For those wanting to lose weight this new year

[sabian92]

Just discovered this via my fiancee - it's a web based/iPhone app based food tracker that lets you track your exercise too.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

Definitely worth a look if you are interested in losing weight - it's free so no great loss if you don't like it!

 

[JohnHenry]

Looks interesting - and as you say it doesn't cost anything. I'll give it a try - need to lose a couple of stone that have crept up on me over the winter months.

 

[cyberknight]

More of this ..

Less of this ..

 

[PpPete]

I can understand recording mileage in MCL.... but logging food in the same way ? Might work for some - but not for me.

 

[sabian92]

I use MCL too, I mean the benefit of this website is that it uses actual brands so you can see how many cals you've eaten, and it breaks it down into fats, carbs etc too. It would benefit me and show me where my diet needs to be changed. The app is pretty easy to use too - far better than the stupid weightwatchers one.

 

[Nosaj]

Livestrong do something similar for both exercise and food as well. Food for those calorie counters and those who wish to analyse their Carb/Protein/Fat/dairy type ratios. I found logging eveything I ate as quite a pain and tended instead to stick to fist of protein fist of carbs and the rest veg (upping my clean carb intake appropriately to what cycling I was doing). However it does show that what you may think is healthy for example certain says its healthy on the packet cereals are actually not quite so, so it if you are not clear exactly on what you are eating (I wasn't) then it is an excellent tool to use even if only to make a typical food diary over a couple of weeks. If you do strip the rubbish out of the diet (crisps cakes fizzy pop we all know what we shouldn't really eat) and stick to clean unprocessed food and lower GI Carbs (i.e. unrefined or as little refined as possible think wholewheat/wholemeal pasta bread etc as opposed to white). I got a good GI diet book out of my local library. I didn't follow the diet per se but tried to stick to the lower GI carbs. I dropped from 16.5 stone done to just under twelve albeit over quite a long period. Once I got my head around eating clean (incl booze) I found that if I did eat clean and wanted to meet a calorie intake of around 2,200-2,400 I would have to eat a shed load of food to get there. I maintained that weight right through summer still eating the odd cake after a cycle. My weight has crept up a bit (12.5 stone) over the winter period & xmas as I stopped cycling and got a bit lazy on the food front however I have since the new year cut all the rubbish out again and can already feel the benefit.

 

[sabian92]

How did you get on with the drinking? I drink occasionally but I logged a bottle of becks last night and was surprised at how many cals that were in a small bottle!

 

[Nosaj]

Short answer I didn't I went tee total and when I say eat clean incl booze I meant no booze (ish - read on). When I got down to about 13.5 stone I really struggled to drop any more. I stopped all booze. I then bought a programme called P90X (all over the web if you google it) and done that for about 6 weeks (until I tweaked my back confidence and ego went up and I added a big weight to mason twists whilst at the gym so I stopped at that point nothing to do with whats in the programme all to do with my stupidity). That is what really opened my eyes to eating clean. For about two weeks prior to the actual start date I started trying to eat like the diet. (It is not in fact a diet aside from the first 30 days which is low carb high protein more if you will a total change of eating habits). My calorie allowance was 2,400. I also maintained no booze. P90x states no booze as well. In all I was tee total (bar literally a two glasses of wine) for about 10 weeks or so and combined with the extra exercise the weight literally fell away. I was not a heavy drinker before but a couple of nights a week wife and I would share a bottle of red that type of thing. Just by doing that over about 10 weeks or so I went from 13.5 stone down to about 11 3/4. With very moderate drinking over the summer, cycling and still eating clean I maintained my weight maybe put on a pound or two but haven't been out on the bike since mid october, done really nothing else exercise wise since and with xmas and the silly season eating and drinking plans went out of the window. My weight has increased by about 10/11 pounds. I started cycling again in the new year and I have started P90X again a week ago. I plan to have no booze to get the weight back off however I will drink if we go out to a do or something like that but it will literally be extremely occassional. If you want to get a six pack then diet is key and this means no booze but I am 40 for someone younger it maybe a different story. I would rather do without the six pack and have a bit of a life though whilst maintaining an acceptable weight. Its all about compromise.

 

[jowwy]

I've used this App on my android based phone for the past 10 months - helped me towards my gold of losing 4 stone.

Roll on the next 2 stone dropping off and getting down to my ideal of 13st

 

[fenlandpsychocyclist]

The aforementioned fitness app has an area where you can enter "calories used through exercise".

If using this just be wary of believing the "calories" on some of the satellite gps tracking devices.

My forerunner watch would usually report 1800 cals used over my usual 30 mile route, whether i
took 2 hours or 2.5 hours.
Also the type/weight of bike set in the thing didn't make much difference.

The calorie count on my edge 800 on the other hand can change on every ride, last nights 32 miler was 900 calories, where the previous 30 miler at greater speed was 1200 calories.

 

[swampyseifer]

just to say it has quite a funky function where you can scan the barcode of food items and it will automatically pick up what the item is, then its just a matter of quickly saying how much of the item you are having...

 

[Nosaj]

A heart rate monitor will probably provide a better calorie burn calculator providing 1) that it is half decent one and 2) you set it up correctly 3) you remember that you do actually use calories up just existing and it will count them as well remember to deduct your existence calories when calculating exercise calorie burn.

Calories are not the be all and end all you could probably eat only mars bars and remain within your calorie count but your diet would be shocking and the weight loss temporary. The important bit is clean well balanced nutritional food and this where the apps really come into their own They will highlight the worst areas of your diet and where you need to tweak them. You can also never out exercise a bad diet yes it may work for a time but as I found out you will reach a plataeu and no amount of crunches or exercises will shift that last bit. Also as you lose weight and gain more lean muscle mass you may have to increase what you eat to lose more weight as your body becomes more efficient at converting clean carbs into energy. It sounds counter intuitive and is far too complicated for me to explain coherently without typing straight out of a book but any decent sports nutritionist or proper nutrition book would be able to give you good guidance in this regard. Just look at what the TDF riders eat and how skinny they remain even off season.

Re getting a decent HRM I bought a Decathlon one for £35 and on a couple of occassions it showed my max heart rate as 282. I did not recall chasing Contador up Mt Ventoux at the time.

EDIT: this post is related to my experience at 40. If I am not careful I do tend towards chubbiness when I turned 35 I really had to begin to watch what I ate. When I was 18 I was 10.5 - 11 stone and could eat and drink whatever I liked or so i thought maybe my body is now paying me back. Everyone is different though

 

[xpc316e]

I am using My Fitness Pal and find it simple, convenient, and motivational. However, it does seem to overestimate the amount of calories burnt through exercise. My efforts in the gym on the exercise bike just do not tally up with MFP's calculations, so I go with the lower reading from the gym bike. Seems to work, as the weight is coming off.

 

[DiddlyDodds]

Why is everything an App these days , eat less rubbish and do some more exerciser , its an easy app you can write on an A4 paper "i'm Fat, eat fruit not Mars Bars" job done


I am off to get some paper , a banana, apple and my bike

 

[2Loose]

I find this subject confusing. I have always been 'lightweight' so maybe I really don't understand...cake, biscuits and booze are rewards for cycling and staying active surely?