#i know most macro counters will also track calories

[edenaziraphale]

does anyone know of an app thats actually good for tracking macros? Calorie counting is not something I'm interested in- I can't do restrictions, ED history- and finding something with a good focus on macros has been difficult

[interactiondesignstudio5chiara]

Week 2 tasks, Monday class & Tuesday class

MONDAY

What do you know already about these experiences that you want to create? (users, top tasks, pain points)

Brainstorming below.

TOP TASKS:

try to find where the diary where you log the food is

try to log in meals

try to repeat meals & ingredients every day

try to set goals

PAIN POINTS (for me):

hard to find diary where you log the food is

impossible too set if you have allergies for life

too much information on the menu

inconsistent kcal count

to repeat meals & ingredients every day the suer have to manual enter ingredient by ingredient, every day

the goals could be in the menu, straight and easy to find

Write on poster each one of the 3 experiences: what do I know about I? What do I think I know and what proof I have about it?

Assumptions & Factoids

ASSUMPTIONS:

most users could be women

most users might use it since many years and have forgotten how not intuitive still is, since before sued to be worse with this

most users might not use it every day

FACTOIDS

Is possible to learn about nutrition, diet, and kcal lost by different exercises

it’s possible to get good habits by tracking

it’s possible to value more the eating-exercising routine by understanding how does it work

there are other apps that are better organised and more intuitive

Test assumptions - evaluate if these experiences are in your power to solve (you can’t make a diff if there're solutions only outside of your scope as a designer)

most users could be women --> No, a lot of men and other genders also use it, to learn, to keep the weight balanced, to gain weight.

most users might use it since many years and have forgotten how not intuitive still is, since before sued to be worse with this --> most users are new, and many but not as many are using it since the beginning (10+ ago)

most users might not use it every day --> some users use it monthly, some users use it a few times per year, some daily and pay the PREMIUM plan to access to meal plans, other type of tracking such as macro/micro-nutrients tracking, etc..

Check if you can get the impact of the novelty because a problem hasn't been solved already in the way you propose:

Other apps that have similar purposes:

https://www.noom.com - intuitive eating, with psychology component

https://simple-life-app.com - “sustainability”focussed weight maintenance

 https://www.googleadservices.com - mainly educational and to maintain healthy habits

Useful link: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/best-weight-loss-apps --> LIST OF APPS including some of the ones mentioned before, and MyFitnesspal too.

DISCOVERY & RESEARCH ABOUT MY FITNESS PAL APP

WHAT IS IT?

My Fitness Pal is a calories count, diet and exercise tracking App.

Healthline.com (https://www.healthline.com) picks it as the best calorie counter apps, reviewing its pro and contra, and comparing them with other similar apps.

HOW DOES IT WORK? MAIN TASKS

As a new user of the non-Premium free version of the App you need to register as a Profile, set up the goals, and enter meals, water and exercise to count the amount of calories intake and deficit during the day. By setting up the Goals (current weight, ideal weight goal, activity level, etc) the App proposes the amount of Kcal (Calories) not to exceed daily by the user, and would calculate how many were burned by exercising creating a deficit. It also can be connected with Steps tracking Apps and automatically register the steps, and the Kcal deficit that the walking/running activity recorded generates.

WHO CAN USE IT?

Anyone.

WHY USING IT? Mainly to:

To learn about Kcal gain and deficit

To learn about Nutrition

To learn about how to effectively burn Kcal through exercise

To record what the user eats

To lose, maintain, gain weight effectively

WHEN TO USE IT? FREQUENCY

Daily or whenever needed.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BASIC AND PREMIUM ACCOUNTS?

Basic:

Enter meals and exercise, record Kcal intake and deficit (the Diary section)

Read the Newsfeed (the Newsfeed section)

Try Plans for free (the Plans section) but only for limited time, which still makes the suer register to keep using iot starting to pay the Premium version.

Share with friends the achievement (would generate posts in your homepage when a weight lost has been recorded by the user or when the App has been used for several days in a row)

Access to other items, (via the More section)

Premium:

According to 

https://www.si.com/showcase/health/myfitnesspal-review#:~:text=With%20a%20MyFitnessPal%20Premium%20subscription,estimate%20macros%2C%20nutrition%20and%20calories

Set macronutrient goals, by gram or percentage Set different goals each day Set macros and calorie goals by meal (rather than by day) Record food timestamps that show how the timing of your meals affect the user’s energy and workouts Access priority customer support Export the user data WHY DID I CHOSE IT? I have been using it regularly since 2012, initially because I was curious about nutrition, calories count and to lose some weight. My main interest was to learn how to use it in  sustainable way, meaning realising how Kcal work, intake-wise and how to burn them through exercise effectively. I saw this App improving the features visually and functionally over the years, but there is definitely still room for improvement in my opinion. I only ever have used the free version, never the Premium, which has more features. Initially, for this project, I thought that features to improve, in my opinion and from my experience were: the Meal log on, to be able to repeat the same meals automatically over the day of the same week, instead of having to enter again ingredient by ingredient, The fact that the user cannot record if they have an allergy, and get proposed meal plans according to it, The fact that there is a set Menu, with some items that might not interest the user (for me for example the Newsfeed or the Plans are not useful for my purpose, and I wish to have some other items in the Menu instead), Also, on the Profile page, there are items to find with having to do both horizontal and vertical scrolling, which is not so intuitive as a new user, The Kcal count is inconsistent and coherent, the same food with the same amount and cooked in the same way can show under “search” with different Kcal amount.

MORE ONLINE RESEARCH (SECONDARY)

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/best-calorie-counters#our-picks

COMPETITORS APPS OF MY FITNESS ALL, FROM THE LINK ABOVE:

I REGROUPED THE INFORMATION ABOVE ON FIGMA, and a very useful table below form the website:

Progressing the class into User/Persona and scenario.

Can the problem be solved via design? and not IT, or other ways out of my scope.

Target users/personas:

TUESDAY

No ethics request, can start already.

Recruitment for User Testing & Interview:

QUESTIONS:

Demographic (but no names)

Do you have any food allergies?

Do you know MyFitnessPal?

Why would you use it?

Could you tell me where to log meals? try to log them.

Try to go around and tell me what’s not intuitive

What would you change regarding the menu?

Ideal number is as many interviews as possible (min 5)

I have decided to do interviews, for both users and new users, and possibly users that have allergies to food.

First round of user testing - 3 (Lo-Fi) + First round of user testing - 5 (Hi-Fi)

I want to ask questions related to:

food intolerances

how easy is to log in meals

how uncomfortable is not being able to log the same meal or ingredients every day

how intuitive is the app in general

how visual is the layout

Tools to create the questionnaries online as links to send? or in paper with QR code. Think about community centers, social media, etc.., or pay people for it (for future projects)

Possibly using instagram sharing.

Tools to use for surveys: Typeform, google forms, optimum workshop, survey monkey, maze (surveys re anonymous, chose how to interpret the Questions, make qualitative/quantitative). 

maze: https://maze.co 

[rolypolywl]

Hello, and welcome to Roly-Poly weight loss. I’m your host, Roly-Poly.

Welcome to day 29!

And it is a Monday, so it is weigh in day!

Okay, well, I’m still below my starting weight, so I’ll take it.

Now, on to the topic!

Food! Finally! We are finally talking about food! We put it off for almost 30 days, and that was for a really good reason. A big reason why people fail at changing their life is trying to change everything all at once. If you are trying to fit in your new exercise plan while also tracking your diet and trying to make sure you sleep long enough and drink enough water and finding time to make healthy food and somehow fitting in some selfcare… you’re going to blow up. You won��t be able to keep track of all the different things at once and fit all of them into your routine. Something will give, and you’ll feel like a “failure” and you’ll fall off the wagon of change, so to speak.

Instead, we introduced working out incrementally, first with 15 minute a week sessions, then adding a warm up/cool down, moving up to 20 minute sessions, and now we’re moving up to 30 minutes. That’s right, 30 minutes, starting this/next week! In the future, we’re also going to be increasing from 3 times a week to five, with 3 cardio and 2 weight training.

We also talked about sleep and water a while back, introducing that after exercise had been established. Now that we’re hopefully doing better at each of those, and have found the time for them in our lives, we’re going to gradually add food, or diet.

Small side note, that is “diet” with a little “d”, as in, the stuff you eat. Not “Diet” with a big “D”, as in, Atkins or Weight Watchers or Keto or whatever. DIET! No, just the stuff you are eating. We’ll get to DIETs later!

Now, where to start. Well, a lot of places, potentially, but we are going to ease into things. For starters, your eating this week should be just like your eating last week. We can’t jump in and change everything if we don’t know what we’re changing. The first week is for tracking.

Now, some people prefer doing this the analogue way. Getting some paper or a notebook and just writing down what they eat every day. Grid paper can help keep it neat, but regular paper is fine. And that totally works!

If you created a Bullet Journal or something similar, you can track your food in that. Some people incorporate it into their daily pages, and some keep it as a separate “food journal” within the larger journal.

