posted by The Bewitchin Kitchen on September 30, 2013
How To Use My Fitness Pal For Weight Loss Success
Do you use MyFitnessPal? Easily reach your health and fitness goals with this free app From tracking your healthy recipe calories and macros to staying on track with workouts. Perfect for beginners and those that need a challenge, here’s how to use the My Fitness Pal app.
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My Fitness Pal is my favorite (and most used) app on my iPhone, I recommend it to everyone. It’s how I stay accountable and successful in my health and fitness goals. Lately, I have had a few of you asking me questions on the ins and outs of MFP. It’s the perfect time for a post if you ask me.
My Fitness Pal is app to track and monitor your health and fitness goals. You can track the calories you consume, the calories you burn and your macros (percentages of protein, carbs, and fat intake). You can take it a step further and add friends to help keep you motivated and write on their “wall”. It’s fitness social media: there are message boards, support forums, and recipe options.
MFP can be used as an app and/or you can use the website. I have noticed that it looks a little different on each the iPhone, iPad, and website but in the end, it works the same.
It’s easier for me to show you
This is what the home screen on my iPad looks like.
It looks a little different on my iPhone and on the computer, but this is my favorite view. I like it because it shows my macros right away (in the iPhone you have to hit daily and then the pie chart symbol). Other then that I don’t pay much attention to my home screen, I glance at my newsfeed but don’t pay too much attention to it.
Note: when you complete a workout or diary entry – MFP will automatically publish it to your newsfeed.
How To Use My Fitness Pal
Logging Food
Logging food into My Fitness Pal recipes is the most important thing I can do to stay on track.
I notice that on days where I don’t log – I throw caution to the wind and eat all the things.
I don’t count at all if I don’t use my app and I usually overindulge on those days and pay for it by feeling sluggish for the next couple.
Now for those of you who are overwhelmed with the idea of counting calories here is the beautiful thing about My Fitness Pal – IT DOES IT FOR YOU.
How to log food into MyFitness Pal
Click on your food tab. Then on the top right corner hit “Add” and then pick what meal (you can customize what your meals say in options) or you can click “+ Add To Meal” as a shortcut.
You will then be able to search for the food, or if you have used it before it will show up on your “Recent Foods”.
If what you’re about to eat/drink has a barcode you can click on the barcode scanner and input it that way.
You will be then prompted to enter your servings.
Click your serving size, select what you’re about to eat (ie: one medium, large, small head, 1 cup, etc of cauliflower) and then the amount you had.
Click add and you have added it to your food diary.
Click ” + Add Cardiovascular” and search for the exercise you just did.
MFP then calculates your weight and height and gives you an idea on how much you burned.
If you have a Fit Bit or a Heart Rate Monitor you can upload and input the exact amount of calories burned (I haven’t tried this yet).
Since strength training is hard to determine the caloric burn for everyone, no calories are put in when you log under the strength part. You can keep track of your reps, max weight, fails, etc.
Updated 2019: Apple Watch, Fitbit will automatically sync with MyFitnessPal. You no longer need to upload it manually.
TBK’s Pro Tip: I personally have the Apple Watch Series 4 and it’s amazing, but before I had the FitBit Blaze and it as awesome
Finishing Your Day
When your day is finished, just hit “Complete This Entry”. You will then be directed to what you would weigh in 5 weeks time if you were to continue what you did that day (for better or for worse).
This feature can be cool, but I honestly do not feel the need to have this determine my success. I have learned over the years that your body composition and non scale victories are what matter.
MyFitness Pal has amazing features, don’t get me wrong, but I simply use it as a tracker to make sure I am getting enough fuel to reach my goals.
Does MyFitnessPal work?
It’s going to depend on if you use the app or not. I really like it, not just for logging but to see how far I have come.
I’m a data nerd, so I really like the progress tab.
I’m really into graphs, charts and all sorts of nerdy statistics when it comes to my fitness. So this is perfect.
I can chart and see my progress for the last 30, 60 and 90 days. I can also switch between my weight, body fat %, and measurements.
My weight graph is going up, but my measurements are going down after doing Focus T25. I love seeing those numbers.
I don’t participate in the forums much (that’s a website thing only, you can’t access them on the app) but I do access the recipe database often.
When I cook dinner for my family I’ll add all the ingredients and the servings and MFP does it for me. I’ll be doing a post on how to add a recipe later.
I hope this helped you learn the in’s and outs of My Fitness Pal.
I love My Fitness Pal. After Blissdom, I am going to start using it again. For the past two weeks I have started to incorporate more exercise into my routine but now I need to focus on what I put into my body (although I did make a few minor changes the past two weeks to my snacking habits). Thank you for the great post!
What a great tool to track health and fitness goals! I have been monitoring my health and fitness since December and I’ve lost 70 lbs! At this stage I am at a good weight for myself.
This app looks like it tracks a lot and will help you plan as well as be accountable. It’s great you’ve found a system that’s working for you, keep up the good work!
I have dropped in and out of using MFP and I know I eat better when I am using it than when I am not (although I have been keeping reasonably on track more recently!). I think it is time I cracked the app back open and keep myself on track, thank you 🙂
wow sounds like a great way to track weight loss , i think i need to start this , i have been trying very hard but i love food way to much , i did stop drinking pop , YAY ME 🙂 Thanks for sharing 🙂
It seems to me now that losing weight is much easier than gaining muscle mass, because your weight can be easily adjusted with nutrition alone. Although there have been many cool tools for building muscle for a long time.
I love My Fitness Pal. After Blissdom, I am going to start using it again. For the past two weeks I have started to incorporate more exercise into my routine but now I need to focus on what I put into my body (although I did make a few minor changes the past two weeks to my snacking habits). Thank you for the great post!
What a great tool to track health and fitness goals! I have been monitoring my health and fitness since December and I’ve lost 70 lbs! At this stage I am at a good weight for myself.
MyFitnessPal app sounds like a great way to get you on track and be accountable. Very handy too 🙂
I think I would really love this as it would really help to set goals.
It also shows you when you achieve them!
I love MFP too! I also write a post about it last year bc it is just so helpful and effective!
It’s so effective 🙂 I have been obsessed with this app for a few years now. It keeps things “easy”.
This app looks like it tracks a lot and will help you plan as well as be accountable. It’s great you’ve found a system that’s working for you, keep up the good work!
I have this app, but it was great to read. You kept it simple and it’s easy to follow!
i have this app and have NEVER used it so thank you
You are more then welcome 🙂
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I have dropped in and out of using MFP and I know I eat better when I am using it than when I am not (although I have been keeping reasonably on track more recently!). I think it is time I cracked the app back open and keep myself on track, thank you 🙂
You’re welcome Tiffany! I’m the same way, I do better when I use it.
I love Myfitnesspal! I’ve lost 30 pounds with it, it’s has saved my life! I still use it everyday!
wow sounds like a great way to track weight loss , i think i need to start this , i have been trying very hard but i love food way to much , i did stop drinking pop , YAY ME 🙂 Thanks for sharing 🙂
You should take part in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I will recommend this site!
Your app is very helpful for waitloss,and very excited because i am recommand my friends for fitness.again thank you for helping me for waitloss.
Thanks for sharing this blog post! I learned a lot while reading it.
It seems to me now that losing weight is much easier than gaining muscle mass, because your weight can be easily adjusted with nutrition alone. Although there have been many cool tools for building muscle for a long time.