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dieting apps and services

MyFitnessPal Adds Alexa “Skill”

April 22, 2019 by Michele Neylon Leave a Comment

In common with a lot of people I’ve got a MyFitnessPal account. I’ve been a user for several years, though I go through phases with it. Sure, I can login to it daily, but I don’t log all my food and water using it a lot of the time. I will some of the time, but I tend to forget and then it’s too late, so I don’t.

A couple of weeks back MyFitnessPal announced that they’ve created an Alexa “skill”. I was curious to see what it could do so here’s the overview.

For now the skill is only available to users with an Alexa account in the US. So if you’re in Ireland or the UK you cannot enable it. I reached out to them to find out when they plan to add support for Ireland and UK users and the response I got back was non-committal:

Since we just recently rolled out the feature, we’re still working on getting it out worldwide. Unfortunately we weren’t able roll it out internationally when we first launched it.

If you are able to use the skill with your Alexa powered device it’s called “MyFitnessPal Lite” and it offers some basic features for now.

You can log water intake, log your weight and check your diary stats.

You cannot log food, which is really what I suspect a lot of users would want to do with it.

Here’s the command overview:

To log water, you can say:
Alexa, tell MyFitnessPal to log water.
Alexa, tell MyFitnessPal to log 3 cups of water
To log weight, you can say:
Alexa, tell MyFitnessPal to log my weight.
Alexa, tell MyFitnessPal to log my weight of 170 pounds.
To check your diary stats, you can say:
Alexa, ask MyFitnessPal how am I doing today?
Alexa, ask MyFitnessPal for my diary summary.
Alexa, ask MyFitnessPal how many steps have I taken today?
Alexa, ask MyFitnessPal how much water did I drink today?
Alexa, ask MyFitnessPal how many calories have I consumed for today?
To get started, ask Alexa to open MyFitnessPal. You can say:
Alexa, open MyFitnessPal.
Alexa, ask MyFitnessPal.
Alexa, launch MyFitnessPal.

Source: Amazon

Being able to use an Alexa device to log or get feedback on your weight loss or general fitness progress makes sense, so I’d hope they’ll roll out more features AND make it available for those of us outside the US!

Filed Under: dieting apps and services Tagged With: alexa, amazon, MyFitnessPal

Making the Ketogenic Diet Simpler with Keyto

December 26, 2018 by Michele Neylon Leave a Comment

I’ve been keeping an eye on apps, services and devices for people doing low carb diets for the last year or so. Some time back I came across Keyto, which sounded like it was going to be a simpler way to measure if your body was in ketosis or not.

It turns out that the device will do quite a bit more, as it’s tied into an app and offers several other features.

Here’s the promotional video that explains more:

Keyto is currently available via crowd-funding platform Indiegogo, though based on the level of interest I wouldn’t be surprised if it went mainstream quite quickly.

At the moment you can order a Keyto for $99 US, which is about 40% cheaper than the current planned retail price.

Full details here.

Filed Under: dieting apps and services, equipment Tagged With: device, gadget, Ketogenic diet, Kickstarter

Tracking Carbs, Fibre and More With MyFitnessPal

July 29, 2017 by Michele Neylon 1 Comment

I’ve been using MyFitnessPal for years. However “using” is probably not the correct word. Most of the time I haven’t actively been using the app, but have simply had an account that I logged into. I wasn’t actively tracking what I was eating or keeping an eye on carbs, fibre etc., Sure, I’d log some of the food, but most of the time I logged only a fraction of what I was consuming. When I was trying to follow the Tesco Diet a few years ago I probably logged most of what I was eating, but generally speaking I’d log breakfast and a couple of other things each day, but that was about it.

What I have been doing, however, is using MyFitnessPal as a “hub” for other devices and apps. So, for example, my weighing scales (a Withings body cardio) ties back into my MyFitnessPal account, as does my FitBit. What that means is that changes in my weight get logged to MyFitnessPal automatically, as does my daily activity (or lack of it!).

I started doing the ketogenic diet a couple of weeks ago (17th July). Since then I’ve had to keep a very close eye on everything I eat or drink. With a ketogenic diet you need to keep a very close eye on your daily intake of carbs more than you do  calories. (There’s a pretty good explanation here)

Of course you have to keep track of your calorie intake, but it’s not a calorie restricted diet, so while you need to keep your calorie intake under control the key metric you’re looking at is your carbs.

