Creating and Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle: a Myfitnesspal Tutorial

Abstract

You are receiving this letter because I have completed my MyFitnessPal tutorial, entitled “Creating and Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle: A MyFitnessPal Tutorial”. I chose the popular fitness application MyFitnessPal as the subject of my tutorial because aside from having a passion to work with computers, I have a passion for helping others to live a long and healthy life. Growing up I played multiple sports, but it wasn't until my freshman year of college that I had become interested in the fitness world.

At this time I had started to work out with a hallmate of mine at the school that I had transferred to Appalachian from; The University of South Carolina. I had begun lifting weights multiple times a week, and started reading books about nutrition. Within a few months I had lost thirty pounds, and added forty pounds to my bench press. It felt incredible to achieve my goals, and since then I have looked for ways to help others feel the way that I did.

After my freshman year of college, I had started sharing my interests with those around me. I had begun pushing my little brother who was at the time 15 years old, to start working out. He soon became just as interested in getting fit as I was, and this led him to try out for his High School football team. Within a few months he became stronger, more muscular, and had secured a starting spot on his school’s Varsity football team. After seeing how much I had influenced my little brother, I knew that I could help others to achieve their goals as well.

As time went on I began to coach a high school lacrosse team at the Junior Varsity level. I focused immensely on strength and conditioning, and helped my players get in “Game-ready” shape. As the season progressed, the players that I had coached were much quicker, and in better shape than they were at the start of the season. After our final game, at the team's annual Lacrosse banquet, I had numerous players and their parents thank me for coaching that season. This truly meant the world to me. In the future I hope to use my passion to inspire people all around the world to live a happier and healthier life. Through the completion of the three tasks that I have chosen, I feel that the reader will be just as inspired as I was to change their life for the better.

Introduction

The purpose of this tutorial is to educate those interested in improving their health through multiple dieting and goal-setting techniques. In order to propel the reader towards achieving their fitness goals, we will need to use the popular fitness application MyFitnessPal. This tutorial was designed for beginners, but may also be used by those already familiar with the MyFitnessPal application. This tutorial will also include fundamental information for creating an effective diet to match any lifestyle, and can be adapted to meet a wide variety of needs.

When downloading a fitness application, the endless list of options can be extremely intimidating to those just starting out. What I would like to do through this tutorial, is shed some light on how simple getting and staying in shape can be. I also hope to simplify all the seemingly complex vocabulary out there and put those words into terms that anyone could understand. My main goal however, is to spark a fire in those who may have become discouraged in their quest to lose weight.

Useful Definitions

Planning a healthy diet can be stressful at times, especially if you are unfamiliar with how your body works from a biological standpoint. Knowing how the foods that you eat directly affect your body will put you ahead of the game. This list of will give you a number of food, diet, and health-related definitions for your convenience.

According to Merriam-Webster, a Calorie is a unit of heat used to indicate the amount of energy that foods will produce in the human body. The purpose of us taking in Calories through diet, is so that our body can convert them to long-lasting energy through metabolic processes. Although Calories are normally associated with foods, they actually apply to anything containing energy, such as gasoline. The amount of calories we take in daily is extremely important for maintaining a healthy weight, and promoting a healthy lifestyle.

According to Kidshealth.org, a Carbohydrate is one of the three main Macronutrients found in the foods that we eat. They induce ATP production within our bodies through metabolic processes which in turn gives us the energy to do the things that we love. The two main forms of carbohydrates are sugars (ex: Fructose, Glucose, and Lactose) and starches which are found in grains, rice, cereals, and starchy vegetables like corn.

According to Genetics Home Reference, a section of NIH.gov, Proteins are large complex molecules that play extremely critical roles in the body. They do the majority of the work in our cells, and are required for the structure, function, and regulation of the body's tissues and organs. Proteins are made up of smaller units, known as amino acids. There are over 20 types of amino acids, designed to help carry out different functions such as nutrient transport, and antibody production. Proteins are the building blocks for the body's Muscular System, and a high protein diet is the best way to build and increase muscle size and density. Some foods with a high protein content are: Chicken, Beef, Fish, Beans, Legumes, and Greek Yogurt.

According to Medline Plus, a section of NIH.gov, Fats are a type of nutrient that gives our body energy, and helps it to absorb vitamins and nutrients. There are many different types of fats, such as Saturated Fats, Monounsaturated Fats, and Trans Fats. In order to maintain a healthy diet you should try to avoid foods rich in Saturated Fats such as butter, shortening, and lard. Trans Fats are found in foods rich with hydrogenated oils such as cookies, french fries, and potato chips, and should be avoided as well.

Contrary to popular belief, fats are not the root of all evil for those on a diet. Studies have shown that diets rich in healthy fats, and low in carbohydrates are extremely effective for weight loss.. This style of dieting is known as “Keto” because it induces a state in our body known as “Ketosis”. Healthy fats can be found in Olive Oil, Eggs, Nuts, and Avocados.