There’s also the semi-analogue way, which is to use a simple document or spreadsheet on the computer. Again, you’re just noting what you ate on it - nothing fancy. This has the advantage of being on the computer, so you can access it there, but it isn’t as complex as an app, or tracking as many variables. This is simply what you input into your list.

You can also go full tech with a variety of apps. I personally use MyFitnessPal, and have, off and on, for years.

It has a fairly intuitive layout, and you can change the labels of your meals to add snacks and such. You can create up to 6 “meals” and give them whatever name you want, and in whatever order. So if you want to distinguish between morning and afternoon and evening snacks or whatever, you can do that.

If you’re the kind of person who eats a bunch of small meals a day instead of the traditional big three, you can do that and label them whatever you want.

You plug in your starting weight, goal weight, activity level, and how much you’d like to gain or lose (1 or 2 pounds a week), and it’ll come up with a basic daily calorie goal for you. And yes, I said gain or lose. This app allows for people who want to lose weight, gain weight, or just maintain a weight. So you can use it regardless of what your goals are. And, it keeps you to the safe, reasonable goals of 1-2 pounds either direction. None of that crazy unachievable 10 pounds a week nonsense.

So you fill in your goal and it tells you how many calories you need to eat to achieve that. It’ll also pop out what percentage you should have of carbs, protein, and fat in your day. You can, of course, then customize these.

If you pay for the premium version, which I have not, you can track all kinds of other macros, besides those three, but most people won’t need those.

So that’s the prep side. Now it is time to actually track a meal.

When you go to add your food, you have a few options. One I like is that with just a swipe you can copy the same meal from the day before. If you’re the kind of person who always has the same breakfast - or almost always - you can just swipe that in, easy peasy.

You can also add foods, either by search or by scanning their barcode. If you can’t find a food, you can manually add it. And you can create recipes by adding ingredients together and portions. Then you can easily add them like any other food in the future.

Finally, you can create “meals”. For example, if your breakfast is always two eggs and two strips of bacon and a cup of coffee, then you can create a meal with those exact foods, label it something catchy, and then when you add it as a meal, all of the foods will pop up in your daily diary for you! Also, to note, they pop up as seperate foods, because this is a meal, not a recipe. So if one day you have an extra piece of bacon, or only one egg because you ran out, you can put in the meal like usual, then go in and edit that day’s diary to make the numbers correct. But it is a nice shortcut! And, again, you can just swipe to copy yesterday too.

You can also track your water here, if you’d like, and you can even track exercises. Adding exercises will adjust the amount of calories it will allot you for the day, giving you more to account for the ones you burned off.

When you finish for the day, you can save (not necessary - just fun) and it will give you an estimate of, if you maintain that calorie intake, where your weight might be in 5 weeks. So, for example, if you had 200 extra calories left today that you didn’t eat, it will say, if you have that every day for 5 weeks, you’ll theoretically lose this much.

It can be a fun little motivation, but also frustrating if you aren’t seeing reality match up to their computer algorithm, so use at your own discretion. Does it make you happy or sad?

And, again, you don’t have to save at the end of the day. It saves every time you add or change something. That is just a little extra you can do at the end of the day to say “I’m done!” And, if you then eat something, or remember something you forgot to add, you can always go back and edit. It doesn’t lock down the day or anything. In fact, you can always go back and edit past days.

Also to note, if you come in super under your calories, it will pop up a warning about how you might not be eating enough, and to be careful. If gives some advice about eating enough.

Now, some days, for whatever reason, maybe you are super low on your calories. Maybe you were sick, so you weren’t eating as much. Maybe you did a 10K and just couldn’t put in enough food to account for that giant exercise expenditure. It happens. One or two days low here and there won’t kill you. But if you are consistently getting that warning, you might want to look a little closer at it.

And finally, there is a community aspect. You can add friends and cheer them on for logging in or posting an update. (You don’t see their food, just that they actually logged, or when they lose weight or whatever). There are also blogs you can read. There used to be recipe suggestions, but I think that is behind the premium paywall now. Certainly some of the other apps have a suggested recipe section.

All that said! That is the gist of MyFitnessPal!

There are similar apps, which offer pretty similar tools and interfaces. Now, I focused on that one because it is the one I am most familiar with, but probably 90% of what I said will apply to pretty much all of the food tracking apps. I tried Calorie Counter for a while, and it had fun little food graphics, which I liked.

MyPlate also has food pictures, and the same basic functions. And then there are literally dozens more.

Some are specific to a particular goal, like counting calories, eating Keto, tracking carbs, etc. There are literally dozens of these things:

So play around with a couple, see which one works for you, and go for it!

Now, I have mentioned calories, carbs, and such, and now I’m going to briefly touch on them. When you start tracking, if you manage to write down just “breakfast, eggs and bacon,” without even amounts. That’s fine! You’re tracking! You’re building a new habit! Maybe after a few days you’ll get amounts in there!

When you are tracking with an app, all of those calories and carbs and things are basically filled in for you. You don’t even have to think of them unless you are adding a new food or creating a recipe. When you are tracking the analogue or semi-analogue way, it is not.

I know once Roly Mama tried to start tracking her food, and she wanted to track all of the metrics for everything she ate, the way my app did. So she would have this whole paper full of calories and nutrition facts and percents of things and it would just be one meal! And what is that information going to do for you at this point? Other than to pretty much guarantee you’ll quit doing this time consuming nonsense. And when you’re tracking the analogue way, is that information even helpful?

Not at first!

Because, at first, you don’t need to know your calories or carbs or fat or anything!

The first goal is to get used to tracking. And to not only get used to doing it, but ideally to do it throughout the day. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve put it off until the end of the day and ended up forgetting some snack or desert or whatever that I had.

The point right now is to get used to tracking, and to get a general sense of what you are eating, and when. As you progress, you want to refine this. Know how much milk you put in your coffee, include the salt you put on your potato, don’t forget the piece of bacon you stole while it was cooking, or the handful of your kid’s french fries. All those little things that we forget about. Get used to tracking them.

Worry about calories and protein and stuff later. For now, get used to tracking in general, and to really noting everything you eat. Even the stuff that “doesn’t count.” Because, of course, all of it counts! And remembering to note all of those things is one of the hardest steps!

So this week your homework is to just note what you eat, however that is easiest for you. And to work up to including everything, including stuff you cook with, condiments and accessories, and those “nibbles” here and there!

This has been Roly Poly Weight loss. As always, I am your host, Roly Poly. Share your tracking experience, or just your pride at tracking for a day, with the hashtag #FoodTracking! Please don’t feel that you need to share what you actually ate, just the act of tracking!

And please join me next time!

[aabapk]

How To Download MyFitnessPal Premium (subscribed) Apk Free for Android, Ad-free + Unlimited Meal plans + Recipes + Keep track of your health goals For Free.

Download MyFitnessPal Premium Apk

This is a place for Fitness Conscious people. An app that contains the largest food database. You can almost check every food that is there in this world and learn about the nutrition facts of it. It is not just a database for food, Myfitnesspal is a complete fitness package. You get all the advice that you expect from a fitness expert right within your smartphone.

Is MyFitnessPal App Free?

This is the question that most people ask when it comes to a great fitness app, we all know good things don’t come free, and MyFitnessPal is indeed one of those good things that don’t come free. BUT A GOOD NEWS for all of you is that this MOD APK is already subscribed so you will enjoy all the premium features of MyFitnesspal app for free.

13 Best Features Of MyFitnessPal Premium:

1. The Premium version of the app is completely Ad-Free.

2. Set Your macronutrient goals by grams or percentage.

3. Food analysis (check which foods are good or bad for you).

4. Quick Add macronutrients.

5. You can track your exercises without changing calories.

6. Monitor your goals from your home screen dashboard.

7. Get priority-based customer support.

8. Export your Data.

9. Get your macronutrient breakdown based on your meals.

10. Analyze how different timings of food affect your fitness goal.

11. Log and bookmark your favorite Recipe.

12. Get access to exclusive premium workout plans.

13. Replace Total Carbs with net Carbs.

MyFitnessPal Review:

Let’s dive a little deep into this fitness app and breakdown it into its components just to see if it is worth downloading or not. As we all live in this era where people are getting more and more cautious about their health. Now if you are going to set up your health goals, and you have decided that this is the time where I break free of my old ways of living and achieve my new health goals. To do that you must be looking at new ways of achieving your goals, obviously old ways are not what you want. So my friend technology is going to play a huge role in your transformation. Gone are the days when you were googling all the things one by one and creating your database for foods and stuff. You also are allowed to do that, but you are worth your time, No?

You also don’t have to download countless apps on your phone, try and test each one of them and during that process, you might get a virus in your cellphone, and instead of losing weight lose your money, credit card data, and stuff to a hacker. Yes, that’s happening. So MyFitnessPal claims to provide you all the stuff in one app, and safe. They commit to updating the app and keeping it free of malware and virus. You will get the largest, most comprehensive food database in it. You will get MyFitnessPal calorie counter, online community support, awesome meal plans, recipes, and whatnot. So let’s get into some of the amazing features that you can have in this app.

