Smartphone-based Dietary Self-monitoring

Subjects kept a daily diary of their food intake via a smartphone app (MyFitnessPal®). The use of mobile apps for self-monitoring of diets has been previously used [8 (link)]. Virtually every subject had previously used this mobile app. Thus familiarity was not an issue except for a small minority. These individuals were taught by the investigators how to properly input data into the app. Note that the MyFitnessPal® app is a database comprised of over 5 million foods that have been provided by users via entering data manually or by scanning the bar code on packaged goods. Thus, the data themselves are primarily derived from food labels (i.e., Nutrition Facts Panel) derived from the USDA National Nutrient database. Thus, in order for subjects to consume a high protein diet, whey or beef protein powder was provided at no cost to the research subjects. However, they were not required to consume protein powder. The rest of their dietary protein was obtained from their regular food intake.