Friday, June 28, 2013

MedHelp's My Diet Diary

This has been one of the best apps I've downloaded so far and it doesn't help me with my job at all. Of course, with sitting in your car up to 70 hours a week, it's important to monitor what you eat and don't eat. Food becomes even more critical when you have less opportunities for exercise and you lead such a sedentary lifestyle.

This app links up with the MedHelp website so you can get the full user experience, access to help and resources online and the convenience of being able to enter foods into your phone when you don't have access to a computer. The app tracks just about everything you could need to track, exercise, water intake, calories and weight. You can set goals for losing, gaining or maintaining weight. I find the app has a healthy amount of foods already entered into the program so you won't have to enter a lot of your foods, including fast foods!

Here are some screen shots to give you an idea of what it looks like when you use it.

In this shot you see what it looks like after you've entered a full day of eating. When entering your foods you put in the time you ate, where you were when you ate, who you ate with. This is a great feature as it lets you see trends in your eating. If you tend to eat more while you're alone, then you know what you hve to work on. Being able to look at the times you eat also lets you know if you're spacing your meals properly and it gives you the calories you at at that time. So if you tend to binge in the evening, you can see that. Obviously skipping lunch doesn't pay off for me, as you can see, since I had 2 snacks that evening.

Track your water intake to know if you're staying hydrated. While most people need roughly 8 glasses a day, as PI sitting in your car in the hot summer heat, tracking your water is critical. While you may not drink while you're in your car, you need to make sure you're getting enough the rest of the day to compensate for the exposure to the heat.
I've covered my weight up but this is a screen  shot of the main screen. It tells you how many calories you have left for the day at the top. Underneath it shows you how many calories you've eaten and burned followed by your current weight. When you click on the large number at the top, this screen comes up to show you how it determines how many calories you have left.



When entering exercises, this is a small sample of the list that comes up. This helps you get more accurate results and a more accurate calorie reading. The food list is just as extensive.



It's important to know what you are consuming when you sit in your car as much as we do. Please keep in mind you should always consult a physician before beginning any diet or exercise program. This program also doesn't seem to incorporate concerns for special needs patients so you will have to manage those on your own. (I.e. thyroid patients, diabetics)

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