MyFitnessPal: Is it Worth the Hassle?

Experts continuously tell us many different things when it comes to health: whether its your calorie count or to avoid eating certain food, none of it is ever clear. So for a period of 10 days I decided to put MyFitnessPal (free version) to the test about how effectively can it track my lifestyle.

The app considers your height, weight, activity level and gender and whether you want to maintain, lose or gain weight. The app will keep track of the amount of exercise you do and use that alongside your calorie count to show how many calories you have left over each day.

For every meal, you can enter the amount of food individually, although the measures are very awkward. In most cases it refers to cups or single grams so you can end up inputting 47 servings of one gram or half a cup servings to a container. It becomes a very tedious process.

One handy part is you can scan bar codes and it will have the details already in the database, so you don’t need to enter everything. Every time I have used this, the information in the app matches what the it says on the packet.

Over time the app can keep track of how much nutrition is in your diet and how your intake compares to the recommended allowance. I was surprised I have somehow stayed under for fats, but had just the right amount of carbohydrates and protein. After being told to watch out for unnecessary fat in foods, I feel as if I have been taking this part too seriously and neglecting key areas like potassium and vitamins.

Personally, as a workout I do Crossfit-style workouts which combine strength and cardio into one, but this app doesn’t accommodate for HIIT or circuits. Instead, you had to input each exercise individually into a confusing system, especially with reps or sets. Fortunately, the app saves past entries and you can create workouts but as someone who constantly changes their workout, it isn’t convenient.

Surprisingly, on one of the days I hadn’t eaten enough and still had 800 calories remaining. When logging my calorie count, a warning appeared, saying that not eating enough is not a quick or healthy way to lose weight. Web addresses to give more advice about how to eat properly were also included.

Personally, I do think this app is worth a go, especially as I learnt how often I under eat and should be making more of an effort to introduce certain vitamins into my diet. The premium version provides more in-depth coverage, but I feel just using the free version covers all the basics anyone needs.