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5 Habits That Lead to Weight Loss

4. 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.

5. 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."

Read the original article published on Women's Health.

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Women's Health

Lively, fun and provocative, the Women's Health brand addresses 360 degrees of life for the new generation of contemporary, confident, ambitious women. By connecting with our readers in the frank, irreverent voice of a trusted girlfriend, the clever, service-driven content transcends the title, making the brand a true one-stop lifestyle resource for millions of women who are making their mark.
Lively, fun and provocative, the Women's Health brand addresses 360 degrees of life for the new generation of contemporary, confident, ambitious women. By connecting with our readers in the frank, irreverent voice of a trusted girlfriend, the clever, service-driven content transcends the title, making the brand a true one-stop lifestyle resource for millions of women who are making their mark.

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