My fitness pal

[Sarah-88]

Who uses this to track calories? I have inputted my food from today and the calories on here don't match up with calories stated on foods packaging? Some have more and some have less, as much as 30 calories less?? Personally I have been using Google, but my calories come out less on mfp, how do u know which is the most accurate way?

[moreless Administrator 7 stone]

Do you know what Sarah, if I had a pound for every post about mfp, I'd be a very wealthy woman!

I, personally, hate everything about it, so am not the best person to give advice. There are dozens of people that swear by it and I'm sure a few of them will happen along soon

In the meantime, have a look in the Topic labelled Activity/cal tracker and then type myfitnesspal into the search box at the top right of your screen. There's page after page of threads about it!

Good luck!!

[Sarah-88 in reply to moreless]

Thankyou 😊

[DiZia in reply to moreless]

That FitnessPal app is telling me to consume 1,700 calories, even though the BMI calculator says I should be eating around 2,200+.

I just ignore it, so it always goes over their recommended. It's been good for me though, as it puts into prepective how much 2,000+ calories is, because a lot of the time, I was only eating around 1,600. You see, it's actually quite difficult to eat 2,200+ when you don't eat junk food.

I'm having trouble bulking up the meals.

[foodiezar]

Personally I hate that app... the whole concept of counting calories/ weighing yourself can send you into a dark mental space.

I think googling as you are would be good to get an idea of the nutritional information about your food, and then once you are more familiar with it you can just measure everything generally up in your head rather than obsessing over numbers.

Good luck xx

[Sarah-88 in reply to foodiezar]

It's definitely quicker, I am writing things down in a journal anyway so in a couple weeks most my things will already be weighed out with calories recorded, I won't even have to think about the cals 😊

[Hidden]

I have been using it but have become more and more annoyed with it as time goes on, there's dozens of different calorie amounts for every item 😬 I was just going for near the highest one, but am now finding I need to be more accurate, as guess work isn't going to help in the long run.

I'm in the process of finding something better and more accurate, any ideas welcome

Sorry I'm not much help xx

[Sarah-88 in reply to Hidden]

Yeah i get what ur saying, I've found that im trying to select grams for something but 1g isn't an option just 100g on somethings 😆

[Hidden in reply to Sarah-88]

Yes or it gives it in cups 😬 I'd love an old-fashioned calorie counting book so much simpler xx

[Ceals in reply to Sarah-88]

If MFP jives 100g of something you want but say you only want 20g of it you can change the portion size and put in 0.2 as your amount.

I am no good at converting cups.

I do like it for working out calorie counts of my own recipes. If a food is way out you can input your own foods and calories.

I do think it is interesting to look at macronutrients, I hadn't realised how much carbohydrate I was eating.

[Sarah-88]

The only reason I inputted tonight is cause I wanted to see the protein, carb and fat buts of my day as I'm still getting my head around calories without thinking about the other bits too 😊

[Fran182716]

I only use the "quick add" function as I can input my planned meals and track what I've got left for snacks. I take the calories from packets or google. I did try to add things that I have regularly but after spending half an hour with only one yoghurt getting entered I gave up and just use it as a count-down from my 1500 allowance.

[Sarah-88 in reply to Fran182716]

Oh so do u just input the calories yourself? That sounds better 😊

[Sarah-88 in reply to Sarah-88]

Just had a quick look, with the free version u can only quick add it cals not the protein ect 😕

[Fran182716 in reply to Sarah-88]

Yes, go to food diary and use the quick add for each meal, snacks at the end and you add them on throughout the day 😀

[Fran182716 in reply to Fran182716]

Yes sorry I didn't realise you wanted macros broken down, I only count the calories, you probably have to pay and it sounds too complicated for me!

[Ceals in reply to Fran182716]

Yes, I do that quite a lot too.

[fabfran85]

I've been using Nutracheck and found it really good. It's free at the moment but I do wonder if I will have to pay for it after the first month!?

[Sarah-88 in reply to fabfran85]

Not heard of that, is it accurate? Might go Google it

[Caz28]

Hi, I have a different opinion to the other comments. Originally when I first tried MFP I hated it, couldn't get to grips with it at all, but then got fed up with googling everything and writing in a book, so I gave it another go. Having used it fir a quite a while now I find it really quick and easy, because it 'remembers' frequent foods, logs your own recipes and you can scan barcodes. Just make sure you get a correct entry not some rubbish someone else has logged on it! Good luck!

