My REAL feelings about My Fitness Pal

HappyBride917
HappyBride917 Posts: 27 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
This...site...is...AMAZING! I have gone back and forth with weight watches for years...years! I have always wanted a way to eat healthy, but thought weight watchers was the way to go. The other day, (tracking on MFP) I had a chobani yogurt with some slivered almonds (healthy right?) it came to 7-8 points on weight watchers! That was almost 1/3 of my day for a little snack.

I've realized on MFP that I can eat healthy and indulge. I went to a restaurant this weekend, which on WW, if I couldn't find the foods in their database I'd just eat whatever and give up until my points "reset." However, tracking on MFP I found the restaurant and the foods that were served. I was able to track and feel good about it. I was even over my calories slightly which encouraged me to come home and start working out at 6:00 on a saturday night.

Yes, I've really only been truthfully tracking for about a week and a half. And yes, I've slipped up a little yesterday and Sunday. However, I'm not totally derailed like I would have been on WW. I don't have to wait for my points to re-set for the week...there is a new set of calories everyday. Everyday is a new day and a new opportunity to eat healthy and stay on track. I feel for the first time this is a place where I've found real support, and something I can do for life. I always wanted to become a WW lifetime member...however, after a year of paying for meetings I looked around and realized that most of the people in my meeting room looked no different....after a year. We were all staying the same (myself included) and nothing was changing. I was eating snacky, carby, foods and more carbs than I needed while not counting fruit.

My fitness pal is challenging me to change my ways, pay attention to carbs and protein, encouraging me to exercise and learn to do something good for myself. In my first week, I lost almost 3 pounds and about 2 inches all over (because I'm encouraged to exercise daily). I'm so thankful for this site! I'm also up for encouraging friends to add...and if you need encouragement feel free to add me! I'd love to hear others successes or feelings about myfitnesspal or weight watchers!

Replies

  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
    edited February 2017
    Hi! Congratulations on your newfound love of MFP! I've been on here since July 2016, and I haven't missed a day! (Well, I've missed a day of logging here and there, but even then I come here to read up on posts and get motivation. )

    I've never done WW--couldn't see how the point system made anything simpler than just calorie counting. I lost weight by counting calories a couple of times in the past, pre-MFP, but that didn't stick because it was just too tedious keeping track on paper, lol. Now, with MFP and IF, I feel I've finally found what will work for me for the long haul. Since last July I've lost 18 lbs, with a blip of maintenance over the holidays and into January. I'm back to losing in the past two weeks, and confident as ever that I'll get to my goal weight. It might take 2 more months, or 5 more months, but it's for life, so no worries here!

    I've learned sooo much on this site, too, and even though it's been 7 months, I'm still learning! For instance, right now I'm paying more attention to macros and other nutrients, and watching how they add up with various foods I eat. I try harder these days to hit certain parameters, and prelogging has been a recent thing for me, and helps with hitting those parameters.

    So anyway, welcome, and good luck here! The forums are great, too! :wink:

    ETA: I have slip-ups as well, as I think most people do here and there. But as I've posted elsewhere, one thing MFP has helped me with is seeing how little difference those slip-ups really make, as long as I dust myself off and get back to my deficit quickly. PMS is especially difficult for me appetite-wise, but I've also learned a lot on this site about how to deal with it, and what the consequences are (usually not as bad as I would have thought).
  • leejoyce31
    leejoyce31 Posts: 794 Member
    I love the site as well. I was just thinking yesterday that I honestly don't believe that I could have maintained an 85 pound weight loss for over a year without this app. I didn't use it until I reached maintenance because I really didn't know much about it. But right around the time that I reached my maintenance, I learned more about MFP and decided to try it.

    It's the best!!
  • jaymijones
    jaymijones Posts: 171 Member
    "However, I'm not totally derailed like I would have been on WW. I don't have to wait for my points to re-set for the week...there is a new set of calories everyday. Everyday is a new day and a new opportunity to eat healthy and stay on track."

    That was my Achilles heel with WW. The perfectionist in me couldn't handle having my points not line up perfectly. If I used all my "weekly points" early on, or (gasp!) all my weekly points while still going over, I felt like I had failed the whole week and would just give up till the week started over. It felt too hard to stick to just daily points with no wiggle room. It seemed like such a neat idea when I first joined WW, but in the end, daily tracking is so much more effective for me! If I go over one day, I just leave it in the past and start fresh the next day. I've been able to keep it up longer than I ever could with WW.

    That and I hate that WW keeps reinventing their program. The first version I tried in 2009-2010 worked great for me. When they changed it up for 2011 or 2012, I missed the old program and I just couldn't make it work for me anymore. I heard they did it again recently and that the new program is much more difficult to stick too. I found out how much easier it is to use this and other free apps (I've used MyPlate too and like it) and I've never looked back!

    If WW wants to stay relevant they really should make older versions of the program available for use in both in the apps and their website. Continuing to change while complete scraping the older programs just alienates long-time users who want to stick to what worked for them.
  • erinshay93
    erinshay93 Posts: 3 Member
    I wasn't using WW... but just 'eating healthy' and indulging when that got boring! Now with MFP, I can allow myself a little chocolate here and there without going over my calories!

    I've learnt its all about balance and compromise! :smile:

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