MyFitnessPal and Fitbit, my favourite tools for healthy eating

I'm no fan of diets. I've got some friends who've been on very succesful diets and kept the weight off, but on the whole they seem to be part of a seesaw process where I see people lose weight, put it back on (and more) and the process starts again.

I've had a Fitbit for almost a year, which I love. It tracks my daily activity levels and tells me if I'm not getting enough sleep (see my review here) but I was aware that it was only part of the story. Without monitoring what I put into my body, how could I be sure that I was active enough to maintain my weight, or indeed reduce it?

That was where MyFitnessPal came in. It's a free food diary app, and put simply, it's brilliant. You key in a few bits of profile information, whether you want to maintain your weight or lose a pound or two a week and it tells you how many calories you should be eating. You can either look up what you eat in the database or scan the barcode. You can even copy meals from day to day if you tend to eat the same things. Admittedly you have to weigh what you eat, but that's the only complication. Now for the really smart bit. I can also link my Fitbit to MyFitnessPal. My Fitbit reports now not only tell me how many calories I'm burning each day, but also how many I'm taking in. I've always been the sort of person that needs to know how things work in order to get my head around them. This is what's so brilliant about this combination. I can see exactly what I need to do to get the result I want. If you don't have a Fitbit, you can just input your daily activites straight into MyFitnessPal. Since linking up the two apps I've lost 12lbs and it's been painless. I don't see this as a diet, just a lifestyle choice to balance what energy I burn with the food I eat. I'm no gym bunny but I walk a fair bit at weekends, equally I've had a couple of blow outs, but I'm honest with myself, put the sad facts into MyFitnessPal and then at least I know what I'll see when I step onto the scales at the end of the week, as I have this information at my fingertips. It means that if I'm having a bad week foodwise, I make sure I go out for a long walk. Equally, if I'm stuck to my desk all week and not walking much, I just watch what I eat a bit more carefully.

MyFitnessPal circulated this infographic earlier in the week, it's clearly propaganda, but it still makes for interesting reading. Food diaries always seem to be highly ranked in methods people use to sucessfully lose weight. MyFitnessPal just makes that process a little easier. It's also interesting to see how other people are using the app and what they find works for them.

If you use MyFitnessPal or Fitbit, I'd love to hear what you think of them or if you have any tips or other recommendations.

Blog Every Day in May - Blog 5 - Fit and Healthy

This blog subject has come at a perfect time, as the sudden appearance of the sun has made me think it might be time to launch a bit of a health kick. It always seems easier to eat healthily when the weather's warm and I feel like eating salad when I get home from work, rather than in the winter when all I want is mashed potato and comfort food. I'm halfway through my orthodontic treatment, and have this idea that it'd be nice if in six months time I'm not only brace free, but also a stone lighter.

Every so often I do one of these health kicks, lose a few pounds and lose interest. Luckily, I tend to eat relatively well and move enough that the weight I've lost doesn't creep back on. Now that I've moved office, I'm walking a little further from the car and doing 5 - 6,000 steps a day. We've also caught the geocaching bug, which when we're out doing that can easily have us walking five or six miles. Today we did five hours of gardening and not only does the garden look amazing, I also can't stay awake, so it must have been a good workout despite my evil Fitbit telling me I've only walked 2,000 steps today. I also pay for a gym membership and even go sometimes. I'm supposed to be going more often to do the exercises my physio has prescribed, but when the clock strikes 5.30pm and I leave my desk, somehow my car always brings me home rather to the gym.

So, to kick start my health kick, I'm going to:

Link my Fitbit with MyFitnessPal so I can log both what I eat and how much I move. This always motivates me to exercise more as my normal meals use up my daily calories, so the exercise means I can have an occasional treat.

Leading on from the above, I need to get more exercise points. From Tuesday, my working days will reduce by 15 minutes so twice a week I aim to leave promptly at 5.15pm and go to the gym. On the other days I'll aim to walk 10,000 steps by either getting out for a walk at lunch time, or going for a walk when I get home.

Our main weakness is when one of us gets home from work late, or we've had a bad day, we reach for an easy meal option, pizza or ready meal. I always meal plan and buy food for the week ahead, but am normally happy to overlook whatever we have planned for an easy option. I'm going to do my best not to let this happen.

Oh, and finally, much as I'll have linked up my Fitbit and MyFitnessPal, I need to learn how to record exercise on my Fitbit properly. If I did that I'd probably have got more to show for my five hours gardening this afternoon!

Wish me luck, and let me know if you use Fitbit, I'd love to have some friends to keep me motivated.