Does Counting or Tracking Your Calories Help You Lose Weight?
There quite a few apps out there that can help you track your calories and therefore help you lose weight.
The most popular of these is MyFitness Pal and it is probably the most commonly used around the world.
These apps are helpful yes. But they can also be unhelpful in your pursuit of losing weight for a number of reasons.
This article will show you exactly how to set up MyFitness Pal for your success with weight loss, teaching you what to avoid and how to get around these common potholes that the app has which might hinder your ability to succeed.
MyFitness Pal (MYFP) is a wonderful tool for the vast majority of people and it is a phenomenal database of foods from all around the world to help you track your calories.
But…
Will it actually help you lose weight?
You have probably all seen all over the internet advocates of tracking your calories on My Fitness Pal. Followed by swathes of others who just don’t have success with it.
Like with anything in the Fitness Industry there are pros and cons and especially with My Fitness Pal, there are some potholes in there that they just hope you fall into, especially when it comes to weight loss.
Pros of MyFitness Pal (MYFP) are:
It has a Large Database of Food
The Barcode Scanning is quick and effective
Macro Breakdowns
Graphs for your weight, Macro Intake, and Calorie Intake over meals
You can Build Your Own Meals in a quick and easy manner
A lot of Take Out Food and restruants are in their database.
As you can see, there is a lot to like about MyFitness Pal and therefore it is worth figuring out how to make it work for you.
Cons of MyFitness Pal (MYFP):
It sets a vert aggressive calorie deficit.
It gives you back calories burned from exercise.
It can feel time-consuming when you start to use it.
Eating out in restaurants is hard to track,
It can appear that you are constantly failing,
The micro-messaging via the colors it uses in the App
It can get obsessive for some people.
As I mentioned above let’s work through this cons list and figure it all out to make sure that by the end of this article you will know exactly how to use MyFitness Pal to help you lose weight and make the Cons work a lot better for you and your success.
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR “DOES COUNTING OR TRACKING CALORIES HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT?”
Does Counting or Tracking Your Calories Help You Lose Weight?
My Fitness Pal Sets An Aggresive Calorie Deficit
When you log into MyFitness Pal (MYFP) and set yourself a goal.
It asks you a series of questions:
What is your Goal?
How Active Are You?
Personal Details
More Personal Details
What is your weekly goal? (with a recommendation to lose 0.5kgs per week)
Once you then go through some other legal selection boxes you are congratulated and it says:
You should lose: X kg by X Date
Alarm bells should now be ringing in your head.
This is now setting you up for failure…because in truth an App has no idea who you are, what your life looks like or your ability to actually lose weight.
Added to that…it has no idea if the Goal you have set yourself is actually possible for you.
At this point, I have worked with many many people who tell me that they have a lot more to lose than they really actually do.
In this world of Instagram and Social Media, people are being cheated and lied to, to a point where they will be very convinced that they need to lose a lot more weight than they actually need to or actually can.
When choosing a Goal Weight it is not a good idea to simply chose a number based on a friend or what you think you would like to weigh.
My best advice for this is to choose a weight that you have weighed before, maybe 5-10 years ago, and make sure it’s a weight you feel comfortable at. That being said, if you are a person who carries a lot more weight then you might be able to be a little more aggressive with your goal weight number. But please remember “carrying a lot more weight” is a term used in comparison to the whole of society…not your own personal opinion of yourself.
How Does My Fitness Pal Choose Your Calorie Deficit?
In a nutshell, it deducts 500kcal from your Maintenance Calories — no matter who you are but it is capped for Men at 1500kcal/day. and Females at 1200kcal/day.
In their words: “Our calculator uses the Mifflin-St. Jeor equations to estimate your BMR (Basal Metabolic Weight) which is believed to be more accurate than the more commonly used Harris-Benedict equation” [1]
This is a true statement based on being able to predict someone's RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) not actually their BMR. [2]
The difference isn’t that crucial but it's good to note there is a difference between RMR and BMR.
Once the equation has your vital statistics it then asks you for your activity level and uses that as a multiplier to figure out your Calorie Deficit.
For example, you have:
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) = 1300
Activity Level is Sedentary = multiplier effect of 1.2
Maintenance Calories = 1300 x 1.2 = 1560kcal
Then to chose your Deficit it appears that MYFP just deducts 500kcal from your Maintenance Calorie number which would leave you trying to eat 1060kcal a day in this example.
Which is far too low for 99% of the population.
But MYFP does have a “lower cap” due to Government restrictions in the USA.
Let's now take a real-world example of someone. Meet Jacquie.
Let us say that Jacquie is 40 years old, she currently weighs 74kgs and is 5ft 8in tall, and has a BMI of 25.1 putting her in the overweight category but she does weight training 2x a week and works in an office.
