My Fitness Pal: Counting calories

When it comes to the “dieting” game, let’s just say that I am like a well used bicycle. I have been around the block a few times. Everything from Weight Watchers to the Cabbage Diet to the Atkins Diet have been in my weight loss regimen. Since I am writing this right now, you can probably figure out that none of them were great long term weight loss solutions.

The biggest thing about losing weight is I HATE having to think about it. Everywhere you turn doctors are telling you conflicting information. “Your BMI should be this!” “Your calories should be that.” It’s no wonder women across the world are half mad. ( I own that term proudly by the way)

Yeah, I know journaling and “thinking” about weight loss is supposed to help you lose the weight and keep it off, but someone with OCD, like me,  all it does is drive you nuts. (Well, more nuts than you already are) Combine OCD and ADD and you get a woman that can’t remember where the heck she put her journal let alone remembered to record her food in it.

Enter My Fitness Pal to save the day! A few friends of mine had mentioned it to me before, but I just figured that it was like any other program. You know, all hype and no results. That or it was too complicated for my ADD brain.

Since I am on this new fitness kick, I wanted to find a free application that I could use on my iPhone to keep track of my food and my workouts. Again, I came across My Fitness Pal. I figured, what the heck let’s give this a whirl. What can it hurt? It’s free!

I have been using My Fitness Pal for about two weeks now, and I have to say I am in love! It fits my lifestyle perfectly. It’s easy to use, and I am actually seeing results. (Three pounds in two weeks, thank you very much!)

My favorite feature is bar code scanner. You can scan the bar codes on your food, and it brings up your food item. I haven’t found a food yet that hasn’t scanned. Plus, the My Fitness Pal database has tons of foods listed. The only time I haven’t found a food item was when it was a homemade item, like fudge.

Even the weight loss goals are customizable. When you start your profile, you set how much weight you want to lose each week, and then your activity level. My Fitness Pal does the rest. Plus, the more you exercise the more you can eat! You read that right. My Fitness Pal let’s you figure out how much you can eat and still lose weight. There’s been many days that I can’t eat that much! It’s great!

All these great features, plus your pals can root you on too? You better believe it.  Just search for  your friends and add them. They get to see all your accomplishments and even leave encouraging comments. It’s a great way to make it fun and keep you accountable too, and you get your own cheerleading section to tell you how awesome you are!

Ready to give My Fitness Pal a try? You can find it in the App Store for iPhones or you can visit the My Fitness Pal website. (Also available for Android applications) Want new friends for your My Fitness Pal? Leave a comment on this blog post! Let’s all root each other on and tell that flab to take a hike!