My Fitness Pal, Or My Fitness Enemy?

My Fitness Pal featured image

No one should have to diet alone. But is a virtual fitness pal the answer?

I’ve got a new best friend. Always there for me, day and night. Never judges or tempts me with a night in with some prosecco. I’ve seen her around before but I’ve only really got to know her this year as I began my countdown to 40 and a slinky party dress, and thus the first sustained effort in my life to shed a certain number of pounds.

She fits in my pocket and never sleeps. She is My Fitness Pal.

I’m sure you’ve heard of her – but if you’re not one of her millions of pals, she is an app. A calorie counting, nutrition-assessing, fitness-tracking app. She works by the basic premise of weight loss:

 Burn more calories than you consume = weight loss

 Simples, huh?

But like every great tool, My Fitness Pal has its limitations. It’s only as good as the data you put in. And this is where her Jekyll and Hyde nature is revealed, as my little breakdown shows below.

My Fitness Pal: Friend or Foe?

Friend: It records every calorie you eat. So on a good day you feel virtuous and positive.

Foe. It records every calorie you eat. So when you’ve eaten 80% of your daily limit by 11am, it’s soul-destroying.

Friend: It has a huge database of every food you can imagine, generic and branded, with calories and nutrients already there for you.

Foe: It doesn’t cover things that I eat regularly, like:

Three chips soggy in cold bean juice

A mouthful of pasta and pesto with grated cheese – just to check it still tastes the same as the last million times

The scrapings of mash in the end of the pan

A pre-mouthed Malteser

The squashed Quavers in the crease of the baby carseat.

To cover these daily inevitabilities, I tried to create an entry to cover such daily delicacies, but here the app saw me coming. You can’t just put in “Sundries” with an estimated number of calories. That’s where all diets fail – the unrecorded consumption of incidental snackery that passes in front of your starved eyes when you are at your weakest.

So if I can’t be bothered to break down my casual snackage and am feeling honest enough to log it, I just do a Quick Add of 100 calories. That should cover it, right!?

Friend: You can cheat and it doesn’t say anything.

Foe: But you are only cheating yourself. Yawn. If I don’t lose the predicted weight, I can’t help but feel my app is silently glowering at me: “Well, if you’d just told me the truth, you wouldn’t be in this predicament, would you? I told you exactly what to eat to lose weight and you not only went against it, but lied about it. No, no, I’m not angry. I’m just disappointed.”

Friend: It doesn’t judge you.

Foe: But it makes you judge yourself. I suppose this is a good thing, but who really likes a friend who tells them they’re eating too much chocolate / drinking too much wine for their health?

Friend: It shows you how much of your recommended intake of vitamins and minerals you have eaten each day.

Foe (or design flaw): If you eat loads of fruit and veg (as I do most days), your Vitamin C is off the scale, but is represented in “bad” red font, like when you go over your saturated fat limit.

Foe / Design Flaw 2: It shows me that I eat way lower than my sodium limit a day – which means I now add salt to everything as I feel like I can, where I never did before…

Friend: It projects your success when you complete your entry for the day: “If every day were like today, in 5 weeks you’d weigh X lbs.”

Foe: 1) Every day then has to be like today for it to come true. 2) 5 weeks never comes…!

Friend: It’s the only person in the world who cares if you lose a pound. If I find I’ve lost a pound, I feel a bizarre urgency to rush and tell My Fitness Pal.

Foe: It doesn’t really care. It’s an app.

Friend: It works.

Foe: If you never let it go.

What do you think of My Fitness Pal, if you’ve used it? What are your tech tips and tricks to weight loss – or do you leave tech right out of it?

I’d love to read your replies while I enjoy a guilty glass of prosecco with my new best Pal…

40till40 logo image

This post is part of my #40till40 series – counting down to my big 4-0 in a couple of weeks!

facebook-like-me-button1

Note: This is not a sponsored post. My Fitness Pal is free and this is just my opinion of it.

 

 

And then the fun began...

8 Comments

  • Mummy Tries says:

    Absolutely brilliant and I completely agree!! I took my wearable off because it was telling me how little deep sleep I got (which I already knew) and it was too depressing… Averaging an hour a night *sob*! Hope you’re well lovely xxx
    Mummy Tries recently posted…Signs That You Are Done Having KidsMy Profile

  • It sounds like a nightmare! I’ve never used anything like this. The only one I use is a step counter app on my phone and a running app. They have no interest in how much chocolate I eat (thank goodness!).
    Good luck with getting into that dress!
    Sarah MumofThree World recently posted…Getting my running mojo backMy Profile

  • Robyn says:

    Haha, the pre-mouthed malteser took me completely by surprise – my eyebrows shot up and I spluttered out loud. Then I tried to explain to my husband what I was spluttering at, but the element of surprise was gone for him! I’ve used MyFitnessPal before and lost about 20kg, but I’m a rebel deep down and I don’t like being told what to do, even by an app (net result, gain back 10kg!). Very accurate list of pros and cons!
    Robyn recently posted…FINGER FOOD IDEAS FOR TODDLERS – TOP RECIPE COLLECTIONSMy Profile

    • Wry Mummy says:

      Ha ha, sorry about that Robyn! I do eat some gross things, I confess. Out of the mouth of babes – literally! That’s amazing that you lost 20kg, well done! Even if you did put some back on, it’s a great achievement. x

  • Honest Mum says:

    I read this the other night from my phone funnily enough but couldn’t comment (we are clearly psychic thinking of one another re your comment on my blog)-made me lol! You need to create your own app girl!

    Personally, I hate anything that makes me count/become fixated on calories, I like to eat and enjoy food (and I’m a strong believer of the whole not all calories are made equal thing). I know for me, a low carb way of eating works best. Saying that, I have pigged out over the last few weeks on the worst kind of food and everything now feels tight. Back to healthy eating for me from tomorrow! Just one more biscuit….xx

  • Well quite frankly, it sounds horrendous! Like the annoying little friend that you just can’t quite shake 😉 BUT I can imagine if you have a goal, it could be a useful tool. Not something I’m going to experiment with though I’m afraid. 40 days to go! Wow. I feel like I’ve been 40 forever….

Leave a Reply to Wry Mummy Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge