Getting My Fit Together

Okay, So last month, I talked a bit about how (because of various reasons) I was both out of shape and needed to lose weight because of multiple reasons. I also said that I would be talking a bit about how I was handling this process and how I am using technology (specifically a set of apps) to help me along. As many different dieticians have told me over the years (with varying degrees of success), It’s not so much how much effort you put out (as in exercise), but it’s what you put in (as in what I eat) that moves the needle. To get going with that, I decided that getting my diet sorted was one of the best things that I could do. For my diet and making sure that I was eating what I was supposed to, I turned to an app called MyFitnessPal. I like using MyFirtnessPal for many different reasons, partially because it’s super easy to use, but it’s also easy to stay as consistent as possible.

WARNING!!!! WARNING!!!! QUICK LEGAL MUMBOJUMBO!!!!! I am not affiliated with MyFitnessPal. I am talking about it in this post because I use it. There is no link that I will put on this site to give you a discount for using it. I’m talking about it because I’m a fan of using it. End of story. On with the post!

1)Tracking – The ability to track your food on MyFitnessPal is amazingly easy. I like that when you put in your height, weight and gender into the app, it calculates how much it thinks you should be eating every day. QUICK SCIENCE WARNING; I did find out while doing this the first time I found out that my metabolism changed, which meant that the number of calories I would need in a given day changed. Like I said in my previous post, I had this designed by a doctor, so I would advise checking with your doctor if you’re planning a diet on your own. Once you get that sorted, then you can track everything you eat. I have to admit; some obvious things were STUPID high calorie, which I needed to ditch, which was (mostly) painless. It was the things that I didn’t think had that many calories that did were the hard ones to get rid of. Tracking has helped me stay “in bounds” with my calories so that I know how to “budget” how much food I eat throughout the day.

2) Searching – What I like is that they have nearly every food that I have been able to see listed and an exceptionally powerful search engine that will check a database that they have prepopulated with damn near everything you could eat. Occasionally we like to order in (although we’ve been doing a LOT less of that recently), and usually, I can get a craving for something in particular. I like that I can quickly go to MyFitnessPal and check and see how “expensive” (or how many calories will be in the thing) it’s going to be before I order. It has, on several occasions, allowed me to make better choices. Having the app handy on my phone like that has made all the difference for me.

Reporting – I will admit, for the first couple of weeks that I did this, all I did was start reporting everything that I ate. After about a week, I was startled at how much higher the calories I was taking in vs. what I should have been taking in was. Seeing the numbers right there in my hand was eye-opening. I had gone on a diet before and been moderately successful at it. I didn’t think that my eating habits had changed THAT much from when I was actively dieting, but clearly, I was wrong. Having the reporting of all my calories work so efficiently means that I can see exactly where I am in my day.

Coordination – One thing that I have had a hard time previously with diet programs was entering my data from various sources. Luckily with MyFitnessPal (and other appliances), It’s straightforward. Tracking my weight is simple as I have a scale that I stand on every morning. I like that I can step on the scale and (no matter the outcome….) it tracks my weight, and it goes directly into the MyFitnessPal profile. I don’t have to go through the extra step of entering my weight. I’ll be talking about my scale in another post, but for now, let me say that on days where I feel like I’m a bit heavier, I can close my eyes and pretend not to look and know that the data will be tracked one way or the other.

Another thing that gets automatically tracked is my steps. I track my steps with my Apple watch and the Fitness app (Previously, the “activity” app). Still, because everything is in sync, all my steps are accounted for, and any workout I do is also automatically tracked. I love it because it’s effortless.

I have to say, I’ve gone through a few more diets than I am comfortable admitting, and I have to say that the right tools make the process so much easier. MyFitnessPal is one of those tools, and being able to effortlessly and easily track your food is amazingly helpful. Its ability to integrate with every other app that I use makes it a key component to figuring out my diet plan.

Do you use MyFitnessPal?

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