A fellow 3FC-er suggested My Fitness Pal to me, as I'm having some maintenance issues. I've been using Sparkpeople to track my calories consumed and burned forever. It's got all of my everything in it, so making a switch is going to take some doing. And I'm looking for My Fitness Pal reviews before I move on over.
I've started looking at My Fitness Pal this morning, and it's intriguing. I like the way it's organized. What's throwing me off is the "eating back" of calories burned. To maintain my weight, it's got me eating 1,770 calories on a non-workout/sedenary day, which is totally do-able. But on a workout day, when I burn 430+ calories, it shoots me up to 2,220 or so, to "eat back" what I burned.
That's a LOT of food!
Has anyone else used My Fitness Pal? Would you recommend it? Has "eating back" your calories messed up your journey? Have you lost or maintained using this site???
Mindi, obviously I highly recommend it. What I like best is it's food database. It is far superior to everything I've seen.
You don't HAVE to eat back your cals, but IMHO I would start out doing so and if it's just too much for you then you can cut back. Just make sure it's high quality stuff, you know. And there are easy ways to add high quality high cal stuff that aren't a lot of food - avocados, olive oil, real fat cheese, nuts, I imagine you would see improvments in your weight stabilization if you added some healthy fats.
Something else that's pretty cool about MFP is it's facebook like community. You can add friends with similar goals and follow their diaries and chat and what not. It's really supportive.
If all else fails you can always cut back your cals, nothing is permenant, it's all an experiment.
Good luck - and friend me if you decide to use it, my user name is the same.
Mindi, obviously I highly recommend it. What I like best is it's food database. It is far superior to everything I've seen.
You don't HAVE to eat back your cals, but IMHO I would start out doing so and if it's just too much for you then you can cut back. Just make sure it's high quality stuff, you know. And there are easy ways to add high quality high cal stuff that aren't a lot of food - avocados, olive oil, real fat cheese, nuts, I imagine you would see improvments in your weight stabilization if you added some healthy fats.
Something else that's pretty cool about MFP is it's facebook like community. You can add friends with similar goals and follow their diaries and chat and what not. It's really supportive.
If all else fails you can always cut back your cals, nothing is permenant, it's all an experiment.
Good luck - and friend me if you decide to use it, my user name is the same.
Thanks! I was gonna PM you, but decided I'd post it on here and see if anyone else had experiences with it, too!
You know, if I'm not trying to lose, then eating calories back makes a lot of sense when I sit and think about it. Oh, I also looked into the Body Media you suggested. That's also pretty cool....I want to get one, but it may be a little bit before I can! I think it'll have to be a two-fer deal....my husband will want one, too!
And as intrigued as I am about the site and the Body Media for me, I'm even more excited about them for him. He's a more analytical type, and has totally stalled out on his weight loss. I think this stuff might really help him a lot.
if I'm not trying to lose, then eating calories back makes a lot of sense when I sit and think about it.
I know, right?! I know I was under eating and that's what got me all messed up. So right now I'm set up for just 1/2 lb loss and I'm really try to eat everything. Our bodies are machines and when we work out a lot we need fuel.
You could also set your profile up to maintain your dream weight. That will put your cals a little lower cause a small deficit and encourage slow easy weight loss.
Keep in mind it's going to take a little time to reset your body after undereating and it might continue to do weird things - don't get discouraged. I haven't lost any weight yet, but I've stabalized which is a huge relief. And I know I haven't lost cause I'm still overeating a little, or actually I guess I'm eating perfect cause I'm maintaining! Just not maintaining the weight I want
Good idea, eating to maintain the weight I want to be. That's how I started, and somehow I lost sight of that in the whole process. Gonna give it a try this week. May not take my workout break this week, though. But I might. Still undecided...
I first tried Livestrong then because I had to pay for the phone app (cheap, I know) I decided to give my fitness pal a shot. So far, so good. Its pretty straightforward and I like how when I enter my calories for the day its says "If you keep eating like this in 5 weeks you will weigh ____" I don't know how accurate it is but it's good for motivation
I use it too. I'm Johnny'sgirl34 on there so feel free to add me.
When I follow the advice to eat back workout calories, I lose weight easily. When I start cutting back and not eating it, I stall, get discouraged and leave. lol We are taught all our lives to stop eating to lose. They teach us to cut back, but not too much or we will stop losing.
Give it a try for like 2 weeks. If you don't like it, than go back to what you were doing before.
when i exercise, i don't often eat back the calories, but i do use them like a safety net. i find that on the days i can exercise and i have that extra cushion of calories i don't stress going over as much if i want dip with my veggies or cheese on my salad. or maybe i'll just have a small dessert item i've been craving (i have a major sweet tooth)... and doing that has not hurt my weight loss progress at all, i still lose, on average 2ish pounds (more or less depending on exercise and how much of my 'exercise' calories i eat back) per week when i follow what it suggests.
I use MFP but I don't like the fact that it puts you in the "green" zone if you don't get all of your protein, fat, fiber, etc for the day. Obviously it's ultimately up to me to make sure I'm eating the proper amount of nutrients, but it doesn't help when my tracker not-so-subtely says "you only at 40 g of protein today, good job! Don't eat any more!"
Regarding eating back calories, I don't except on days I have a really long (1 hour) run or an intensive shorter one (30 minutes much higher than my usual pace), and even then it's only IF I am extra hungry. Then I only try to eat until I'm satisfied (100-200 cals) not the total 300-500 I may or may not have burned on my run.
My Fitness Pal?
