My Fitness Pal – Food Tracking Software

I have lost a total of ~140lbs from my heaviest, and ~80# in the past 18 months. using a free app that is available online, on my phone & iPad.  Although I was exercising consistently and working out with Tri Zones Training, an Austin-based triathlete group, my weight loss had slowed down and I knew I needed to make some changes to enable additional progress.

I was very resistant to be “controlled” and had downloaded the app MyFitnessPal in the spring, yet never tracked for more than a few days.   On September 6, 2011 I made a decision that I was GOING to do this.  I have learned over the years that “You cannot improve what you don’t measure.”  This principle can be seen in budgeting & debt reduction, as well as many aspects of business development & growth.

I created a few rules for myself:

1. No Judgement.  This was not a way to embarrass or punish myself for eating “no-no” foods.
2. No Goals.  I wanted to ONLY work on the habit of tracking my food, not planning, hitting a calorie goal or creating an oppressive “diet” plan.
3. No Time-consuming Over-analysis.  I often suffer from “paralysis of analysis” and can give up on something because it simply takes too much time to implement.

There are many studies on how to create or change habits.  (See review of Habits & Willpower)  I knew that if I could “sneak” this habit in, I should be able to add a major weapon to my arsenal; if I could “measure” then I could “improve”.

The results were very positive, and many people ask me what some of the KEY CHANGES I have made on my fitness journey.  As I have reflected on that, I am going to share of few of these things in the coming weeks.

My goal is to provide some “shortcuts” to people who are ready to make lasting changes in their health and fitness levels.  I spent 25+ years doing trial and error and jumping on every new bandwagon.  I have found its the SIMPLE things that have produced the greatest results.

12 Month Progress

There are reports you can generate and view your progress based on three key areas:
Fitness, Nutrition & Results.

Main Dashboard on http://www.MyFitnessPal.com

Screenshot of the Dashboard where you can enter your exercice, food, add measurements or current weight, etc.  There are resources that help you plan a meal program based on your fitness goals.  You can connect with friends who are also using the program and see their notes & progress.  This is a feature you can share or not.  I don’t have my food log available to others, but they can see if I’ve tracked and can see how much I’ve burned doing specific exercise.  I don’t want someone to look at what I eat and think: “YIKES!”  🙂

Screen Shot to Add Food to Log

It’s VERY EASY to add food to your daily log.  There are 1000s of brand name foods, as well as ingredients for recipes, and general items.  You can create a “meal” if you have the same 3-4 things together regularly.  Recipes can be built by the ingredients that are used, and the servings it yields.  The reason I chose MyFitnessPal over other similar programs is how deep the database is on foods.  You can enter new items for personal use or submit to the public database and others can access it for their own use.  The community builds and verifies food data so that it is more robust that the others I tested.

Sample of a Food Log
(You can customize the # of meals or snacks you track)

Sample page of a food log.  I created 3 snacks as well as the 3 main meals.  If I track throughout the day, it allows me to adjust my choices if I need to eat more protein or carbs. (Or if I need to eat less fat!)  The phone app automatically sync with the desktop version, and vice versa, so you are always look at the most up-to-date info.

I hope you have found this helpful!  If you do start using this system, you can add me as a friend!  My user name is: joannenabors.

It’s a good life…