HOW TO
Eat right, train better
MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter
Food tracking and weight loss
“Yesterday I had 3,780 calories to eat.”
Proving that calories aren’t something to be feared, England rugby international James Haskell is detailing his eating habits, explaining how the most important thing is to better balance our intake with our output.
To emphasise this point he’s showing us his iPhone.
“I track everything I put into my body through MyFitnessPal,” Haskell explains as we sit across from his 6’4’’, 19-stone frame. “I use it to track all my nutrition, my training, my food, everything. It gives me an understanding of what I’m eating and how I’m doing.”
And as he shows us, each and every one of those 3,780 calories are accounted for.
“I use the Apple Watch to track my workouts. I know that in an average session I’m burning 350 calories. I’m doing two sessions a day, burning 700 calories, and if I do a rugby session that’s another thousand so I’m burning 1600-1800 calories just through exercise everyday.”
Knowing exactly how much he is burning – and having that information instantly accessible through an app – allows him to constantly tailor his intake to meet his body’s needs.
“I have a very specific diet in order to maintain size, and I have certain numbers that I need to hit in terms of calories and macros – your carbohydrates, proteins and fats that make up your calories for the day,” he tells us.
“I can see that of those 3,780 calories there was 300g of protein, 420g of carbohydrates and 100g of fat. I have to eat a lot of carbohydrates because I have to fuel my training. I train, I have to recover. My body is under a lot of stress, I need to fuel it.”
“I constantly track everything. I even take a little pair of portable scales with me. I weigh myself and put it into the app.”
Now, while Haskell’s might be an extreme example of how the app can aid your nutrition-tracking ways, he can see how it can also help those of us with more traditional fitness goals.
“It’s not always easy to know what you’re putting into your body, but MyFitnessPal makes this information very accessible. People quickly start to understand what they’re eating, and that’s great,” he says.
“If you track what you have for breakfast, scan the sandwich you have for lunch, I guarantee that within five days you’ll be blown away by the amount of hidden fats in your food and the amount of calories you’re actually eating.”
“You suddenly realise that you can tailor what you’re going to eat in the evening because you know you’ve already pushed your fats as high as they can go for the day and so you need to have a high protein or carbohydrate meal or vice versa.”
And if the mere thought of logging everything you eat leaves you in need of a coffee, don’t worry. MyFitnessPal’s integrated barcode scanner makes it pleasingly simple.
Removing any guesswork, the app lets you scan food items, pulling in their nutritional values before customising entries based on your portion size. And with more than 4 million barcodes recognised, chances are the food you’re consuming is covered.
The only downside is that you’ve just lost your final excuses not to push for those fitness goals.