Silviu's Latest Craze: Calorie Counting
Silviu introduced MyFitnessPal, a calorie counter, to me 5 days ago. I am surprised that he is even considering using it. After all, he never used to care how many calories were in the food he consumed. To him, recovery food meant mainly beer, burger, fries, or anything that satisfied his craving of that moment. As long as he continued with trail running, though, the calorie intake and output equation would eventually balance. Perhaps he wants to ramp up for our first trail running season in France. Or perhaps MyFitnessPal is just one of those fitness gadgets he is always trying out. Regardless of the reason, I am interested in joining him in his latest craze.
Meet MyFitnessPal
The best feature about MyFitnessPal is that it is extremely easy to use, even for a gadget-dummy like me. During the app sign-in, I only set a target weight to lose, gain, or maintain. Then I choose the timeframe I prefer to achieve it. The app will recommend a daily calorie intake based on my physical profile and goals.
Every day, I only have to enter the details of each meal. The app then automatically calculates how many calories remain for the rest of the day. The cool part is that the app allows me to scan the barcode of most food items. As a result, it saves me the hassle of manually entering the nutritional information.
At the end of each day, I am advised of the weight I may eventually achieve in my timeframe. That’s assuming I continue with my current calorie intake. I seldom have the will to follow things through. That’s exactly why the app’s ease of use encourages me to be more diligent about it.
The Real Reason: A Few Extra Kilos
I will be honest. The key reason for trying out the app is simple: weight. Namely, I’ve been struggling to shed the extra kilos gained over the last festive season — Christmas, then Chinese New Year. And that was 6 months ago!
Several things haven’t helped me shed the surplus weight. There was the festive food indulgence, of course. Then a badly sprained ankle kept me from running much this year — it took close to 3 months to heal. Also, the move to France added its own “food shock” of cheese and pastries (not that I’m complaining much). And the cold grey winter didn’t do me any favors either. I am hoping that the calorie counter will help me keep a check on the number of calories that I consume.
The Bigger Goal: Getting Fit
The secondary reason is to achieve my aspiration of being physically fit. It’s already 5 months into 2016…kind of late to be a new year resolution. However, it is better late than never to be physically fit, right?
To be physically fit, it is just a simple equation of regular exercise + healthy diet. Common sense tells me that regular exercise alone isn’t enough. Just as important, a healthy diet is especially crucial for runners like myself. After all, we need to repair and rebuild the tissue damaged by endless pounding on the trails.
Easier Said Than Done
However, my aspiration is still so far just an inspiration, mainly because I am lazy. Specifically, researching the nutritional value of each food item feels like too much of a chore. Like many people out there, I eat to satisfy my hunger, a craving, or sometimes just boredom. In fact, I rarely stop to think about what actually goes into my body.
There are times when I develop a sense of guilt for not taking good care of my body. When that happens, I go out of my way to add extra vegetables, or have fruit for dessert. Alas, I don’t keep it up en rigueur.
More Than Just Calorie Counting
MyFitnessPal not only focuses on calorie intake; it also gives a breakdown by nutritional composition of my daily food consumption. For instance, if the breakdown shows I’m lacking in Vitamin C today, I’ll have an orange for dessert. That way, I can fight off the urge for a piece of Lindt Excellence Orange Intense Chocolate.
The app also lets me increase my recommended daily calorie credit by logging the calories I burn through exercise. That way, I can eat more without going astray on my daily intake. I’m an active runner. So the normal daily calorie target for someone with a more sedentary lifestyle simply wouldn’t suit me. This feature ensures that I will not endanger my health.
Croissant or Pain au Chocolat — Never Both
It is only the fifth day that I am trying out MyFitnessPal. So it’s of course still too early to say whether I’ll follow through with my weight-loss-cum-physically-fit program.
MyFitnessPal has not totally taken out my enjoyment of food. It just makes me more conscious of what I eat. In the last five days, I hadn’t given up visiting the boulangerie below my flat. Instead, I just had to amend my pastry selection for breakfast. In practice, my usual was a coffee, a croissant, AND a pain au chocolat — I’ve cut back. Now it’s just a coffee and a croissant OR a pain au chocolat. Otherwise, my daily fat budget will soon be exceeded.