Current thoughts on MyFitnessPal?

[EliKoehn]

Having regularly been on this forum for a handful of years now, I know the basic principles and (in reference to the periods where I'm being conscientious and diligent about tracking) am actually pretty good at estimating calories given previous weight loss stints relative to my TDEE. However, I decided to download MyFitnessPal for a little more dedication to tracking things, and am unsure what the forum's current assessment is as of 2023. I remember back in 2019-2020, it was pretty highly regarded and often recommended, but after I downloaded it, it seems that I can't really do anything useful other than get a push notification to log calories without paying for their premium subscription...

Admittedly, I didn't peruse it that deeply, but I thought it was something that had at least decently accurate entries for common restaurant items from chains and other such instances where there's no nutrition facts label. (I know that even the nutrition facts label isn't necessarily spot-on accurate, and to get really serious, you need to make all of your own food and weigh everything - but you're not going to be way out of line legitimately using that as a guide either.) Unfortunately, I'm not seeing that. I can't even do macro breakdowns without paying the subscription. I wouldn't even necessarily be against that, were it not for the fact that my basic knowledge of what's important is decent enough where that might separate me as a marketable customer from someone who hasn't been on a bodybuilding forum collaborating with sport-successful people for years, and it might be wasteful for that reason.

So, those of you who track very carefully, what are your thoughts on MyFitnessPal and should someone who has a decent level of knowledge (vis-a-vis the stickies and collective wisdom here) about nutrition and tracking bother paying that when you can just spreadsheet it yourself? The main draw I can think of is a catalogue of calorie estimates for restaurant meals. The app is popular enough where even local chains probably have a ballpark-accurate estimate which you're not likely to be able to eyeball on your own. Beyond that, I don't see the point in paying for something when you can just log your own macros in any kind of word processor.

[Camarija]

I use cronometer occasionally.
Similar to myfitnesspal, it's also a free app with a paid premium version.
For those occasions I cannot find a specific food entry on the app, I'll just google approximations of macros for the food I'm eating and then create a custom entry.
The option to create a custom food entry is where you can customize the macros.

I assume myfitnesspal, as a competitive app in the space, would have similar features; including and not limited to micro and macro breakdowns for individual food entries.
I would look deeper into that if that interests you, or just download cronometer as I can guarantee you the app includes those features.

It seems like you're generally asking about the value proposition of the paid app.
There's not a whole lot of value in the paid version when everything you need is already available to you in the free version.
The value may exist if you are a trainer or nutritionist and use the app for your clients, for example.

I'd say the free version is infinitely better than spreadsheeting it, especially when it comes to tracking micronutrients.

Cheers brother

[faithbrah]

sorry if this doesn't answer the question, but i just use my browser for logging calories and protein, like this

super simple, and admittedly the laziest way too. think smart, not hard

[Rich1143]

I have used MyFitnessPal for years. I like it. It's not perfect. Sometimes the nutrition info on the app doesn't match what is on the label. That is because it is crowd-sourced data. I am pretty sure all of those apps are. I log everything approximately every 19 of 20 days. The only times I don't log are when I have no idea what I am eating (eating at a small ma and pa restaurant, family member cooking for me etc.). To me logging calories has been te single biggest factor in me successfully losing weight.

I am not saying MyFitnessPal is the only way to go. There are other great apps out there. I think what matters is consistency and adherence.

[Muzzlrpress]

Haven't used it in years and never paid for it, but it was definitely an excellent tool for tracking calories. Whenever I doubted it's calorie estimates, I'd just google the food. I have no complaints about it.

Do you have to pay for it now?

[Rich1143]

Haven't used it in years and never paid for it, but it was definitely an excellent tool for tracking calories. Whenever I doubted it's calorie estimates, I'd just google the food. I have no complaints about it.

Do you have to pay for it now?

It's free still but certain features and things like showing macro levels are behind a paywall. I am pretty sure it is the leader in calorie tracking but I don't know much about other apps. I heard FatSecret is really good too.

[Muzzlrpress]

It's free still but certain features and things like showing macro levels are behind a paywall. I am pretty sure it is the leader in calorie tracking but I don't know much about other apps. I heard FatSecret is really good too.

Tbh, I was never a big macro tracker. Other than protein, I just wanted to stay below a certain calorie threshold. Don't know how good the macro tracker for it is.

[Rich1143]

Tbh, I was never a big macro tracker. Other than protein, I just wanted to stay below a certain calorie threshold. Don't know how good the macro tracker for it is.

All it does is add up the macros and show the values along with a pie chart of how your ratio breaks down for the day. I like to know my protein when cutting and keep my carbs reasonable for the day. Its kind of silly its a premium feature.

[EliKoehn]

Thanks all. It seems it's probably not really worth it to buy any kind of premium version but the free utility for basic tracking purposes is good - especially push notifications on your phone which are much harder to ignore or forget about than deliberate spreadsheeting.

I use cronometer occasionally.
Similar to myfitnesspal, it's also a free app with a paid premium version.
For those occasions I cannot find a specific food entry on the app, I'll just google approximations of macros for the food I'm eating and then create a custom entry.
The option to create a custom food entry is where you can customize the macros.

