MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal
Original author(s) Albert Lee
Mike Lee
Developer(s) MyFitnessPal, Inc.
Initial release 2005
Development status Active
Operating system Android, iOS, Windows Phone
Type Health informatics, Physical fitness
License Freeware
Website www.myfitnesspal.com

MyFitnessPal is a free smartphone app and website that tracks diet and exercise to determine optimal caloric intake and nutrients for the users' goals and uses gamification elements to motivate users. In a Consumer Reports diet rating, MyFitnessPal was rated the best free program (with 83 points) in overall satisfaction, "maintenance, calorie awareness, and food variety".[1][2][3]

In February 2015, Under Armour acquired MyFitnessPal.[4]

History

In 2005, MyFitnessPal was founded by Albert Lee and Mike Lee.[5]

On February 4, 2015, MyFitnessPal was purchased and acquired by athletic apparel maker, Under Armour, for $475 million. MyFitnessPal had 80 million users at the time.[6]

On May 4, 2015, MyFitnessPal introduced a premium subscription tier for its applications. According to Mike Lee, the premium service allows subscribers "to make custom reports, to dig deeper into the nutrient density of the food, and to customize the measurements used to plan their meals."[7]

Tracking

Tracking food

The user may enter the name of the food or scan the barcode to find the item in a large database of over 5 million foods or may select foods from a list of most frequently eaten foods.[8][9] Dietitian Michelle Eckhart says a bonus for dieters using such tools is that "numbers don’t lie, and I think when people can really see the reality — the numbers — it helps them to adjust their behaviors more quickly."[10] The same food item may contain several variation of the caloric count possibly depending on which country the food item was purchased.

While the application is extremely well designed to make it easy to track your food intake, with a breakdown by food components, the app requires a minimum intake of 1200 calories per day for males [11] in order to enable full functionality, which limits its use to monitor many diets.

Tracking exercise

MyFitnessPal has different exercises and sometimes the same exercise at different intensities or speeds. The user enters the number of minutes spent exercising and the calories spent is calculated. The calories spent on the exercise is added to the total number of calories that the user should eat per day.[12]

MyFitnessPal can also be linked to a FitBit as well as Jawbone account allowing activity to automatically be calculated into daily calories allowed.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "'My Fitness Pal' tops list on Consumer Reports' new diet ratings". Montgomery Advertiser. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  2. ↑ "Consumer Reports Rates Diet Plans: MyFitnessPal, A Free App And Website, More Satisfying Than Weight Watchers". Consumer Reports. 2 January 2013.
  3. ↑ Bates, Claire (7 January 2013). "Desperate to beat the bulge? Why a calorie-counting mobile app could be the recipe for success". London: Daily Mail. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  4. ↑ Lorenz, Taylor (4 February 2015). "Under Armour has acquired fitness apps MyFitnessPal and Endomondo for a combined $560 million". Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  5. ↑ "MyFitnessPal company profile". CrunchBase. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  6. ↑ Perez, Sarah (Feb 4, 2015). "Under Armour Snatches Up Health And Fitness Trackers Endomondo And MyFitnessPal". TechCrunch.
  7. ↑ Popper, Ben (4 May 2015). "MyFitnessPal rolls out its first paid offering, a premium service for exercise buffs". The Verge.
  8. ↑ Einstein, David (14 January 2013). "MyFitnessPal a good, healthy Android app". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  9. ↑ Freeman, Kate. "MyFitnessPal Now Lets You Share Progress With Facebook Friends". Mashable. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  10. ↑ Carter, Darla. "Winning ways to lose: Consumer Reports rates diets". Courier Journal. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  11. ↑ https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/questions/14604165-minimum-calories
  12. ↑ Nieder, Kathy. "Self tracking fitness, review of populayr MyFitnessPal app". iMedicalApps. Retrieved 4 December 2013.

Official website

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