7 Best features of MyFitnessPal- Free Version:

· Track Calories: With the free version of App you can track the calories that you have consumed

· Track food: MyFitnesPal free gives you the option to track the food that you have chosen for the plan

· Track weight Goals: You can set up your weight goals and then you can track them.

· Create Recipes: It gives you the freedom of creating your own recipes based on calories.

· Add food: You can add foods in the MyFitnessPal Free app if it is not in the database.

· Food Database: Food database is completely accessible in the free version.

· Track activity: You can keep an eye on your daily activity level.

MyFtinessPal – Free Version Limitations:

· No Macro breakdown.

· No Access to recipes and meal plans

· Ads

Verdict:

MyFitnessPal free is suitable for people who are more into weight loss or gain goals and are not so deep into food and macronutrients. It still gives you a lot of valuable information.

MyFitnessPal – Premium Version Features:

· Get rid of all the annoying ads

· Get access to macro and micronutrition information

· Customize your calory gaols to each activity

· Set different goals for different days or weeks

· Get access to exclusive content

· Export your data

The subscription fee per month is $9.99 or $49.99 per year. BUT BUT BUT You can download MyFitnessPal (Subscribe/Mod) Apk and enjoy all these features for free.

7 Easy steps – How to set up MyFitnessPal App:

To start with MyFitnessPal Apk you need a few simple pieces of information and you are ready to go.

1. Sign up using your Email

2. confirm your Email

3. Enter your age by writing birthdate

4. Write your Current weight

5. Your height

6. The detail of your activity level is required

7. set your goal (weight loss/weight gain etc)

And My Friend you are done setting up your app. If you choose some other app this would have been a nightmare for you. Now Once you have added all the data, the MyFitnessPal app will do the magic. It will generate your calorie count based on your activity level, your weight and height also the goal that you have set in. Let’s say you wanted to gain one pound a week. After going through your routine, following the recipes that you have created, you have logged everything in the MyFitnessPal app, what it will do for you is, It will generate a report at the end of the day to show you if you follow the same routine you are gonna lose a pound of extra weight or vice versa.

you can also see how much cholesterol, fat, protein, or other micronutrients you are gonna consume, it will also indicate which micronutrients go above the daily health recommendation, which you have consumed, or which one you are lacking. Isn’t it amazing? it makes your health goals so so easy that you won’t stop achieving them.

How does MyFitnessPal Work:

It works like magic, to put it simply. But for that magic, you have to do something to do, which I think is pretty simple if it comes to the benefits it gives.

You have to log in to every food that you eat. So let’s say you have designed your plan, and it includes 5 meals a day. Now you are going to have your second meal. So whatever you are going to eat you have to log that in the app, that is the only way it is gonna know, No? Another cool thing about it is that you can adjust portion size too in the app. Amazing feature, otherwise it makes the app dumb. Like If I am going to eat a small banana and the app only has a calorie count of a big banana, what good is that? So yes you can adjust portions, calories in half apple are of course not the same as a full apple. you can also add food in grams, tablespoons, slices, etc.

MyFitnessPal DataBase:

This is the top class feature of MyFitnesspal that I absolutely Love. It has a massive database of food which they keep updating. I don’t remember searching for food and it wasn’t there. You can search for food by simply typing the name, or too lazy to do that? which you shouldn’t be if you are up for a health goal, but if you are MyFitnesspal gives you another awesome option. It has a barcode scanner, Just look for the bar code on the pack of food, scan it and you will get all the information about that food. Yes mate, just like that.

MyFitnessPal Recipes:

We are not finished with the great features of the MyFitnessPal app. It gives you complete control over your fitness plans. You can create recipes with adjusted macros and calories. Let’s say you have decided to go with 3 meals a day, and you want each meal fixed. Create your meal, add the food, make your recipes and save it. So next time you eat that meal you don’t have to go through add individual ingredients all over again. you just click on that meal and it will be added to your daily goals. It is so fun when you go to McDonald’s on a cheat day you type McDonald Double Beef Cheeseburger and it comes up with all the macros up.

MyFitnessPal Community and Blog:

There are a whole lot of motivated people that are fans of the MyFitnessPal app. You can also join them by going to community or chat forums. You can interact with like-minded people, discuss their fitness goals, enjoy their company, give or get suggestions. You can also get already tested recipes. Community is there for your help and you should definitely as if you need some help. You can also get some other nice features if you are using the premium version of MyFitnessPal , like short workout videos, motivational videos, or premium diet plans. You can also set up your health and fitness goals for 2022 with the friends that you will make in those forums.

These are the days of isolation, people are stuck at homes, the pandemic has changed the life people were used to. So having a community of online friends that share the same goal is nothing less than a blessing. I always enjoy discussions in these chats and blogs. People have a lot to share that you can use for your benefit.

My Personal Experience with MyFitnessPal app:

I am using this app since 2015, I have achieved my fitness goals using this app. I would say it is the number one app to have if you are going to set your health goals. I always make my meal plans first, it’s like automating your meals, once I have made the plans I know what I am eating what macros I am consuming, how many calories a food exactly contains so I am never off balance. After a month I always change meals because I get bored of the same food over and over again. So it is easy to do that too.

I first used the free version of the app and I would say it serves a great purpose. If you are not annoyed by the ads and are cool with basic functionality. Then I download MyFitnessPal Mod (subscribed) Apk, which gave me the premium features to enjoy. Since then I have had it on my phone. Whenever I change my device I download the app again, log in with my email and I get each and everything back.

Verdict:

Simply the best. It is an app that is going to help you achieve your health goals. It is not a weight loss plan or a bulk plan, It is a tool to lose weight, even if you don’t want to lose or gain weight and just want to stay fit and healthy you should have this app. It will surely make your life easy. Imagine standing at Walmart and about to buy some food, but not sure what it contains, just scan the code and you will get all the details you need. This is the power of MyFitnesspal. You can Download the subscribed version or the free version depending on your need and take a step towards easy and healthy life.

Also, Check Happy Meal App MOD APK

How to Download MyFitnessPal Premimum Apk:

You can easily download the app from your browser by following these steps.

1. Read the whole features of the game and then tap on the Download button.

2. Wait for the Download File to generate

3. Once it is generated. Tap on the Download button again

4. This will start the file to download.

5. When the download is finished, a confirmation window will pop up.

How to Install :

Once you have your downloaded file ready follow this guide.

· First of all, go to your device’s settings

· Go to Privacy> Unknown Sources Installations> Enable

· If you have a newer Android device, then make sure to enable the Unknown Device option in your Browser Settings.

· Now Select the Apk or Mod apk file that you have downloaded.

· Simply open it and tap on Install.

· That’s it

DownloadFree MyFitnessPal Premium Apk and enjoy everything for free.

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[thetrainingnotebook]

Top 5 Apps for Personal Trainers | TheTrainingNoteBook

If you are a veteran certified online personal trainer or a newbie trainer, finding the best apps to manage your business is essential. 

The more you automate tedious tasks from your everyday life, the more time and energy you'll have to motivate and train your clients to reach their goals. You'll also have more time to advertise and reach out to possible new clients.  

With the millions of applications now available, it can be daunting to know which ones are best suited for personal trainers. No worries, in this article, I have done all the research for you. 

These are the essential apps for personal trainers to manage their client's workouts, assessments, and progression. And a way to collect payments, train via video chat and manage your business expenses.  

MyFitnessPal - Calorie counter and diet plan app

For iOS, Android, Web

My Fitness Pal is the #1 nutrition app on the market for as long as I can remember. With more than 6 million food items in its database and micronutrient, macronutrients and, portion sizes information. MyfitnessPal is the best app available today. 

The best feature for personal trainers is that you can see what your clients are eating. Get your clients to use MyFitnessPal to see how many calories they are eating as most people undervalue how many calories they eat on a daily basis. The more you can get your client to pay attention to what they are eating, the better results they will get. 

Other great features:

Set weight loss or gain goals, and the app automatically charges your calorie and macro goals. 

Edit the protein, carbs, and  fats intake percentage for each meal.  

Set custom meals, so you don't always have to look up each item of your meals. 

Scan food barcodes to get the macros 

Honorable mentions - Lose It!, MyPlate

The Training Notebook - Personal Trainer Client Management Software

For iOS, Android, and Web 

The Training Notebook is an easy-to-use app for personal trainers to manage all their clients' info, including assessment forms, workouts, and before and after photos.  

You can build an unlimited amount of workouts and assessments for all your clients, and all your clients will have access to all the exercises and assessments in an instant with their own free personal app, The Client Notebook.  

The Training Notebook's home page gives you a central hub where you can easily access all of your client's workout regimens, training schedule, contact information, and assessments. Clients can also view their scheduled sessions with you through their app and send their trainer text, video, or photo messages. 

