If you’re anything like me, a fitness app is going to be your best friend. Since I was 10 years old I’ve struggled with my weight. It might have had something to do with me snagging ice cream with my school lunch every day for a year…regardless of how I got here, my mom had to teach me to watch what I was eating and get regular exercise. She taught me about serving sizes, recommended daily caloric intake, the importance of drinking water, you name it! 

Dawn of a New Woman

So after a few years of being a tween in distress, I started to slim out from being more considerate of my body and what it needed (I also grew a few inches which is a big kickstarter for spreading baby weight). As a teenager, I became more athletic and focused on what I was putting in my body. 

Using a hand written food diary was an absolute PAIN because you don’t always know what the macros are in the food you’re eating (like if you eat out or if you’re not preparing your own food). Being privileged enough to live in the age of smartphones, I looked for an app to help me out. 

I’ve tried a few over the years, some I can’t even remember and may not exist anymore. I stuck with Lose It! for a while, but I was missing something from it. I tried using the fit bit app, but honestly it confused me. That may make me sound stupid, especially if you’re reading this and find the fit bit app extremely useful, but psychologically I didn’t vibe with it. 

The one fitness app that stood out to me the most? MyFitnessPal by Underarmour. The best part? It’s FREE.

Well mostly free, it’s free until you decide to go premium and get a better snapshot of your macros, but for all intents and purposes the free version is kick-ass.

The app offered me a place to track my goals, calories, weight, and exercise. Let’s take a little walk through so I can highlight my favorite features:

1. The Home Page

On the home page you’ll see the section for “Calories Remaining” that looks like this:

The rest of the page is filled with helpful articles from the MyFitnessPal Blog that cover nutrition, exercises, and self-care. You’ll also find your notifications here, as well as a shortcut to pre-set plans you can enact for yourself.

2. The Diary Page

The Diary page also features the “Calories Remaining” section. The rest of the page is broken up into sections of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks, Exercise, and Water. You will have set up your goal when you sign up for MyFitnessPal on whether you want to lose weight, maintain, or bulk and at what rate you would like to see results. That’s where they get your Calorie goal at the top. This is my favorite page because I can log all my activity and gain a sense of agency over what I did to my body that day. 

The app has provided a convenient “Add” button in the middle of the bottom menu where you can quickly update your weight, water, status, food, and exercise from pretty much anywhere in the app.

3. The Progress Page

Here is where you log your updates on goals! For instance my constant goal is to either lose or maintain my weight, so I record my weight once a week. They give a great presentation of what your goals look like and your progress towards them. You can even add progress pictures, which I choose to abstain from…for my own personal comfort. 

4. The “More” Section

This page gives you SO many options. It’s basically your settings, and all the cool little tidbits about this app that make it special. You can add plans, discover recipes, find workout routines, create goals, challenges, monitor your nutrition, connect other apps/devices, and MAN so much more!

MyFitnessPal has honestly changed the way I think when I’m choosing my meals. It keeps me accountable and motivated to exercise as often as possible (definitely not just so I can eat more, that’s ridiculous…).

Try out this fitness app and let me know what you think! I’d love to hear from you about your experience. Especially if you try out the premium version…like let me know if it’s worth it guys, I may be down.  

 

Fitness App Pin