I love the world of Apps that we live in.  My newest favorite app is called MyFitnessPal.  Research has supported that people who keep food diaries are more successful at losing weight than those who do not. 

MyFitnessPal is an app (also available on the web) that helps you to log the food you eat, the water you drink, and the exercises you do.  I have always been a big fan of Weight Watchers, and have had great success there.  However, I never really understood what their points meant.  MyFitnessPal, doesn’t just count the calories, but they break down each food you eat so you can analyze how much fat, or fiber, or vitamin A you are eating each day.  I find it far more informative, and really enjoy seeing where I am lacking (or where I am way off the mark!). 

When you add an exercise to your diary, the calories you burn come off the total amount of calories you have already taken in.  This makes so much sense to me.  If I want to eat an ice cream cone, it’s very tangible to see that I need to exercise a certain amount to counter act the ice cream’s calories.  When you initially set up the app you can choose how much weight you want to lose, and how quickly you want to lose it.  Based on that information if gives you your calorie goal for the day. 

For added fun, it has the option to add friends.  It works very much like Facebook.  You can create a status update and your friends can comment on it.  They also can see when you exercise, or when you haven’t signed on in a while.  This is absolutely brilliant to me!  Your friends can help to keep you accountable when you start to slack off a bit.  Of course, the absolute best part about this app is the fact that it is 100% free!  Oh, and if you follow it, it works.

-Stephanie Wright