MyFitnessPal

I began using this app on July 21st and man has it changed my life!

I know this is a running blog but I will share a little nutrition info as well.  So this post is all about my struggles and successes with my own dieting.

I wrestled in high school so I am no stranger to rapid weight loss and the problems associated with it.  As I graduated in '97, I weighed in at 125 pounds and by the time I was done with my sophomore year in college I was up to 150.  Some was muscle and normal growth but there was also many trips to taco bell in there as well.

When I got married in 2002, I probably weighed right around 160 ish.... About 2 years ago, I was at my heaviest (which probably isn't heavy in most peoples eyes) around 170.

Two years ago I also made a choice to devote myself to running and not just "playing" around with it.  I abruptly lost about 10 pounds and got down to 160 pretty easily without changing my diet.  Now I was happy with this and ate/drank whatever I wanted.  Once in awhile I would try something new in terms of my diet but nothing really stuck.

That is until I downloaded MyFitnessPal and actually started counting my calories.  So as stated above, I was about 160-162 pounds on July 21st 2013 and at my most recent weigh-in, I am down to 144.9.  Go me!

So ..... I changed only one thing (not running or exercise because I was already doing that) and it was my calories. This app has been so much help in terms of accountability.  As I have shared in other posts, accountability is a great motivator and this app has been for me.

The nice thing about it is that it has a bar-code scanner on it that can be used.  If you don't have a smart phone but only a tablet without bar-code capability, almost all foods are searchable.

I love that when I put my calories from cardio that I do, the app adds it to my "daily" calories.  So its like a little extra "room" since I am exercising and then my goal simply becomes to not go over my limit for the day.  That is a real cool feature.

Another cool thing is that the app lets you program and save your own foods.  So if I make something at home using a recipe with nutritional information down at the bottom, I can program that in and use it.  A real nice feature!  More and more recipes have nutritional info at the bottom... Love the internet!

Bad things about the app are small and you can definitely work around them.  Two things come to mind: you don't really know who is programming the foods some times and the serving sizes are at times confusing.  I am not saying this happens frequently but on some occasions it does.

It is simple... I am on no special diet .... I have results ..... I never withhold any food.  I can eat pizza, cake, drink adult beverages.  Albeit, in smaller quantities than I once did.  Personally, it has been a great app and I can think of no other way to diet.  I know other people have success with other diets and I won't refute their success mainly because I have no data.  But I know what has worked for me.

Plus my wife is a dietician :-)