4 reasons why your dietitian will never ask you to use MyFitnessPal

Technology is very present in our lives to facilitate it (usually!). But now we get bombarded with nutrition information on the web. Anyone can find numerous food tracking apps on the App or Play stores and these typically hold a common promise of identifying your “optimal goal” and help you reach it. These self-treating apps, like MyFitnessPal, then seem a good alternative…but they have many limitations.

Everyone has different nutritional needs and everyone has their own condition and objective they would like to work toward. There is no one size fits all. This is where dietitians will always give the most personalized and sound advice in nutrition. To do this, of course they need to understand what you are eating, but also the environment in which you are eating, and your feelings around it. It is thus discouraged to mix apps like MyFitnessPal with an intervention of a nutrition expert. For your own good, here is why your dietitian will never ask you to use MyFitnessPal:

1. Counter-productivity to reaching your true objectives

MyFitnessPal does not allow you to have your personalized objectives that you have set with your dietitian in your mobile app. It rather automatically sets yourself goals based on a general formula that focuses on calories in and calories out…

Using an app that is not in sync with the actual objectives you have set with your dietitian will be counter-productive to the hard work you are doing. Why? Because these apps are inevitably sending you messages and notifications about nutritional goals they have set and inform you about your progress associated with it that are completely different than your true objectives and progress; it adds confusion to the direction you should be taking with regards to changes you wish to apply following your dietitians' recommandations. Your dietitian is there to smooth your way toward your objectives without distractions.

2. Diet quality and healthy relationship with food not being considered

Talking about calories in and calories out, MyFitnessPal oversimplifies nutrition. Focusing on calories is what the app encourages you to do while nutrition is much more complex. While we don’t want you to worry about the nutrition complexity (and you should let your dietitian take care of it and translate it to you!), adopting healthy eating habits is not about calorie counting. More important than calories are:

• the quality of the diet; if it is overall balanced and meeting your needs for your age, sex and condition.
• the relationship we have with eating; the reasons behind our decision to eat and the feelings your meals bring to you, before and after eating for exemple.

Unfortunately, diet quality is overlooked in MyFitnessPal and the relationship with food is completely ignored. In fact, using these apps may worsen this healthy relationship you are working toward (see #3)...For this reason, dietitians will push you away from MyFitnessPal and help you, using their specialized app, and accompany you for success.

3. The fact that you can see your nutritional intake as you track your food consumption

Reading this title, you are probably thinking that you would want to see the nutrient breakdown of food items you just entered in the app. We understand that. But there is a reason why dietitians do not always want you to see this information. Unconsciously, by showing the calories you are consuming and warning you when you are about to exceed your daily "caloric goal” (set for you by the app), MyFitnessPal is promoting restrictive eating. No one should be calculating and worrying about their caloric intake.

In practice, dietitians will ask you to track your eating with their own app so they can advise you adequately, but they won’t disclose the nutrient breakdown to you right-away as they will rather work to prevent any obsessions with that regard. They want you to enjoy eating!

4. The lack of accuracy of the food database

The food database includes existing databases of good quality, but also a majority of food items that were added by any of the app users. That’s right, MyFitnessPal let’s anyone using the app contribute to the database by adding food items along with their nutritional information. For this reason, some items information is not accurate and will lead to erroneous food diary analysis. To accompany you with preventing or monitoring a condition, dietitians use validated (in research) food databases which permits accurate evaluation of your nutritional intake.

Dietitians are the experts in nutrition and have their own technology to help you the right way. Trust your dietitian and reach your true goals!