Nearly two weeks ago I posted that I was beginning a little weight loss experiment using the MyFitnessPal app. Let’s see how it’s working out.
If you’re serious about wanting to lose some weight I highly recommend this simple technique. Forget all those trendy fads or expensive pay-monthly schemes. You can do this yourself and it doesn’t have to cost anything. In fact, you’ll save money because you’ll be eating less!
I subscribe to the view that weight loss is a simple equation of physics.
If you can’t lose weight, it’s because you eat too much (or don’t do enough physical activity). Probably both.
Geez, I knew I should have been a rocket scientist.
So, if you agree with me (and the basic laws of physics) there’s something very obvious about the need to quantify input and output. How much energy are you taking in, from your food and drink? How much energy are you using up, by being alive and moving about?
MyFitnessPal is an app to log all this stuff. For a fuller, yet very brief overview, see my first post from this experiment.
I’ve been using MyFitnessPal for 10 days. What have I noticed?
I told the app that I wanted to lose 1 pound per week. In order to do that, the app calculated a daily target for me of 1510 calories.
Let’s get straight to the hard evidence. When I started this experiment I weighed just under 74kg.
10 days later, I weigh less than 72kg. That’s a reduction of over 4 pounds, if you can forgive the mixed units.
This is a faster rate of loss than I had planned, but most days I was deliberately coming in UNDER the daily allowance.
Clearly if I’d chosen to eat extra snacks or was incapable on resisting the hunger pangs or just plain old greedy habits, my rate of loss may have been slower.
The crux of this, and the reason why the weight loss industry is worth billions, is that some people (or most people?) really struggle to stick to the daily allowance.
Here’s some random observations from my experience of using MyFitnessPal to lose weight
- It’s really important to log everything. Don’t kid yourself that the donut won’t count. Do you want to lose weight or not?
- By syncing my MyFitnessPal account to Strava, the app was able to use data from my rides to earn back calories that I could eat.
- This made me ride my bike more.
- I’ll say that one again. Some days, I rode my bike more because I knew it was the only way to be able to eat what I wanted to eat. Yes, you could just eat whatever you wanted anyway, but do you want to lose weight or not?
- I’ve noticed a difference already on the bike in terms of how easy the hills feel.
- It’s a bit of a pain remembering to log everything, but the fact that the app remembers what you’ve had, makes it quicker to re-enter the same items again next time you eat it.
- You quickly learn which foods are loaded with calories, and this helps you make better choices.
- … which means you end up choosing fewer processed, sugary foods.
- … which means you’re not spiking your blood sugar levels half as often.
- … which means you don’t actually feel as hungry all the time.
OMG, you mean eating sugary crap makes you want to eat more sugary crap?
Ha, yes. How about that for an evil little self perpetatuating cycle of doom?
A bit like exercise itself, this is a positive feedback loop. Once you get it going, you feel the benefits, and are motivated to keep going and do more.
As always, the hard part is getting started.
How to get started
Just start. What are you waiting for?
This is where the ideas of quantifying and recording everything really support the process. I’d be hopeless if I had to remember everything in my head. I’d lose track of it all, and my motivation would just fizzle out.
Pass the donuts…
MyFitnessPal is FREE. Get it now
Incidentally, if you’re looking for a specific resource about getting lean for cycling, the book “Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance” comes highly recommended.
I was over weight and tried so many things. Different things work for different people and I was lucky enough to find one that worked for me. I lost 18 pounds in one month without much exercise and it’s been a life changer. I’m a little embarrased to post my before and after photos here but if anyone actually cares to hear what I’ve been doing then I’d be happy to help in any way. Just shoot me an email at secretosdelara@gmail.com and I’ll show you my before and after photos, and tell you about how things are going for me with the stuff I’ve tried. I wish someone would have helped me out when I was struggling to find a solution so if I can help you then it would make my day
I second *everything* in this post, I was a runner but I was wearing XL running clothes, then I did My fitness pal about 3 years ago log gin what I was eating and following the principle of making sure a put in everything and logged all exercise so I could come out level with my goals daily. I lost 3 stone this way, and more importantly, fundamentally changed my relationship with food for good.
It is true that calories are only one measure of a food or food groups nutritional content, but its a good guide, if you don;t want to be spending too much time dealing with the details, just take out more through exercise than you consume and the equation is SIMPLE. and yet the ‘diet industry’ wants you to believe in magic, there isn’t any magic. just sense – good luck
Totally agree with this post. I use MFP on and off because you can’t live your life logging all your food — that can turn you into a compulsive nut job if you let it. But it helps to do for a few weeks at a time because it re calibrates your sense of how much you’re really eating. My wife went the extra step of buying a food scale ($14 on Amazon) which also REALLY shows you how bad your ability to estimate portions often is.
Here”s another thing I just learned which has proven unexpectedly helpful. The Android app lets you look at your weekly calorie intake, as a bar graph — shows you in a bar graph where you’re over/under, along with your average for the week so far and how many calories you have for your weekly goal.
Thinking in weekly terms is SO helpful. Because often when I blow a day by going over, I sort of write it off as a “failure day — which both gives me an excuse to just let the rest of that day be a “splurge day” and make a vague promise to myself to do better tomorrow… without recognizing exactly what that looks like. Quantifying the week shows me exactly how much more I’m going to need to give up if I’m going to make my weekly average. It’s really eye-opening, and motivating, to go what feels like a little bit over on Thursday evening (Oops, did I just drink 3 200-calorie pints of beer?) and realize that means now my average calories for Fri-Sun need to be a mere 1300 per day if I’m going to make my weekly goal..
That really makes me reconsider those extra pints… because 1500 calories is tough enough… 1300 really sucks.
PS I think I might repurpose my comment on my new cycling/fitness blog kickinthemojo.tumbr.com,