MyFitnessPal Drove Me to Hanger and Obsession

MyFitnessPal is one of the most popular methods of tracking calories and macros. In fact, as of the writing of this article, there were more than 140 million people using it.

And I hate it with every fiber of my being.

Don’t get me wrong. I think tracking your food is very important when you have goals you’d like to meet. Most people don’t need to track every bit, lick, and taste of food though. Those behaviors lead to an obsession with food and sometimes an eating disorder which defeats the purpose of developing a healthy relationship with food.

Not only that, but MyFitnessPal seems to be severely undercutting how much food a person should eat.

A little background info on me for reference:

• 37 years old
• 5′ 2″
• 158 – 160 lbs
• Mother of 4
• Exercise for 30 – 50 minutes 6 days a week

MyFitnessPal calculated my calorie goal at 1,200. My basal metabolic rate is (roughly) 1,365 calories. The nutrition plan I follow has me at 1,788.

That almost 600 calorie difference between MyFitnessPal and the program I follow is huge.

I’m a firm believer it not knocking something until you try it, so I decided to lock down my opinion and give it a try for a week. These are my findings.

Day 1

Ending calorie count: 2,264

The crazy thing is, this wasn’t even a big eating day. There weren’t a lot of snacks or treat-style foods.

What DID make a big difference was the fat content in the meat I ate for breakfast and lunch. They accounted for about 800 of those calories. With a leaner meat selection, I would have been well-within my goal range. Gotta give points to MFP on this. I wouldn’t have realized how much of a difference meat selection made without plugging this information in.

Day 2

Ending calorie count: 2,294

This was a big day for treat-style foods. We had a birthday in the family, so there were pancakes for breakfast, BBQ wings at the zoo, pizza for dinner, and birthday cake.

It’s surprising that the end count wasn’t higher honestly, but when you eat on plan 80% of the time, you leave room for special events.

Day 3

Ending calorie count: 1,755

Believe it or not, we had leftover cake on this day, too. The protein choices were much leaner and breakfast was more filling and kept me full longer which absolutely helped, and dinner included beef, veggies, sweet potatoes, and a little cheese, so I didn’t find myself grabbing snacks all night while we had family time.

Day 4

Ending calorie count: 2,086

We went to the pumpkin patch in the freezing cold, ran out of gas, and drowned our sorrows in ice cream and fun size candy bars. No regrets! Still ate plenty of vegetables throughout the day, and didn’t obsess over the extra treats.

Day 5

Ending calorie count: 1,725

Rest days end up being a big snack day, but after seeing how much snacking occurred through the week, I was able to reign it in and stay under my calorie goal. Averaging out your calories throughout the week is such an easier way to stay consistent, and being mindful of how much

Day 6

Ending calorie count: 1,916

It was at this point that I wanted to severely hurt someone. I’ve been tracking my food via portions for three years, and I’ve never felt the burning hot rage that tracking with MFP ignited.

Meal time became a chore. Was I tracking all the ingredients? Had I missed something? Did I select the right item? Was I severely undercutting what I’d eaten? Over-estimating?

Every time I saw the calories go up, I contemplating skipping my next meal. I obviously didn’t because food is life, but the fact that the thoughts were forming concerned me.

Needless to say, I didn’t make it the full seven days of the experiment. I’m just not made to track food with this precision. People would die.

I can see the value in it for determining the nutrition of a homecooked meal if you’re curious of the breakdown, and I would absolutely use it if I were competing in a Diet Bet or if I were a bodybuilder, but it just doesn’t work for me as the Average Mom Who Just Wants to Get Buff.

How about you? Do you use a tracker? If so, how do you like it?