MyFitnessPal Tips and Tricks
Whether you are new to Macro Tracking or have been doing it for years, you can’t argue with how easy Apps make it for us to track our Nutrition goals. But whether you are a seasoned pro with apps or you have yet to download, read on for some of the best tips and hints to get the most out of one of the most popular Free Nutrition Tracker Apps – MyFitnessPal.
Track everything!
Get in the habit of inputting everything you eat and drink. Eventually it will become second nature.
Set Goals.
Set small realistic goals, don’t try and change everything at once as it will be far too overwhelming. Small changes every day are the key. You could start by just recording your breakfast or lunch for a week and see how you get on, once this forms a habit for you it will be easier to follow that with all meals.
Be honest.
If you lie to the app you are lying to yourself. It’s not the end of the world if you go off plan, don’t beat yourself up about it, but record it so at least you are accountable.
Scanning!
Don’t forget to use the barcode scanner, It’s ridiculously easy 😊 Click to Add Food – go to the Top Right of the Screen and hit the Barcode Icon.. Scan your item (check the portion/weight is correct) and you are done.
Charts and graphs.
Don’t forget the most important bit of your MFP, right at the bottom of your Daily Entry. Hit the Nutrition section, to check out your Calories, Macros and Nutrients. Calories - tells you your goal and what is left for the day. Nutrients - handy when you want to see how many grams you have left to consume. Macros - shows you a handy little colourful pie chart of your macro split for the day so far.
Remember reminder.
If you need a nudge to remember to record your meals, you can use the reminder setting. Just go into the menu (3 horizontal lines top left) about 2/3 of the way down, go into Reminders and set them up.
Don’t stress.
You are bound to have slip up once in a while, don’t beat yourself up over it. Start again afresh the next day. If you do slip up, just try not to slip up big time. If you are out and tempted to a glass of something or a dessert/ off plan meal. Have it, but track it. It’s unrealistic to think you will never eat off plan or never slip up, so just think about it really hard. If you allow yourself to have One glass of wine OR one slice of cheesecake, log it and enjoy it. If you do this thoughtfully, you are less likely to fall off the wagon spectacularly and end up binge-ing.
Celebrate your victories.
If you set up your profile with your weight etc, you can check your progress really easily from the menu. Keep an eye and make sure you celebrate each milestone.
Recipes
If you often eat the same things or have a particular favourite snack that’s made up of a few food items, you can create a recipe with portions sizes, so that you can quickly add your meal/snack without having to input each ingredient manually.
Another thing people often struggle with is getting halfway through the day, having already eaten too much fat or too many carbs, making it hard to pull back from. An easy way to avoid this is to plan in advance.
I plan my daily macros like this…….
I look in the fridge for the next day and have a rough idea of my Proteins…for example I have Chicken, Salmon, Eggs and Beef. I start by inputting say; 120g of each protein.
Then I can just add in my Carbs and Fats on top of this to make up meals that go nicely together. You could say put say 100g of wholemeal pasta with the beef, 100g rice with the salmon etc… Then add in some veg, fats like avocado, olive oil, cheese with your eggs for breakfast etc.
Then have a quick check of the Nutrition/Macros at the bottom of your daily Diary. This will show your macro split. It is then quite easy to tweak things from here. If you are 5% over on your fat, take off 20g cheese. Too many carbs? take off 20g of pasta….etc
You probably get what I mean by now 😊
If you take 10 minutes at the end of the day getting into the habit of inputting everything for the next day, you are ahead of the game already! Also, it gives you the chance to change things BEFORE you have eaten so you are less likely to go over your macro/calories plan.
Of course tracking your calories and macros is all very well, but you need to know what they should be set at in the first place. For nutritional plans get in touch, so we can design the perfect one for you - tailored specifically to your eating habits and favourite foods.
