counting calories daily with myfitnesspal

When I decided that none of my food or diet approaches were helping me to get real results with weight loss, no matter how healthy or valuable, I decided that calorie counting was going to have to be a real part of my life. Why?

Part of this decision was based on reading a great graphic novel by Carol Lay, The Big Skinny: How I Changed My Fattitude, a memoir that depicts how Carol managed to finally achieve her goal weight and maintain it by simply counting calories (with exercise as a bonus). She makes it seem very realistic and achievable as a part of one’s life. What really cinched it for me was that she explained that minor slip-ups – missing a day here or there, or taking a week off for vacation – would not destroy the world and are totally fine. I realized that as a perfectionist I’ve always taken counting calories too seriously. If you miss a day, or go over by a few 100 calories, Carol writes, it’s not a big whoop – just start fresh the next day with a good balance. It’s really a tool that helps people like me who struggle with overeating, whether due to emotional reasons, addiction to unhealthy foods, or any other reason.

I also knew that in the past when I’ve counted calories it’s worked well for me. I recently read an article in the New York Times called “The Fat Trap,” by Tara Parker-Pope, that presented research that those who have lost weight long term and kept it off have have to work really hard – a key point was that many of the successful ones maintain their success by continuing to track their calories. In essence, for many who have lost a lot of weight, keeping track of food intake is an inevitable part of a lifestyle that maintains that weight.

So far it has been a big sigh of relief, stress-wise. Putting in the numbers, I know that I’m going to be OK if I happen to miss a day of exercise, and I’m able to “budget” in treats, such as a small thin-crust pizza or avocado. I’ve been eating overall healthier as well, since nutritionally dense foods go very far in the calorie budget. A great meal so far has been sauteed greens (swiss chard, collards, or kale) in a bit of olive oil with black beans and brown rice – you can eat a lot for a very moderate calorie balance. Overall, this way of structuring my diet has me making much more conscious and balanced choices with my food intake, and takes nuritionally void foods such as potato chips right out of the equation since they would end up taking up a whole meal’s worth of calories very easily. I feel a lot less pressure to be “perfect,” but end up eating better anyway! So far it’s a win win. And I’ve already lost a good chunk of weight in a reasonable amount of time.

The iPhone app that is making it all very easy, that I couldn’t imagine doing it without, is called myfitnesspal. I have tried several of these types of websites/apps in the past, including LoseIt and SparkPeople, but so far this one is my favourite.

Top features of myfitnesspal:

• The ability to create a community of others with similar goals and interact with them using a Facebook-like interface. On the main screen, myfitnesspal keeps track of your  milestones and rewards you with updates like “so-and-so has logged in for 20 days in a row!” or “so-and-so has lost x number of pounds since their last weigh in and they’ve lost x pounds in total!” You can also post your own status updates, and you see a merged feed with all of your friend’s updates. You can comment on each other’s statuses and accomplishments as well as view their food diary if they share it. I’ve befriended several other vegans, and it’s helpful to see what kind of meals they’re putting together for inspiration. Also, I’ve befriended a colleague from work, a family member and a friend who is just joining. This support network is very helpful to keep you accountable and keep your spirits up when you have an off day by getting feedback from others.

• A nutritional breakdown of each day and weekly averages. I find it fun and helpful to see some of the key nutritional benchmarks for each day, such as how much protein and iron I am getting. You can also see weekly totals to get a sense for how you’re doing overall.

• A very comprehensive food database, partially built by community entries. This is personally my most crucial feature for a good calorie counting app. It makes it so easy when you can search by brand name and easily find what you’re looking for, even as a Canadian with regional brands. I have hardly ever had to enter my own food item into this database. This saves a lot of time.

• Ability to put in your own recipes and calculate calories for each serving. Since I’m often cooking something new, this feature is invaluable. You can put in all of the elements of a recipe and it does the math for you to find out what a serving is worth.

While counting calories is undoubtably tedious and takes up some time out of the day, I have found it to be a worthwhile exercise for myself and it has actually reduced the stress and pressure I have been experiencing from my continuous weight gain and lack of balance. I feel like I can relax and enjoy my food, knowing that I have achieved a good balance and will be losing weight in the long term. Exercise is no longer mandatory for the sole purpose of losing weight, but is something I can do as a bonus to make me feel good and keep me healthy! I will keep you posted on how it goes, but I have a feeling this is a good path for the next few months, at least.