MyFitnessPal is perhaps one of the most widely-used health apps in existence. Sure, having any given food’s calorie, fat, protein, and carbohydrate content at the tip of your fingers can be useful, but only if you know what to do with that information. For many college students, proper nutrition and exercise aren’t only foreign concepts, they’re also an additional source of stress.
Let’s say you’ve got $3 and your only means of cooking food is with a microwave or slow cooker. The temptation to turn to fast food is high, right? Why go to Walmart for a Clif Bar and an apple when you’re hungry at 2 a.m. if you could have a Taco Bell burrito instead? One chocolate chip Clif Bar and one apple has 320 calories. A bean burrito has 370 calories. When you compare the calorie content, you notice that they’re nearly equal. When you pick up your keys and head for the door, where are you heading: Walmart or Taco Bell? I’m sure we both know the answer to that question.
The problem with MyFitnessPal is that it doesn’t do a great job at helping its users get (or stay) healthy, it just provides a calorie and macronutrient (fat, protein, carbohydrate) goal and sends users on their way. It doesn’t focus on the nutritional value of the food you’re eating, either. MyFitnessPal’s setup suggests that eating an entire box of cereal is reasonable as long as you’re not exceeding your calorie goal. Plus, it’s sort of a hassle to have to type in every food you eat in a day. What if you’re eating at a local restaurant? What if you forget to log something? Do you need to add the ketchup you had with your french fries?
A few years back, I downloaded an app called TwoGrand shortly after it had been released into the app store. Since then, the app has undergone a name change (now known as YouFood) and some serious revamping. The best part? It’s more effective, easier and faster to use, and has dozens more features than MyFitnessPal. And it’s free.
But because I can’t just tell you, “This app is great!” and expect you to make the switch, here are a few reasons why you should consider dumping MyFitnessPal for YouFood:
1. Instead of typing in each food you eat (and determining the quantity of those foods), YouFood is as simple as taking a photograph. Seriously. That’s it. You can use the in-app camera to snap a quick picture, or upload one you’ve already taken. Users can type in a quick note about the food featured in their photos, but it’s not necessary. (If you want, you can edit the post later to flesh out the details). It works the same way for exercise -- snap a photo of your bike, yoga mat, or tennis shoes and you're all set.
2. YouFood has a wide variety of topics that users can follow, which helps those with similar lifestyles come together. You can find users to follow based on the topics you have in common, and even browse a particular topic’s board for meal inspiration.
3. At the top of your home feed, YouFood features all your goals. They’re simple to find and create and not only do they serve as a reminder to break unhealthy habits, they remind you to create healthy habits as well. There are reminders for everything from eating your daily veggies to eating healthier desserts and stopping emotional eating. You can even set reminders for your goals, which is particularly helpful for goals like “eat breakfast every day” or “take daily vitamins.”
4. Users can feature recipes with each their entries. See something you like? Add the entry to your “fridge.” It serves as a board for all of the foods you’d like to make, or things you’ve made, tried, or ordered and liked more than you thought.
5. Perhaps what makes YouFood so wildly successful for most of its users is that it’s a great place for food inspiration. Not only can you see what healthy, new things everyone else is eating, you can reflect on your own eating habits in a way that’s much faster than browsing the last month’s MyFitnessPal entries.
Overall, what YouFood offers that MyFitnessPal does not is an incredibly user-friendly means of helping those with busy lives make healthier choices that will benefit their bodies. It’s a way for people to start looking at nutrition from a different perspective. YouFood doesn’t focus on calorie restriction, but rather on ensuring that its users are satisfied with nutrient-rich meals. No matter your budget or your lifestyle, YouFood is a great resource for learning more about nutrition and the way that food affects your body.
