As a fitness coach with over 10 years of experience helping clients lose weight, I‘ve tested just about every diet and calorie tracking app on the market. And in my professional opinion, MyFitnessPal stands out as one of the best and most effective weight loss tools available today.
However, MyFitnessPal is not without its flaws. As with any app that relies heavily on crowd-sourced data, inaccurate user submissions can undermine the quality of the tool. Recent changes eliminating some key features from the free version have also sparked complaints.
In this complete guide, I‘ll give you an in-depth look at how MyFitnessPal works, its standout features, and where it falls short. You‘ll get tips to avoid pitfalls and use the app properly to reach your weight loss goals. I‘ll also offer my expert perspective on whether upgrading to premium is advisable.
Let‘s start with an overview of MyFitnessPal‘s capabilities.
How MyFitnessPal Works to Track Calories and Nutrition
At its core, MyFitnessPal gives you a simple, user-friendly way to log every single thing you eat and drink on a daily basis. You can easily track:
- Calories
- Macronutrients (protein, carbs, fat)
- Micronutrients (vitamins and minerals)
- Water intake
- Exercise and activity
To log food, you can either search MyFitnessPal‘s huge database of over 14 million items, scan barcodes on packaged foods, or enter custom foods and recipes. The app provides breakdowns showing the nutritional data for everything you log.
MyFitnessPal then tracks this information against a daily calorie goal that you set based on your weight loss aims. Staying in your caloric deficit is key for shedding unwanted pounds.
This simplifies the tedious process of tracking nutrition in a food journal or spreadsheet. Having food data right in your pocket makes recording meals painless so it becomes habit. This level of convenience and consistency is why calorie counting with MyFitnessPal works so well for weight loss.
Benefits and Standout Features
Here are some of the best features that make MyFitnessPal a cut above other weight loss apps:
Huge, Crowd-Sourced Food Database
With over 14 million food items contributed by users, MyFitnessPal has one of the largest databases out there. This makes logging most foods as easy as a quick search. No more guessing calories and macros!
However, the purity of crowd-sourced data does come with drawbacks that I‘ll expand on later.
Barcode Scanning
For packaged foods, scanning barcodes pulls all the nutritional info automatically. This makes logging fast foods, grocery items, and restaurant meals a breeze.
Recipe Tool
The recipe tool lets you input all the ingredients in a home cooked meal along with number of servings. MyFitnessPal will then calculate overall calories and nutrition for the entire recipe as well as breakdowns per serving.
You can store these recipes for quick selection anytime you eat that dish instead of entering ingredients manually. This saves tons of time for tracking home cooked food.
Restaurant Food Database
Eating out while sticking to your diet can be tricky. MyFitnessPal contains nutrition data for menu items of over 350,000 restaurants. Although not 100% comprehensive, this database helps estimate calories when dining out.
Custom Goal Setting
Tell MyFitnessPal your current weight along with how fast you aim to lose (either 1 or 2 pounds per week). The app will calculate a daily calorie target tailored to your goals.
As you lose weight, you can change your goal weight at any time to adjust your calorie needs. Customizable goals based on your personal stats makes MyFitnessPal highly personalized.
Progress Tracking
Charts showing calories consumed and burned help visualize your daily progress. Seeing your weight fluctuations graphed out holds you accountable.
Photo progress tracking and body measurement logging are also great accountability tools.
Third Party App Integrations
Syncing with fitness trackers and smart scales gives you credit for extra calories burned during workouts. MyFitnessPal plays nice with over 50 other health apps and devices.
Social Features
Connecting with friends, joining groups focused on specific diets or lifestyles, and participating in community forums helps provide motivation and accountability during your journey.
Downsides and Flaws
As with any app relying on crowdsourcing nutrition data, MyFitnessPal has its limitations:
Inaccurate Data
With so many users entering food info, mistakes and duplications are inevitable in such a huge database.
Typos like incorrect calorie counts or portion sizes mean you could be getting flawed data unless you double check against other sources like nutrition labels. This undercuts precision which scientists require for controlling variables in weight loss experiments.
As a general guide for the average dieter, estimates are fine. But inaccurate submissions open room for you to unknowingly consume way more calories than you log.
