MyFitnessPal, an app that tracks calories consumed and calories burned to help people lose weight, just received $18 million in investment capital from both Kleiner Perkins and Accel Partners.
The app, which is available for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry, sets a calorie goal for users based on their weight and the speed at which they want to slim down. Then, users track what they eat utilizing an extensive database of crowdsourced food data.
Multiple research studies have shown that keeping a food journal helps people to consume fewer calories. In fact, Dr. Jack Hollis of Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research has stated that people who keep daily food records lose twice as much weight as those who don't write down what they've eaten.
In addition to recording food that they've consumed, MyFitnessPal users can track calories burned through exercise. Calories burned are subtracted from calories consumed, which gives users the chance to avoid hunger by eating more.
One thing that's missing from MyFitnessPal is the ability to record how you feel after eating or exercising. In other words, users can't track their hunger levels after a meal or the emotional states associated with certain meals or snacks.
According to Penn State's Helen A. Guthrie chair of nutritional sciences, Dr. Barbara J. Rolls, many dietitians don't teach patients to balance low calorie intake with hunger control, or satiety. "It makes sense that when you decrease energy intake below energy needs, people will feel hungry," Rolls told Today's Dietitian. "This can undermine what you are doing for them in weight loss."
To control hunger, dietitians suggest consuming solid food instead of beverages. For example, one of Dr. Roll's studies showed that an apple consumed with lunch decreased calorie intake by 15 percent. Many Americans don't realize how many calories they consume when drinking beverages, especially since many Starbucks beverages contain more calories than a Big Mac.
Other hunger control strategies include consuming a larger amount of fruits and vegetables, filling up on high-fiber foods and starting meals with a healthy salad or a bowl of broth-based soup.
MyFitnessPal has teamed up with partners like Fitbit, Jawbone, Withings and iHealth to enable its 40 million users to pair wearable tracking devices with the app. For dieters that want to track calories while keeping hunger control tips in mind, MyFitnessPal can be a great tool for fighting back against fat.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
