The app has the ability to scan and input into your meals plan pretty much any food with a barcode. And Im betting most foods in your pantry have a barcode. So this is helpful.
- The search engine is gigantic. Its like google pretty much. So even if it doesn't have a barcode you can get pretty specific on things even if its quite an unknown food item that you can only get in say New Zealand. You can also type in variations of common franchise foods. For example, I love the Bagel BELT sandwiches from Tim Hortons (a Canadian version of Dunkin Donuts). However, I like to frequently ask them to omit the processed cheese from the sandwich (in doing so, I half the sodium content of my breakfast). The app has a "Tim Hortons Bagel BELT w no cheese". Helpful or what?! Without this app I would have had to look up all the individual ingredients, input all of them individually, then manually remove the cheese, IF and only IF, Tim Hortons was kind enough to make the ingredient and quantity list available on their website or nutrition broshures. That is WAY too much work. Luckily I don't have to do it.
- MyFitnessPal is a tool more than an actual program. Theres no person pointing a finger at you to do this or don't do that. It accomodates YOUR goals, your needs, your dietary pursuits. If you want to go hard core raw vegan food only, the app will help you. Want to go Atkins? Keto? No carb? Paleo? It will help you. What the app does NOT support is fasting or starvation methods. When you join the app, you put in your activity level, your weight, your height, your goals and it will calculate for you your meal/day calorie amounts and not only that but the individual nutritional needs for each meal. So you will be given a set goal amount of protein, fats, carbs/fiber, sugar, sodium, vits/mins to achieve each day. The app will start warning you in red font for example if you input food that is going over your sugar amount for example. If you need accountability to not just be using calories but also filling up on appropriate food, this is quite helpful. Getting back to the fasting thing, if you attempt to fast a meal and then try to save your day's amount, it willl not allow you to save.
- It provides more than just food calorie counting. Theres online communities to join. Exercise ideas to read about, injury prevention articles, food posts, recipe posts, cool success stories to motivate you. You can 'follow' people and if you are friends you can see other peoples food, exercise and recipe entries.
- You can connect up your pedometer/exercise wristbands (and that includes ANY brand) but most people use nike watches or fitbits.
The down side:
- Its not the app, but you. Like anything that requires effort, it must all come from you. Don't worry, its quite common to fall off the wagon, but get back on as quickly as possible! It took me two goes to be a consistent, regular user of the app. The key to using MyFitnessPal well and with success is if you are consistent and most of all honest. Don't lie on your food diary!! Just put it in, view the nutrition of those burgers and fries, learn a lesson and move on! Lastly, you HAVE to get organised with your planning. Its tricky at the beginning but eventually you'll become a person of habit and you'll notice that you have these favorite meal recipes you go back to and if you use the 'saved recipe' component on the app, meal times will soon be super easy.
- People who don't use the app will think you've become obsessive. I know I got a few concerned comments from the hubby about all the weighing of food I was doing that hinted to me that he was concerned. I just reassured him of my intentions for healthy living and ensured him his concern was appreciated but not necessary. You're the one doing all the effort, not them. Just don't get all preachy about what other people are cooking or eating. Keep your head down and focus on just YOUR habits not those of others or you'll get retaliation from family and friends and no one will want to eat around you. Please don't be that person. Be humble, be quiet about what you're doing and preferably keep what you're doing to yourself unless someone is genuinely curious. Let your actions speak louder than your words. Hubby used to roll his eyes at me as I calorie counted our date night food at whatever restaurant we were eating. Eight months later, now he occasionally does it. Ha!
Tips:
- Start off by weighing everything either in grams or ounces. One of the biggest things about this program that helped me was that it helped me realise how my portions were WAY to big. Sticking to your recommended nutrition goals by weighing your food will help with this. Don't use measuring cup to measure as it doesnt take into consideration the type of food. Preferably use weight not size as it is more truthful. I have a small glass scale I keep within reach in my kitchen to help me with this. After a while, if you're at a friends house for example and you're wondering how to input the food that they made, you can just eyeball the meat/carb/veg portion given to you and make a good guess. Its better to input something rather than nothing!
For me, this app has helped me majorly in seeing how much and what kinds of innappropriate foods I was eating. I was brutally honest in my food inputting at the beginning and I learned very quickly I had developed a horrible habit of eating fast food too frequently for breakfast, I was consuming quadruple the amount of sugar I should have been eating, I was then overeating at dinners and lunches and church functions and failing to listen to the responses of my own body. And just so you know, one year on, I still use the app. My user name (if you want to add me as a friend): kiwiOT.
Before I end this post let me provide some links below that you can visit that show you tips, tricks and hacks to use the app to the fullest that I found super helpful. And just so you know, I have no affiliations with the app, nor do I get money for typing this post. Im just a fan and a user thats all.
Give it a go!
Melody
10 insider tips for MyFitnessPal newbies
9 Habits successful MyFitnessPal users swear by
5 features you didnt know about MyFitnessPal
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