Seriously ~
A serious calorie counter might find MyFitnesspal to be very helpful. I am not a serious calorie counter. In fact I had french fries at McDonald's today (oops)! I have checked in at MFP less frequently as this assignment progressed. At first I chatted with some people and made some contacts, exchanged mail with classmate Christy, checked out the groups and blogs, and read the privacy policy for our assignment.I was a frequent visitor for several days in a row and tracked my calorie intake, which was actually very interesting. To use MFP effectively it requires you to check in daily and record what you're eating and how much exercise you're doing.
User Friendly:
MFP makes it very easy to track the calorie count of the foods you eat because they have an extensive data base of foods which includes their calorie and nutritional content. I found out that Chinese food, though it may appear healthy, is not nearly as healthy as one might think. You'd think all those veggies would be good for you, but it's that fried rice and fried shrimp that's the problem. Once you enter the foods you eat on a regular basis you don't need to look for them again, which saves a lot of time. You just check the box next to your favorite foods and they appear in your food diary, so it's really very easy to use.A Million Users Missing?
When I was doing the assignment to find a news article, I read that MFP had over a million users (and that was several years ago when the Android app was introduced). I wonder where they all are! I have noticed a few regular users posting comments and trying to be friendly and supportive of other users, but overall I didn't notice a lot of activity on the site. I suspect that people are just using the calorie counter feature and not participating in the social aspect.To Continue or Not To Continue. . .
It is not likely that I will continue to use MFP after this class is over because, as I said, I'm not serious about counting calories. If I ever get serious about it this would be a great Website to make that much easier to do. There is no need to read packages or write down the calories in foods. You just type in the foods you ate in the search box and MFP does the work for you.If I ever get serious about counting calories and using MFP I would probably be more likely to use the app for my Android phone and I am interested in the "FitBit" which tracks your activity level. Since I don't exercise on a regular basis it would be interesting to know how many calories I burn just from walking around all day.
I too found MFP to be somewhat of a ghosttown community. I tried joining a group and introduced myself and replied to several posts; however, no one ever responded! I am glad to hear that you too have had somewhat of the same experience. I was beginning to think maybe I was not cool enough to have as a friend! Ha Ha!
ReplyDeleteI also like how MFP keeps track of your most common foods and your most common exercise. I also find it very convenient to be able to quickly log your food instead of having to search everytime.
What I found most interesting about your post is that you stated you probably wouldn't continue using MFP after this class was over. I too feel the same way. I think it is a good source for looking up calorie totals, but other than that, it wasn't very much of a "community" at all!