MyFitnessPal

I’ve been harping on and on about nutrition lately, here, on TeamBeachbody.com and with my friends.  What I’ve seen over the past 11 weeks as I began to track my nutrition and then advancing to planning my nutrition and executing that plan, I’ve gotten closer to my body weight and body fat goals than I ever imagined was possible.

Several months ago when I started Insanity I was having a problem with my energy crashing throughout the day.  Although it seemed counter-intuitive, someone suggested that I wasn’t eating enough.  I decided to check it out.  I went to the Livestrong.com MyPlate site.  I entered what I had been eating and was shocked that it was only 1200-1300 calories.  Well below what the Insanity nutrition guide recommended.  I upped my calories and felt immediately better.  I kept that up for a few days until I had a cheat meal and didn’t want to track that.

As I was getting ready to start P90X2, I wanted to do more, to do better, and to get real results.  From research and reading lots of blogs and posts, it seemed that the saying,

"Abs are made in the kitchen"

was the key.  I’d been working out for over a year and had made good, not great, progress.  I knew that the only way to get there was to consistently track what I was eating.  My search for the right tool led me to MyFitnessPal. 

This is an incredible tool.  They have a full functioning, free website, as well as free apps for the iPhone and Android.  Most importantly it has a huge database of foods that you eat every day already with the full nutrition info right there for you.  There is also a feature to save some of your common meals so you don’t have to add all of the component pieces.  You can also plug in recipes and it will help you figure out the nutritional breakdown in customizable serving sizes.  A neat feature that I’ve just started using on my phone is the ability to scan a bar code on a food item and that gets added right into your food diary.

The best part about it is that it lets you see, at a glance how you’re doing with your nutrition at any given time.  It tracks everything that a standard food label does.  Now, I know by meal, by day, by week exactly how many carbs, proteins, and fats I’m consuming in both grams and calories.

It has a feature where it can set goals for you, but I have set custom goals from the P90X2 nutrition guide as well as a custom split between carbs, fat, and proteins.  You can only do this from the website though.  To do it, go to the MyHome tab at the top click Goals.  After the page loads, click Change Goals.  Then select Custom Goals and hit continue.  This will take you to the Custom Goals page where you can input your calories and percent goals 40/30/30 or whatever you want.

There is also a social feature to the app.  You can friends and then you can see what they are eating and they can see what you are eating.  It’s a great way to get meal ideas, and talk about ACCOUNTABILITY!  To share your food diary, go to the MyHome tab and click Settings.  When the page loads, click on Diary Settings and go to the bottom of the page about Diary Sharing.  Select Friends Only and save.  Now, all of your friends will see what you munching on.  My screen name is mgurka if you want to add me and see what I’m eating.

I don’t know what you’re waiting for.  This could and should be a huge tool in your toolbox.  Use it.