I assume myfitnesspal, as a competitive app in the space, would have similar features; including and not limited to micro and macro breakdowns for individual food entries.
I would look deeper into that if that interests you, or just download cronometer as I can guarantee you the app includes those features.

It seems like you're generally asking about the value proposition of the paid app.
There's not a whole lot of value in the paid version when everything you need is already available to you in the free version.
The value may exist if you are a trainer or nutritionist and use the app for your clients, for example.

I'd say the free version is infinitely better than spreadsheeting it, especially when it comes to tracking micronutrients.

Cheers brother

Since you're disciplined in general, do you find much benefit in a tracking app as opposed to just keeping a temporary tab in your head on a daily basis, since your post implies that you don't always use it? When not being careless, that's pretty easy for me to do. I've begun weighing and taking waist measurement daily, putting that in a notepad file and then averaging on a weekly basis already, so knowing in a general sense that the pace is backwards or too slow is going to show up from those numbers whether or not I'm actually logging consumed calories.

I was sort of asking about the value proposition, yes, but more from the questioning vantage that it seems to be aimed at an audience which isn't familiar with macro counts and concepts like TDEE, which we all here are. Given the enormous financial success of fad diets and books/personas/programs which sport them, it's reasonable I think to assume that the general public probably would benefit a lot from something like MyFitnessPal or Cronometer which guides them along the same principles without them having to read "the stickies" so to speak, but if someone already knows the basic principles of macro counting and nutrition (even if, in my case, actually following them is sporadic), the utility of the tool seems to lie most in its ability to approximate calories which you can't faithfully estimate on your own when trying to accurately log everything.

sorry if this doesn't answer the question, but i just use my browser for logging calories and protein, like this

super simple, and admittedly the laziest way too. think smart, not hard

Mind elaborating lol? So you use a browser to spreadsheet? How does that even work?

[faithbrah]

Mind elaborating lol? So you use a browser to spreadsheet? How does that even work?

not a spreadsheet, it's literally just the calories and protein that are logged because it's so easy to do

[Camarija]

do you find much benefit in a tracking app as opposed to just keeping a temporary tab in your head on a daily basis, since your post implies that you don't always use it?

Tracking by spreadsheet for years was helpful in being able to develop a better sense of estimating weights, calories, and macros. Now that I'm able to eyeball food and keep a running tally in my head I don't need to use the app often.

However, I did accidentally go vegetarian for months at a time without even realizing it. As a result I developed anemia; that was just silly and avoidable if I had occasionally used a tracker to look at my micros. It would have been evident I wasn't getting enough iron.

so knowing in a general sense that the pace is backwards or too slow is going to show up from those numbers whether or not I'm actually logging consumed calories.

Yeah that works. Other things you could do may be weekly or monthly weigh-ins so you can easily track your weight fluctuations throughout the year. And I suggest you get a physical at least once a year with blood work and urine analysis. It saved me with the anemia and anemia related issues.

the general public probably would benefit a lot from something like MyFitnessPal or Cronometer which guides them along the same principles without them having to read "the stickies" so to speak

Definitely. You don't need to be an expert in nutrition because it's generally very good at letting you know you haven't had enough of a certain macro or micro.[/QUOTE]

the utility of the tool seems to lie most in its ability to approximate calories which you can't faithfully estimate on your own when trying to accurately log everything.

Sure, having one place to search for all of your calorie and macro entries is useful, and maybe marginally better than googling it yourself.
I think tracking the micronutrients is really where these apps shine.

[EliKoehn]

@Camarija, I went ahead and downloaded Chronometer as well and I think I like it more. Perhaps MyFitnessPal has this feature as well (but if so, I couldn't find it), but the scanning a label and getting all of the relevant nutrition facts ported to their respective categories is extremely cool. The information is nicely and cleanly broken down and adding entries isn't even tedious. Also the micronutrient target graphs are great as someone who tends to lose mindfulness about that. Thanks for the recommendation.

On the anemia thing, I'm about 80% sure that there have been a few times in my adult life where I was actually starting to develop symptomatic problems from some kind of micronutrient deficiency or another, then I'd remember that I've had basically no fruits or vegetables in a long time and then become mindful of eating them again and feel better. I like them, but it's just easy for me to ignore and vegetables in particular are easy to avoid because of quick perishability and inconvenience to prepare, but seeing daily ranges in an app and how close I am to maintain a healthy level on that will make that outcome much less likely.

I don't intend to use it forever, but the stability it affords for a good long while until I cement better habits will be a positive.

@Faithbrah, I still just don't see how you're doing it in your browser, but oh well lol.

[faithbrah]

@Faithbrah, I still just don't see how you're doing it in your browser, but oh well lol.

for clarification, i have memorized different foods so that my counting is consistent - or rather, my version of X amount of calories is consistent

something like 3 slices of bread + 4 eggs for breakfast is 700 calories and 33 grams of protein, then i google "700/2700 - 33g" so i can bookmark it. then i edit the bookmark as i eat more food. seems like a lot of people want a more detailed log of their foods, macros and micros, but i prefer the minimalism and laziness here

[Spanishdream]

I had a month long trial recently and the added macronutrient counter didn't seem worth the money to carry on with premium. The free version is plenty enough.