I recently participated in a 7-week Transformation Challenge at the gym I belong to. We all tried to improve our strength and stamina over that period, with a baseline workout on Day One that was repeated on the last day. But most people were also trying to lose weight. My goal was to lose 10 pounds over the 7-week period. And for one of those weeks, I was going to be on vacation. Yikes!
I didn’t quite reach my goal – I lost 7.5 pounds. Looking back on it, I lost all of that in the first 4 weeks, then I plateaued. And I think I know the reason why: I stopped keeping a journal of my calorie intake. I had decided to enter all my food and exercise into the MyFitnessPal app on my phone. At about 4 weeks, I decided I didn’t need to do that any more because I knew about how much to eat and what kinds of foods to eat. Maybe so, but I wasn’t accountable for all of my calories, so my actions didn’t follow the plan. I know this to be true because I didn’t lose weight for 3 weeks: if I had a calorie deficit, I would’ve still been losing. (My exercise remained the same throughout.)
MyFitnessPal not only helped me lose weight, but it taught me a few things. I started reading labels more. I discovered new protein-rich foods that are also low-calorie, such as Greek yogurt. I learned on vacation that a dozen raw oysters on the half shell are only 114 calories and have 12 grams of protein. You can bet I repeated that snack! I also found out how to use the barcode reader on MyFitnessPal to enter a new food, which made using the app even easier. I plan to lose a few more pounds in the next month, and I know I will do it with MyFitnessPal. If you want to lose weight, give MyFitnessPal a try. I think you’ll like it.