What personal trainers love about, The Training Notebook and The Client Notebook is the simplicity. After opening the app, you are just three taps away from building a workout or an assessment. Trainers and clients can edit their exercises or assessments anytime and add before and after photos to their profiles. Trainers can access their accounts via Android, iOS, and the web, unlike some other apps on the market. 

Try The Training Notebook for free for 15-Days today. 

Mint - Budget and spend tracking app 

For iOS, Android, Web

As a personal trainer software and business owner, it is crucial to keep track of your finances. You need to track how much money is coming in and how much is going towards business expenses. Mint is an app that personal trainers find particularly useful for business for things like budgeting, creating goals, and collects all your financial accounts in one place. Mint's dashboard gives you an overall picture of your finances on just one screen.  

PayPal - Easy way to receive or send money 

Although it is possible to get by with one online payment method, many customers prefer to use their favorite payment methods. Popular services like PayPal, Square, and Apple Pay, customers can check out on various websites without having to spend time adding all their payment and address information when paying. These services create a more seamless and convenient experience for them. The more your visitors come to expect this kind of convenience, the less likely they are to bother with a website that makes them do the extra work.

When it comes to accepting payments online, it's essential to offer customers various payment options. Offering multiple billing and online payment options increases satisfaction by improving customer experience.

It's always a good idea to explore your options before deciding on which payment service or services to use for your business. A few popular payment methods are Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Square.  

Paypal is extremely popular; most people use it regularly. 

It is easy to set up and use

Works internationally

Paypal has an excellent security track record

Your clients may already be familiar with PayPal.

Your clients don't need a PayPal account to pay you.

You can create and send invoices through your account.

PayPal's fees are less than many merchant accounts 

You can set up recurring payments.

Recap

Online personal training is here to stay and using these apps will help you deliver a seamless personal training experience to your clients. Remember that working out at home is relatively new to your clients and we need to remove any obstacles they may have to consistently train with you. 

T-Notebook Founder

Coach Hector Sanchez 

[ommil]

The Hardest Part About Dieting: Find Your Source of Your Binges

Binge eating is a real problem for people on a restrictive diet. But for me, instead of fighting the binge, I rearranged my calories and quality of food. So, the most important meal of my day is at night - dinner. I figure out what I want for that meal and track those calories first. Then for the rest of the day and calories, I aim to fill it with tons of veggies and protein. have better self-control during the day just not in the evening. Having a few yummy low calorie recipes that I really enjoy. I don’t have those unless I’m craving something and when I have them, I have them at the end of the day. This helps, because it gives me something to look forward to, a reward. I

Having a family who aren’t on the same diet

For some people a family not going the same diet regime is a real burden. Cooking two different things all the time also might be tough. That's the problem. Cook differently for family and again for yourself. A woman would reiterate: There are bagels on my counter and chips in my pantry. That’s hard for me. I sometimes think if I lived alone I could purge my house and have a carb free safe space to protect me from myself in weak moments, and it would be easier. I don’t begrudge my family for not being on a diet they don’t need to be on though. I can’t make them live in a carb free home. Don’t let you house fill with carb food. do the grocery shopping, so quit buying bread, pasta, potatoes and anything with sugar or flour in it. The kids are welcome to eat healthy food.

Calculating Macros and think before everything I eat.

Make two sides that are Keto friendly and they eat a whole Keto supper without knowing it! So, try to cook one family dinner but with just minor modifications. A protein we can all have, a salad or vegetable we can all have, and then another side only they have like rice or something. Make two sides that are Keto friendly and they eat a whole Keto supper without knowing it! Lunches are most work though because that’s where the big difference is. I’ve learned to make my lunch first, the night before, so that I’m happy with what I put together and can just focus on me. Knowing I have a good lunch ready to grab keeps me from feeling deprived when I make their lunches in the morning.

Cravings while dieting

Cooking separate meals is a non-issue for me, I know most of my recipes by heart and all the macros associated with them. I know all the brands I like to eat, all the veggies like to use etc. so, It stops being hard after a while. Usually you want to binge because something in you feels it deserves to be rewarded for getting through the day. No matter how your day was, you're amazing for getting through it. But try instead to reward yourself in other ways. Make a homemade face mask or body scrub. Anything little that makes you feel like a queen/king at the end of the day. Try drinking a nightly tea. Grow to love it. Use it to wind down the night each night. If you really need something to eat, try drinking a light broth. It's very filling. It also has a soup taste so sometimes it satisfies whatever you mind thinks it is needing. Try to really find the source of your binges and work that way. Fasting helps you to 'save' your calories for the end of the day.

What macronutrients ratio should be  - how to find them out?

The ketogenic diet (keto) is a low-carb, high-fat diet that causes weight loss and provides numerous health benefits. Macro ratios can vary vastly between individuals but here some estimations: Protein 20-30%, Carbs 45-60%, Fat 15-30% I personally try to get 20-25% of my calories from protein, then I don’t bother too much with fat to carbs ratio. There are plenty of calculators online you can look up. Don’t forget that one gram of fat contains a little more than twice as much calories as one gram of carb or protein, so for example an egg which contains 5g of fat and 6g of protein will have 65% of its calories coming from fat and 35% from protein.

The beauty of intermittent fasting

The beauty of IF is that it’s fluid, and helps with food cravings. Choose when you want to eat. Big dinner ahead? Start eating later. Your window for eating is, say, 8 hours. As long as you don’t start eating again for 16 hours, you’re good. It can change every day as long as you can do the math Willpower can be quite a fight sometimes, but sometimes just changing it up can help you with it. I changed up my routine a bit and it helped so much. I used to have the bad habit of mindlessly eating in front of the tv, so I made myself stick to eating at the dining table, even for snacks for a long time. we are creatures of habit. It is very likely there is some kind of association with uncontrollable snacking. Once you identify your associations, you can take steps to curb it. With my TV cramps, if I was craving something, I would allow myself to eat, but I made sure to stop whatever I was watching, take the time to portion out a single serving, and eat in the dining room. Eventually, overtime, the association subsided.

Fasting and fed state

Try to develop a fairly elaborate night time routine to keep yourself busy and your mind off of snacking. Typically, this type of binging is more habit based than hunger based. Body doesn't have an on/off switch, it regulates its work by current situation of that time. Whenever you eat you are in surplus, and once that food has ended,  fasting to give energy you are in deficit. So, we go in and out to deficit/surplus throughout the day and the summation of those surplus/deficit will determine your body composition depending on which one outweighed the other. Read the full article

[suitairbus3-blog]

Paleo and Keto: How Much Fat is Too Much? How Much is Enough?

Way too many explanations of Paleo and keto diets are jam-packed with:

Complicated technical terms (Omega-6 PUFA! Stearic acid! Adipose tissue!).

Multiple confusing acronyms that refer back to the complicated technical terms – good luck keeping track of EPA, DHA, O3, O6, SFA, MUFA, PUFA, and CLA all in one article if these are all new terms to you!

Math (“0.75 grams per kilogram of body weight,” 4:1 ratio)

If all that makes your eyes glaze over, you’re not alone. If you’re starting a new diet, this is way too much info to take in all at once! It’s also not actually necessary to get your feet on the ground and get going.

Instead of diving into the information overload right up front, what about starting with a description of the foods you’ll actually eat (aka what your dinner plate looks like, which is something anyone can wrap their mind around in one setting) and filling in the nutritional details later, with enough time to actually digest each concept before moving on to the next.

In that spirit, here’s a very beginner-friendly approach to that endless question, “how much fat should I eat?” Everything is explained in terms of foods and meals, not just grams and ratios. The numbers are here, but they’re optional reading – the goal is to offer simple guidelines for humans who eat foods at mealtimes.

How Much Fat?

It’s important to get enough fat – that’s especially true on keto, but even if you’re doing regular, non-keto Paleo, getting enough fat is key to keeping your energy levels up, maintaining healthy sex hormone levels, good mental health, and so many other things. We still live in a world where fat is often demonized, so it bears repeating: fat isn’t bad, it doesn’t make you fat, and it’s nothing to be cared of.

On the other hand, Paleo isn’t about eating a ton of fat just for the sake of eating fat. Even on keto, there’s no point scarfing down tons of fat for the sake of getting more fat. The magic of keto is in the low total carb count, not in drinking gallons of coconut oil.

For both Paleo and keto, getting the diet right means two things: getting the right kinds of fat and getting the right amount of fat.

Good Fat Sources

Most people are pretty fuzzy on what kinds of fat are in which foods, and on which foods have “bad fat.” For example, ask anyone what kind of fat is in red meat and ten to one they’ll say “saturated.” But most red meat has as much monounsaturated fat (the same kind as in olive oil and avocados) as saturated. Most people also carry around a vague idea that saturated fat is “bad” because it causes heart disease, but research shows that it actually doesn’t and from a Paleo perspective it’s a perfectly fine thing to eat. The point here is: don’t necessarily trust your pre-Paleo instincts on “good” fat sources.

