Why MFP could be holding you back

For years, MyFitnessPal has been the nutrition and fitness tracker used and recommended at brolific rates among new to calorie tracking and fitness people looking to get their diet in order and achieve a weight related goal. As we’ve mentioned and you’ve more than likely read about, weight loss, weight gain, and body transformation is largely a product of our diet, so it only makes sense to know what’s going into our body on a daily basis. While some advocate “extreme” calorie counting and others shun the idea completely, I am somewhere in between. I find it extremely helpful for myself and my clients to see the foods they are consuming and an estimate of how much they are consuming. For many people, this means using some form of tracking app.

As tracking software goes, the vast majority are the same, especially at the free level. You can set your own goals, track your food, the quantity, add new foods, see the macronutrient and micronutrient breakdown, and add new foods not already listed in the database. MFP is not much better or worse than any other tracker out there as far as the tracking apps go other than some really poor entries of food done by people that either misenter or only enter what they care about. With the big time bankroll of Under Armour, it is pretty to look at and has a large number of features. Where MFP starts to fall apart is their recommendations for how much a person should be eating and their process.

The following picture is taken directly from MFP for me, a 5’11”, 210 lb, approximately 15% bodyfat individual that trains 6 hours per week. This is their recommendation for me to eat to maintain weight.

3,030 seems like a good number to eat in a day, but what is this second number, 2,770 calories per week? That is what MFP determines your fitness goal to be, approximately 692 calories per workout and an additional amount of calories you can eat IF you burn those calories. If you know anything about MFP, this very small line between Nutritional Goals and Fitness Goals is overlooked and misused - “So the more you exercise, the more you can eat!” Essentially a statement that they suggest “eating back” calories that you have burned off in order to reach your goal.

Now, let’s take the calculator on our ZStrength website, which uses five popular estimations, and then takes the average. Using the exact same numbers I entered into MFP, I receive the following result:

Looking at the output, the estimated average intake I need to maintain my weight would be 3,329 calories per day. Like the line below our calculator says, it is an estimate and could be off, resulting in needing some adjustment up or down...just like MFP could (and almost always does) need adjusting.

Now looking at some of the math:

MyFitnessPal	ZStrength Calc
7 days at 3030 = 21,210 calories per week Workout Calories = 2770 Total Calories per Week = 23,980 Average per Day = 3,426	Average per Day = 3,329

That’s right, assuming you actually burn those 2,770 calories per week, you could eat an average 3,426 calories per day and the numbers aren’t that different. But is this clear to the average person just starting? Probably not and that’s what creates the problem.

The problem, and it’s a BIG PROBLEM that has happened time and again with clients when they use MFP, they either don’t know that MFP sets them low and wants them to eat back their calories or they know it and over-eat their exercise calories. The result is chronic over or under-eating because they are following the suggestions of MFP.

Combine the flaws of MFP with even the best non-clinical calorie burn estimators have a margin of error of at least 10%, and you can begin to understand just how bad this could turn out. Assuming one of the closest estimations of 10% and 692 calories burned per day could be 761 or 622. PN did a piece about how bad calorie estimators are: [http://www.precisionnutrition.com/problem-with-calorie-counting-calories-out].

As someone that works with clients to help them build the body they want, I have problems with the lack of clarity and relying on measurements with a known margin of error. MFP is going to take an inexact science (estimating calories in food) combined with another inexact science (how many calories you burn) and add an even less exact science (how many calories you burn in exercise) and convince you to eat that amount. Further, MFP only includes CARDIO calories in what you should eat back, so if you weight train for an hour and “burn 500” calories, you are still to eat 2730 according to them, but if you do an hour of cardio and “burn 300”, you get to eat 3030.

And a simple scenario to hammer home the problem:

You are training to lose weight at a rate of 1 lb / week. MFP gives you a 500 calorie deficit and a count of 2,530 + 1,500 calories of exercise per week. At 5 days per week of exercise, that’s 300 extra calories. Training day total: 2,830.  Off-day total: 2,530.

You train and log your workouts on MFP, which only logs your cardio burn. You train an hour with weights, burning approximately 550 calories + 30 minutes of cardio burning 150 calories.

In addition to being at a 500 calorie deficit to start, you are now an extra 550 calories short because MFP doesn’t know what you burned lifting weight. That’s over a 1,000 calorie deficit and 25% below your maintenance calories. It goes without saying that that large of a deficit isn’t good for you, especially in the long term.

Is MFP really that bad? No. Can this scenario be avoided? Yes, if you are knowledgeable (which most people just starting out aren’t) or if you know how to work MFP like a pro (which most people don’t). And an even easier yes; don’t rely on MFP to determine how many calories you should eat. There are hundreds of calculators and formulas to help you estimate your needs, which can then be plugged in to MFP. As mentioned before, we have one that on our site that uses 5 of the most popular formulas and provides an average. You can find it here at: http://zstrengthfit.com/tools/calculator.html

Willpower is a Muscle

“I wish I had more willpower.” The sentence heard repeatedly around dessert tables at holiday parties. The same sentence muttered by the “this is the time” guy that wants to kick some bad habits. Let’s not forget the New Year’s Resolutionist, this is going to be the year, fitness chaser that can’t seem to stay on track with their diet or training. But why do we say we don’t have the willpower to overcome these obstacles? Maybe it’s time we actually looked at this mystical thing called willpower, why it fails us, and how we can overcome.

