If you’re someone who likes having a little more awareness around nutrition, MyFitnessPal can be a helpful tool. I’ve used it off and on over the years as a simple way to track meals and understand what I’m actually eating.
It’s not about perfection. It’s more about awareness. Sometimes just seeing things written down helps you make better choices without needing to follow a strict diet or complicated plan. Their free version is pretty good for starters but if you want to really get dialed in and be efficient with the app, invest in Premium for an optimal experience.
A couple of my favorite tips:
- I’ll say it again, Premium has awesome features – highly recommend (and many of my notes below only apply to Premium).
- I like to think about logging like a science experiment where I’m simply collecting data on what works or doesn’t work for my goals – approaching it this way can take some of the pressure off around tracking.
- Turn off “Exercise Calorie Adjustment.” MyFitnessPal can automatically add calories back to your daily goal based on your workouts. The problem is that exercise calorie estimates are often inaccurate, making it easy to overeat without realizing it. If your goal is weight loss, keeping this setting off helps you maintain a more consistent calorie deficit and lets any extra calories you burn work in your favor.
- Use the bar code scanner. It’s surprising how comprehensive their database is and the bar code scanner helps reduce friction when logging.
- If you can’t find it with bar code and you have to search by key words I like to turn on the “Verified” filter when searching for foods. MyFitnessPal has millions of user-created food entries, and many contain inaccurate nutrition information. Turn on the Verified filter (look for the green checkmark) to show only foods that have been reviewed by MyFitnessPal. It’s a simple way to make your food log much more accurate.
- And remember – if you simply cannot find the perfect version of a food, even logging something similar or close is better than not logging at all.
- Consider eating many of the same meals each day. During a weight loss phase, simplicity is your friend. Having a few go-to breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks makes tracking much faster because you can use MyFitnessPal’s “Copy from Yesterday” feature or select your Recent Meals instead of searching for every food again. It also reduces decision fatigue, simplifies grocery shopping and meal prep, and helps you stay more consistent with your calorie and protein goals.
- Pre-log your meals whenever possible. Instead of logging your food after you’ve eaten it, enter your meals into MyFitnessPal at the beginning of the day (or even the night before). This turns your food log into a plan rather than a record, making it much easier to stay within your calorie and macro goals. If you need to make changes throughout the day, you can always adjust your log, but starting with a plan helps reduce impulsive eating and keeps you on track.
