Face It Friday: One Week Of Using My Fitness Pal...
/Waayyy back on April 9, I shared that I would be embarking on my first round of tracking on My Fitness Pal. Well I had dabbled in My Fitness Pal before, but nothing consistent and definitely not 7-consecutive days.
But I have needed a change. I needed to open my mind to something new. I have loved Weight Watchers for the past 6+ years, but I was having difficulty making the new Smart Points works for me and my active lifestyle.
My intention was to start on April 9 and in full disclosure that didn't happen. I didn't get 100% committed until we arrived back from Disney World and I was mentally ready to give it my all. Yes I looked at EVERY photo of myself from Disney and each thought was negative. NOT what I like to think or feel.
So I came back and was ready to rock and roll. On April 20, I woke up and logged into My Fitness Pal.
It felt so new, overwhelming and free - all at once. I didn't know what to expect since I had never counted calories before. As I said in my previous post, tracking is tracking when you come down to it.
So I spent the first day scanning everything I ate (if possible). I set my goal in My Fitness Pal as: wanting to lose 1 lb a week. It seemed like a reasonable and realistic number to work with - especially as that week would include my highest mileage for the marathon training.
The 2 things I loved about MFP the most were:
1) The extensive database. While it didn't have every single restaurant (I don't think every database would), it did have many more than the Weight Watchers app. It was refreshing to see most of the foods I ate and beers I drink :) in there.
2) The app did a great job of adjusting my exercise calories. It was an adjustment to remember the exact time I started a workout (I never pay attention to that), but I loved seeing the numbers adjust around specific workouts I added into the app. I have my Fitbit synced to the app so the adjustment made sure I wasn't double counting my workouts. Which I DEFINITELY didn't want to do. I felt like that was something the Weight Watchers app was doing on a daily basis.
As you can see above, this shows my individual workouts for swimming and running, as well as the additional calories I burned from just walking around/living. I love the breakdown. It is eye opening for sure.
During the week, I had chocolate, beer and even cheesecake (only the 2nd time since 2009). I was a little nervous to see the results on Friday morning since the past week was very out of my comfort zone. I only went over my calorie count (including workout calories) once in the seven days. I had no idea if I was supposed to use the workout calories or not. I know that it is a learning process so all week long I listened to my body about what it needed.
I woke up Friday morning and stepped on the scale...
Down 1 lb!
Wow! I had put 1 lb into My Fitness Pal as the goal and it happened. :P
Current weight: 166.1
Heaviest weight: 235
Weight Watchers Start Weight: 217.4
Goal Weight: 155
Lowest Weight: 150.2
I felt balanced and less guilty with my choices than I had the past few months with Weight Watchers.
The one odd feeling was not seeing the calories I didn't use one day available the rest of the week. What I saw from MFP is that each day is its own set of numbers. For WW, you can carry your Weekly Points and Fitness Points over from day to day. Like sometimes I am hungrier the day after a long run so those extra Points came in handy.
I didn't see that as an option on My Fitness Pal. Did I miss that or is that not a feature? It wasn't that big of a deal this weekend, but something I was curious about.
Well I will be tracking again on MFP this week. If you want to be friends on there, follow me: TheIrishEyes1982.
I know I know I am not cool enough to pull off calling myself THE IrishEyes1982, but my normal name was already taken. How Rude! ;)
Any additional advice you have for this My Fitness Pal newbie? Worth upgrading to the non-free version for any reason?
