How exactly does MFP work?
A question I get asked a lot is why MyFitnessPal (MFP)? How does it work? How is it different from something like Weight Watchers (WW)?
The main principal behind MFP is keeping a food journal. It's a digital log with thousands and thousands of food options within the calculator. You can use an app on your phone or you can use their website. It goes further than a traditional food diary because it gives you all the health information that goes along with it (carbs, protein, fat etc.) It is the modern day food diary. They do say the most successful way to lose weight is with a food diary and this makes it really easy to keep one, even on the go.
MyFitnessPal has flexible calories. You need to be 3500 calories under the number of calories you'd need to eat to maintain your weight over the course of the week to lose one pound per week. 3500 calories = 1lb of fat. So for example, if you needed 2000 cals/day to maintain your weight, your daily goal would be 1500 cals/day. If one day you're at 1600 and the next you're at 1400 you're still even. That's the great thing about it, you can plan ahead for days you know are going to be bad for the diary. It makes dieting so much easier.
The program also allows you to input your own homemade recipes. That way you know exactly how many calories per serving you are consuming and you don't have to add each ingredient into the calculator which can take forever. A friend of mine pointed this feature out to me about a month into the diet and it changed my life. This has to be my favourite feature the program provides! Bar code scanning also makes keeping your log very easy. Scan it and it pops up, add your serving size and off you go. It takes all the work out of keeping a diary.
Now when it comes to Weight Watchers, I'm writing this as someone who has never been on the program but I'm friends with and worked with many people who were on the program and I learned quite a bit about it. WW allows you to eat as many fruits and vegetables as your heart desires. MFP makes you log each and every item that you eat. WW designates a certain number of points per food item where as MFP calculates the calorie consumption of that food. Weight Watchers is great for having weekly weigh ins and having in person meetings where as MyFitnessPal is all digital, your community is online and it's up to you to weigh yourself in weekly. WW has a monthly membership fee and MFP is free. They both work, they both have great success rates, I think it is just a matter of figuring out what works for you! I often call MyFitnessPal free Weight Watchers.
I've spent at least 10 years "dieting" and trying to either get in shape or lose weight and this is the first "diet" that has worked. I am even cautious about calling it a diet, it is a lifestyle change. It is about making healthier choices with both food and exercise. It's about changing my relationship with food and exercise as well. If I manage to drop the full 43 pounds I will weigh what I weighed when I graduated from high school and that would be an incredible accomplishment for me. Right now I'm working on taking off my freshman 20!
The main principal behind MFP is keeping a food journal. It's a digital log with thousands and thousands of food options within the calculator. You can use an app on your phone or you can use their website. It goes further than a traditional food diary because it gives you all the health information that goes along with it (carbs, protein, fat etc.) It is the modern day food diary. They do say the most successful way to lose weight is with a food diary and this makes it really easy to keep one, even on the go.
MyFitnessPal has flexible calories. You need to be 3500 calories under the number of calories you'd need to eat to maintain your weight over the course of the week to lose one pound per week. 3500 calories = 1lb of fat. So for example, if you needed 2000 cals/day to maintain your weight, your daily goal would be 1500 cals/day. If one day you're at 1600 and the next you're at 1400 you're still even. That's the great thing about it, you can plan ahead for days you know are going to be bad for the diary. It makes dieting so much easier.
The program also allows you to input your own homemade recipes. That way you know exactly how many calories per serving you are consuming and you don't have to add each ingredient into the calculator which can take forever. A friend of mine pointed this feature out to me about a month into the diet and it changed my life. This has to be my favourite feature the program provides! Bar code scanning also makes keeping your log very easy. Scan it and it pops up, add your serving size and off you go. It takes all the work out of keeping a diary.
Now when it comes to Weight Watchers, I'm writing this as someone who has never been on the program but I'm friends with and worked with many people who were on the program and I learned quite a bit about it. WW allows you to eat as many fruits and vegetables as your heart desires. MFP makes you log each and every item that you eat. WW designates a certain number of points per food item where as MFP calculates the calorie consumption of that food. Weight Watchers is great for having weekly weigh ins and having in person meetings where as MyFitnessPal is all digital, your community is online and it's up to you to weigh yourself in weekly. WW has a monthly membership fee and MFP is free. They both work, they both have great success rates, I think it is just a matter of figuring out what works for you! I often call MyFitnessPal free Weight Watchers.
I've spent at least 10 years "dieting" and trying to either get in shape or lose weight and this is the first "diet" that has worked. I am even cautious about calling it a diet, it is a lifestyle change. It is about making healthier choices with both food and exercise. It's about changing my relationship with food and exercise as well. If I manage to drop the full 43 pounds I will weigh what I weighed when I graduated from high school and that would be an incredible accomplishment for me. Right now I'm working on taking off my freshman 20!
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