Bear with me for a minute and see if this situation seems familiar.

You enter into health and fitness for some motivational reason: you want to lose weight, the doctor says you need to or you’ll have xyz disease, you want to grow an ass that holds your pants up, you want to be able to run with your kids, etc. Whatever the reason, you entered into this crazy venture and you’re beastmode, going ham, dedicated, and committed to doing it. You got the magazines, the supplements, the training books, and you’re on your way. After a few weeks the progress slows, the enthusiasm dwindles and eventually, you’re finding that “other” things just keep popping up and stopping you from training.

Your friends and family don’t support you and encourage you, and you’re on the verge of quitting. You hear about this website called Fitocracy that supports people on their fitness journey and you join. You get re-energized and you’re back on track with all your props, badges, and duels. Somehow, you still have demons telling you to just quit because the the novelty wore off. You reach out to the community and ask for support, and they give it, some say train with friends, others to get a trainer, and inevitably, somebody will give you the same old line about “get a goal.” [Read about why having goals isn’t enough here] You’re now in a position to make a choice, with community support you lose a few, fail, or succeed, or you can just quit.
**Losing and failing aren’t always bad things. There’s an important difference between losing, failing, and quitting as David Allen points out in his article on EliteFTS**

Bear Bryant said “The first time you quit, it’s hard. The second time, it gets easier. The third time, you don’t even have to think about it. If you’re reading this in disbelief, that’s great that you are one of the lucky ones that hasn’t thought “why am I doing this?” or you’re just delusional. I’m willing to bet my Ben & Jerry’s that you’ve been down this path with something. I know I’ve been there a few times where I was chasing goals and kept falling short but because I didn’t give up, I’ve been able to make it.

Back to willpower. What is willpower? Many would agree it is the “thing” that allows us to make good choices or fails us when we make poor choices. Some believe it’s a force inside of us that allows us to hold on and defeat temptation and others refer to it simply as “self-control.” The APA defines willpower as the “ability to resist short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals.” I define willpower as the muscle behind habit and the scapegoat behind our failures.

So how do we get better at defeating temptation and continuing the pursuit of our goals? We train our willpower, of course! When we want to conquer physical tasks, we train and use our muscles. When we face intelligence-related tasks, we study and we use our brain. It is the exact same thing when we want to change our lives, only we can’t see or feel the immediate impact of our efforts. We change our lives through building good habits and we build good habits through exercising willpower.

Some studies say 21 days builds a habit, others, 66, and I’m sure if I were to look long enough I’d find 20 other timeframes. The short of it is habits take time and every day until it becomes a habit takes willpower. We’ve all been there, to that place where we’re so tired and so stressed that we just don’t have the energy to fight anymore. While we can’t flip a switch and make ourselves strong enough to resist, we can take three small steps to help us in the battle.

The first step, and probably one of the most obvious and overlooked steps is to minimize the exposure to the trigger that brings out the bad habit and to emphasize the good habit. If the problem is eating junk food, then removing the junk food, avoiding the fast food restaurants, and rearranging the kitchen so healthy foods are easy to access and junk requires more effort is a starting point. If the goal is to work out more, start with 10 minutes and increase in small amounts each day until you reach 45 minutes, and then add a second day, and a third.

The second very important step is finding a balance in your life. Over-indulgence and over-restriction are both tremendously detrimental to willpower and good habits. We read it all the time now with IIFYM and Flexible Dieting. If I am too strict, I am exhausting my willpower at every turn and eventually will run off track and give in before I have trained a new habit. If I’m too loose, I will never change.

Finally, for those times when we just can’t do it on our own, have a support group and an accomplice that truly does have your best interest at heart. Some will turn to family, some to friends, and some to social networks like Fitocracy. In any case, having others there to talk to and offer strength when you feel weak will help you beat those evil temptations and strengthen your willpower. And after enough help and support, that willpower will become a habit and you will be able to focus on your next healthy habit.

To sum up the three keys for stronger willpower

1. Minimize exposure to trigger objects, maximize exposure to healthy triggers
2. Find balance in your life, being too extreme only makes it harder to succeed
3. Have an accomplice to keep you on track, there are support groups for everything

A few years back I saw this posted on a weightroom door and it spoke to me.

The Habit
I am your constant companion.
I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am completely at your command.
Half the things you do, you might just as well turn over to me,
And I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.
I am easily managed; you must merely be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons, I will do it automatically.

I am the servant of all great men.
And, alas, of all failures as well.
Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures, I have made failures.
I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine,
Plus, the intelligence of a man.
You may run me for profit, or run me for ruin; it makes no difference to me.
Take me, train me, be firm with me and I will put the world at your feet.
Be easy with me, and I will destroy you.
Who am I?

I am a HABIT! 

And with everything I write related to health and fitness, BE PATIENT! Nothing happens overnight, and with health and fitness it will take time, so take a deep breath, get out the calendar and celebrate the successes, no matter how small (no, I did not say to eat the cake) because the little celebrations are what keeps us going. 

And if you need some support, join Fitocracy and follow Erin and I (GottaLift and ErinEW6916) or send us an email at zstrengthfit@gmail.com