Tools to Help You Lose - My Fitness Pal
No matter what kind of weight loss program you’re on, it’s important to keep track of what you’re putting into your mouth. You could jot down what you’re eating in a notebook, and try to keep track of the calories consumed that way, but it’s hard if you don’t know exact amounts, or how many calories are in that banana or egg you had for breakfast.
One tool I’ve found that works very well is a website called MyFitnessPal.com. It is a comprehensive tool that makes it easy to keep track not only of everything you’re putting into your mouth, but also how many calories you’ve burned from your exercise. It keeps a tally of that along with the calories consumed, so that you will know exactly what your totals are as you go through your day.
It’s also very easy to use. There is a huge database of food choices, so chances are whatever you’re eating is already available for you to place in your food journal. It’s also incredibly easy to add your own food or recipe.
Let me show you how to get started.
When you first go to MyFitnessPal.com, you will be presented with several ways to register on the welcome page. I suggest you get started by filling in the Free Diet Profile information. (Click on the thumbnail to see a larger image.)
After filling in your weight, height and gender on the home page, you will then be asked to fill in additional information such as what is your goal weight and how active your lifestyle is. Filling this out takes under a minute.
Once you’ve done that, MyFitnessPal.com generates your suggested nutrition plan and fitness goals. This page tells you what you should be eating and how much you should be exercising to reach your goal. I have found the plans to be good, basic set-ups for those just beginning a fitness routine. It helps take the guesswork out figuring out what to eat and how much to work out every day. Once you have gotten this far, MyFitnessPal.com will then ask you to create a free account so you can take advantage of all of the tools they offer.
Working with the Food Diary is really easy. When you first set up your Food Diary, you can decide which meals you want to include. As you can see here, I have included an After workout snack, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and two other snacks. As you add your foods for each meal, the Food Diary tallies up the nutrition quantities for each food, and keeps track of what your totals are as you go through the day. Although you can’t see it on this screenshot, the Food Diary also keeps track of how many calories you’ve burned in your workout, adding that into the equation for the total number of calories available for the day.
Adding foods to the Food Diary is a breeze, because there are so many foods already listed in the MyFitnessPal.com database. It’s just a matter of typing the name of the food you are looking for in the Search field. You can be as generic or as specific as you like. Being more specific will bring up fewer choices, of course.You then select the one you want, and you will have a chance to choose the serving size on the right. Choose the serving size and then click on Add to Food Diary, and the food will be added.
Once you add a food to the Food Diary, MyFitnessPal.com creates a list of your most often used foods, making it even easier from then on to add then to the Food Diary. The list also allows you to either choose the same serving size as before, or change it, depending on your needs. This list is updated as you add more foods, or changed if you start using some other food more frequently that isn’t on the list.
If you happen to come across a food that isn’t on the list, MyFitnessPal.com has made it easy to add new foods to their database. You can also add recipes or meals from restaurants. Simply choose the brand name and name of the food or meal and click on Continue.
You will then be taken to a screen where you will fill in the serving size and nutrition information. This food will then be added to the database to be used by other MyFitnessPal.com members or not, if you don’t want it to be. I always choose to let others use the food as well, to help grow the database.
You will follow the same type of procedure for adding an exercise to the Exercise Log. I have found that the exercise database isn’t quite as well-populated, but it is just as easy to add to as the Food database. The main problem with adding exercise routines is that it will ask you for how many calories burned. That is hard to know unless you wear a heart rate monitor while exercising from which you can calculate your calories burned. Before I started using the Garmin Forerunner 405 Heart Rate Monitor, I used the generic entries for low-intesity cardio or high-intensity cardio and used the calories burned that were in the system. I have since found those estimates to be low for me, but everyone will be different.
Whether you have been working out for a while or are just starting, I highly recommend that you use a log like MyFitnessPal.com to help you keep track of your calories if you have any concern that you aren’t eating the right quantity. It will help you get a firmer idea of exactly how much you are eating, and it’s so easy to use, why not use it?
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