Ever look at someone who's managed to slim down and wonder: What's her secret? We tapped the experts at MyFitnessPal, an app that lets users track their weight, activity, eating habits, and more, and asked them to dive into the data from their more than 65 million users to find out what separates the people who manage to drop pounds from the rest. Adopt these habits to see your own weight-loss success.
They Seek Social Support
MyFitnessPal members with friends who also use the app drop twice as much weight, on average, as users who don't have a community on the app—and that number only goes up if you have more friends within the app: Users who have 10 or more friends lose, on average, four times as much weight as users who have none. "It's generally shown that people who have community and support groups tend to do better," says Elle Penner, R.D. for MyFitnessPal and author of the healthy-lifestyle blog According to Elle. Research published in the American Journal of Medicine confirms this: People in the study who joined a weight-loss intervention group lost a bigger percentage of their original body weight than those who tried to go it alone.
They Track Their Food Consistently
…And you don't even have to do it for very long to see results: According to MyFitnessPal data, 88 percent of users who log their meals for seven days lose weight. "A lot of times we eat even without even realizing it," says Penner. "[Logging] just kind of brings attention to what we're putting in our body—and it also helps people understand the energy that some foods have." Even if you don't have an app like MyFitnessPal, keeping a food journal can help you drop more pounds than you would otherwise.
MORE: 4 Food Journal Mistakes You Might be Making
They Hold Themselves Accountable
If you want to see the best results from of the two the tips above, combine them: MyFitnessPal users who share their food diaries with just one other user tend to drop two times the weight of users who don’t open up about what they eat. Yes, it may feel a little weird to put your munching habits on display, but it's the best way to keep yourself honest, says Penner. "Knowing someone is going to check on you or that they might look at your diary as a source of inspiration can help keep you on track."
They Stay Motivated to Work Out
Per MyFitnessPal, users who connect their accounts with at least one other fitness or health app—something like Strava or MapMyRun, for example—are nearly twice as likely to lose weight as members who don't. This is probably because the apps help keep them motivated to stay active, says Penner. But you don't have to use an app to get encouragement—you can also try these tips to find your fitness motivation.
They Cook for Themselves
MyFitnessPal doesn't track cooking directly—but it does have an option for users to enter a recipe so they can calculate nutrition info on that recipe and add it to their logs. And on average, users who logged a recipe this year lost nearly 40 percent more weight than users who didn't (and presumably didn't cook as much). They also log almost twice as much exercise as their kitchen-averse counterparts. You know that home-cooked meals are likely to be more nutritious and less calorie-dense than packaged foods or restaurant dishes—but you may not realize what an impact this has on your goals: On days when MyFitnessPal users didn't log a recipe, they were more than six times more likely to exceed their calorie, carb, fat, and sugar goals for the day. And they were more than seven times more likely to go over their daily sodium goals. "I definitely think it's eye-opening," says Penner. "Cooking at home just provides more nutrition overall than eating out, and you can eat a lot more if you cook at home and feel fuller because there's more protein and fiber in those meals."
MORE: 50 Food Tips That Will Change Your Life!
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