Curious about everyone's journey with myfitnesspal

It's been a fantastic tool for me. I was here years ago under a different name and it helped me get started when I was morbidly obese.

I have issues with a few people and always have (the anti-abstinence sugarcult being the primary ones) but overall people are supportive, helpful, and friendly, and the food diary is great even if MFP is a bit generous sometimes when estimating calorie burn. But you can estimate your own and put your number in instead or create your own workout, so no problem.

For the first time in my life I lost the weight eating what I wanted in moderation and have kept it off. No silly starving myself either!
MFP and logging my foods has made me very aware of calorie content and thats a good thing, my motto is that knowledge is power
I also learned that if I exercise that means I can eat more - win win

I used to use it way back in middle school to just keep track of things. Now, it's practically my saviour when I need a little motivation.

It helped me keep an accurate log of my intake...that's about it.

I am a new first time user and once I was setup I like using it to track. I don't enter as I go but instead have a form I use. At the end of the day I enter it into program. The only thing I would change about it is how the water is entered. It does me no good entered as one item at the bottom. I like to see that I kept myself evenly hydrated throughout the day. I wish it could do this and keep the tally. I'm sure I have much more to learn about using this program though.

It's been an invaluable tool. It made it relatively easy for me to lose 70 lbs and learn a huge amount about the nutrients in my food and how to fuel my body. The forums are useful/entertaining/crazy. My friends are great - encouraging, honest and fun.

brookemartell wrote: »

Hi everyone! Looking to get some feedback on how myfitnesspal has helped you in your weight loss journey. I've used it before and it really helped me in the past, but I'm trying to get back on it to help hold me accountable for what I eat. I'm getting back into an exercise routine, but it's always the food that gets me because of my cravings!

MFP has truly been the key to my success of losing 38ish lbs and keeping it off for 18+ mos now. I can't say enough good things about it.

Some people really sees logging everyday & weighing their foods as an incredible burden and stop using MFP the minute they reach goal to only return to start from scratch.

I think it is an imperative that as a person goes through this journey to be 110% honest with themselves in what their strengths and limitations are.

Some will be able to regain their internal food calculator and been wean off from using MFP. Some won't. The key to successful maintenance is knowing what will work for us individually.

For those of us long term maintainers who will be using MFP for the long haul, weighing & logging food has become a seamless part of our routine - no different from automatically putting on the seat belt when we getting into the car.

SO I guess the key to your journey is finding out what will work for you & take into consideration your strengths & limitations.

Best of luck to you.

Through the forums I learnt how to bulk out my meals so I felt full and satisfied without bulking on the calories. I learnt to meal plan so at a glance of my diary I already knew where I'd be by the end of the day before deciding whether I would or would not have a biscuit with my cup of tea. I learnt if eating out to do a good workout earlier in the day keeping my calorie intake low until restuarant/party time thus avoiding going over my daily goal by too much.

This site helped me lose the last 42 pounds of my 100lb weight loss. Kept me in check with my calorie and carb intake. Key to weight loss is SEEING what you are eating calorie wise...low cal foods are low cal if you eat the correct portion. That is my biggest problem, portion control...so I am back on this site because between Christmas and New Years gained some weight back. Need my motivation back!

It's helped me because I'm a sucker for charts and seeing progress on a screen.
Things like this make me positively giddy (and motivated). lol


(Just for the record, I only chart weight when it's going down. If it goes up for a bit, I just ignore it until it hits the next lower number)

I always wondered if I was eating enough protein and I do like to check out my sugar levels from time to time since adult onset diabetes is in my family history. This site makes it easy to watch everything all at once or just pick one thing to focus on. It's a tool and like any tool it's only going to work if you use it properly.

I've met some really wonderful people who have become true friends so that has been a real bonus.

I love using this tool. I like being able to finally be able to track nutrients...I know know if I am getting enough iron, protein, calcium, and potassium...I know that I have to eat more fat (yeah, that's a kicker, lol) and I don't take in much cholesterol. My sodium levels are well below the RDA so I'm not sure if that's good or bad, lol. I just don't care for a lot of salt very often, (I esp. avoid many canned foods)

I was on MFP previously as a different name but lost my login info and joined up again in 2013 I think. I did it faithfully for a while but then stopped for various stupid reasons. Gained weight back. Came back again.

The forums have helped me a LOT. I have been really anxious over things for years such as eating "clean," eating organic, juicing every day because it's superior, green smoothies every day because they are superior, etc...avoiding this and avoiding that and it just put me in almost a "shut down" situation. I couldn't take it anymore.

The forums have helped me take a much more balanced approach to eating healthy amounts of nutritious (and some not so nutritious) food.

I find it superior to Weight Watchers - not only because it is free but because it gives me the whole picture for nutritional needs - not just worrying about points based on fat, fiber, and calories.

It's helped me realise (countless times) that I suck at estimating my intake. It really is an invaluable tool for keeping track of (cals too obvs) macros - pen and paper just wouldn't cut it.

I lost all 30 pounds that I needed to on Weight Watches 3 years ago and kept it off through better food choices and exercising. I started using MFP about a year ago when I saw what a great suport system there is here for maintainers like myself and for those looking to lose or gain weight. Unfortunately the support that I got from WW stopped when I dropped 5 to 8 pounds below my goal weight and it stayed that way. The leaders who weighed me in never had anything nice to say and one or two even asked me why I still went there. The last time I heard that was in December and I haven't been back there since. I love that MFP has an exercise and nutrition forum as I have learned a lot of things that I didn't know before that have helped me more than WW ever did during the first 2 years of maintaining my weight.

Love it because I can easily log in my food, meet new people and get great advice in the forums.