Saturday, November 12, 2011

My Fitness Pal

I was surprised yesterday by a message from my food diary app. I have used it for 365 days straight. I credit that app with helping me lose 70 pounds last year and keeping it off for 7 months now.

It can be very difficult to lose weight if you don't know the calorie value of what you are eating. If you are guessing, you are probably way low – that’s why we progressively add weight. Some people try extreme exercise, hoping that that will help. Others try fad diets or think there are foods they can never eat again. That doesn’t work in the long term either. I have written in other blog posts of the need for a lifestyle change so I won’t repeat that here.

My Fitness Pal is the app I use. It is available for most phone platforms or you can use their website. I use it on an IPod Touch. It is completely free. It is also very easy to use and only takes a few minutes of time each day to track what you have eaten or what you are thinking of eating. I have been spared from many high calorie meals by looking up foods before I eat them.

Here is the link to the MyFitnessPal website where you can set up an account and get the apps. All of the data syncs between app and website so you can enter info in either.

You can also track exercise in the app and get a realistic picture of how many calories are burned. This is an important part of weight loss too. If I walk 30 minutes at a very brisk pace I will burn between 160 and 180 calories. If I ride my bike very hard for an hour at 14 mph I will burn about 500.

Well I hope what I have learned in my weight loss journey will help you be successful in yours.

Here is a link to other posts about my weight loss journey.

Philip

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