To help you tweak your daily calories, carbs and other metrics you can use a calculator like this one. Plugging in my data (weight, gender etc.,) I end up with something like this:

keto calculator output

The red section of the pie is my allowed daily intake of carbs, which is under 5%, or about 25g. In reality I’m focussing on keeping below 50g per day, as getting much lower than that is proving quite awkward 🙂

It also gives you your daily calorie ration, as well as protein and fat which you can then plugin to your MyFitnessPal account settings in the “goals” section. You can do most things in the mobile app easily, though sometimes it can be a little easier to use the website.

Logging every single meal can be a bit of a chore, but like many things if you get into the habit of doing it it becomes that bit easier.

Tip: Don’t wait until the end of the day to log your meals – logging them as you go is a LOT easier

The food database MyFitnessPal uses is pretty good. However if you can’t find exactly what you are eating you’ll often find a generic alternative. Logging food when you’re eating out is usually the hardest, as it’s often awkward to match what’s on the menu or your plate against something that the app will recognise easily.

For me the most interesting and motivational bit of the app is the “progress” section. The app for my scales does give me the same information, but it doesn’t look as compelling as this:

Over the last few weeks I’ve managed to lose 4.7kg, which is great. In another post I’ll talk about what my actual goals are and why, but for now suffice to say I’m quite happy with my progress.

As I said recently, I’m committed to following this diet for a month. If I feel it’s working I’ll keep it up and if I don’t then I’ll have to move on to something else.

I’ve also recently upgraded to using the MyFitnessPal premium account, so I get handy little features like this nutrient summary on the home screen:

MyFitnessPal nutrient breakdown on home screen a feature available with premium accounts

An annual subscription is cheaper than a trip to the doctor, so I think it’s a good investment 🙂

Of course MyFitnessPal isn’t the only “tracker” out there, there are hundreds of them. Choose whichever one you think works best for you.

Filed Under: dieting apps and services Tagged With: Activity tracker, Calorie, Carbohydrate, Eating, Fitbit, Food, IOS, iPhone, Ketogenic diet, MyFitnessPal

Checking if Your Ketogenic Diet is Working

July 27, 2017 by Michele Neylon Leave a Comment

Urine analysis by using chemical test strip

The problem or challenge with most diets is seeing their impact. You can change your lifestyle quite dramatically but have to wait weeks to see any tangible impact or benefits.

Switching to a low carb high fat / ketogenic diet is not easy. However, unlike many diets it is relatively simple to check if your body is in ketosis ie. if the ketogenic diet is actually working. Sure, it won’t happen overnight, but you should be able to see results within 7 to 10 days. There has to be an upside to the carb withdrawal after all!

In order to get into ketosis and stay there you need to reduce your carb intake quite dramatically. In my case I’m below 40g per day most days, though I’ve heard of some people needing to get below 20g before they get into ketosis. Bear in mind that the average Irish or American person is consuming several hundred grams of carbs per day. It doesn’t take much – bread, pasta, root vegetables and sugar are all source of carbs.

The simplest way to check is to test your urine using a ketone urinalysis urine strip. You can easily get them on Amazon or elsewhere. The strips will simply check to see how high the ketone levels are in your urine and therefore tell you whether you are in ketosis or not.

For example, with the ones I bought a shade of purple indicates ketosis with the darker the shade is indicating higher levels of ketone in the blood stream.

Testing is simple and easy. Just collect a urine sample, dip one of the strips in it. Wait a few seconds and check the colour against those on the side of the container. And you’re done. No hanging about or waiting.

There are other methods for testing, though they’re either more expensive or invasive. Do you really want to spend hundreds of Euro on a breath tester? Or draw blood to test your ketone levels?

 

Filed Under: diet, dieting apps and services, equipment Tagged With: diet, ketogenic, ketones, urine

Doing A Step Challenge At A Conference

January 31, 2016 by Michele Neylon Leave a Comment

Earlier this month I was in Las Vegas for CES. It’s a huge event. Not only does it attract well over 150 thousand attendees from the four corners of the globe it’s also spread over  a very large area, taking over the Las Vegas Convention Center, as well as several other locations throughout the city. End result being that if you spend a reasonable amount of time on the floor at CES you end up walking a lot.

