The App
The application I chose to monitor my health was MyFitnessPal. I chose this application because it seemed to be the best free nutrition tracker on the market. I considered a few other applications including MyPlate, Fooducate, as well as Nutritrack. I first examined MyPlate as a potential option because of its sheer number of downloads and with it being the first application to appear after I searched “nutrition” on the app store. Using reviews on the app store and research online, I decided that MyPlate was a great app for nutrition tracking. However, there were some flaws including one major issue with the usability. Many users who reviewed the app complained that it crashes and occasionally is slow to load. When I downloaded it to test, I experienced similar issues. I wanted an app that would allow me to include it as part of my daily routine and not have to worry about it crashing. Fooducate and Nutritrack were also great nutrition tracking applications but both struggled with finding the specific meals or food that I would eat. This caused me to use more time and resources to determine nutritional intake. Ultimately, I selected MyFitnessPal because of its reliability and flexibility. When I search for foods that I’ve eaten, the app uses green check marks on the foods that have been approved by the app. It allowed me to be more accurate in my tracking, and gain a better understanding of my nutritional intake.
Features
MyFitnessPal was the perfect application for me and can be a great application for many people because of its simple user interface. It is quite easy to navigate through the app with a bottom bar that includes buttons that’ll take you to the other functions of the app which include your progress, your diary, and the option to input food or exercise using the plus sign (see an example below).
As you can see from the example, MyFitnessPal allows the user to visually see where their calories are coming from throughout the day. I like how the app almost encourages you to work out, as it factors in exercise to your daily routine. I also like how the app verifies foods using green check marks to help the user ensure that the nutrition data is correct. While the app allows for manual entry, it is almost not needed with hundreds of options to choose from to properly track nutrition intake. At times during this experiment, it was difficult to see progress. One example of this was during the second week of my own monitoring. I began becoming tired of journaling every food item I would have during the day. The app, however, makes you stay focused with encouragement, and the option to track your weight loss. This is crucial for someone who is watching what they eat to feel like they have accomplished something or reached a goal.
Personal Goals
I chose nutrition intake as the health behavior I wanted to monitor because I’ve never fully understood what I’m eating on a daily basis and how it impacts my health. I’ve always been in decent shape and have been able to maintain proper weight. Luckily, I have also had a great metabolism throughout my teen years which has allowed me in parts to negate eating less healthy food. As I’ve I grown older I’ve realized that my metabolism will eventually slow and that I will need to monitor what I’m eating. One personal goal for this assignment was to decrease my intake of fatty and high carb foods.
The Process
What I found worked for me was to input the meal I was going to have i.e. breakfast, lunch, dinner before I prepared it. This created a routine for me and made it easy to stick to. Early on I would either wait or forget to input the meal/snack that I had. This made it difficult to monitor and track real progress of decreasing my fat and high carb food intake. I liked how the app would add up the intake of certain nutrients, fat, and carbs. This also allowed me to become more dedicated to tracking my nutrition. As I started to see my intakes decrease, I actually started to feel better health-wise. I’ve even stopped eating some of the foods I used to eat before I started tracking. One example of this is potato chips, which are one of my favorite snacks. After seeing my fat intake increase after each serving, I realized it was time for a change. I switched from potato chips to almonds which are high in protein and aren’t as unhealthy. That’s the great part about MyFitnessPal. You are able to see a problem in your nutrition, then formulate a plan to eat better.
What I found didn’t work for me was skipping tracking meals or skipping tracking days. This gave me an excuse to not track my nutrition. One thing the app doesn’t account for is the meals you do not input. This can create skewed data and poor results in your nutritional intake. It may say that you haven’t eaten as much fatty food or food with high calories, but if you left out three meals, you are cheating the process and yourself. What I found helped me when I didn’t feel like inputting my meals into the app was to write them down so I could do it later on in the day or in the morning if it was dinner. One nice thing about MyFitnessPal is that even if a day is over, you can go back and input your nutrition data to help maintain progress.
Final Thoughts
Changes
One change that I would implement to make the app better is to continue to add to the food database. From research and interaction with this app and others, what makes a great nutrition tracking app is one that has an in-depth food database. People that I’ve talked to and reviews I’ve read all concur that it can be difficult at times to match your meal to one of the MyFitnessPal items. I found myself at times selecting products or items that sounded similar, but in fact could be totally off in calories, carbs, fat, etc. A second change I would suggest would be to make it easier to view longer-term nutritional intake. The app only allows you to view data from either a day view or from up to 7 days. Having the option to customize the data you want to see will help the app become more personal and create a well-rounded experience for the user.
Expectations
Going into this assignment, my expectations were low. I didn’t really expect to consistently track my nutritional intake. I thought I may do it for a week and then fully forget about it. Little did I know that I would one, end up liking the assignment and two, end up making a positive change to my nutrition. My experience definitely didn’t match my expectations because I learned more about myself, and about my body. I’m now able to say that I like to eat healthier because I feel better physically and mentally. I’m even working out a few times a week to balance out days where I maybe don’t eat as well as I should.
I also found that I am now checking the nutritional facts on food items that I buy from the grocery store. If you told me before this assignment that I would know how many calories are in a serving size of popcorn, I’d think that you were crazy. But in reality, it’s nice to be in control of what I eat. Before this assignment, I would just eat to eat even if I thought I was eating healthy. By knowing exactly what nutrients and calories I’m eating, I’m able to eat the right foods instead of eating until I’m full.
Previous Experience
Before this assignment, when I have previously tried to change a health behavior, I really didn’t know where to begin. I could never consistently go to the gym before in the past because I really didn’t know specific exercises and couldn’t stay motivated. With the help of a friend who goes to the gym often, I was able to establish a solid routine. It’s clear that in order to change a health behavior, it cannot be from personal motivation but also from support and direction. MyFitnessPal was that for me. I was able to clearly see and understand what I was eating on a daily basis, and then formulate a plan to make a positive change in my life. I realize that not all experiences are the same and that everyone has different needs. But one thing appears to remain constant, and that is a direction. I think that many people struggle with changing a behavior because they don’t know where to begin. If I didn’t have this assignment, I definitely wouldn’t be tracking my nutrition. Seeing and understanding the impact of my old nutrition gave me the motivation to make a change.
Chris Martin: Public Health 