I have battled in recent years with losing weight that I have managed to put on when stressed and eating for comfort.
I tried following a portion controlled diet for a few months and I did lose 15kg (33lb).
After a while though, when I had stopped strictly following the diet, I lapsed back into my old habits and started overeating again. I had soon regained all of the weight and then some!
By this stage I had returned to study and I would eat chocolate, lollies and unhealthy snacks just to help me get through my heavy study load. By this stage I was also in possession of my weight loss saviour but I just didn’t know it yet! I regularly used my smart phone (iPhone) to organise my day and help me complete various tasks but it wasn’t until I stumbled across a very simple app in the Apple App Store that I realised I could also use my smart phone to help me lose weight.
The app that I stumbled across and now use every day is the MyFitnessPal app and it is free to download in the Apple App Store. The app allows you to enter your current details and set weight loss and fitness goals as well as using the information you provide to give you a daily calorie goal. The best thing about MyFitnessPal however is that it allows you to easily keep a diary of everything that you eat each day as well as what exercise you have completed!
The app therefore allows you to count calories as you enter what you have eaten and thus you can keep track of how many calories you have remaining for the day and plan accordingly.
Some great features of MyFitnessPal are:
- Barcode scanner for looking up calories per serve on packages
- Can connect with friends who also use the app
- Can calculate calories per serve of your favourite dishes using the recipe builder
- Progress tracker with 1, 2 and 3 month graph options
- Ability to easily view past diary entries
just to name a few!
MyFitnessPal can also be accessed online at https://www.myfitnesspal.com/ with free registration.
The convenience of having a food diary with me all the time that helps me to count calories has meant that I have been able to lose 21kg (46lb) over about nine months and I have been able to keep it off and maintain my goal weight by continuing to log my food intake and exercise using MyFitnessPal.
Now that I have reached my goal weight my daily calorie allowance has increased accordingly so that I can stay at my current weight.
The best thing about MyFitnessPal is that now that I am using it I can’t imagine not using it! It is so easy to use that I can’t see myself ever getting overweight again as long as I keep using MyFitnessPal!
You can download MyFitnessPal straight to your phone using the Apple App Store or use the link below to preview the app online.
Leave a Reply