For a Paleo or keto diet, a good fat source is:

*Unless the plant is soy or peanut. Soy and peanuts aren’t Paleo so they aren’t good sources of Paleo fat.

Fats to avoid include:

Anything made of soy or peanuts

Canola oil, peanut oil, “vegetable oil,” linseed oil, and other industrially processed fats. Basically, if you aren’t sure that an oil is OK, it’s probably safer to skip it, or at least Google first.

Fat eaten as part of a highly processed food, especially if the food is high in both fat and sugar. For example: cookies, ice cream, deep-fried funnel cake, potato chips, pizza.

For science nerds, Paleo emphasizes monounsaturated fat (olive oil, avocados), whole-food sources of saturated fat (eggs, beef, butter), and Omega-3 fats (fish and seafood) and discourages processed industrial oils (canola oil, soybean oil, “vegetable oil,” etc.). For further reading, see here.

Whole eggs fried in butter: yes. Tofu fried in peanut oil: no.

Food-based fat guidelines

Just like people’s gut instincts about good fat sources can be wrong, their instincts about which foods are high in fat can also be way off. For example, many people think of potato chips as a really carb-y food (“potato” is right there in the name!) – but 1.5 ounces of potato chips have more fat than a tablespoon of oil. Most foods are a mix of protein, carbs, and fat and it’s to snap-judge what’s high in fat and what isn’t. So here’s a guide to choosing foods that will get you an appropriate fat intake on Paleo or keto.

For non-keto Paleo: eat whole foods rich in fat at every meal – foods like egg yolks, avocados, and dark meat. Use cooking oil to taste – don’t avoid it, but don’t make any special effort to drown your food in olive oil. Just use whatever you need to cook with. Don’t use weird 0-calorie fat-free cooking sprays, powdered nut butter, reduced-fat processed foods, or other tricks to reduce the fat content of your meals.

For keto: make a special effort to eat fat-rich foods and make sure you have at least 2 good fat sources at every meal (a “fat source” is a serving of fatty meat, cooking oil, or another fatty food). If you’re hungry after meals, add more fat. If your meals feel greasy and disgusting, substitute cheese, avocado, or nuts for oils and fatty meats.

For example, a keto meal might be:

1 cup of asparagus, cooked in 1 tbsp. of coconut oil (that’s one good fat source)

1 piece of pan-fried salmon, with the skin, cooked in 1 tbsp. of butter, drizzled with an additional tbsp. of butter plus some lemon juice. (another good fat source)

Half an avocado at the side (a third good fat source)

For the macro counters, that all adds up to:

Protein: 26.2 grams

Net carbs: 3.7 grams

Fat: 54.1 grams

This would be a pretty high-protein meal for keto – if you’re really doing low-protein, super high-fat keto, maybe have a bit less salmon and throw in the whole avocado instead of just the half.

Summing it Up

Nerding out about grams of monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat is fun for a few of us, but most people who just want to eat a healthy Paleo or keto diet don’t need to worry all that much about it, especially at first. Guidelines for foods and meals are easier to wrap your head around and follow:

Eat fat from whole foods (meat, eggs, coconut, etc.) and some healthy oils (olive/avocado oil, coconut oil, etc.)

For Paleo, enjoy lots of whole foods rich in fat and don’t make any effort to limit fat.

For keto, make an effort to include at least 2 fat sources in every meal (e.g. pulled pork AND broccoli roasted in olive oil) but there’s no need to go completely overboard eating fat for the sake of fat.

What are your favorite fat-rich Paleo or keto meals? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter!

P.S. Have a look at Paleo Restart, our 30-day program. It has the tools to let you reset your body, lose weight and start feeling great.

+ The Paleo Leap Meal Planner is now also available. Put your meal planning on autopilot!

Source: https://paleoleap.com/keto-how-much-fat-too-much-enough/

[afrosabi]

How to Start on Keto

This was requested by a mutual @cook4soul on how to start without breaking the bank etc. Please not that this is based on *MY* personal experience and your milage may vary. I’ll also include links to resources that helped me out a lot along the way.

I think the FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT thing to do to start is to start logging your meals now on an app/site like myfitnesspal or spark people. The reason I say this is 1) You want to see where you are in terms of calories and how much carbs you are consuming right now. You *think* you have a good idea but you are probably totally wrong. Plus, this is going to become a way of life for you and the sooner you get used to it, the easier it will be. You *will* have to track your carbs. In order to get into ketosis, you will probably have to start out with 20g of carbs per day or less. How will you know if you are not measuring/weighing/logging your food. So I would say THAT is the starting point.

The second most important thing I think is to research, research research! There are so many sites out there that will help you and define terms for you, You need to know what macros are. Or things like net carbs etc. So get familiar with the terminology through reading about it because if you join forums or support groups, they will be using these terms on a regular basis. 

Don’t start “fat bombing” until you get your carbs down. You will only gain weight. If you are a carb addict, start eliminating it from your diet gradually. Like get rid of sodas, then sweets like cookies/candy, then pastas and bread, then eventually the fruits and veg high in carbs. 

It’s so counter intuitive but you will be eating a LOT of fat. Personally, 80% of my calories consumed is from fat. I’m used to it now but it sure was a chock to the system! Which leads me to my next point. . .

YOU WILL MOST LIKELY FEEL LIKE SHIT FOR A FEW DAYS while your body gets over the shock of having no glycogen. There is even a name for it. . .keto flu. I read up on this beforehand so I had plenty of bouillon to counteract the effects. You will need to take in a LOT more salt than you are used to as well.

Can you do keto on the cheap? Yup. I spend more than I used to simply because I like variety but some of my staples that aren’t expensive are: nuts and seeds. Cheese. Eggs. Leafy green veggies. Cuts of meat on sale. Bulk coconut oil from Amazon. Butter. Almond/coconut milk. Places like Aldi have all of these items REALLY cheap. Even avocado is 49 cents a piece sometimes. Oh yeah, and I stock up on berries. It’s about the only fruit you can eat.

What does get expensive are the specialty items that aren’t required but nice to have such as almond or coconut flour, or sweeteners like Swerve. As you get more deep into it and look up keto recipes, you might decide to indulge in some of these ingredients so that you can make a keto cake or a fathead pizza. Or shirataki noodles if you miss noodles.

Start reading labels. Sugars are hidden in EVERYTHING. . .even some beef jerky is high in sugar/carbs.

The weight initially comes off really, really fast. People refer to this as a “whoosh.” But it is mostly water weight. . .it’s still nice though.

One of the most helpful sites that I found starting out was: https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto

Great recipes too!

Calculate your macros: https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/page/KetoDiet-Buddy

A spark group I’m in that answers all newbie questions with patience: http://teams.sparkpeople.com/teamketo

I hope this helps and if you have more questions, please feel free to ask!

[gabriellakirtonblog]

Personal Trainer Nutrition Guidance 101

My colleagues and I have worked with a lot of elite athletes at Precision Nutrition. And we’ve worked with countless regular folks—people exactly like your clients.

The two groups have a lot more in common than you’d expect. In fact, a surprising number of coaching principles apply across the board, no matter who the clients are and what they do.

Here are nine lessons that apply to just about any client who’ll come to you for nutrition guidance.

READ ALSO: How to Become an Online Nutrition Coach

Lesson #1: The best meal plan is worthless if your client doesn’t like the food

Imagine if, instead of crafting an individualized training program for each client, you simply handed them a written workout and told them to follow it.

If they wanted a generic workout, they could easily find one online. Many of them have already tried, which is why they came to you. They need a program that takes into account their goals, training history, abilities, limitations, and all the other variables you consider.

It works the same way with a nutrition plan. No matter how precisely you calculate calories and macros, if it doesn’t include some of your client’s favorite foods, it’s dead on arrival.

Brian St. Pierre, Precision Nutrition’s director of sport nutrition, learned this from working with pro athletes. Some of those at the top of their game are extremely picky eaters. They have favorites they can’t live without, and aversions to foods you think every good diet should include.

A few tactics to make sure your clients follow the plans you come up with*:

1. Start with a template

Just as you build your training programs from a handful of basic templates, so can you write many different meal plans from a relatively simple structure.

READ ALSO: A Plug-and-Play Template for Program Design

2. Include the client’s favorite foods

The client can’t start the day without a supersweet Frappuccino? Can’t turn down her mother-in-law’s casserole on Sunday evenings? Assume those things are part of the diet, and adjust the rest of the meal plan accordingly.

To make room for them, ask your client what she wouldn’t miss if she substituted something else. What does she eat out of habit rather than hunger? Replace those with healthier, lower-calorie options, and she can mitigate the damage of the calorie bombs she can’t live without.

3. Make sure it’s convenient

You’d think the highest-earning pro athletes live in a hermetically sealed world where they only see the food their private chefs prepare for them. But in reality, those athletes travel constantly, and when they do, their food options are often limited to the burgers, wings, and pizza on late-night room service menus.

