How good is MyFitnessPal for weight gain?

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receptor
receptor Posts: 1
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello all, I just started using this app today. I'm trying to gain weigh in the form of muscle, and I noticed this app has that feature, however, it seems to be mostly focused towards weight loss. This may be a stupid question, but is the weight gain in the app muscle, fat, or are they the same thing in terms of caloric needs? Thanks.

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  • gebona
    gebona Posts: 11
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    I didn't know you could use it to gain weight... I don't have an answer, but I'm very intrested in knowing how well that works also. I want to improve strength in my arms and lose fat in other areas. I don't actually care what my weight is...I just want to be firm and strong.
  • Mindful_Trent
    Mindful_Trent Posts: 3,954 Member
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    MFP is simple - it tracks exercise, food consumption and tells you approximately how many calories you are burning. It is up to you to make sure you are gaining muscle (by working out and eating the right foods) and not fat. I'm not an expert on how to gain muscle, since I'm still trying to lose fat :laugh: But MFP is a simple tool that could work for almost anything related to weight gain/loss.
  • Chenoachem
    Chenoachem Posts: 1,758 Member
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    My husbands been using it to gain weight in a healthy way. It has been working well for him so far.

    Good Luck.
  • dcturcotte
    dcturcotte Posts: 59
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    Having lost 20lbs with MFP and now trying to gain it back in muscle I can tell you it's definitely more geared towards weight loss. I found the best way for me help gain was to do my homework on proper weight gain and then customize my food tracker
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    When gaining muscle it is next to impossible to not put on fat as well. I have put about 5 pounds on since November and I'm pretty sure not all of it is muscle (probably 50:50). Than being said the best way to insure most of your gain is muscle is eat a ton of protein 25%-30% of total calories, lift heavy weights for 4-8 reps, and eat more calories than you burn. It would be best to set your weight gain at 0.5 lbs/week to ensure that most of what you gain is muscle. Muscle takes a while to develop, without performance enhancing drugs. Good luck.
  • whiskers86
    whiskers86 Posts: 1
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    I'm using MFP to track eating habits as part of a gym routine to gain weight (muscle hopefully). So far its a great tool, I can see the days where I just haven't eaten enough, or had sufficient healthy snacks between meals. It hasn't taken long to customise my meals to local products.
  • xraychick77
    xraychick77 Posts: 1,775 Member
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    It keeps track of calories and macros.

    to gain muscle you need to eat at a calorie surplus. i lift and i eat at a 200-300 calorie surplus each day. my BMR is 1800, so i intake 2000 to 2100 cals a day. I set my own macros..i think its 55% carbs, 25 protein and 20 fats.

    if you eat too much you'll gain a lot of fat. when muscle building you'll gain some fat, but you can minimize this by not eating too much. i've been bulking for almost 4 months and only gained about 3lbs..i'm hoping most of that is muscle.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    It keeps track of calories and macros.

    to gain muscle you need to eat at a calorie surplus. i lift and i eat at a 200-300 calorie surplus each day. my BMR is 1800, so i intake 2000 to 2100 cals a day. I set my own macros..i think its 55% carbs, 25 protein and 20 fats.

    if you eat too much you'll gain a lot of fat. when muscle building you'll gain some fat, but you can minimize this by not eating too much. i've been bulking for almost 4 months and only gained about 3lbs..i'm hoping most of that is muscle.

    200-300 above BMR is not a surplus. A surplus is eating above maintenance, and maintenance is anywhere from 350-800 above BMR. So if your BMR is 1800 you would have to eat a minimum of 2200 to even have a surplus or 50 calories/day.

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