Staying accountable during the weight loss journey (with an app)
I can’t remember when I first signed up for My Fitness Pal. It’s been months – maybe even a year. I had relatively decent success with it, but there were days I’d be too lazy to enter my food or exercise. I finally gave up on it.
Years ago I had fabulous success with Weight Watchers. Long before blogging was so popular. I never made my weight loss journey very public. One day, people just realized I was thinner. If they asked what I had done to achieve this weight, I’d answer honestly. Otherwise, I just didn’t say anything. I would sneak away on Mondays during the lunch hour and attend a Weight Watchers meeting. I lost weight relatively quickly (I had so much time and I really devoted a lot of time to focusing on food and fitness.) I don’t know why I found losing weight to be an embarrassment, and why I didn’t discuss it with friends or family.
Over the holidays I plateaued at a weight that I’m not comfortable with. My metabolism has certainly changed since my early days of Weight Watchers, and especially since I had a baby 3 years ago. Their system works for me – when I follow it.
Shortly after Christmas, but before New Year’s, I bit the bullet and paid for a 3-month subscription for the Weight Watchers e-tools. I think the fact that I paid for it helped me. I’m using the app. I’m sticking to it and tracking everything. I haven’t missed a day in almost 3 weeks that I’ve been using it.
I’m down 4 pounds.
When I did MFP, I was pretty good with it, but I slacked. I think it was the lack of paying for it. I was a Lifetime member of Weight Watchers for years – never had to pay for a meeting because I was always at or below goal. I want to be back at that point. I wasn’t super concerned with tracking for the longest time because the portion control had been engrained in my head for so long.
Somewhere along the line I slipped up.
The pros to the Weight Watchers e-Tools are:
Tracking at your fingertips
Calculating your activity points and displaying so you really know how many you have left.Tracking the flex points
Setting healthy goals (such as drinking enough water, eating a certain number of fruits/vegetables)
Set the app to remind you at certain times of the day to enter your food
Easy access to WW recipes
The cons:
You still have to track what you’re eating.
You have to be honest with yourself – and with the app.
Don’t over-calculate your exercise. It doesn’t help you in the long run.
It does come at a cost – for me, it was just under $20 per month. (The special was a discounted rate for 3 months.)
I’m excited to see how this works a little longer-term for me. I have the eTools for 3 months, and I’ll see where I am at that point before deciding to cancel or continue.
Have you ever used an online/app program to help with weight loss? Which one(s) do you recommend?
**This is NOT a sponsored post. I paid for my subscription and all opinions are my own. I don’t even think Weight Watchers knows who I am.
Sounds like the perfect way to get back on track! I definitely over indulged this holiday season too!
I have not tried using an online/app program. I think it would help especially if I can set reminders.
Thanks for the thoughtful review. I definitely would use something more know that I paid for it! Congrats on losing weight!
Same here – if I am spending money on it – I am using it!
I just created a new MyFitnessPal account for me to track calories. The old account had so many starts and stops that it was annoying. Hopefully a fresh start will excite me to use it daily again!
I need to check this out because I have put my mind made up this year to loose the pregnancy weight – this sounds like a great resource!
I keep track of my weight, but I just keep a written notebook. I weigh myself every Saturday to make sure I am staying on track.
This would be a great way to get back into diet and exercise and a very easy way to keep track. I hope it works for you!
I’ve noticed that when I have an app that holds me accountable I tend to keep up with whatever I’m doing more. I’ll have to check out this app since I gained a few pounds over the holidays that I need to lose.
App or no app, I cannot keep it together. I’m either lazy or just have too many balls in the air. I have tried journaling and i miss some of my food items 🙁 #hotmess
Oh I like the idea of keeping track via an app just so handy – I might have to look into downloading one I think. x
I pay for it and never use it. How sad is it? Thanks for reminding. I am going to use it now
I love apps like this. They’re a great way to help keep you on track.
I definitely think when there’s something at stake, I do much better than when I’m just trying to lose weight. I’ve never done weight watchers and but I’ve heard great things about it! Congratulations on your progress!
I’m thinking of going back to ww. I feel like I was most successful when following the plan.
Sounds great! I need this. I am bad when it comes to staying on track and being accountable when it comes to working out AND weight loss!
I could stand to lose a couple pounds. My mom used weight watchers for years and loved it. She lost a lot of weight too.
I have never used an online app. My husband got a Fit Bit and is using that online app. He does have a problem with putting in what he eats but he keeps up with the fitness portion.
I just started a new diet last week. A weight loss app would be very helpful.
I’ve used apps to aid in weight loss with pretty good success. Not this one but another app. This sounds pretty good though.
Sounds like this is a great app to have for you. I was with Weight Watchers once and I wasn’t very open about it either. Now that I’m older and am really working on bringing myself to a healthier place, I feel that it’s good to have these types of tools.
I did really well when I paid for WW in the past. I stopped doing so well when I stopped paying though. 🙁
I love my fitness pal it’s been ages since I’ve used it myself I was keeping track of my calorie goals with my stomach issues and it was perfect what happen that made me stop was I got defeated I never could get past 900 calories in me in a day and I feel so defeated that I just gave up. I did manage to loose 8 pounds. I do need to step it up a lot more though. Weight is a issue for my health issues not just vanity reasons any more and I was told I need to loose 30 pounds. Weight watchers I have been to a few of their meetings when I lived in Grand Rapids Michigan. Now I’m in a smaller town and there is a curves work out place that has meetings I was considering doing that. Online etools sounds like something I am going to check out thanks for the reminder about the etools I never would have considered it other wises.
it’s always a nice thing to be able to keep track how much we are losing weight – way back I have an app for it as well.
That is a cool app. Really neat to track progress.
Thats great that you are taking accountability of you work out regimes this year. Especially people who get off track after the new year…I wish you well and keep us posted on your progress!
This sounds like a really good app.Never thought about using this type of app but I may try it out.
I have used a couple of apps in the past, but they were either not really accurate or just not user friendly. I’ll have to give this one a shot and see. It sounds perfect!
This looks like a great app for me. I am just starting my weight loss journey and this app could definitely help.
That’s funny that lack of paying could contribute to slacking. I can see myself doing that too… but it should be the other way around, right? 🙂
I have used Sparkpeople. I was good at it and it is free. I need to get back to using it.
I have never used any app to track my fitness goal. It seems like a good idea. I am trying to get back to my fitness routine and will check out this app.
I am a huge fan of Weight Watchers! It always works for me and I have gone back to it many time! Great app!
I love how useful this app is. And great for accountability.
There are apps for everything! NOOM is a pretty good weight loss app, too. I’ll for sure check out this one.
I’m all about apps that help make things easier. I think having a weight loss one would help a lot.
I dont use apps to manage weight loss but maybe i should look into it. I like that you can set a reminder on this app to input your meals. I’d sure forget.
I love My Fitness Pal, I have used them now for a few years! It really helps with weight loss!
*sigh* stalled out in this area of my life as well MFP was an incredible tool, i just don’t use it often enough.
neat, will look for it on the app store
Thanks for sharing this on the #CoolJourney fit & healthy link up!
It is getting a good amount of click on the linky!