Your clients often face similar constraints. Maybe they work in a place with limited nearby food choices. Maybe they’re stuck in morning meetings where “breakfast” is platters of pastries. Maybe they have young children, and their weekends are so jam-packed with activities that fast food is their default option.

Help them navigate these obstacles. Suggest microwavable meals for work, smoothies they can make at home and drink at the meeting, and lists of the best options at the major fast food chains.

* This assumes you’re capable, confident, and qualified to provide meal plans. (Most personal trainers aren’t.) For more on providing nutrition advice, check out this article.

Lesson #2: Sometimes you have to shape the environment before you can get results

Where is your client’s nutrition plan most likely to fall apart? At home? In the office? On the road? At restaurants? If the biggest problems tend to occur in the same place, you may need to pay a visit.

When you visit the client’s home, for example, check out the kitchen. What’s on the counters? Are they so cluttered your client has no room to prepare meals? What about the cabinets? Does your client have staple ingredients for healthy meals, or are the shelves stocked with all the things they’re trying to avoid?

You can give your client grocery lists, or even go shopping with them. You can also share recipes and cooking demos.

Same with the office, or restaurants, or the client’s commute. Seeing those environments should help you come up with ways for your client to navigate them.

Lesson #3: Get buy-in from your client’s influencers

I used to work with junior hockey players in Canada. They were elite athletes, but they were also young, and either living with their parents or with host families if they didn’t play in their hometown.

I did my best to teach them the basics of nutrition and meal prep, but I quickly realized it didn’t matter unless I focused on the people who actually prepared their meals. The more buy-in I got from them, the better the athletes’ adherence would be.

The same applies to your clients. Their biggest challenges may come from the other people in their lives: spouses, kids, roommates, coworkers, friends, extended family.

If a spouse cooks most of the meals, see if you can sit down and talk through some meal options. Perhaps you can even cook a meal for them, or share one of theirs.

READ ALSO: Why You Should Have Dinner With Your Clients

Lesson #4: Don’t assume anything about the client’s skill in the kitchen

Appearances can be deceiving. Just because someone is a star in their sport, or is leaner and fitter than your average client, doesn’t mean they have advanced nutrition knowledge, or know how to prepare anything more complex than a bowl of oatmeal.

The opposite may also be true. Someone who’s seriously overweight or deconditioned may have Top Chef-level culinary skill.

Instead of making assumptions or guesses about where your client is at, ask questions. Listen. Observe. Seek to understand rather than to prove yourself right.

Lesson #5: Forget perfection

If you’re training competitive physique athletes, the diet has to be near-perfect for the client to succeed.

But most of your clients will see real, significant, measurable progress toward their goals if they can get 80 percent of their meals on point, especially if they aren’t close to that now.

Sometimes they’re so far away that the best you can do is make things less terrible. A little less fast food. Fewer non-diet sodas or teas or coffees or juices. Less alcohol. Smaller portions.

As long as it’s a little better than before, they’re moving in the right direction. As we learned from this huge data set, the little changes can add up to powerful results.

Lesson #6: Beware of fanatical adherence

Then there’s the opposite type of client, the one who defines success as 100 percent adherence.

They’re often trying to emulate athletes or celebrities who’re celebrated for a dramatic transformation or uncompromising discipline. But for most of their role models, the extreme diets have a natural cutoff point—the end of the season, or the conclusion of a movie role. They don’t try to deprive themselves 52 weeks a year.

If your client has the same idea—lose a bunch of weight by a specific deadline, like a wedding or reunion—it’s rarely dangerous. Perfection only has a dark side if the client sees it as a permanent condition. Because it’s an impossible standard, your client is set up for failure.

Countering that mindset can be tricky. You don’t want to discourage the client, or imply they can’t pull it off. Talk about the importance of seasonality, and putting a time limit on a goal like getting as lean as possible. Maybe focus on strength for a few months, or endurance, with the understanding they’ll need to be fully nourished to make it work.

And if the client’s only goal is to lose as much fat as possible? Keep the long game in mind. Discuss how to get there as safely as possible, and why it’s important to back off and recover from time to time.

READ ALSO: What Do You Do with a Client Who Wants too Much, too Soon?

Lesson #7: What works for one client won’t work for all your clients

And what works for you might not work for any of them. This is especially true if you’re a true believer in whatever diet happens to be trending at the moment.

I’ve seen this at all levels, from a strength coach who put NFL linemen on strict ketogenic diets to trainers in commercial gyms who pushed their clients to follow their favorite plan. Once a fitness pro decides they’ve found the one true path, they turn into evangelists, trying to convince everyone to use the diet for every goal, and to keep using it indefinitely.

Taken to the most absurd extremes, a client who’s trying to gain muscle might be fasting for much of the day, while someone trying to lose weight is putting butter and coconut oil in his coffee.

Individual needs should come before trends every time. And individual habits, preferences, and circumstances matter more than “this works for some guy on Instagram” or “this should work in theory.”

READ ALSO: 11 Diet and Fitness Trends That Aren’t Actually New

Lesson #8: “Healthy” foods aren’t healthy for everyone

You already know that lots of people have food allergies or sensitivities, and not just to peanuts or gluten or dairy. Some are allergic to fruit, red meat, or celery.

Allergies aside, even the healthiest foods aren’t optimal for every client, especially when they’re calorie-dense and easily overconsumed. How they’re prepared also matters. “Superfoods” aren’t quite so super if the dark leafy greens are drenched in high-calorie dressing or the salmon is sautéed and topped with a creamy sauce.

Lesson #9: Take advantage of your client’s strengths

Every single client, whether they’re a gold medalist or someone who’s never been past the front desk of a gym, has at least one superpower.

One of your jobs as a coach is to help them figure out what they’re already good at and put those abilities to use.

Maybe that middle-aged guy is a spreadsheet ninja, and the opportunity to track every bite of food leads to better adherence. Or maybe that mild-mannered accountant loves to get outside and wander around, and you can steer her toward local farmers markets.

Maybe they have the ability to learn, but until they worked with you they were never interested in nutrition. Maybe they struggle with impulse control, but make up for it with a surprising ability to get back on the wagon every time they fall off.

Help your clients recognize their own superpowers, and then put them to use. Celebrate every step forward, no matter how modest.

No, they’ll never be the star of the team. But you can still be their cheerleader.

John Berardi’s latest book is Change Maker: Turn Your Passion for Health and Fitness into a Powerful Purpose and a Wildly Successful Career. A version of this article originally appeared at Precision Nutrition.

        Ready to Launch a Lucrative and Fulfilling Online Personal Training Career?

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The foundational skills successful online trainers develop (pg. 3)

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The tech you need to deliver world-class results — it’s simpler than you think (pg. 103)

Insider secrets for getting and keeping your ideal clients (pg. 109)

The truth about marketing your online business (pg. 125)

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If you’re ready to take the next step in your personal training career, or know someone who is, you won’t find a more authoritative or comprehensive resource.

Order the paperback today and get the audiobook and ebook versions FREE (a $40 value).

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[number06fan]

Could the Keto Diet Up Your Food Poisoning Risk?

Could your fad diet make you more susceptible to foodborne infection?  Research studies say yes.  A University College Cork study in Ireland took a look at high fat diets and susceptibility to Listeria monocytogenes infection. Could there be a Keto and Listeria risk? Again, it may be a yes.

Their approach was in response to their desire to study the impact on “westernized diet” of high fat and how it relates to infectious disease.  “In the context of a global epidemic and changes in dietary habits towards increased consumption of a ‘westernized’ diet, there is currently surprising little information regarding the influence of diet upon the progression of infectious disease.”

This got me thinking.  The “westernized diet” is generally considered to be high fat, high carbs, high sugars.  This is influenced by our leaning toward fast food McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and so on.  When not consuming fast food, we eat a lot of meat and carbs in most meals as compared to some other cultural diets.

This study didn’t address carbohydrates and sugars.  They only explored fat content of diets.  This immediately made me think about a high-fat diet craze so many people I know are doing.

These hard-core dieters are eating butter and cream cheese by the pound.  But it seems to be working for most of them.  This is supposed to be a diet?  I am sure you have heard of it.  Keto.  Short for the metabolic phase they are trying to achieve – ketogenesis.

But what exactly is Keto?

Keto: Defined

According to Harvard University, the keto diet moves beyond the low carb, low fat people tend to think about when dieting to lose that extra weight.  A true ketogenic diet is different.  “Unlike other low-carb diets, which focus on protein, a keto plan centers on fat, which supplies as much as 90% of daily calories.”

In normal metabolism, the body uses sugar, more specifically glucose that comes from carbohydrates like fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes as fuel.  The keto diet uses ketone bodies as fuel.  Ketone bodies are produced by the liver from stored fat.

This is not an easy feat to achieve and requires a very strict diet.  But hey, if you can trick your body into burning fat by consuming fat it sounds like a win-win, right?

