Reliability and Validity of Nutrient Assessment Applications for Canadian Endurance Athletes: MyFitnessPal and Cronometer
Study Details
This new study assessed the reliability and validity of two popular nutrient tracking apps…
1️⃣ MyFitnessPal
2️⃣ Chronometer
…in a cohort of Canadian endurance athletes 🚴♂️
43 x 3-day food intake records were input into each of the apps (by two raters)…
…plus the ESHA Food Processor (dietetics software) by one rater for comparison 💻
Here is what they found ⬇️
Key Findings
MyFitnessPal showed consistent difference in measurements between raters for…
🔥 total energy
🍞 carbohydrates
…classified as absolute reliability, although this was not clinically significant 👍
MyFitnessPal also showed poor validity for…
🔥 total energy
🍞 carbohydrates
🍖 protein
🧈 cholesterol
🍬 sugar
🌾 fibre
Rationale for low reliability and validity may be due to the copious options for each food entry in MFP (including non-verified consumer entries) 📋
Conversely, Cronometer showed good to excellent inter-rater reliability for all nutrients 🥗
Plus good validity for all nutrients except for…
🌾 fibre
🧀 vitamin A
☀️ vitamin D
Compared to MyFitnessPal, Chronometer showed…
✅ smaller bias
✅ narrower limits of agreement
✅ better horizontal spread of data
Conclusion
Chronometer may be a more suitable alternative to MFP for tracking dietary intake in athletes (especially if requiring detailed information on micronutrients) ✅
MFP may still be a viable option but it’s always worth double checking entries vs product packaging for accuracy 🔍
Reference
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41133373/
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