Forums >Health and Nutrition>MyFitnessPal - Discuss
So it seems like the world and his uncle have all used MFP at some point. I tried it, lost a bit of weight but quickly realised that it was far too much work to monitor everything I ate, it spoiled a lot of social occasions and that it was incredibly hard to find what was the optimal amount of calories for me.
I'm interested to here about other people's experiences with it. Particularly interested to see if anyone has managed to maintain their weight loss after stopping using MFP.
I used it for a while and it helped, but I also found it hard to keep logging everything day in and day out.
What it did the most for me was education. I had no idea how many calories was in some of the foods that I was eating on a fairly routine basis. I also didn't really have a good feel for how many calories I should be eating either.
The biggest shocker for me was the Holiday Inn Express cinnamon rolls. I travel quite a bit and probably stay in a Holiday Inn Express 20 or 30 nights a year. I would eat 2 or 3 of the cinnamon rolls for breakfast in the mornings at 440 calories each!! Now I eat a couple bowls of Rasin Bran and save 500+ calories.
Fast food is another area that I just didn't realize how many calories there were. I would end up eating 1,250 - 1,500 calories off the dollar menu. Now I just pay the extra $ and get a salad and treat myself to an ice cream cone and know that I will be snacking later and save myself about 1/2 the calories doing that.
I typically will log my food for a week or so every 3 or 4 months now, but for the most part I have a pretty good feel for the calories I'm eating.
What has made the big difference for me is increasing my running mileage, I was losing a pound a month or so by slowly improving my diet, but when I upped the mileage I dropped 20 pounds in 4 or 5 months during one of the busier times of year for me when I was eating out a lot.
I'm down close to 30 pounds now from about a year and a half ago and am looking to drop another 10 or 15 over the next year.
Age: 50 Weight: 224 Height: 6'3" (Goal weight 195)
Current PR's: Mara 3:14:36* (2017); HM 1:36:13 (2017); 10K 43:59 (2014); 5K 21:12 (2016)
I've got a fever...
+1
It's a real eye-opener when you first start counting and you realize just how calorie-laden some foods are. If nothing else, counting for a while helps inform your eating decisions.
On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.
I *want* to use it, or at least give it a try, but every time I put it onto my Blackberry, it froze.
Its possible that in the last few months, they have fixed the problem, but I doubt it. They're focusing now on a platform that actually has a future.
Jeff
The Scrub
I've been using it. The main problem that I've seen with it was that I was eating more calories because I had more left to eat, not because I was hungry. "Oh, I have 200 calories left, maybe I'll have a fruit or something" That has snowballed on me a couple times.
I think the best thing like it was previously said is to educate you on how many calories you eat, then just make good choices when you are hungry.
not bad for mile 25
I was noticing the McDonalds ads during the Olympics, showing all their menu items that are under 400 calories. I was thinking right, but multiply that by 3 or 4. Who walks out of the store having eaten just one plain burger with no fries, no drink, no dessert?
+1 on the awareness of what I was eating.
There are a couple of days a week we eat a little more, with a frozen magerita, and I was suprised at how many calories those days are. I also found myself not counting on days I was pigging out, because I didn't want to know, and how often those days were occuring (enough to keep my weight static).
I find if I stop tracking, I start snacking, so I still use it daily. It helps me on the other end of the spectrum too, when I need to make sure I'm eating enough. On Sat I ate 2200 calories and ran 24 miles, and yesterday (my magerita day) I ate just over 2200 calories and ran 10.5 miles. It's a reminder that I need to eat before I run today, unless I prefer to crawl home.
I can leave McDonalds with a diet coke and a burger. If I eat the fries too I'm semi comatose all afternoon.
Yeah, I've done the same thing many a time. The late night eating is the most dangerous, particulary if you stay up real late; the longer you're awake, the more chances you have to blow it.
The biggest revelation I got from calorie counting was how big a role snacking played in my intake. Until I actually kept track, I didn't realize that over the course of the day, I tended to take in hundreds and sometimes thousands of extra calories snacking -- mostly junk in the breakroom at work, but often also batting cleanup for the kids when they didn't finish their food.