[Sarah-88 in reply to Caz28]

I think it is a good app like u said remembers stuff and is quicker once u have gotten used to it, the thing that worried me was the difference in calories from them and packets, according to mfp I've had less calories than I have worked out myself looking at packets so if i was to just use mfp could this mean I'm actually eating more than I should calorie wise??

[Caz28 in reply to Sarah-88]

Sometimes the portion information on the front of packets doesn't match what it says on the back per 100g ! Calorie allowance is a bit flexible anyway and exercise etc makes a difference. I think the main thing is, we are aware and being careful with our diets 50 calories either way isn't going to make that much difference.

[elliebath Maintainer in reply to Caz28]

I agree with you Caz28

[IndigoBlue61]

MFP can be useful for tracking macros but all the info has been put in by other users.

I use this nhs.uk/Livewell/weight-loss...

You'll soon get the hang of it Sarah-88 😊

[Sarah-88 in reply to IndigoBlue61]

Oh has it, that makes sense then 😊 I've just downloaded that app, u gotta pay after a month but only little fee if works, my calories still come out less on this app than my calculations but I do love the pictures in this app

[elliebath Maintainer in reply to IndigoBlue61]

That may be the case , but if the info comes from other mfp users who have lost and maintained their weight, then I'm happy with that 😊.

Mfp has worked for me, and continues to work. When I was losing I just took note of calories but nowadays Im watching my carb,protein, fat ratios and there's no way I'd have learned any of this otherwise.

[Hidden]

A couple of tips for getting the most out of my fitness pal. Include brand names e.g. there are lots of different types of oats and calories do vary. I use "tesco everyday value oats". The result for exactly these words matches the calorie amount on the packet. There is also a "quick add" function where you can enter a specific item with the correct cals if the exact thing you're looking for doesn't appear.

Next tip is don't worry about finding the item with the correct number of grams, you can adjust this in the portion size. E.g. those everyday oats come up with a value for a 100g portion. So I just change the portion size to 0.25 for my 25g portions.

This may sound a bit painful but you only need to do this once for your regular items. Now each time I enter "oats" it suggests the Tesco everyday ones first and remembers the portion size as 25g, so just a quick tick in the box adds them in.

I hope that helps! I might just add that none of the above was obvious to me when I first started using mfp either

[elliebath Maintainer in reply to Hidden]

Well yes, I agree with you Ruth, well explained. With any such calculator it requires a little effort in the maths to calculate our personal portion size eg 0.3 for 30g cheese, 0.7 for 70gms pasta, etc But proof of the pudding is that it really has worked for us both hasn't it?😁

[Hidden in reply to elliebath]

Yes and as you say in the comment above it's helped us understand nutritional content as well as just counting calories. I see myfitnesspal as having several layers. You can just dip in and use it in a simple way or you can really use everything it has to offer, graphs, pie charts, saved recipe combinations etc. I think I'm currently somewhere in the middle, still learning but also wary of getting sucked in too much!

[Hidden]

Hi, I tried to use mfp and hated it, l have a Fitbit now that does calories and works out the protein fat and carbs,

But I do love keeping a journal I'm starting the5:2 diet again today ( did it before I got pregnant with my 3rd and lost 2 stone in 3 months, losing the weight also help with our surprise baby!😀)so will be going back to journal also stops me secret eating as I know its all written down in front of me!

Has your yoga DVD arrived yet? 😊

[Sarah-88 in reply to Hidden]

No not yet, post hasn't arrived yet but it was only marked dispatched yesterday 😕 I might go with this nutrucheck app that works out all the carbs ect too and seems a bit easier than mfp, I don't have a fit bit

[ClareMcr Restart April 2024]

I use MFP and do what the previous poster suggested for quantities .3 for 30g if 100g is the quantity listed.

I find it really comprehensive. I cook the recipes from the NHS app and have found if you type Change4Life and recipe name it appears correctly. Very helpful.

[Debs2510]

You can change the calorie allowance on mfp by going to goals and then it will let you edit calorie count to be in line with bmi calculator, just decide if you want to put low, medium or upper range.

I always scan bar codes where possible as a lot of the packet sizes have changed and then it gives you the wrong calories if you just search for an item that used to be in a bigger pack