This requires the dieter to deprive themselves of carbohydrates.  This means they must consume less than 20 to 50 grams of carbs per day.  “Keep in mind that a medium-sized banana has about 27 grams of carbs.”  So, if you are a banana fan, you can’t monkey around with that fruit.

It doesn’t happen overnight.  It could take several days to reach a state of ketosis.  Meanwhile you are consuming large amounts of fat.  Sounds a little counter-productive to me.  But my friends swear by it.

Additionally, eating too much protein can have a negative affect on achieving ketosis.  Those that I know that do this.  Those hard-core keto people.  They track macro and micro nutrients, protein, and everything. It certainly is a juggling act and a biochemistry final exam stressor for dieting.

A typical keto diet with 2,000 calories per day will have “165 grams of fat, 40 grams of carbs, and 75 grams of protein.”  That is a lot of fat!

Which is concerning to me, because this study talks about how a high fat diet makes you more susceptible to pathogenic infection.  Specifically, Listeria monocytogenes as explored in this study involving mice.

But what is Listeria monocytogenes?

Listeria: Defined

Listeria monocytogenes commonly known as Listeria is a bacterium that causes the infection listeriosis.  Lots of vowels in there, I know.  But it is a very serious foodborne infection.  Pregnant women, newborns, older adults, and those with a compromised immune system are most at risk.  Pregnant women often experience less severe symptoms, though they are at greater risk of stillbirth and miscarriage.  Symptoms include normal flu-like symptoms such as fever, fatigue, and muscle aches.  Additional symptoms include headache, stiff neck, loss of balance, confusion, and convulsions.

One of the reasons reading this study made me think about Listeria is because I often associate Listeria with dairy.  Unpasteurized or under pasteurized dairy products and dairy products in general are high on the list of Listeria risk.  Most of the people I know on this keto diet use a lot of cheese to obtain the fat content in their diet.  One guy makes what he calls fat bombs with cream cheese, butter, and coconut oil.

Now we know what the keto diet is.  And what Listeria is.  Back to the study to see if there is a link.  Spoiler alert!  I wouldn’t be writing about it if there wasn’t a link.  But keep reading because it gets good.

Back to the Study

The scientists conducting the study had 3 sets of rats.  One set was fed a high fat diet (happy rats with a short life).  The second was fed a low-fat diet (poor guys never got to have a muffin).  The third set acted as a control and were fed a normal rat chow (yes, rat chow is a thing).

After they chowed down on their respective meal plans for 13 days all rats were exposed to Listeria monocytogenes.  Fecal, intestinal, spleen, and other samples were obtained over the next few days.

After exposure, the rats fed the high fat diet showed changes in their microbiota (also known as the gut microbiome – and the intestine’s first line of defense against pathogens).  Additionally, they showed an increase in the number of goblet cells.  These are known binding sites for the pathogen.  The microbiota also changed to promote inflammation in the hosts intestine.

Those fed the low-fat diet and rat chow didn’t have any noticeable differences in microbiota or goblet cell production.

What Does This Mean?

The high fat diet altered the rats’ intestinal microbiome.  In addition to affecting the normal flora of the intestines, the body produced cells that made the rats targets for pathogens.  In this case, they looked specifically at the cells that bind to Listeria.  Other changes in the intestines made the rats more prone to inflammation.

Decreased immunity.  Increased targets.  And more inflammation.  To Listeria.

That seems pretty scary to me.  My friends can keep their keto.  I’ll just settle for low carb and low sugar.  It seems to be working for me.

By: Heather Van Tassell, Contributing Writer (Non-Lawyer)

The post Could the Keto Diet Up Your Food Poisoning Risk? appeared first on The Lange Law Firm.

[inyourface-allovertheplace]

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New Post has been published on http://10in30.com/how-much-did-you-eat-yesterday/

How much did you eat yesterday?

Truth is, most people do not really know how much they ate on any given day. Even if you know what you ate, and you know that it was, say one chicken breast salad for lunch and one plate of pasta with sauce for dinner, you really don’t know how much protein, carbs, and fats you ate.

And you certainly don’t know how many total calories you ate.

If you are having a difficult time and your weight is yo-yoing, that can be what is keeping you from reaching your goals

You see, without getting the actual numbers of what you ate, (grams or ounces) you are guessing at best; that’s if you even keep track. I’ve heard overweight people say that they hardly ate on a given day. But I remember seeing them over-eat like crazy one time, so I’m guessing that either they really did eat below their maintenance calories that day, OR they just ate less than the day before but they still OVER-ATE that day.

When someone guesses that they are under-eating, they just might be comparing that day to how they normally eat. Let’s say their body needs 2000 calories a day to stay the same and maintain their current weight. So they eat 2500 calories pretty much every day when they are not keeping track at all. They are gaining weight, fast. Maybe on Wednesday, they were super busy and they only ate two meals which came out to around 2000 calories. Great. But at the end of the week, that one day of eating at maintenance cannot compete with 6 days of over-eating.

Even if on Wednesday he ate below maintenance—say 1900 calories— that one deficit day will not help him lose weight because -100 merely offsets the surplus of +3500 calories for that week. They end up with +3400 SURPLUS calories for the week. Still astronomical numbers that will make anyone gain a lot of weight really fast.

I know that “counting calories” gets a bad rap with people saying it’s “too hard” or outright refusing to put that much effort on fixing their body.

But it’s not a lot of effort at all.

If you cook for yourself, you are already at the kitchen with raw chicken breasts or meat or pasta anyway. Putting a chicken breast on a scale that’s already out on the counter top and jotting down “chicken 189g” on a sheet of paper that’s also already out with a pencil next to it takes me around 6 seconds. I don’t count vegetables like broccoli or spinach or green beans. You don’t need to count those since they are so low in calories and most of it is fibrous carbs which don’t get digested anyway. <- that was a 10in30 “only what you need to know” tip! 🙂

Then, while I’m eating, I bust out the MyFitnessPal app on my phone and quickly input:

“chicken breast 189g baked potato 200g butter 1tsp wheat sandwich bread 2x”.

As far as the inputting, it’s as easy as spreading delicious butter on your delicious wheat bread. The MyFitnessPal app has a barcode scanner that I use to scan the package of bread, pasta, or whatever I can to make it even easier. But even if you don’t have a barcode for everything (like the chicken breasts) you have a favorites tab that lets you easily add a common food or even a common meal, then just change the grams for each.

Logging this takes me a measly 5 minutes tops, even faster if I’m eating the same thing as the day before which if you read our book, we strongly recommend.

The “pro” way of doing this is to make up your meal plan for the week, choosing to eat the same breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Perfect example of KISS (keep it simple, stupid!)

This way, you are not trying to figure out how much you ate three times a day. You make your daily meal plan for the week once, making sure that all of the macros (protein, carbs, and fats) numbers are met for your specific body just like we show in our book, and then prepare those meals for the week. Or you can prepare those meals for Monday through Wednesday, then cook again on Thursday so you have freshly cooked food again. Just make sure they are the same meals so that you know exactly what you are putting into your body.

And I know that some people argue that counting calories is pointless because even two chicken breasts that weigh the same might still have different amounts of protein. But that’s the closest and most accurate way of knowing how much of each macro you are consuming daily. Eyeballing is far less accurate. Don’t you want to get the most accurate numbers so you know exactly how you’re doing? Especially when I just showed you how effortless it is when factoring in the huge payoff of getting the healthy body and lifestyle you are going for.

[dietcoachesofamerica]

After decades of fad diets and magic supplements, and with obesity still very much on the rise, our society is finally starting to grasp that a healthy lifestyle does not come with an easy pill.

Everyone seems to be trying to eat healthier and exercise, and I like to believe our generation has contributed quite a great deal to this sudden interest in living well-balanced, healthy lives.

Below is a list of eight simple, manageable, low-cost tips to help you get rid of some bad eating habits and replace them with newones:

1. Write down everything you eat.

In order to gain complete control over your diet, the starting point is having a complete overview of what you actually put in your body. You can start off by simply writing a food journal for a week.

Then, sit down and look for any patterns you can find. See if there is a specific time or day when you snack more, what your dinners usually look like and when you tend to eat the most.

Turn this end-of-the-week introspection into a habit. You can only write down what you eat, or you can actually begin tracking all of your macros.

Using one of the calorie-counter apps available makes tracking all of your macro- and micro-nutrients super easy, and you get a fantastic insight into what your diet actually looks like.

2. Avoid eating alone or in a hurry.

Besides enjoying good company, having a meal with other people will also help you avoid mindless overeating, which often includes gulping down meals in front of one of the many screens our 21st century lives have to offer, or even right there in our cars.

Sit down for every one of your meals and make an event out of it. Take your time and focus on the food in front of you.

Enjoy its smell, the richness of taste and even its appearance. Thoroughly chew every bite and pay attention to how your body responds. Notice when you feel full, and stop eating when you know youve had enough.

