As a future Physical Education
teacher I plan to use the MyFitnessPal app in my class to help my student’s
record and manage their exercise and eating habits in order to reach their
fitness goals. MyFitnessPal app will
first ask a series of questions such as age, weight, height, gender, and
activity level to find out what your fitness level is currently. The second
part of the process is to create your fitness goals, basically what desired
weight you would like to reach, and by what date, and at what rate (1lb/week,
.5lb/week). It would be difficult for an
app to assess other goals such as inches lost or increased muscular endurance.
However, this app is great for becoming more conscious of calorie intake,
calorie expenditure, and how it affects weight. Recording what you eat, how
much you workout, and being able to share that information with classmates or a
support group can help you be more accountable to stick to a routine that will
help you reach your goals.
In the diary aspect of the app
you can add an entry for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, cardiovascular
exercise, strength, water intake, and make food or exercise notes. Within the meal entries there are the tabs
recent, frequent, my foods, meals and recipes that can aid as time savers for
data entry. The search bar allows you to
search the apps database for several food items or you can use the built in bar
code scanner. There are tutorial videos
for how to use the app or what is new that I found very helpful. You can set
reminders for yourself to add your food entries or any entry if you have
forgotten that day. Overall this app can be very helpful to any person looking
to finally hold themselves accountable with an easy, efficient tracking system.
