I went on holiday to South Africa earlier this year, and while I was there my beloved sister-in-law started to gently bug me about losing weight. This was absolutely the correct thing to do, for me, as I had let myself go and at that time weighed in at over 103kg.


Co-incidentally I had arranged to visit a dietician before I left on holiday, so with the encouragement received from my family, I was now prepared to do actually do something about losing weight.

The dietician said that my diet was actually quite good, but I could do with eating less. She started off telling me to write down what I eat - keep track of calories, etc, at which point I was about to give up. Fortunately she also suggested using a smartphone app to do this and I perked up at this point.

To cut a long story short, I started using MyFitnessPal on my iPhone. This worked so well for me that I have no hesitation in recommending that everyone who wants to lose weight does the same. There may be other apps that do the same so feel free to try out them out. This just happens to work for me.

It is really easy to use, which was essential for me. No use trying to keep track of what you eat if it is a lot of work - the initial enthusiasm would fade after a few days. Recording your meals is easy. You can either search for food (their database is enormous) or point your phone at the barcode and scan the information in. You can easily copy meals from one day to the next if you want, and much more.

This point is, is started to take notice of what I eat. I always thought myself fairly intelligent and thought I was aware, but seeing the calories (etc) show up made me realise just how some foods were not good for me if I wanted to lose weight. I had never realised. It became rather easy for me to start using smaller quantities when preparing meals, and I also got a lot more aware when going to the supermarket.


One of the nice things about an app like MyFitnessPal is that you can scan food while in the supermarket to ensure you are not buying food that will blow your eating plan. So quick and easy to use.

Example: Do you know how many calories there are in a bowl of cornflakes, or a slice of bread? And then do you know which cornflakes or loaves of bread are good or bad in terms of your eating plan? Simple with a smartphone app. I just scan them in (from the barcode on the packaging) and choose which one its right for me.

Note that, in addition to showing calories, the app will show things like the amount of sugar, fat, sodium, etc if you are interested. So much easier than trying to read the small print on the packaging.

So. This is what I did to lose weight.
  • I started using a sweetener instead of sugar
  • I started recording all my meals MyFitnessPal on my iPhone
    • I adjusted my food shopping and meal preparation according to what I found (e.g. Semi skimmed milk, fewer puddings, less cheese, etc)
  • Bought myself a bathroom scale. Not good starting this if you are not going to track progress...

I still have a way to go, but already feel better, as well as seeing the results on the scale.

Best wishes to anyone who reads this. May you have every success in achieving your goals.