How to Use MyFitnessPal To Lose Weight

This was a complete game changer.

Learning how to use MyFitnessPal to lose weight finally allowed me the freedom to incorporate certain foods and even treats into my diet without feeling bad about it.

I was able to eat snickers and pancakes every day, guilt free while melting all the fat around my stomach at the same time. That’s how powerful this stuff is.

The best part about it is this food tracking app is FREE!

MyFitnessPal is probably one of the most powerful tools when it comes to tracking your macros. Listen, you can’t control what you can’t measure. If you don’t track what you eat, your diet will always be a guessing game. That’s where learning how to use MyFitnessPal to lose weight comes into play.

Okay so I have my daily calorie budget here based on all the personal information that I gave MyFitnessPal. Next, we’re gonna start populating it with food.

By the way, if you’re new to the site and you’ve never heard of MyFitnessPal before and you have no idea how I got this number, I have a separate video on how to sign up for the app. You can watch it here.

Once you’re ready, I want you to head over to the Food Diary tab just to the left of the plus sign at the bottom of the page. This is MyFitnessPal’s most powerful tool. It’s an extensive library of anything and everything on the planet that you can think of when it comes to food.

All you have to do is search for the food that you’re about to eat either by typing it on the search bar or scanning the food packaging’s bar code. Set the right serving size, and MyFitnessPal will have the corresponding macros for that specific food.

How to Use MyFitnessPal To Lose Weight

Let’s do a live example. I’m gonna warn you now, I’m not the best cook. Click HERE to watch the video.

How to use MyFitnessPal to track macros

Are you starting to see how powerful this is?

There’s so much food there and my entire meal was only 554 calories.

Just to give you some perspective, a McDonalds Big Mac sandwich alone has 563 calories and it’s definitely not as filling.

You usually have to chase it with a side of fries and a coke. Next thing you know, you’re looking at an 1100 calorie meal. That’s twice the amount of calories of the meal we just made.

As a general guideline, you want to aim for a 50/30/20 split for your daily calorie budget when you’re just starting out. 50% fat, 30% protein, and 20% carbs.

Those are the exact same percentages that I started with and it’s pretty achievable for a lot of people.

Why You Should Go On A High Fat, Low Carb Diet

If you wanna be more aggressive with this and take it a step further, I personally recommend going on a high fat, low carb diet. Especially if you have more weight to lose. The less refined carbs and sugar you eat, and those two things usually go hand in hand, the faster it’ll be for your body to start using it’s own fat as a source of fuel.

Because you gotta remember, you can either burn fat or you can burn sugar for energy. But you can’t do both.

The problem is, glucose is your body’s preferred source of energy. It’s a quick hit of fuel. And you get it from eating refined carbs and sugar.

So far so good, right? Not so fast.

The problem is, if glucose is present in your blood, your body can’t access your own fat as a source of energy. It just can’t. And that’s how you would normally lose weight, right? You have to use your own body fat as a source of energy.

So if you’re on a high carb diet and you always have glucose running in your blood, you’re not gonna lose fat. Your body will always prefer to use glucose first for energy.

This is why a lot of people struggle to lose weight even though they’re on a low fat diet. They’re simply eating too much carbs and their bodies can’t access their fat stores for energy. 

You’re always hungry and you’re not losing weight. Bad combination.

The Quality Of Your Calories Matter

The type of calories that you’re putting in your body matters a lot whether it’s coming from fat or refined carbs. You have to be smart about this. I mean, what do you think is more satiating to eat for breakfast? Eggs and bacon, or cereal? I’d probably go with the first one there.

That’s why I prefer going high fat, and low carb. I mean, who doesn’t like a diet where you get to eat steak, eggs, bacon, and nuts regularly?

And no, eating fat won’t make you fat. That’s one of the biggest nutrition myths of all time.

There’s a lot of research out there that a diet high in healthy fats and low carbs, also known at the keto diet is actually better for your health and fat loss compared to the standard high carb American diet. Here’s a video that explains the keto diet and how powerful it is when it comes to weight loss in further detail.

MyFitnessPal Macros Ratio

By the way, If you wanna see where you’re at with your percentages once you’ve logged in all your food, just hit your daily calorie budget and it’ll pull up your numbers. Here’s mine:

As mentioned earlier, I like being on a high fat, low carb diet so I’m at 59% fat, 28% protein, and 13% carbs.

If you wanna know where to change those numbers, just hit that ‘x’ button, hit more, then hit goals, go to nutrition goals, and you can – pick calorie, carbs, protein, and fat goals right there.

Just hit any one of those macronutrients and it’ll pull up your goal percentages. From there, you can simply adjust those levers. You can play around with this a little bit as long as your number hits 100% and hit the check mark once you’re done.

And that’s how to use MyFitnessPal to lose weight. Easy, right?

The 80/20 Principle

If we apply the 80/20 principle here, this is the 20% extra work that’ll get you 80% of your results. Most people just freestyle their diet and don’t bother learning how to track their macros and wonder why can’t seem to lose weight even though they think they’re eating “healthy.”

Leaning how to use MyFitnessPal is the secret to eating whatever you want as long as it fits your daily calorie budget; within reason obviously. 

This diet approach is more commonly known as ‘If It Fits Your Macros’ or IIFYM. I explain this in further detail in my book, The “No Diet” Diet.

Having said all that, you can’t just blow your entire calorie budget by crushing an entire pizza. Because anything that you eat on top of that will put you in a caloric surplus. Which means you’ll end up gaining weight.

You know what I mean? You have to be sensible about this. Maybe you can have a slice or two so you can live a little.

But as long as you track everything and stay under your daily calorie budget, you’re good to go.

How To Use Tracking MyFitnessPal To Track Water And Workouts

One last note: You probably noticed that you can also track your water and workouts. It’s up to you if you wanna do that.

I find that it’s not as important and I like to keep things simple and it’s hard to track how many calories you’re burning when you workout.

In fact, the calories you burn from working out means very little when it comes to losing weight. I explain why in this video.

Listen, If fat loss is your priority, then keeping track of what you eat and staying on top of your diet is what’s really gonna move the needle.

My recommendation is to just make sure that you’re drinking enough water and you’re doing some form of resistance training and you’ll be good to go.

So there you have it guys, a painfully easy way on how to use MyFitnessPal to lose weight. Again, this is the 20% work that’ll get you 80% of your results.

As always, if this was helpful, share it with a friend who could benefit from it as well!