One of the most utilized tools in my daily fitness arsenal is the app MyFitnessPal.

The page you are welcomed with upon downloading the app is the main dashboard. This displays the calories you have consumed so far and how many you have yet to eat. Additionally, if your phone allows it, your steps tracked will also be displayed under the calories.

Step 1

Navigate to the “More …” icon you will be brought to the following page:

This page contains all of the submenus that we will use to configure your settings. First, navigate to the Goals submenu as shown below:

Once you go to goals, the first thing you want to do is click on the submenu “Weekly Goal.” This is the menu that keeps you on track whether your goal is weight-loss, maintenance or mass building.

The option you choose is purely based on your circumstances, however it is strongly recommended that you do not gain or lose weight too quickly, unless you are on an extreme end of the weight spectrum (severely obese or underweight). For the average male of female, a good target is to go with a gain or loss of +/- 0.5 to 1.0 pound of bodyweight per week. Any higher than that for weight loss and you put your body into a highly catabolic state, which means you will lose a larger portion of your current muscle mass. And if you go to high above gaining 1 pound per weak you risk putting on unnecessary fat. After setting your fitness goal, track your weight and activity level back in the Goals submenu.

Optional

This next step is for more advanced lifters, so if you do not feel the need to take on too much at once, feel free to skip this step and stick with MyFitnessPal’s standard settings.

This is the place in the app where you can specifically tailor your macronutrients and daily calorie goals. This step becomes essential when you are trying to really get down to a low body fat percentage and take your aesthetics to the next step.

Step 2

Navigate back to the “Diary” Menu. This is where the tracking begins.

Now that the settings are configured, it is time to start tracking the foods that you eat. There are two ways to do this. You can either click on the “Add Food” Submenu under each meal, or you can press the “+” button to display several options:

Upon pressing the “+” icon you will be given the option to add Food, Exercise (only cardio can be counted towards calories burned in “Exercise,” up at the top Calories menu, in the free version of the app).

When you want to track a food, simply click the “Food” icon and you will be prompted to pick which meal it is:

Pick which meal you would like to log the food in and you will be brought to this:

You can use the search option to look up the food and brand in the database which is super easy, or you can be lazy (no judgements, I use this feature the most) and scan the barcode of literally any food with the barcode scanner icon found beside the search bar.

Once you have tracked multiple items, you can view if you are approaching your daily macronutrients in two ways:

Method 1

The easiest method is to turn your phone into landscape by turning your phone side when in the Diary:

Method 2

You can go back to the main menu “More” and find the Nutrition Submenu:

There you have it. These are the basics of tracking your meals everyday. This may seem like a lot of work initially, but once you set everything you only need to do it once. Trust me it becomes a habit pulling out your phone to scan a barcode for food. Also, you get notifications when you track your food for a few days in a row, which keeps you motivated. If you have any questions regarding this app feel free to contact me.

To download the MyFitnessPal App for iPhone users click here: MyFitnessPal

and android users can click here: MyFitnessPal

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