My Fitness Pal

About a month ago, I got connected with a fancy pants personal trainer (FPPT hereafter) in hopes of improving my health and boosting my fitness level. FPPT and I have been meeting once a week, going over nutrition and strength training. Overall, it's been a good experience, but I'm ready to branch out on my own and save my money. At the end of the day, FPPT isn't giving me anything I can't get for free. I did already cut a check for another month, but after this month, I'll be cutting ties and going it alone.

Sometime in the past year, everyone in my family got turned on to a great web site - My Fitness Pal. My Fitness Pal is essentially a calorie counter, but it has lots of other cool features, too. When you first sign up for your FREE account, you can fill in information such as your age, current weight, height and activity level and receive a daily calorie goal in order to lose weight. The database of foods is seemingly endless; I almost never have trouble finding the item I'm looking for. Best of all, they have an awesome mobile app so I can quickly log my foods all throughout the day. The mobile app even has the ability to scan barcodes. How cool is that?! I love opening the fridge, pulling out an item and scanning it with my phone. Talk about simple.

Aside from being a food tracker, the program can also track your exercise and show you the calories you've burned. It will even give you credit for the calories you've burned in your daily calorie allowance - reminds me of bonus points in the old Weight Watchers program. For optimal weight loss, you would ideally work out and not eat any of these bonus calories, but now and then it's nice to have a little wiggle room to indulge in something you really want.

One other aspect that I like is that My Fitness Pal also functions as a social networking site. You can 'friend' people you know, follow their progress (such as pounds lots, exercises complete) and then you can cheer them on by leaving a comment. I'm only friends with my parents, my aunt and my cousin, but maybe I'll soon be friends with you, too. The site also boasts lots of message boards and personal fitness blogs which are always helpful for extra motivation or just new recipe ideas.

If you haven't checked it out before, head over to My Fitness Pal and sign up for your free account!