Saturday, December 29, 2012

What's the Best Diet and Nurition Phone App? (FAQ... Saturday)

I've been a dietitian for over six years, and I'll tell you right now that my most successful clients are those who record their food, daily.   It doesn't even matter what their goals are; whether it's to lose weight, eat more fruits and vegetables, eat less saturated fat, consume more fiber, or decrease their sugar intake, recording their food on a mobile app or website inevitably is the key to their success.


You can use your iPhone or other smart phone to track your calories on some of today's most popular food and calorie tracking apps.  You can also use your computer.

Simply put, by recording your food you automatically become more mindful of what you are eating. You literally have to think about every single thing you consume!  You can't just pick up a piece of chocolate and pop it in your mouth. You have to record it.  You have to be responsible for what you eat. You have to think about what you eat, and that can often make all the difference.

I'm not going to pretend like I really know what the best food and calorie tracking phone application is, as I haven't used them all.  In fact, the only one I'm personally familiar with is MyFitnessPal.  However, I've had clients who have used Lose It, and Sparkpeople, and I always hear great things about those apps.  But when I wanted to prepare for my wedding back in September, 2012, I chose MyFitnessPal simply because I had heard more about it, and it seemed the most user friendly for my personal needs.  I was able to log onto my account on my computer, and on the run (on my phone).

I used MyFitness Pal to get me ready for my destination wedding in North Carolina. I didn't use it to lose weight, but to maintain it.  With so many showers and other celebrations that accompanied the pre-wedding months, MyFitness Pal was a lifesaver.





I always have snacks at night, but I never really knew how many calories I was consuming until I started recording them.  I had a rough estimate in my head, but I used MyFitnessPal to add up the calories in my nightly snack ("Gina's Nightly Snack") so I knew exactly how many calories I was getting.  Next, I added it to my diary every morning so I could always account for it right away, I never skip a night of my nightly snack!  I was also sure to add anything else I ate, even a 15-calorie popsicle and 1/3rd of a piece of cake (those calories add up!).




How many times are you faced with a table of delicious foods and you don't know how to control yourself?!  Knowing that you have to record what you eat, sometimes you will automatically eat less.

Then there are those foods that you can't really find on any food and calorie tracking apps, because they are from small chains that don't post their calories online.  That's when estimates are necessary.  This was Nick's Banh mi sandwich, below.  I took several bites of it and estimated (simply by how fatty and delicious it tasted) that it was about 150 calories worth of bites.  I could be slightly off, but at least I accounted for it, and like I said, that makes a huge difference!  Those bites weren't ignored.


I recently found two great articles that described some of the most popular calorie tracking (And general health and wellness) smart phone apps;



(This is a great article to read if you are trying to decide which calorie tracking app is best for you)

(This includes some calorie tracking apps, as well as general heart nutrition apps, quit smoking apps, and even exercise apps.  I liked this because the apps were all reviewed by professional registered dietitians)


Don't have a smart phone?  It's ok!  Use your computer, or record your food and calories the "old fashioned way" (haha, old fashioned....).  Get a calorie counter book and a diet journal. That's all you need!







I quit tracking my food and calories the day I got to North Carolina for my wedding, but I'll tell you that I learned a lot about being mindful just by recording my food for a couple months.  There might be a day when I decide to track my calories again, just to get back on track, but for now I think I'm ok on my own.  I  mean....I'm a dietitian.  I already think about food all the time!

QUESTION:  What's your favorite app for recording your food and tracking your calories?

Stay tuned for Monday and Tuesday's posts, which will provide some tips on using My Fitness Pal (such as, why it's important to change some of the goals they create for you!) 



Thanks for reading!

The Candid Rd


13 comments :

  1. you look beautiful in that picture- I love your dress!

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  2. i agree with the commenter above! gina will you do a foodmaps post again?

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    1. Hi Kalli! I will definitely post about fodmaps again. What kind of questions do you have? Perhaps I could do a Q&A type post!

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  3. I love daily burn to track my intake and workouts! It's free of course but I have upgraded so that can plan meals in advance! It even gives you details like fiber and sodium. I have not used other apps so not sure if they also do this.

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    1. Really?! I wil have to look into this app. I have a couple clients who need to start planning meals better, thanks for letting me know about the upgrade option. I'll check it out!

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  4. I love tracking my food, but I also think that it's important to mention that there's a fine line between healthily tracking your food and becoming obsessive about what you're putting into your mouth (which is obviously not good). Some personalities just don't do well with that kind of system because they start to over-analyze and it becomes unhealthy.

    I tried using MyFitnessPal, and I liked it, but now I just use my own spreadsheet on Google Docs and count my protein and fiber (which is what I watch -- not necessarily calories as much) on my own. It's such a great resource to have, I think. It really lets you see what you're putting into your body and lets you reflect on how your body reacts to certain foods. I love that you can look back and kind of chart your progress over a period of time if you keep up with it.

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    1. Yep, which is exactly why I stopped using MFP right after the wedding. I was becoming obsessed, and my loving husband forced me to delete it (seriously, it was a good thing!).

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  5. I do agree with you and Miranda - I've used lose-it on several occasions for extended periods of time, but I do tend to over-obsess after a while, which is easy for my personality to do... :-) I did really enjoy the way lose-it allowed me to calculate the nutrition facts of recipes and do still use that feature if I want to look up the nutrition stats of a homemade recipe on the go when I only have my phone handy... I appreciate the input on my fitness pal - I will check it out! :-) I now just track my daily fiber, protein, and calcium intake - perhaps my fitness pal would be helpful for this? Thanks!!

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  6. i like the whole foods app because it lets you choose ingredients that you have on hand and then you get recipes from them that have all of the ingredients! its fun to play around with!

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  7. I've really only used sparkpeople to track for myself, and I only do it to hit the reset button for myself when I'm on a snacky or junky or too much food bender... I do it for a couple days to get myself back on track and then I just try to go with the trend after. Tracking consistently makes me crazy. But I also have some clients who track as a lifestyle because they know it is what keeps them honest and on track.
    In my nutrition classes, my students generally conclude that sparkpeople and fitday are their favorites (they have assignments requiring tracking) and the supertracker by the Choose My Plate government site is their least favorite (not user friendly and not a lot of foods in the database).

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    1. I'm going to look into this "FitDay" app, I haven't heard of it. I just downloaded Daily Burn and think it's pretty neat. I agree, the SuperTracker is LAME!!

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