Her Goal weight is 70kgs as that lowers her BMI to 23.4.
Her BMR is calculated at about 1600kcal/day.
Then we add her multiplier of 1.2 for her Lightly Exercise Level to get her Maintenance Calories.
1600 (BMR) x 1.2 (Activity Multiplier) = 1920kcal/day or “Maintenance Calories”.
MYFP dictates that we deduct an arbitrary 500kcal which equals = 1420kcal/day.
I actually put Jacquie into MYFP and this is what came up:
As you can see, the way I believe MYFP is working is pretty accurate.
Putting a human being into a straight caloric deficit below her BMR, without any rests or diet breaks scheduled into her plan is in short setting her up for failure.
Personally, I don’t advise any of my friends that I work with online to go below their Basal Metabolic Rate when working on their deficit. Basal Metabolic Rate is defined thus:
“Basal Metabolic Rate is the number of calories required to keep your body functioning at rest”
Keep your body functioning at rest.
This is literally the minimum amount of calories you need for your body to be able to function daily without any movement.
So if you eat less than this for a prolonged period of time what do you think might happen? You will of course gradually get tired, irritable, your performance in the Gym will suffer and all of this leads to one thing.
Giving up.
Which then makes you feel like a failure.
Which then makes you give up on your goals.
My suggestion is to manipulate the App so that you get a Calorie Allowance number that set to either your BMR or your Goal Body Weight in LBS x 12.
To do this on the app, you need to click on the three dots in the bottom corner called More> Goals > Nutrition Goals > Calorie, Carbs, Protein, and Fat Goals > Calories
Then you can set your Customised Calories based on my suggestions above.
If you need help setting your Calorie Targets then you can grab a Free Customised Calorie and Macro Calculator from my website by clicking here: https://www.thegymstarter.com/free-fat-loss-giveaways
By doing this it will ensure that your Calories are set to a level that will create enough adherence for you so that you can be consistent, still enjoy your favorite foods, and still reach your goals.
I am suggesting taking your Calories up so that you don’t continue on the cycle of overly restricting yourself, then binging and forever treading water with your success.
To find out more about how to set your Calorie Deficit watch this:
Does Counting or Tracking Your Calories Help You Lose Weight?
Calories Burned From Exercise Equation
This is my single biggest bugbear of the whole app. This combined with other Fitness Pros encouraging people to share photos of “Calories Burned from Exercise” on Social Media.
This is a practice that just has to stop.
Period.
Calories Burned from exercise is a near-impossible thing to calculate, and an Iowa State University study found that activity trackers can be up to 60% inaccurate in calculating Calories Burned from exercise [3].
A study by Standford University and The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in 2017 took 60 participants and tested an Apple Watch, a Fitbit Surge, and a few other wearables.
The Apple watch was top of the class when it came to tracking Heart Rate during Exercise and all activity trackers were within the 5% error margin of acceptable.
However, when it came to energy expenditure or Calorie Burned the results were worryingly poor:
“In fact, the study claims that the Fitbit Surge was the most accurate with energy expenditure tracking, with an error rate of around 27 percent. The Microsoft Band came in at around 33 percent, while Apple Watch reported an error rate near 40 percent, though it was consistent” [4]
Added to all of that, the most inaccurate readings come out when Aerobic Exercise is performed — namely Cardio and HIIT workouts.
The one saving grace here is that they are consistently rubbish.
Why is this a problem in relation to MYFP?
MYFP tells you to basically “eat your calories burned from exercise back”.
It calculates the calories you have eaten.
It calculates the calories you have “burned from exercise”
and adds those back into how many calories you should be eating for the day.
So let’s say you can eat 1500kcal a day.
It’s now lunchtime and you have eaten 750kcal at this point giving you another 750kcal until you have hit your allowance for the rest of the day.
You then workout and “burn 350kcal”.
MYFP will then give you that 350kcal back…so you can now eat for the day a total of 1100kcal.
1500–750+350 = 1100kcal remaining for the day
This is what it looks like on the App using my numbers:
In truth, I don’t have 266kcal remaining. I have 261kcal remaining until I hit my target of 2860kcal.
You know that being in a Calorie Deficit is hard work combined with the fact that being able to eat to your Deficit Number or come in below that is hard as well.
You also know that exercise will help you get into your Calorie Deficit.
So why would you eat the calories back from the exercise you just performed?
This will just keep you spinning your wheels.
Personally, I am aware that exercise is more than a method to burn calories, and I would never promote someone going to the gym just to “earn their food”.
Exercise is worth so much more than just a tool to burn calories — it can build confidence, strength, and can give you so much more from life than you ever dreamt of.
But it does burn calories and that can’t be overlooked when trying to lose weight.