The guys at CES obviously know this, so they setup a “step challenge” using LoseIt. LoseIt is very similar in functionality to services and apps like MyFitnessPal, but the added element of the challenge at an event I was attending was appealing, so I signed up.

So how did I do?

Surprisingly well, though my feet were in bits after the week! (Lesson learnt – if you’re attending CES bring practical walking shoes!)

ces-steps

Being in the top 10% of participants felt good, though I honestly don’t understand how the person at 247k steps did it without cheating.

ces-challenge-rank

My final ranking was in the top 50 which I think was quite respectable.

Being part of a challenge was kind of cool. It definitely motivated me, which was good. I also liked the idea that it was tied to an event I was attending, as opposed to some random target that I couldn’t really relate to.

So maybe I’ll see about launching step challenges at other events I attend which involve a lot of working, who knows, it might take off 🙂

In any case it was a bit of fun!

 

Filed Under: dieting apps and services, exercise Tagged With: challenge, exercise, Fitness, International CES, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Convention Center

Kitchen Meets IoT With Countertop

April 14, 2015 by Michele Neylon 3 Comments

Countertop_Lifestyle-1I love gadgets and technology and I’ve come to embrace the Internet of Things (IoT) more and more over the last couple of years. The possibilities of leveraging technology in the home fascinate me.

But what about the kitchen?

One of the challenges with any of this new technology is that it’s “new” so it tends not to “play nice” with any of your existing equipment.

Sure, if you’re a multi-millionaire you could dump all your existing equipment and replace it all with “smart” gadgets. But doesn’t that seem wasteful? Especially when so much of this technology is in flux. Who knows which technologies will really take off?

So the latest gadget that has caught my attention seems to be a move in the right direction.

“Countertop” is a smart countertop (thence the name!). But what makes this particular gadget intriguing and quite appealing is that it can work with “dumb” devices too ie. it can retrofit them.

Here’s their rather slick promo video that explains how it works:

https://youtu.be/xWc6XtTpSyk

I love the idea and it almost checks all the boxes. But I don’t have ANY of the kitchen devices it currently works with. Do I have a slow cooker? Yes, but not that brand. Do I have a blender? Yes, but again it’s not that brand.

I do, however, have a Jawbone UP, but without any of the other compatible gadgets this isn’t going to work for me – for now at least.

You can find out more details and order via the official site for shipping later this year.

Filed Under: dieting apps and services, equipment Tagged With: Countertop, Home appliance, Internet of Things, IOS, iPhone, Slow cooker

Tracking Sexual Activity??

February 22, 2015 by Michele Neylon Leave a Comment

Trackers and tracking apps. If you’ve got even a passing interest in health and fitness you’ve probably seen or used some of them. Personally  I’ve used a lot of them over the past few years and currently wear an UP 360. I’ll admit I’m not as good at tracking food as I could be, but I do try.

One of the more popular tracking apps for mobile is MapMyRide (which also appears as MapMyRun and a few other names, but is the same app). I started using it for tracking my cycling activity, but it can also track a very broad range of other activities including walking, hiking, running, weight lifting and a whole lot more.

However a friend of mine spotted one activity buried in the options that piqued our interest:

mapmyride-intimacy-tracking

“Intimacy”?

The only possible interpretation for that is that the app wants to track your sexual activity. Of course this opens up a whole range of questions like where on earth would you put the phone to track it and how would you even handle tracking it.

“Sorry darling I need to log this”

Talk about a buzz kill!

I’m not sure why the app developers put it in there, but at least they didn’t overthink it too much, because if you do attempt to track “intimacy” (and of course you would out of curiosity, wouldn’t you?) you will get a message about how it can’t really track it properly.. though it will try..

So you end up with this kind of event being shared with your contacts (if you share via MapMyRide):

tracking-sex-mapmyride

You can even add notes and share it via Facebook and Twitter!

 

 

Filed Under: dieting apps and services Tagged With: Calorie, Endomondo, intimacy, IOS, iPhone, MapMyFitness, MapMyRun, MyFitnessPal, Physical fitness, sex, Under Armour

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