Clinical review
Reviewer: Frances Arenhold, Registered Dietitian
Date of review: October 2022
Platform: Android
Version: 22.20.0-25918
Comments: MyFitnessPal is an app for people wanting to set nutrition, physical activity and weight goals and monitor energy and/or macronutrient (carbohydrate, protein, fat) intake on a regular basis. The app is also useful for those wanting to monitor their energy output from physical activity compared to their energy intake from food.
Through guided goal setting and ongoing monitoring of food intake, weight and exercise behaviours, a user may gain an understanding of energy consumption, areas of their diet which may need to be rebalanced or insights into their daily habits. Prompts from the app to record food intake and activity and summary of daily intake and physical activity may motivate users to continue to engage and achieve their goals.
Overall, the ease of navigation, encouraging prompts for users, and comprehensive monitoring tools make this a useful app for people who are wanting to gain a greater awareness of the balance in their food consumption patterns, energy and macronutrient intakes and physical activity outputs. It allows for some personalisation of goals and adjustment of goals once working in the app. Nutrition information of food was not 100% accurate for New Zealand but within a ballpark.
Safety concerns: The accuracy of nutrient and energy intake data is limited by the food database. As this app is based in America and global users can enter food into the food database variations in composition of food compared to New Zealand foods is likely but will still provide an indicative view of energy intake. In addition the ability to visually estimate portion size by the user may also impact on the accuracy of the nutrient and energy intake.
New Zealand relevance: The app is relevant for a New Zealand audience if used on a short term basis to grow an awareness of their food consumption behaviours and exercise output.
Clinical review
Reviewer: Dietitian App Review Working Group, Auckland DHB
Date of review: May 2015
Comments: This is a useful app for motivating people struggling with weight loss, who may benefit from keeping a diary and need to identify sources of excess calories in their diet.
New Zealand relevance: This is an Americanized app. Many foods are measured in imperial units and goals are based on American healthy eating guidelines.
User review
Reviewer: Todd, Masterton
Date of review: December 2018
Comments: Easy calorie counting, barcode scanning. goal setting , accountability built in. very easy to use and track daily food intake and values. exercise inputs are very beneficial. This app helped control my 20yr long type 2 diabetes. The downside of the app is that could only put in cardio exercise and not gym workouts.
