Brenna’s App of the Week: MyFitnessPal

By Brenna Lofquist, Senior Marketing Consultant / Client Services Operations at Heinz Marketing

This weeks App of the Week isn’t related to Marketing or Sales but health is wealth, am I right? I have used MyFitnessPal a number of times over the past few years and really enjoy it. Anyone can use it no matter where you’re at in life or in your health journey. At minimum, it’s a helpful tool to learn about basic health as it related to food, exercise, and water intake.

There’s a paid version of the app however, most people can get by with the free version and there’s really no limitations. The main feature I use is the Diary. This is where you can track your food, exercise, and water intake each day. They make it really easy to add foods and this can be done in a few ways. You can easily add meals from previous days, you can scan barcodes which will automatically pull in the nutrition information, and you can search for foods. You can also save meals and recipes, which makes it easy to find them in the future.

No matter the method you use to find foods, it shows you the serving size according to the package or based on the food. I find this helpful because I had no idea what a typical serving size was. You can start to get an idea and eventually won’t need the app. There’s also some tips you can use with your hand to understand serving sizes for things such as protein, vegetables, and carbs.

If you have specific goals you are trying to reach, you can log them in the app and it will factor in your food, water, and exercise. It keeps track of your goals and lets you know approximately how long it will take you to reach them and provides adjustments.

Depending on your level of knowledge or if you’re working with a health coach or trainer, they might have you enter macronutrient goals (protein, carbs, and fats). Then when you track your food, it will show you where you’re at after each meal and how many grams you have left for each macronutrient. One thing I’ve learned is that most people aren’t getting enough protein which is super important, even for your daily health.

While I’m no health coach, I can say this app has helped me to eat more healthy and realize which foods can sneak up on you, even if you aren’t eating that much – sauces are a big one!

Health is important and has been especially important for me since working remote. It’s important to figure out a routine that works best for you. Physical health also impacts our mental health and we all know how important that is.