My Fitness Pal....

I mentioned the other day that I've been being a little careful with my diet lately, in an effort to shift some of my unnecessary flab. I've tried Weightwatchers before and had some pretty good results, but I start to resent having to pay so much for the privilege.

Instead I decided that this time I wanted to do something a little more easily accessible. I'm happy enough to weigh myself at home, and after the initial stages of a diet, when I'm usually starving, I'm pretty good at sticking to one.

I'd heard some really good things about My Fitness Pal, a free app you can use on your PC, or on your phone. Essentially it's a food diary, on which you record what you've eaten. You input your gender, height, the weight you are, the weight you'd like to be, the rate at which you'd like to lose weight and how active you are. It then calculates how many calories you should consume on a daily basis to reach that weight. 

You search for what you've eaten from a huge database and you can even scan the barcode on food to make sure you're being really precise. You can also record what exercise you've done and it calculates how many calories that exercise will have "earnt" you. It also breaks down your diet so you can chart whether you're eating the right amount of fat, protein and carbohydrate. Something I'd never thought to check before!! 

You can also interact with other dieters and use a whole social networking aspect, although I haven't done this, so can't speak from personal experience. I do love the idea of finding online support from other people in the same boat, but I hate the idea of sharing my weight!

It the end of each day it also gives you a prediction of what you "could" weigh in five weeks, based on how that day went. 

According to my prediction I'm going to be really flippin skinny in just five short weeks. A cruelly dangled carrot full of hope and promise. You can't eat the carrot, of course. If you actually dare to scoff the orange dangled one you will never reach the skinny malink status you so badly desire... it's just there to let you know what could happen... It's like Bullseye all over again with a dietary version of Jim Bowen saying "Here's what you could have won!" If only you hadn't got barmy with those Weightwatchers cookies when you thought no one was watching....

So far I've found it so easy to use, I'm really pleased with my progress. This is my sixth week of using My Fitness Pal and I've now lost 15 pounds. Only another eight to go and I'll be a very happy bunny indeed!! I'll scoff that dangly carrot yet!!! 

Have you tried My Fitness Pal? Do you prefer another weight loss method? Any recommendations for me? 

Love, love,