With a community of more than 280 million users, MyFitnessPal aims to help users live healthier, happier lives.
Whether you want to lose weight, get stronger, get healthy, or simply fine-tune your eating habits, MyFitnessPal provides the tools, support, and motivation you need to succeed.
A key to successful tracking on MyFitnessPal is consistency. There are a few things to keep in mind when tracking on MyFitnessPal:
- Tracking can help you achieve your goals.
- Tracking often gets easier the more you do it.
- One study shows that even imperfect tracking can help you achieve your weight loss goals.
- You can get into the habit of tracking it by logging one meal at a time.
- If you can’t find an exact match for what you want to track, choose something similar.
As you track this, you will learn more about your eating habits and how to do it make healthier choices. You’ll also gain a better understanding of the impact of exercise on your progress toward your goals.
Just download the MyFitnessPal app and add your relevant information – enter your gender, height, weight and your target weight. We give you a daily calorie goal that is personalized to help you reach your goals. Then you’re ready to start tracking.
As you get started, you’ll realize how important it is to not only set goals, but also hold yourself accountable. Tracking becomes a habit, as if you’ve always done it. And finally, you’ll find that you’re part of a like-minded, supportive community that will cheer you on, especially when the going gets tough.
MYFITNESSPAL TIPS: YOUR THREE-PART PLAN FOR SUCCESS
I. SET GOALS AND KEEP YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE
1. SET REALISTIC GOALS
Thinking that you can undo years of habits in a week only leads to frustration. Think SMART with a series of small, achievable goals to help you stay motivated and reach your bigger goal.
2. KEEP YOUR GOALS IN SIGHT
- Tap Complete diary: When you’re done tracking the day, tap the ‘Complete Journal’ button. This will give you feedback on how the choices you made throughout the day affected your progress.
- Update your weight: As your weight changes, so do your calorie and macronutrient goals. It is important to update your weight at least weekly. Make sure you weigh yourself on the same day, at the same time, and wearing the same clothes every week.
- Visit the progress screen: The progress screen contains graphs and charts of your progress over time. This can help you identify healthy changes you can make to your eating habits and exercise routine
Create custom meals – the things you eat all the time because they taste great, fill you up, and meet your health goals – it makes tracking easier and allows you to quickly log them every time.
4. CONNECT YOUR APPS AND DEVICES
Premium is designed for those who want to make tracking their nutrition and fitness faster and easier. With custom goals, advanced logging tools, and an ad-free logging experience, it offers even more control and convenience.
If you would like even more guidance and support to achieve your goals, Premium+ is perfect for anyone just starting out on a health journey and wants to know what to eat and how to make big progress with small, achievable steps.
With meal planning tools, shopping lists, and integrated grocery delivery services, it’s perfect for people who want to streamline their daily meals and stay on track with their goals.
II. DEVELOP A HABIT TO FOLLOW
1. TRACK EVERYTHING
Not following something doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. The more honest and consistent you are in your tracking, the more useful the app becomes because you’ll start to see patterns. Only you can hold yourself accountable. If you do, you’ll be more likely to achieve your health and fitness goals. See some insider tips about tracking here.
Not only can you track what food you eat, but you can also track when you eat it. This helps you determine what influence your eating moment has mood and hunger level, performance, sleepyou name it.
Set custom reminders so you never forget to track meals. Choose when you want to be reminded, and we’ll send you notifications so you don’t forget to follow up.
Whether it’s yogurt and granola for breakfast, celery and peanut butter for a snack or a turkey sandwich for lunch: many of our users regularly eat the same meals. Save your favorite meals so you can add them to your logbook with one click.
5. LEARN EYE PARTS
Portion control is key to accurate tracking. The more you log, the more likely you are to be aware of portion sizes and the more practice you will have at keeping an eye on your portions, which in turn could lead to better tracking.
We have one of the largest food databases in the world. With approximately 20.5 million foods and new options added regularly, you should find what you want to log. In case that is not the case, you can add foods directly to our database.
Look for the green check mark when searching for food. This icon appears next to items in our database that have been vetted and contain full nutritional information.
Simply scan the barcode of a food item to write it down in your diary. It’s that simple.
8. FIND RECIPES
Recipe Discovery lets you save recipes from anywhere on the web without having to manually add each ingredient. You can also use this tool to calculate the nutritional information for any recipe.
III. BUILD YOUR COMMUNITY
1. ADD FRIENDS
When you add friends to MyFitnessPal, you’re more likely to be successful because you have a extra support layermotivation and responsibility. You can control your privacy levels and whether your friends can see things like your weight, diary entries, and the amount of weight lost.
The forums are a vibrant online community where you can find advice, support, tips and tricks from fellow MyFitnessPal users.
3. CELEBRATE NON-SCALE VICTORY
Not all wins happen on the scale. Progress towards your goals is visible everywhere: Did you climb the stairs with ease? Skip the donuts at work? Lower your blood pressure? Fit into a smaller size? Make sure you think about how your healthy habits positively impact your life.
WHERE CAN YOU GET MORE INFORMATION
If you want to learn more about MyFitnessPal, nutrition, exercise, or how to reach your goals, try these MyFitnessPal resources:
Nutrition and weight loss
> Lose weight
> Healthy eating
> Portion sizes
> Metabolism
> Macros
> Fat
> Carbohydrates
> Egg white
> Sugar
> Fiber
> Micronutrients
> Meal planning
Training and wellness
> Hydration
> Get moving
> Walking and steps
> Strength training
> Sleep
FOR MORE ON HEALTH, FITNESS AND NUTRITION
This is your go-to source for healthy living. Here you will find articles with useful tips and information about food, exercise, life and learning to support your journey.
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