MyFitnessPal is screwing you over

How could it be screwing you over?

I love myfitnesspal, if you have me as a friend on it you know I have a streak of over 600 days (to add me snhall1990). That literally means I have logged into and tracked foods for 600+ days. That consistency with my macronutrient intake is what has gotten me results, along with following a solid exercise regime. However, there are ways in which using myfitnesspal could be your downfall, and I want to touch on these today.

1) Using their calorie calculators

Myfitnesspal has it’s own inbuilt calorie calculator, which is great, it gives you an idea of how many calories you need to maintain your weight. Key in that sentence is idea, these calculators are just estimates, you cannot guarantee these to be right, and I have seen them really mess people around, being out by 100s of calories. Say it was out by 200 calories a day, you were eating this much to sustain your weight, a 200kcal surplus each day is 1400 calories by the end of the week. After a month that’s an extra 5600kcal for the month, which is 67200kcals extra for the year, which could lead to over 15lbs of unwanted fat gain.

I am certainly not against calorie calculators, but they must be used with caution. If you do use them, then make sure to keep an eye on your scale weight, and how you are looking, then adjust from there.

2) Applying a macronutrient Ratio to your diet
I HATE ratios, people asking whether a 40/40/20 split is superior to a 60/20/20 split etc. The problem is that these are extremely unspecific and not individualised. Everyone has a given amount of protein that they can successfully utilise, a general rule of thumb is 1g per lb. Next up is fat, it’s great, full of nutrients and makes food taste awesome, but again past our EFAs and getting a good mix of them all there is an upper limit of how much we want. Carbohydrates have the biggest individual variability, because they are our bodies ideal energy source, and therefore the amount we need is dictated by our personal energy expenditure.

Lets take a 40/40/20 split of carbs, protein and fat and apply that to two people weighing 180lbs, one who needs 2000 calories and another who needs 3000 calories. The 2000 calorie individual will consume 200g of protein and carbohydrates with 44g for fat. The other would get 300g of protein and carbs with 67g for fat. Now you can see both are getting too much protein, and for the person consuming 3000 calories it is getting really excessive. Blanket ratios are not specific at all, and are by all means useless and a waste of time. Every macronutrient serves it’s own purpose and each person requires different amounts of each.

3) Silly sugar recommendations
If you have a decent intake of fruit you will notice that you go over your sugar recommendations every single day. There is nothing wrong with sugar, especially that which is naturally occurring in foods, such as in fruit. I hate to think that people reduce their fruit intake because they feel they need to get below a recommendation made by myfitnesspal. If anything they could have an added sugar recommendation, but even then I think it’s best ignored.

4) Incorrect food entries
This is really frustrating, because on myfitnesspal anyone can enter the data for foods. So you could end up with the wrong numbers through human error. Furthermore, sometimes when you scan an item the numbers fed back are off. If you are not careful this could really mess with your totals by the end of the day. I have had it where someone didn’t bother entering the protein on items, and then over-consuming on protein to hit my totals. Doing this rarely is fine, but if it is done with any consistency it could really throw you and if you are in contest prep it could be really important to be as accurate as possible.

These are just some of the things to be aware of when using myfitnesspal. Nothing is perfect and myfitnesspal is actually a really really great thing. So don’t delete the app and ruin your streak, but be aware of the above, because it could be ruining your progress.

Not sure where to start with your macronutrients? Need someone to take away the guess work to allow you to start using myfitnesspal and eating a diet you love and getting results you want? Be sure to check out my online coaching services, you can see a few of my clients who have had terrific results here.

Why diet plans SUCK

Meal 1 – 50g Oats, 300ml Skimmed Milk…

I hate diet plans, they are restrictive, boring, ineffective and problematic long term. Yet people love them, I get emails from people asking for ‘Diet Plans’ that outline specific times and foods to eat. I understand, it makes life simple and easy, you just look at what’s on the menu and eat it up and get the results you wanted…well simple and easy might be right but results? Maybe initially but in the long term a ‘Diet Plan’ is planning for failure. Here’s why…So your nutrition coach gives you your diet plan, it lists out Meals 1 through 6, giving you the exact foods, weights and timings to eat everyday. Brilliant, you go out to the supermarket, pick up all your grub and you’re set on your path to the body you want. Right? I mean all you have to do is follow this plan, day by day, week by week, eating specific foods, at specific times and you will be onto a winner. Chicken, Oats, Broccoli every single day, at 1pm…

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with any of the foods named above, heck they’re great and could be incorporated into your diet. But everyday, the same foods? Don’t you think you might get bored? Might a social event pop up that requires you to eat something off the menu? Maybe your busy at work at a time you’re meant to eat? Now we are starting to see the beginning of just a few of the problems with meal plans.

The Western World doesn’t actually have a problem losing weight, yes there is an obesity epidemic but we are actually great at shedding that weight. The problem we have is keeping it off, as studies show more often than not, people put the pounds back on, and more. So why can’t we keep that weight off? Well it’s because our diets do not allow for sustainability. We get bored, a social event comes up, and we give that diet up and go back to our usual habits. The typical yoyo dieter you know the ones.

That’s why diet plans SUCK, they are not sustainable. Further to that they are actually unhealthy. They encourage binge eating, being unsocial, putting certain foods on a pedestal and encourage a limited diet that can lead to micronutrient deficiencies. You also gain no knowledge or education about foods, what they contain and the impact they have on your body. All you know is that the ones on the menu get you results, at least in the short term.

So what’s the solution? We need a diet that is sustainable we know that much, and to be sustainable it needs to allow for social occasions, cravings and a varied food choice. That sounds like a kinda, flexible diet, one that gives you control over your food, so eating becomes a lifestyle, not a chore. But, how do we keep this churning out results? Surely I am not saying we can eat out, and any foods we want and still lose fat? Ah and that is where the education comes in, you need to be aware of the macronutrients the foods you are consuming are giving you, how many of those each food provides and how much you need as an individual. Man, that sounds like a lot of work? Well with a little graft at the start, tracking your macro nutrition on a mobile app such as myfitnesspal and eventually it’ll become a habit, one you can sustain for long enough to see results.

By tracking your macronutrition intake for a period of time, you get an understanding about what foods contain and how much you need. This can then allow you in future to flex, and so you can eat out, you can eye ball foods instead of weighing them every time. You have the power over food, you know you how much you can eat.

I have written two articles on this topic, that I think are really great for getting started with a sustainable, liveable and enjoyable diet. Part 1 can be accessed HERE and Part 2 (practical application) HERE. Further to that, I provide online coaching and have got tremendous results with my clients using this flexible dieting approach, their results can be found HERE.

Lyle Mcdonald: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com