Choosing your goals & setting up your account
How MyFitnessPal works
So before you even get started setting up your MyFitnessPal account you're going to need to think about your goals, one of the easiest ways to do this is to find out your healthy BMI range, you can find that out on the NHS website here. If you are already in the healthy range but would like to improve your muscle tone then re-composition could also be an option. You can read more on that here. It is important when choosing your goals that you choose a realistic weight for you. The rate of loss you chose should be in line with the amount of weight you need to lose, choosing the most aggressive rate of loss is not suitable for everyone. For those who are in the overweight/obese category a rate of loss of 1-2lbs per week is usually regarded a healthy rate of loss, if you are considerably obese you should discuss with a medical professional a suitable rate of loss before exceeding the above. Those who are in the healthy BMI range or are slightly overweight would be more suited to a rate of 0.5lbs per week. Bear in mind that you will need to re-evaluate your goals as you progress.
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Now in order to lose weight there is only one certainty you must be in a calorie deficit, what does that mean? It means that your calorie intake must be less than your calorie output, in short this is known as CI<CO, it can also be applied to maintenance (Calorie Intake is equivalent to Calorie Output) and gaining weight (Calorie Intake exceeds Calorie Output). Regardless of what diet or weight loss method you use this is the science behind it. Below is a guide I have written for the MFP forum which can be helpful in understanding the figures you get from MyFitnessPal for your calorie allowance:
Accurate Logging - Calories In/Calories Out
You have your calorie allowance, now what? So you're going to start logging the food and drink you eat, and the exercise that you do. Now this is where it can start to go wrong
Calorie Intake
Guesstimating, using cups as a measurement, forgetting to log condiments/drinks/picking at bits of the kids food can easily put you eating more than you think you are. The best advice I was ever given was to get a food scale, you really can be terrible at underestimating your intake. You should also be wary of the entries you choose from the food database, even when scanning, the food database is mostly user entered and has some rather erroneous entries - where possible check the package label against the entry in the database, if there isn't a matching entry you can create your own.
Calorie Output
MyFitnessPal's exercise database is based solely on your stats, so it is quite notorious for overestimating the calories burned through exercises, the same goes for some gym equipment readouts. Some fitness trackers may also be inaccurate. To combat this you can determine the accuracy of your burns by logging your food accurately for 1 month and eating a fixed percentage of your exercise calories back - 50% is a good starting point to ensure you are fueling your workouts but not overeating significantly whilst you work it out. At the end of the month you can compare your actual weight loss results against the rate of loss you have chose and adjust your intake accordingly. I will go into this more in-depth in the near future.
Measuring Progress
Traditionally the scales are the main way to track your progress - unfortunately, the scale can be discouraging as it won't always seem to be going in the direction you want, before you freak out and rage quit because it's not working, you should understand that weight loss as far as the scale is concerned is fickle - there will be weeks you don't appear to lose anything and may even be weeks you see a gain on the scale, this is entirely normal, there are many reasons why the scale might not appear to move including:
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Food and waste in your system
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Water retention caused by
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Increased sodium intake​
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Dehydration as a result of drinking alcohol, not drinking enough water or warm weather
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Changes to your macro intake - particularly taking in more carbs than usual
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New or more intense exercise (the body retains fluid to repair your muscles)
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Hormonal changes, particularly in women around your period or ovulation
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Some medications - check the leaflet for side effects
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Vitamin and Mineral deficiencies
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Eating more or burning less than you think you are
If you can disconnect yourself emotionally from the numbers on the scale it can actually be beneficial to weigh in daily and use a trending app such as Happy Scale or Libra. This can help understand what affects your body weight and see the bigger picture. When weighing weekly or less frequently you have fewer datapoints to rely on and may just be weighing in on a day where you are retaining more water. I personally see fluctuations of up to 3kg from day-to-day, this used to deter me when I weighed weekly and I would as mentioned above rage-quit early on, because I didn't understand the reasons why I wasn't losing weight.
Another tip for getting the most consistent results from your scale is to weigh at the same time, under the same conditions on the same scale. I find it's best to weigh naked first thing in the morning, before eating or drinking anything and after using the bathroom.
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If you believe you are accurately tracking your intake & output the scale results can help you to tweak your calorie allowance to your personal needs, MyFitnessPal is based on stats alone and you may burn more or less than it thinks you are, you can determine this by monitoring your weight loss on the scale over 4-6 weeks and comparing it against the rate of loss you've chosen.
