Running from Death

Since I wrote my review of Lose It!, I’ve actually changed the app I’m using to track nutrition and exercise data. I also dropped the other apps I was using. Today, I’m exclusively using myfitnesspal on my iPhone and computers…

I realize I may “spoil” the rest of this review when I say my only reason for using myfitnesspal is because my friends use it. Compared to Lose It!, I don’t feel like I gained anything (or lost anything, either). It boiled down to the simple fact that more people I know use this app rather than the other options.

App Review: myfitnesspal

Website: myfitnesspal
Is there a PC or Mac native app: No.
Is there a companion web app?: Yes.
Cost: Free

Data Entry
Managing food and exercise in myfitnesspal is simple.  Like with other apps, you navigate to a food entry screen from a main “dashboard” page (see image on the left).

Adding food or exercise is easy, although a touch clunky at the start.  To add an entry, you have to pick a meal it “belongs to” before proceeding.  If you are eating many small meals, this can be annoying.

Once a meal is picked, you can select multiple entries from a personalized list of commonly used foods.  You can also search for a “new” food that isn’t on the personalized list or you can use the bar code scanner to do automatic entry.

The bar code scanner and database are excellent, based upon my usage.  Both national and local brands are well represented and result in “hits” when you scan the bar codes.  Even things I thought would be too obscure to hit were in the database.  This is great because it makes data entry very easy…especially if you are a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s addict. 

Food Database
The food database is excellent, but has one problem similar to what other suffer…

As I mentioned regarding the bar code scanner, the database is comprehensive.  Entering food is easy and rarely do I have a problem finding an entry for food that I’m eating or that I purchased.  However, this choice of options can be problematic…

If you don’t scan a bar code, it can be difficult to find a product using the text search functions.

For example, if I enter “Odwalla chocolate protein monster” I may find a number of entries that turn up.  It can be difficult to determine which is appropriate.  Often, the title of the product is the same across multiple entries but calorie details differ.  This problem is far worse for generic foods like “french fries”.  Such a search returns many identically named options with different weights, units, and calories (even for identical weights).  This can be frustrating.

Also, the search doesn’t seem to be very intelligent.  If I mistype the name of the brand (“Odewala” instead of “Odwalla”), I usually find myself with zero hits.  Try to find a clemintine orange and you may get no hits.  Spell “clementine” correctly, and suddenly you have choices.  This is frustrating.

For foods that are in the database (and that have easily spelled names) it’s very easy to use the app.  And, as I mentioned earlier, myfitnesspal is great when adding data for local brands.  Given how much our house shops at smaller, locally owned chains…this is a huge benefit.

Tracking Detail
Myfitnesspal doesn’t track a huge number of variables.  Essentially, it can record any of the details you can find on the nutrition label of a box.

That’s it.

There’s no other tracking, so if you need to track a specific mineral or nutrient…this won’t work any better than Lose It!.

The main benefit of an app like this is to keep me focused.  Knowing I have to record everything I eat encourages mindfulness when I’m making decisions…and as a result, I pick healthier foods over junk foods when the data has to go into the system.

So, in this kind of situation, I keep track of micronutrients on the side to be sure I’m not coming in very low on any specific vitamins or minerals.  Other than that, I don’t rely on an app like this because I also don’t trust it to be particularly accurate.  As long as I’m in the ballpark on critical items (calories, protein, etc…) then I’m happy that I am likely going to see the health results I want most.

Goal Setting
The app only allows for one type of goal: weight loss.

OK, that’s not true.  You can enter some goal information that’s related to exercise…but the reporting and tracking on that is nearly non-existent.  It’s certainly not useful on a daily basis.

So, I’m going to say that from a practical standpoint, there’s only one goal setting dimension.

As with other apps that help track progress towards a weight goal, myfitnesspal asks for basic demographics – weight, height, sex, age, and general activity level. You can select the number of pounds you want to lose per week and your goal weight. From there, the app calculates the calorie deficit you need.

On the weekly display, it shows a bar chart illustrating the over/under for each day. This is nice because if I know I’m going to go over my calorie limit one day, I can be extra careful for the day or two before and run a small deficit to compensate for overeating.

Graphing and Tables
The app will provide a simple graph of weight over time. It’s nice, but it’s really not that important once you are using the app for a few months.

Strangely, the graphing and reporting on the website is worse! than in the app on the phone!  The few times I’ve attempted to graph anything on the website I’ve been disappointed.  I’ll just say that in this situation, the website is a nice complement in terms of data entry and social motivators (see below) but it’s absolutely awful if you are a data fiend.  If you want to slice and dice your data in endless ways, this is not the app for you.

Motivators & Social Elements
The app has a few motivators, but they aren’t very powerful.  The app can remind you that it’s been “X” days since your last entry.  That’s more of a guilt-trip than a motivator, though.

There aren’t any badges or competition elements included with the app that really drive positive behavior.  For example, I picked up a Striiv a few weeks ago and it has some motivational elements that are excellent.  You won’t get badges or congratulations from myfitnesspal.

The indirect motivators are the social messages that users can post and see.

These provide the main reason I switched.  Several of my friends use the app and I can see how well they are doing…so the motivator is really “peer pressure”.

(Aside: If anybody wants to friend me on the app, my user name is rfd1970.)

Summary
Myfitnesspal is a solid, stable app that tracks calories, exercise and weight.  It is easy to use and the interfaces are all very well done.  The food database is comprehensive and the barcode scanner is simply awesome.  It lacks a few features, especially those that motivate me (or you?) to keep logging data or to push myself a little harder…but that’s not a critical failing.

Given its solid performance and it’s price (free!), it’s a great app to use to track basic weight-related data and to get a sense for where problems may lay (too may calories because of snacks, fewer calories burned when exercising than imagined, and so on).