After 385 days of consistently logging in, and (mostly) logging my calories, I’ve decided I need to delete the MyFitnessPal app from my phone.
For those who have followed some of my diet and exercising blogging over the last year and a half, you will know that I’ve sworn by MyFitnessPal, a calorie-counting, exercise-logging, weight-checking app (with free and paid versions; I used the free version).
Unequivocally: MyFitnessPal is the most surefire way I have yet encountered to drop weight when I’m looking to drop weight. So, I’m not dissatisfied with the aim and purpose of the app. It is the most basic concept: Take in less calories than my daily maximum of 2,330, and often leaving 1,000 or so to spare, and perhaps add in some exercising along the way. That is how I know to drop the pounds. I started somewhere around 180.2 pounds on July 12, 2021 (and honestly, I think I was probably more than that at one point), and by Dec. 28, 2021, I peaked at a weight of 153.4 pounds. I lost 26.8 pounds within almost six months. I wasn’t starving myself. I was still eating, and sometimes cheating on my eating! But it was effective, and relatively easy. It wasn’t time intensive to add in my calories for each meal, snack, and drink, and then remember to “complete my diary” at the end of the day.
And like I said, I wasn’t always good. I would log-in to maintain the consistent log-in streak I was on, but I knew I’d be going over my calorie limit because I was on vacation in Wisconsin or whatever the case, so sometimes I might not even bother logging the calories since I knew I was going over.
But I don’t know. It sort of feels like an albatross at this point. I’m a bit tired of seeing it and thinking about it. I have backtracked some, and I’m about 162 pounds now. I’m still down 18 pounds, but like many stories of my ilk, I put some right back on over the past eight months. It is hard to maintain at that peak. I like food! I like sitting! I like eating food while sitting!
The albatross extended to the daily tracking, too. Unlike WordPress, where I still get enthralled by the, “You’re on a 234-day streak!” primarily because it keeps me writing, I was losing interest in the streak for MyFitnessPal. It started feeling like a chore rather than something fun. Maybe that is because I was backtracking on my weight and the streak was a reminder of that slippage? Perhaps. But also, as a general matter now, I’m pretty well-practiced in knowing where I am at calorie-wise for a bowl of cereal in the morning, a hamburger at night, that glass of orange juice, and so on.
I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t download the app and give it a try. Like I said, it has been the most effective method I know of to lose weight when I feel like I’m getting too heavy, but I also feel like there comes a time to let it go? Maybe I’ll pick it back up again, and hopefully not because I’m back to 180 pounds, but because I want to.
Do you have any tips or advice for maintaining once you hit your goal weight?
Milam's Musings 