Misleading Macronutrient Breakdowns
Here‘s an example of the math not always adding up properly:
Say your goal calories for the day are 1600. You log eating 150 grams of protein, 150 grams carbs, and 50 grams fat. This adds up to 1350 calories, leaving you with 250 left to allocate as you wish.
But according to pure macros-to-calories conversions, you‘ve already hit your 1600 allotment. The macros don‘t sync with total calories due to MyFitnessPal‘s algorithm miscalculating certain entries.
While minor discrepancies won‘t sabotage progress, large inconsistencies like this illustrate flaws in the database.
Questionable Calorie Estimates for Exercise
MyFitnessPal overestimates calorie burn from workouts. Lots of wishful thinkers put too much stock into these numbers without realizing that fitness trackers and equipment metrics get inflated.
Don‘t eat back all the exercise calories MyFitnessPal claims you burned. This is one of the most common obstacles dieters run into that stall weight loss.
Recent Changes to Free Version
Previously offered features like custom macronutrient goals have now moved to paid subscriptions only. Limits to API access have also rendered some third party integrations defunct.
These changes have made the free version quite limited for precision tracking. You now see more ads too.
While a bummer for long-time users, stripped down free versions are becoming more common. The core food logging and stats tracking still help guide weight loss.
But the increasingly crippled free app has led many to question whether…
Is the Paid Version Worth It?
MyFitnessPal‘s premium version offers helpful extras at $9.99 per month. Upgrading nets you:
No Annoying Ads
For uninterrupted user experience without flashy distractions, the ad-free app provides visual peace and quiet.
Advanced Nutrition Analysis
Premium unlocks macronutrient breakdowns for each meal rather than just daily totals. Visualizing how protein, carbs, and fats distribute across snacks vs. main meals helps structure balanced eating.
You also get deeper insights like pie charts showing percentages that each nutrient contributes to your diet. Further customization comes with ability to set ideal protein targets better suited to your goals.
More Accurate Data
Premium membership verifies the accuracy of crowdsourced data better. Higher quality control for nutrition info keeps your logs precise.
Food Diary Time Stamps
Time stamp every meal with not just dates but also clock times. This helps notice patterns for times of day when overeating occurs. Coping with triggers gets easier.
Net Carbs for Low Carb Diets
For keto and other super low carb plans, tracking net carbs (total carbs minus fiber and sugar alcohols) matters more than totals. Premium unlocks net carb counts for sharper data.
Considering costs of a gym membership or personal trainer, $9.99 per month seems reasonable if you use MyFitnessPal daily and want to up your game.
I generally recommend new users start with the robust free version to test it out. You can always upgrade later after seeing for yourself whether premium features seem helpful enough to justify the ongoing expense.
At the end of the day, basic food and weight logging offered in free MyFitnessPal works remarkably well for most people trying to slim down.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of MyFitnessPal
To avoid pitfalls that may sabotage success, keep these best practice tips in mind:
Double Check Questionable Nutrition Data
If calorie or macronutrient info seems suspiciously high or low compared to normals, cross-reference against nutrition labels or reputable sites like Nutritionix. Don‘t blindly trust improbable data.
Weigh Solid Foods Instead of Estimating
Reduces margin of error since eyes playing visual tricks leads people to underestimate portion sizes. Digital kitchen scales give objective measures immune from our eye‘s natural biases.
Read Serving Sizes Closely
Ounces versus grams versus cups – different units affect nutrition data. Be meticulous to log accurately.
Create Your Own Foods and Recipes
Building personalized entries using objective nutrition info guarantees quality data free of mistakes from other users.
Ignore Calorie Estimates for Exercise
Whatever MyFitnessPal credits back for your workout burned, cut this in half (or even less) when deciding how much more you can eat that day. Those totals get bloated so you‘ll still create a surplus eating them back.
The Bottom Line
Minor gripes aside, MyFitnessPal undeniably ranks among today‘s most powerful apps for losing weight. Recording meals daily creates awareness and discipline. Charts drive accountability through data.
Success ultimately depends on your consistency using the tool properly and intelligently. MyFitnessPal simply enables the heavy lifting of tracking to build healthier eating habits over time.
Give its free version an honest shot. If after a month you find yourself needing to up the ante, premium may prove worthwhile depending on your personal weight loss styles and preferences.
Consistency remains key – so develop the habit of logging meals no matter which version you choose. Commit to that and the pounds will start melting off thanks to MyFitnessPal!