3. Be more active in everything you do.

I dont know about you, but for a long time, I was desperately trying to find the time for exercise in my busy schedule.

Often, that would naturally lead to the commonly known excuse of not having enough time to simply be active, when in fact, putting our bodies in motion is one of the most natural things a human does to exist in this world.

So, start using your legs more. Take the stairs (not the elevator), ride your bike to work if you have that option, play with your dog more often, take a walk instead of watching TV or spending useless time onthe internet and simply stretch every hour or so, especially if you spend your days cramped in front of the computer.

Basically, move out of your head and start using your body more.

4. Fill your plate with veggies first.

There is more than one upside to this habit.

Firstly, if you fill up your plate with low-calorie food (vegetables are ideal), you immediately perceive your plate as full and can barely find the place to add more food.

Secondly, if you eat those veggies before you attack that huge steak waiting for you, you just might discover your belly is actually quite full already.

And thirdly, vegetables are simply good for you. You might have heard the story of green veggies that are magicalbecause of their high-fiber content and tons of vitamins before.

And you might just hate me right now for stating this obvious fact again, but try eating two or three times as much vegetables than what you are used to, and trust me, your entire digestive system will thank you.

5. Feed your body with complex carbs.

Let go of the ancient belief that a low-carb diet is the best way to go.

The truth is, your body needs more carbohydrates than any other nutrient. The myth of getting slim by eliminating carbs from your diet is based on the fact simple carbs indeed do you no good, since your body processes them much too quickly, which leads to a rapid rise and then a rapid fall of your blood sugar.

This leaves you feeling sluggish, drained of all energy and, quite often, a bit bloated.

So, how to ditch this habit with little effort? Think in terms of substitutions, instead of eliminations.

Once you start tracking what you eat, focus on the meals where you consume most of your carbs, and make sure you substitute them with complex carbs. Some of the best choices are whole grains(oatmeal, whole wheat bread, brown rice, corn, quinoa), green vegetables, starchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes and fruits.

6. Make sure you get enough healthy fats.

Much like carbs, fats also have a certain bad reputation with people trying to lose weight. Over the past couple of decades, everything diet-worthy seemed to be either low-fat or low-carb.

So, I cant stress enough how essential fatty acids are actually crucial for your well-being. The situation is again similar to carbs: You have bad fats (trans fats and saturated fats)and good fats (monounsaturatedand polyunsaturated fats).

Bad fats really are bad for you because they raise your cholesterol level, and they are the reason most people trying to eat right are avoiding all fats.

But mono- and polyunsaturated fats are good for your health, since they actually help lower your cholesterol and reduce your risk for heart disease. My tip is again the same as with carbs.

Find substitutions you will fall in love with. For example, coconut oil, olive oil, cod fish liver oil, nuts, avocados or nut butter are all great options to add to your diet.

7. Eat plenty of lean protein.

Protein is the macro that plays a crucial role in every single function of our bodies.

It also plays a very important role in your diet, if you are trying to lose or even maintain weight, since it boosts your metabolism and helps to reduce appetite. It keeps you full and satisfied longer.

Some great options are Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, quark and eggs. Try soy milk, tofu, tempeh or legumes if you want to avoid animal proteinaltogether.

If you eat meat, then go for chicken or turkey breasts, tuna, tilapia, salmon, etc.

8. Find balance in everything you do.

Last but not least, dont restrict yourself and dont torment yourself over every single thing you didnt do according to your plan.

Once you accept the only person in the world you should explain yourself to is you, it will be much easier to treat your body the way it deserves to be treated.

If you want to lose weight, get fit, eat clean or anything else, you most probably already know what you need to do. The only reason youre still not doing it is because you feel you should play by other peoples rules to achieve that goal.

But its your body, your life, your goal and your rules.

If you know you cant live without chocolate, then dont put yourself on a restricted diet that doesnt allow you to eat anything but fruits for a month, just because a friend supposedly lost 20 pounds doing it.

And then dont beat yourself up when you binge on chocolate after a really good week. Find what works for you and you alone.

Read more:

[thepurplealmond]

Ugh, keeping a food log isn’t my favorite thing to do. And, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m horrible at it. I’ll do it for a week or two, then quit. I really don’t know why I struggle so much. It doesn’t take that much time. As I started my elimination diet yesterday, logging food is essential to my success. So, I’m doing my best to log every meal…

Anyway, if you’re trying to eat healthy and lose weight, keeping a food log is a must. But, why?

Why you should keep a food log…

Food logs show you what you’re eating – While you may think you know what you’re eating, in my experience, keeping a food log is a very enlightening process. We imagine that we eating 3 meals and a healthy snack or two, often we don’t count the little nibbles and bites along the way.

It can help you lose weight– It’s easy to dismiss just how much food you’re eating. A bite here, a nibble there…it all adds up. But, keeping a food log, of EVERY bite you take, helps you know exactly what you’re eating and how much. It’ll tell you just how many calories you’re eating, as well as your macronutrient percentages. This is all important information for anyone trying to shed a few pounds. According to WebMD, one study showed that people who kept a food log and had weekly support lost twice as much weight as those who didn’t keep a log.

Helps keep your diet balanced – Knowing exactly what you’re eating throughout the day can help balance out your diet. It allows you to look back at your day and make adjustments. Maybe you realize that you’ve only eaten 1 serving of veggies, you can make sure to balance that out at dinner, by adding an extra serving.

Helps with meal planning/meal prepping – I’ve found that food logs not only help with food I’ve already eaten, but helps me plan out future meals. I can go into the days ahead and add in my meals before hand, therefore planning out my week. This also helps with meal prep. The two go hand in hand.

Helps you understand portion control – With a food log, you typically have a set caloric intake. Logging food allows you to better track your calorie intake, by learning about and controlling your portion sizes. You learn to spread your calories through out the day. Instead of 2 cups of pasta salad, which would take a good percentage of your daily calories, you know to only take 1 cup. You still get your pasta, just less of it.

Types of food logs and what I use…

Now that you know WHY you should be logging food, we need to discuss HOW to log food. There really is no hard and fast rule to a food log, as long as you log everything you eat and drink, in some way.

It all comes down to personal preference. It can be as easy as writing them down in a notebook or on a printable paper log, to using a smart phone app or developing a computer spreadsheet. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be.

I’ve tried a few different methods of food logging, including trying out several smart phone apps. Using a paper log just isn’t for me. I prefer a smart phone app, since my phone is always with me, it makes logging easy.

After trying several phone apps, I find MY NET DIARY works best for me. I use the paid version, at about $5/month, which gives me the ability to track blood sugar levels and other extras. But the free version is wonderful as well. What do I like about it?

They have a catalogue of over 761,000 different foods.

Calculates a recommended daily calorie intake based on your activity level, weight and goal weight

UPC scanning capability-  meaning you can scan the barcode of a food, for ease of entry or if it can’t be found in the database.

Create your own recipes. – This is a wonderful and easy to use aspect of this app.

track individual nutrients

track exercise – which is accounted for in the daily calorie intake

track weight loss

track body fat percentages

track body measurements

track all forms of health data – including resting heart rate, blood pressure cholesterol, etc

links with my smart phone health app and other fitness devices – to track steps and other health info.

tracks water – Most apps do this, but, I love the flexibility of this one. It doesn’t just give you 8 glasses to cross off, but gives you to 15 glasses and allows you to adjust the ounces per glass. For instance, I drink 180 ounces of water a day. I was able to adjust the ounces per glass from 8 to 12 ounces, allowing for the extra water intake.

I could go on. I’m sure there are other apps with these same capabilities, but, I just find My Net Diary relatively easy to use. Here’s a sample of my own diary from yesterday:

  Other food log apps- Authority Nutrition’s 5 best calorie counter websites and apps

My Fitness Pal –

Lose It –

Fat Secret –

Cron-o-meter –

Spark People –

Free printable paper logs:

Weekly Food Log 

From: Get Buttoned Up

Free Printable Diet & Exercise Worksheet

Weekly Food Log

From: The Project Girl

theprojectgirl.com-foodjournal

Daily Food Log

From: The Freebee Mom

foodjournal

Daily Food Log

From: Built Lean

free-printable-food-diary-template

Other food log templates, apps and resources:

40 simple food log templates

USDA super tracker

WebMD food and fitness journal

My food diary – CDC

Food Log Template – 30+ Free Word, Excel, PDF Documents Download

5 free food journal templates

National Institute of Health food diary

Calorie King food tracking app

My Macros food tracking app

Fooducate food log

Lifesum food and healthy living app

My Plate food and fitness tracker from Livestrong

My Diet Coach food tracker

Well, there you have it. Now you have no excuses. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how you log your food, as long as you do. What’s your favorite food app? I want to know! 🙂

Have a beautiful day everyone!

God bless, Namaste!

#sharethejoy #onesong

How to eat healthy: 5 reasons to keep a food log Ugh, keeping a food log isn't my favorite thing to do. And, I'll be the first to admit that I'm horrible at it.