[This is a paid review. Please see my Full Disclosure Statement for more information.]
I’m a big believer in tracking your progress when it comes to personal development, no matter what area you are currently working on. So when I saw that MyFitnessPal.com was requesting reviews of their site, I figured I’d take a look at it and tell you what I thought.
Who They Are
MyFittnessPal.com is a health related site that offers a free calorie counter, exercise and diet journal, and online community for support.
First Impressions
The site is clean and well designed – I didn’t have to do a lot of searching around to find what I was looking for.
My first thought when I came to the site was “Yeah, sure, free…”. When I checked their privacy policy, I came across this:
What type of information do we collect when you purchase a MyFitnessPal.com membership?
The information we collect in order to process your MyFitnessPal.com membership order includes data such as your name, email address, mailing address, telephone number, credit card number and expiration date. This information is used to fill your order and/or keep you updated on your order status. The email address may also be used for us to contact you with matters regarding MyFitnessPal, such as a newsletter, or an announcement about a new product or service. We also collect some personal fitness information so that we can provide you with a personalized plan for successful weigh loss.
Huh, credit card number? Purchase a membership? What happened to the “100% free” that’s splashed all over the site?
I’m happy to report that I haven’t been asked for any financial information since signing up. As a matter of fact, I haven’t even been upsold on anything. We really are talking about 100% free; this isn’t some sneaky “partially free unless you purchase our super duper upgrade” deal.
One of the reasons that I was so suspicious of this initially is because of the noticeable lack of advertising on the site. There are some Google ads, but it’s very unobtrusive.
It was refreshing to have my suspicions proven false. It’s possible that the language in the privacy policy is simply standard “lawyer speak”, or that they are planning on an upgrade that will eventually cost something.
Site Content
After signing up (username, password, email address is all that was required), I was taken to a page that asked me to fill out my profile and weight loss goals. The profile consisted of things like height, current weight, age, sex, current activity level. One of the things that I really liked was that there was a plan option for “maintaining current weight”, which is right where I’m at. I’ve just got one of those bodies that doesn’t hold onto fat, but this also means that the consequences of eating unhealthy foods aren’t as immediately obvious with me. So it’s much easier for me to pound a bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with zero guilt… but there are still consequences to my health. A site like this could be a useful tool to remind me of what I’m doing.
The food and exercise diaries allow you to enter your daily food intake and activity levels, letting you know if you are burning off the calories that you are taking in. They have a food database already in place, but if your particular food isn’t in it, you can add it yourself, as well as share it with other members. There is also an exercise database that allows you to quickly enter your activity and see how many calories it will burn off.
If you are interested in simply seeing the nutritional value of a particular food, you can search their food database by name. It’s nice that you can do this without even signing up for a membership.
Support
I also browsed through their message boards, especially the Technical Support/Need Help board, to see what kind of response people were getting to their questions. Based on the date and time stamps, most questions get answered within a few hours. The responses were professional and courteous, and I didn’t see any canned blow off responses, which I was impressed by.
Final Thoughts
While I was initially suspicious, it really felt good to find a free health related membership site that delivered what it promised and didn’t bombard me with opportunities to send them my money. If they ever do offer an upgraded service, I’d be more likely to consider it (depending on what the offer was) because of this.
Will I use their diet and exercise logs? Probably not yet. I’ve got a doctor’s appointment in a couple of weeks, and I’m going to talk to her before starting anything on a regular basis (it’s important you do this before starting any exercise program). I’m sure I’ll be hitting up that food database on a regular basis, though, since I am trying to keep more of an eye on what I’m putting in my body. If you are already on a diet or exercise plan, their calorie counter could be an excellent addition.
Good job, MyFitnessPal.com!
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