My Fitness Pal

Hey All,

I've continued to plug away at my goal of getting down to 170 lbs in the next year and am happy to report that, in spite of numerous moments of giving in to cravings of really bad food (*sheepish smile*), I am actually still on track in terms of pounds lost.  I'm down another 5 lbs. 

When I started out, I didn't think much about what I was eating or how much exercise I was getting.  I just kinda exercised here and there, and ate less junk.  I'm getting more systematic about it now that I'm working with a personal trainer, and I've started trying to hit a calorie deficit (more calories expended each day than eaten) of about 500-1000 per day.  That adds up to 1-2 lbs of weight lost each week.  (It is not recommended to lose weight any faster than that).  I'm not interested in getting super crazy about tracking, but one thing about me is that I know precious little about nutrition and what it takes to reach and maintain a healthy weight, so doing this is very instructive for me!  

I wanted to blog today about a tool I've been using.  I posted about it on my Facebook status, but I thought I would provide a little more info.

Myfitnesspal is a really awesome app that I use on my iPad to track my nutrition and exercise.  If you don't have an iPad or iPhone, you can use this program online at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/  Also, if you use both, the two will sync- which just rocks. 

I used one other program prior to finding this one (the other program was imapmyfitness), and I like this one so much better.  I'm going to talk today about its use for tracking nutrition, and save the exercise tracking for another post (so that this one isn't gigantic).

Myfitnesspal has a searchable database of nutrition facts for lots of foods, and whatever you can't find, it's really easy to enter the information from the nutrition label yourself.  It keeps a daily count of your carbs, proteins, and other nutrients.  The interface is a little different from the app to the online program, but the features are basically the same.  

Here's a little printscreen of what my homepage looks like on the website.  As you can see, I haven't entered my food or exercise yet for today... but generally once you enter your food and exercise, it will let you know your calorie balance for the day (the number in green), which takes a lot of the guesswork out of weight loss. You know that over the course of a week if that balance is about a 500 calorie deficit you should lose about a pound. If you are consistent in your tracking, you have a pretty good idea of what the scale will show.  (Though stress and other things can impact that). Again- you should never average a deficit of more than 1000 calories a day (sometimes I go a little over that, but I also go under 500 during the week, so it averages out to a healthy deficit).  Consistent weight loss of more than 2 lbs per week is NOT healthy.

And here is a horrible pic of my iPad that shows my homepage using the app (sorry, I have no clue if it's even possible to do a print screen of an iPad... if someone knows, tell me!).  I chose another day so you could see what it looks like with actual data:

But here's the other thing I love: it's not just about calories.  There is more to being healthy than calories and weight, right? Myfitnesspal tracks a lot of different nutrients, which has given me some education in nutrition.  Often I enter foods immediately after eating them, and when I do, I enjoy instant feedback about how they impact my nutrition.  The program lets you know what your goals should be for how many calories you should consume, and how much carbs, protein, and fat.  You get a report each day that updates itself every time you add food.  On the website, it looks like the pic above.

On the app, it also provides the table below.  I haven't figured out on the website how to get the more detailed information like this, so if someone knows, let me know!  

Finally, you can add friends (my sister and I follow each other) and it gives you status updates whenever your friends burn calories or log their foods or lose weight.  Or, you can view message boards from either the app or the website and interact with people all over the place!

This is an awesome app and I highly recommend checking it out if you'd like to learn more about nutrition (even if you're not currently concerned with losing weight).  I'll blog more later about the exercise tracking features.

Also, keep your eyes peeled for some interviews.  I've started talking to friends and loved ones about their wellness journeys, and I'm going to start sharing their stories on the blog soon!  Stay tuned....