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GUIDES
CALORIE CALCULATOR
Myfitnesspal. An app designed to help you lot on your fitness journey, helping you to track your calories.
I’ve made this ‘how to guide’ especially for my clients, to help you use myfitnesspal correctly. Now you have no excuses that you’re bored of your meal plans - you can plan your own meals within your calorie intake!
SETTING UP
Once you’ve downloaded the app (free from all app stores - no excuses!) make an account and lets get started. It’ll ask you what your goal is, your activity, your gender, age, where you live, your height, weight, goal weight, weekly goal (choose the recommended one) then your email and password.
Myfitnesspal will generate a basic calorie and macro goal for you but it’s notoriously wrong so I want you to change it to the calories and macros I have set you. To do this: Click more (bottom of screen) > goals > calorie, carbs, protein and fat goals > then input the calories I have set and the macro breakdown I have give (eg. 40/40/20 = 40% carbohydrates, 40% protein, 20% fat).
Make sure you disable the step tracking feature or it will add more calories on top of the intake I have give than you don’t need.
ADDING FOOD
Now you have the right calorie and macro breakdown set up, it’s time to input your food.
Click ‘add food’. If the food is generic without a barcode search the food > lots of options will appear > choose the option with a green tick and an option that has an editable serving size (this allows you to input exact weights of food - yes I want you weighing food, this shit is serious) > change the serving size to 1g then change the number of servings to how ever many grams your food weighs (eg. 100g apple).
If the food is packaged with a barcode scan it > click the barcode icon > scan the barcode > for most foods it will bring you to a calorie page > check the calories on the app matches the calories on the packaging > input the weight of the food you have had.
If the food has a barcode but it won’t scan / the calorie page generated doesn’t match the package, make your own calorie page.
Click + > click create food > enter brand (eg Aldi) > enter description (eg 5% beef mince) > enter serving size (eg 100 g) > enter serving per container (always 1) > then enter the calories, carbs, protein, fat and fibre shown on the packaging (per the 100 g serving size you previously selected) > it will automatically be added to you day - make sure you edit serving size to equate to the same weight you had.
PLANNING YOUR DAY
Plan your day before you start stuffing your face or you’ll be sat in bed at the end of the day inputting all the food you ate (missing out those biscuits you forgot you ate at work) and realising you’re well off your calorie intake.
Base each meal around protein first - its the most important for those muscles.
Try to eat protein and fat meal away from training.
Make sure to get those carbs in around training.
Try and match your macro break down as best you can - you’ll find it hard at first but as you get used to inputting foods and meals you’ll become familiar with what food contain what calories and which macro nutrients.
DO NOT miss out anything - yes that milky coffee has calories in (50cal) , so does the sugar (50cal), so does the bite of your kids tea (100cal). Everything contains calories. If you were to miss those 3 items out that would be 200 calories over your intake each day - 1400 calories a a week (THAT'S A MCDONALDS MEAL)
Don’t take the piss. Yes using myfitnesspal lets you fit in the the odd treat if you plan in advice but if you’re eating a donut for breakfast, ice cream for dinner and pizza for tea just because “it fits your macros”, it doesn’t mean you should. Base your meals around healthy whole food (fruits, veg, wholegrain etc) to fuel those sessions.
Be patient! If your a new to this shit you’ll find it difficult. Don’t give up on it. Once you’re use to using it, I promise this app will my your best friend
MyFitnessPal App