5 MyFitnessPal Hacks
Counting calories is a great way to get control over your nutrition.
I’ve personally counted calories since 2015.
Although calorie counting is not the only way to create structure in your nutrition, it’s definitely a wise investment for most people wanting to see great results and enhance their understanding around what is in the food they’re eating.
So today I wanted to bring you 5 hacks / top tips for getting the most from MyFitnesspal.
#1 Don’t let it set your calorie targets
When you set up your account, it will ask you a few questions in order to give you a calorie target that works toward your goal.
When clients have done this in the past, some of the calorie targets that myfitesspal generates are quite frankly, shocking.
This is in part due to the way that myfitesspal makes the calculations.
And people will underestimate their movement levels whilst also setting a high rate of desired weight loss.
This combination churns out some pretty terrible calorie targets.
There are other calorie calculators out there that do a better job than MFP….
But my advice is to skip all of that uncertainty and consult with a knowledgeable coach about how many calories would be appropriate for you.
You can then head into settings and manually adjust the calorie targets to a more suitable level.
This is a crucial first step!
I see it all too often where people will persist with the original targets, eventually leading them to inevitable failure which could then potentially put them off the idea of counting calories in the future because it “didn’t work for them”
I’ve seen this happen all too often, and it’s ashame because tracking your calories is a very reliable way of getting results.
Also…
It’s worth noting that your calorie target is going to be a MOVING TARGET.
You’ll constantly need to adjust your calorie targets over time based on your results, changes in circumstance and various other factors.
So set an initial target and be ready to adjust it regularly.
#2 Adjust The Macros
As well as adjusting calories, we can also manually adjust our macronutrient targets too.
Which is our: Carbs, Protein and Fat.
Often protein will be set too low.
The goal is to aim for 1g of protein per lbs of bodyweight.
If you’re particularly overweight, that could be A LOT of protein, so I suggest setting that target based on your desired bodyweight.
E.g. I want to be 200 lbs so I’ll eat 200g
In all my years as trainer, I’ve never set a protein target for somebody and they’re already eating enough protein.
So chances are you’re going to need to start working to slowly increase your protein intake.
As for carbs and fats, distribute the remaining amount of calories you have available, between both carbs and fats as you see fit.
At the time of recording this podcast both calories and macronutrients are adjusted in the same area of settings.
#3 Save Meal Function
Logging your food can be a very labour intensive process!
Scanning the barcode.
Weighing it out.
Rinse and repeat.
The ‘Save Meal’ function is a lifesaver.
As humans, We tend to be creatures of habit…
I’ll eat very similar meals from day - day and week - week.
For example, if I have an omelette for breakfast each morning.
I could individually log the eggs, ham, peppers and cheese under the breakfast section.
Then I can save that meal as ‘omelette’
Which means the next day I can simply add the ‘omelette’ rather than scanning each individual food item again.
This is a massive time saver and makes logging so much easier.
I have a Pro Tip:
To get the most accurate results with this, you need to make the food in similar ways each time.
That’s where using little dishes / measures can help make sure you’re using similar quantities each morning.
#4 Week Average Function
As you log more consistently, you may notice some variety day-day.
… particularly over weekends.
So it’s important to zoom out and look at the week as a whole.
MFP lets you do this.
At the time of recording this podcast, if you scroll to the bottom of your daily log and click the nutrition section, you get an overview of calories, nutrients and macros.
You can then change it from a ‘day view’, to a ‘week view’.
This will average your calories out across each day that you’ve logged… and give you a daily average.
This is a great feature….
Because If you become too fixated on your daily target, counting calories may begin to feel a bit too restrictive.
For example, you may be going out for a meal on a Wednesday Night and go over your calorie target.
But all hope isn’t lost when you view it in context of the week.
You can simply offset the surplus over the next few days and still achieve your average daily calorie target across the week.
This is best done in moderation.
I wouldn’t recommend doubling your calorie target on a Friday and then not eating a single calorie on Saturday.
Chances are that would have a negative effect on your results
… But zooming out across the week to average any small rises or falls in calories is a great way to be consistent and allow for some freedom day - day.
#5 Don’t use the calories burnt feature
A final top tip is to be careful about accounting for your ‘calories burnt’ on myfitnesspal.
You can sync a fitness wearable to myfitnesspal as well as manually add in your exercise.
MFP will then account for the calories burnt through your activity and offset that against your calorie target for the day.
This is pretty risky thing to do for 2 main reasons.
Wearables are innacurate.
Although they give an indication of activity, wearables aren’t exact when it comes to providing calorie burn.
Therefore adjusting for them could throw you off considerably and lead you to missing your calories, and even potentially taking your further away from your goal.
2. Could lead to Inconsistency in our diet.
Activity levels can vary drastically each day, accounting for this would lead to huge changes in meal planning on a daily basis.
This could mean constantly having to change your food intake in order to find additional calories based on increased activity levels.
Consistency is by far one the most important factors in getting good results.
Therefore I’d avoid creating a scenario that could lead you toward inconsistency.
The best thing to do is keep it simple.
Just monitor a given calorie intake for a period of time and be consistent.
If you check your results and find you need to make an adjustment then do that.
… Try not to overcomplicate things by accounting for calorie burn.
In summary
Tracking calories is a very useful habit to adopt.
It allows you to make controlled adjustments to your calorie intake and therefore your results.
MyFitnessPal is probably the most widely used app to track caloires… But these principles could no doubt be used in other apps too.
Remember to:
Set a custom calorie target and seek expert advice to do that.
Ensure you’re aiming for enough protein.
Save meals to speed up the process of logging.
Average your results across a week, not just day to day.
Don’t directly account for calorie burn through the app / wearable data.
If you can do things, you’ll be fast on route to great results and you may just learn to love tracking.
Yours in coaching,
Harry