Unless you eat back the calories you have burned from exercise.
The other great failing in MYFP with this is that it also gives you calories back from all movement.
Including your Steps.
Now when it comes to a Calorie Deficit the second-biggest portion of your metabolism which will help you lose weight is called Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis or NEAT.
This is 15% of your Metabolism and other than calories in is the single greatest weapon in your toolbox to losing weight.
Unless you are on MYFP — because yes, MYFP gives you these Calories back as well.
You can fix this in two ways:
Just focus on your Goal Calories and your Food Calories when looking at the app and ignore everything else.
Disconnect MYFP from being able to read your Exercise Data. I only know how this works on IOS but you have to go to Health > Click on your Profile Photo opposite the word Summary >Privacy > Apps > MyFitnessPal
Then you can toggle what Data you want it to read and what data you don’t want it to read.
I recommend turning off Steps and Workouts.
Does Counting or Tracking Your Calories Help You Lose Weight?
MyFitness Pal Is Time Consuming
Tracking Calories is something that gets a lot easier over time and MYFP gets better and better at remembering what it is you eat so that it becomes more time-efficient for you to do it.
I can’t deny that inputting all the ingredients in your home-cooked meal into your phone doesn’t take up some time.
But it doesn’t take up A LOT of time either. Not really.
And scanning a Barcode does not take up any time at all.
When I cook and if I am tracking I will get the scales out, and just weigh as I go, and as I am doing that I am cooking and preparing the food.
MYFP becomes laborious when you try to reverse engineer the food that is on your plate.
MYFP also allows you to create Recipes which Bulk Imports your Ingredient List and then you just have to find the right measurement of your food (oz, grams, kilos, cups, ml, Large, Medium, Small) and then select the serving size and the number of servings.
My trick for this is to always try to find a food that is measured on the app in grams, choose a serving size of 1g and then the Number of Servings can equal how much the food actually weighs on the scale.
Stop trying to be perfect.
Your desire to make MYFP perfect is also draining your time.
If you are spending 10mins scrolling, trying to find the right selection of Carrot that you have in your house, you need to assess your priorities.
In truth, no one ever got fat from eating too many Fruits and Veggies so just pick a carrot, get the grams right and move on.
For my friends that I work with Online, they get access to over 250 recipes which all have MYFP Barcodes on them. So you literally just have to scan a barcode which takes less than 10 seconds.
If you have read this and you still feel like it takes up too much time you can adopt this policy with MYFP:
You must track anything you eat with a barcode on it by scanning it in at home or out and about.
You must track down the calories in restaurants you eat (or best guess them) and add 30% to that figure and track that.
Don’t track Home Cooked Meals as long as you have built your meal in this manner: Protein, then Veggies, and then Carbs.
Does Counting or Tracking Your Calories Help You Lose Weight?
Eating in Restaurants is hard to track
Yes. It is.
But that shouldn’t stop you trying.
Many popular chains actually do show up on MYFP, and if they don’t many restaurants publish their calories on their website.
So just head there, find out how many calories the meal you will have has in it, and then input it into MYFP.
If you still can’t find that information…you can only do the best you can do.
In truth, even a restaurant that has published its calories will still be a long way off depending mostly on the Chef they have on that day…and how much oil said Chef likes to use.
If you are eating out more than once a week…the simple reality is that your tracking will be inaccurate and your ability to adhere to a Calorie Deficit will be affected.
Throughout my career, I have come across people who I train that eat out most nights…and trying to get a result for them in terms of weight loss is very difficult, so we look elsewhere. We will work on performance-based goals, track their energy levels, try and improve their sleep and create habits throughout their day that will make them feel better, without them focusing on Weight Loss as a goal.
Does Counting or Tracking Your Calories Help You Lose Weight?
It Constantly Looks Like You Are Failing
MYFP has a lot of trackable stats.
Calories are one piece of the pie. When you look into your Macros you are given targets and a sliding bar of how close you are to hitting your target.
If you go over your target you get a big red minus number informing you that you failed.
These charts are literally impossible to get right.
But that's ok because you aren't trying to be perfect, you are trying to be consistent.
If you go over on your Macros…chill, because you will feel exactly the same about yourself if you go under on your Macros too: you literally can’t win.
So stop trying. Just do your best. And see it as a constant work in process.
When it comes to weight loss and building muscle these are your order of priority;
Calories In
Protein In
That is all you need to worry about. So if you want to play the “perfect” game then just try and do your best on those two markers.
Get as close you darn well can to your Calorie Allowance.
And if you go over by 50–100kcals — that's ok.
If you come in under by 50–100kcals — that's ok too.
Perfection is impossible with this App. I promise you.