This is the amount of calories that you should eat after factoring in your daily exercise. For example if that your Calorie requirement for the day was 2800 calories, and you were to lift weights for an hour; you would burn around 200 calories. In order to meet your Net Calories for the day, you would need to eat 200 more calories than you normally would, which in turn would bring your total Daily Caloric Intake up to 3000 calories.

Task One: Creating an Account

Following the assumption that you have already installed MyFitnessPal for the Android Platform, the following instructions will teach you how to create an account. If you have not yet downloaded the MyFitnessPal application, please access the Google Play Store and do so.

1. Click on the blue-colored box that reads “Sign Up”.
2. Select “Sign Up with Email”
3. Select your Primary Fitness Goal; ex: “Lose Weight”, “Maintain Weight”, or “Gain Weight”. Then select “next”.
4. Select your Activity level. This will depend primarily on your occupation, as well as how much time you spend on doing physical tasks daily. Then select “next”.
5. Enter your height.
6. Enter your current weight. If you are unsure of your exact weight, please give a rough estimate. This option is changeable later on. Then select “next”.
7. Re-enter your email address, a desirable password, a Username, and the Country that you reside in. Then select “Next”.
8. Congratulations, you have created your very own MyFitnessPal account. On the following page, your daily net calorie goal will be shown. In order to move on to the second task, please select “Start Tracking now”.

Task Two: Selecting Your Fitness Goals

After creating a MyFitnessPal account, you are given the ability to select your goals in order to create an identity for yourself within the application. The goals that you choose will in turn change your daily caloric needs and the amount of each Macronutrient (Carbohydrates, Fats, and Proteins) that you will need to consume daily. In this task, you will learn how to use MyFitnessPal as a tool to accomplish your fitness goals.

1. From the Home page of MyFitnessPal, click on the three lines in the top-left corner of the application next to the MyFitnessPal logo. After completing this step, a tab will open up that includes your Username and how much weight you have gained/lost so far.
2. Select “Goals” and move on to the next step.
3. Now you will see three separate sections. At the very top your goal weight, current weight, weight loss goal, and activity level is shown. In Task One you entered in your current weight. Here you can both change your current weight and select your goal weight. By entering in your goal weight, MyFitnessPal will slightly change your Daily Caloric.
4. Next you will find a section entitled, “Nutrition Goals”. Here your “Net Calories Consumed” is shown.
5. Below your “Net Calories Consumed”, the application will display the particular number of each Macronutrient that you should consume in grams, as well as the percentage of each in relation to your overall diet. In order to change the percentage of a particular macronutrient, click on that macronutrient and either raise or lower its percentage. However, the three will still need to total up to one hundred percent. For example, if you were to change your Protein intake to forty percent of your overall diet, you would have to change your percentage of Carbohydrates and Fats so that they make up the other sixty percent.

Task Three: Your First Day of Eating

Now that you have created a MyFitnessPal account and selected your fitness goals, lets to move on to the most important part of the tutorial; tracking the food that you eat. At a glance, entering all of the things that you eat into a phone application seems strange. I promise that this is the best way to keep proper track of your dietary needs, and ultimately conquer the fitness goals that you have set for yourself.

1. First off, select “Add to Diary”. In your diary, you have the ability to add entries for the foods that you have been eating throughout the day. You can either scan the food’s barcode, or manually enter it by using the in-app search function.
2. Now you are going to add a meal under the “Lunch” sub-section. To do so, select “Lunch” within the list of sub-sections.You will be brought to another screen that has five tabs at the top. These tabs are entitled: Recent, Frequent, My Foods, Meals, and Recipes. Familiarize yourself with each of these tabs, and move on to step number four.
3. Now we will discuss the search box. Here you can specifically search for a food of our choice. In the search box, enter in “Quaker Oats” and select the magnifying glass to the side of the search box.Your entry will now be run through MyFitnessPal's database, and the foods with the most similar names to your entry will be shown. Select the search result “Rolled Oats” and move on to step number five.
4. Here you can see the serving size, and nutritional facts of the “Rolled Oats” that you have selected. Pay special attention to the number of Calories that the entry contains, as well as how many grams of Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats it has in it. To add it to your diary, select the check mark in the upper right hand corner.
5. Congratulations, you have completed Task number Three! Now go ahead and practice filling up your diary with different kinds of foods.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have completed all three tasks within “Creating and Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle: A MyFitnessPal Tutorial”. In this tutorial you have completed three key tasks. The first task, taught you how to create a MyFitnessPal account by using an existing email address. The second task taught you how to select your fitness goals and enter them into MyFitnessPal in order to stay on track. The third task taught you how to input foods using the search feature, and how to use the various tabs and sub-sections to track the foods that you consume.

I truly hope that you have enjoyed my tutorial. If you could take one thing out of it, I would like it to be; Don’t ever stop striving to create a happier and healthier life for yourself. Fitness is a simple way to lose weight, increase your mood, and get out of your comfort zone. Find what you are passionate about whether it is lifting weights, rowing, running, or even dancing. And above all things, inspire those around you to follow in your foot steps. By sharing your goals with someone else, you can make a huge impact on their life.