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Not everyone can disconnect their emotions and weigh daily, that's fine, we are all different. If you are struggling with the fluctuations you see on the scale there are alternative means to tracking your progress, you can take measurements of you waist, hips, chest, arms & legs and/or take progress pictures. You can save both measurements and progress pictures to MyFitnessPal. There is a great article from Spark People explaining how best to take measurements. Remember when taking progress photos it's easier to see the difference by taking the same pose and wearing the same clothes.
A Good Way to Get Started - Calories In
In my opinion the best way to get started is to find out how much and where you are currently over-eating by accurately logging 2-3 days of your normal food intake and exercise. Once you have completed this exercise you will be able to review your data and see how many extra calories you've been eating and find areas you can cut them back without making yourself miserable.
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Some examples could be:
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Eating more than recommended - reduce portion sizes
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If you weren't previously weighing out food portions, you might not have realised how much more than a recommended serving size you have been eating; pasta, cereal, rice are common foods that are easily under-estimated​, eating the correct size portion can make a world of difference to your overall calorie intake.
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Reducing the portion sizes of higher calorie ingredient meals can also be helpful.
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There is nothing wrong with snacking as long as you continue to control your calorie intake, pre-portioning snacks can be very useful in this regard - particularly when it comes to things like nuts and sweets.
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Little things that can add up - substituting some higher calorie foods for lower calorie versions
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If you drink a lot of your calories, you could opt for lower calorie versions​ - Diet versions of soft drink, sweetener instead of sugar, regular coffee or skinny version instead of full fat latte/cappuccino, replacing soft/hot drinks with water.
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Condiments such as mayonnaise, salad dressings can be quite high in calories and if not measuring accurately can easily double the calorie content of a meal. Try a lower calorie version or making your own.
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Like a full plate of food - bulk out meals with more nutritionally dense foods
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Do you find yourself having bigger portions of sides with your meals - a heap of chips, slices of bread/bread rolls, garlic bread, rice, etc I've already mentioned about reducing the portion sizes above, you may find that this alone would make you feel hungrier, so you can bulk out the meals with lower calorie items like vegetables, salad and fruit.
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Is the meal frequency/schedule you are currently eating at manageable for your life/hunger? - make it work around you
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Are you finding it hard to manage your food intake because of your work/home life? Make it fit! You don't have to have 3 meals a day at the traditional times, meal frequencies and timings are a personal preference and should work around what suits you, don't like eating breakfast? you don't have to, use the calories for snacks or a heavier meal later in the day if that's what you prefer. Like to eat little and often? have smaller meals across the day. ​
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Looking at your calorie intake across the week, rather than across the day can be useful when trying to manage your intake around social situations, if you know you have a dinner with friends most Fridays or a Sunday Lunch with family every week, you can fit this into your week by having a little less food during the week and "banking" the extra calories - for example my calorie allowance in MFP is 1650 net per day I might choose to eat 1550 Mon-Fri and use the spare 500 calories to have a 2150 calorie day on the Sunday. It is the intake over time that matters, not the day-to-day.
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Is the cooking method you used the most effective way to control your calorie intake? - change to another method
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This is one of the biggest factors for me, I used to use a lot of oil in my cooking, this can easily add upwards of 200 calories per meal, now I roast/bake foods instead of frying or use a 1 cal spray oil. ​Deep or shallow frying can often be changed for grilling, roasting, slow-cooker, etc or just being aware of how much oil you are using.
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Trigger foods - the ones you just can't control
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Try moderation, sometimes we get cravings for certain foods because we tell ourselves it's off limits, I was like this with chocolate in previous slimming attempts, does chocolate make me fat or unhealthy? No too much food in general that takes me over my calorie allowance and an unbalanced diet is what makes me fat/unhealthy, I've learned to budget a bit of chocolate into my day if I want it, I buy smaller bars, rather than trying to cut myself off and bingeing on a large bar.
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If you can't moderate it, don't keep it at home, that's not to say you don't get to eat it again, one of my worst offending items is bread, if I buy it I will eat the whole loaf as toast over a day or two, so I don't keep it at home, but I will happily have a sandwich if I am eating out. ​
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A Good Way to Get Started - Calories Out
Coming soon...