The only day you fail at fitness is the day you give up. This isn’t a pass/fail situation. All you ever do in Fitness is learn and from that education, you develop and amend to move forward again.
In truth, we are all beginners.
Does Counting or Tracking Your Calories Help You Lose Weight?
The Apps Use of Colours
If you are “under” your calories MYFP makes the numbers Green.
For good.
If you are over your calories MYFP makes the numbers Red.
For bad.
I’m not sure who needs to hear this right now…but whatever happens with your nutrition it is neither Good nor Bad.
It's just fact.
And every day that passes you get a new opportunity to create a new fact.
But if you keep seeing Red on an App — you are going to believe you are failing. And that might be fine in isolation, but day in and day out it will slowly get to you and make you want to give up.
Added to that Green doesn’t mean good either.
As I laid out above your Calories are always the best guess and MYFP sets them really really low for someone. So for the App to then suggest that you are being Good for coming in under what is an already low number is going to equally lead you to a path of failure.
Because you can’t sustain a Calorie Deficit that aggressive and you will end up overeating pretty quickly.
There is no Good or Bad. And subliminal messaging to that degree is harmful to users of the App.
Try to ignore the colors and just understand that no matter what you log or what the App says you are always trying your best.
Does Counting or Tracking Your Calories Help You Lose Weight?
It Can Become Obsessive For Some People
A large argument I see against tracking your calories is that it can become obsessive for some.
But let me ask you this. Is checking your Bank Account obsessive? Is tracking your income and your outgoings obsessive? Is checking to see how much petrol you have in your car obsessive?
That is all Calorie Tracking should be for you.
It can become obsessive when you directly align it with the success or failure of your goal and don’t keep everything else that goes into a Calorie Deficit in perspective.
It feels like a good time to say this as well:
You don’t have to track your calories for the rest of your life…nor should you want to.
It’s a way of getting yourself educated on what you eat and how that impacts your weight. It's about spending some time understanding Energy Balance, the foods you eat, and how it impacts your life.
I recommend tracking for about 4–6 months.
That should give you enough data to be going on your merry way, and if you ever need to check in again with it in the future you will know exactly what to do and how to do it.
Tracking your calories is something you should use to empower you to be able to learn and manage your food intake no matter what your goals.
It’s not a life sentence. Nor should it be
Does Counting or Tracking Your Calories Help You Lose Weight?
Conclusion
MYFP has its uses and I truly believe it can help you lose weight. If you manage to use it in the manner I have laid out in the article.
MYFP is a business.
And it earns money from you logging in again, and again and again.
Therefore the further from your goals it keeps you the higher the chance it has of you continuing to use it.
The more money it makes.
Just remember the following when you use it:
Set your Calories to GBW in LBS x 12
Ignore Calories Burned from exercise
The more you do it the less time consuming it becomes
It will never be perfect nor should you want it to be
You aren’t failing despite the App trying to tell you that you are
Red doesn’t equal Bad and Green doesn’t equal Good
It’s not obsessive to want to learn more about something — just remember this isn’t a life sentence, this is an education to lead you to be more confident and empowered for the future.
And that’s it!
What’s Next?
I have plenty more articles about weight loss for females throughout this website.
Here is a selection I think would make great further reading for you:
You are also invited to get a bindle of Fat Loss Goodies from me including:
Get yourself a free month of workouts (Home and Gym-based options)
Get yourself a free copy of my e-book ”27 Ways To Faster Fast Loss”
Get yourself a free customized Calorie Calculator
Straight to your Inbox
All you have to do is put your email address in below:
References:
Myfitnesspal.com. 2020. BMR Calculator, Basal Metabolic Rate Calculator | Myfitnesspal.Com. [online] Available at: <https://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator#:~:text=Your%20BMR%20does%20not%20include,commonly%20used%20Harris%2DBenedict%20equation.> [Accessed 14 November 2020].
Amirkalali, B., Hosseini, S., Heshmat, R., & Larijani, B. (2008). Comparison of Harris-Benedict and Mifflin-ST Jeor equations with indirect calorimetry in evaluating resting energy expenditure. Indian journal of medical sciences, 62(7), 283–290. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5359.42024
News.iastate.edu. 2020. Activity Trackers Not As Accurate For Some Activities, ISU Study Finds • News Service • Iowa State University. [online] Available at: <https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2015/08/19/activitytrackers> [Accessed 14 November 2020].
Shcherbina A, Mattsson CM, Waggott D, Salisbury H, Christle JW, Hastie T, Wheeler MT, Ashley EA. Accuracy in Wrist-Worn, Sensor-Based Measurements of Heart Rate and Energy Expenditure in a Diverse Cohort. Journal of Personalized Medicine. 2017; 7(2):3. <https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/7/2/3>