MyFitnessPal is one of the most popular nutrition apps out there. It’s incredibly easy to use, and so convenient that researchers use it to help them track their subject’s food intake. I’ve used this app for many years, and I’ve found that there are some best practices for functional fitness athletes. Keep reading to see how you can use this app to help you lose weight or build muscle.
This article is going to be a useful guide to show you the best way to use the MyFitnessPal app to achieve your fitness goals. If you’ve read any of my articles before, you’ll know that I don’t believe in shortcuts, or gimmicks. This app will only help you if you use it correctly. You must be honest and consistent with it’s use. Most importantly, you mustn’t become obsessive with the numbers you’re logging. Everything in moderation.
Starting With the MyFitnessPal App
First, you need to get the app and create an account. You can download the app on both Android, and Apple devices. You can also create an account and use the desktop version. Personally, I think it’s best to download it on your phone, as you’re likely to have that with you all the time.
Should You Purchase the Premium Version?
I see no reason for you to purchase the paid version of MyFitnessPal. As you navigate through the features of the app, you’ll see some are only available for premium users. These features aren’t necessary for our use, and they are mainly extra features that you don’t need.
Creating Your Profile, and Setting Goals
The app will walk you through creating a username, password, and the other details of creating your profile. This profile is what other users will be able to see if you decide to share your data with them. Personally, I’ve found limited use to sharing your info with other users, but some folks really seem to like it. Now that you’ve got the administrative tasks out of the way, let’s discuss how to actually use the app.
Creating Goals in MyFitnessPal
This app has a tremendous amount of functionality available to you. Feel free to experiment with some of these ancillary tools we don’t actually need. I’m only going to cover the functions that you actually need to gain or lose weight, according to your goals.
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Creating Macronutrient Goals
From the home screen, you need to head to the more section, and then over to the goals section. Here you will see that you can list weight goals, and macro goals. I personally don’t use the weight goals, as I’m going to provide you with a custom functional fitness spreadsheet to track your weight, and body fat. Check out the graphic below for more guidance on navigating to the goal section.
Once you are there, you need to head to the “Calories, Carbs, Protein and Fat Goals,” section. This section allows you to set the amount of overall calories, as well as nutrients that you need to either gain muscle or lose fat.
Next, read this article, and download my functional fitness nutrition calculator there. This is a tool I’ve developed over several years. It has numerous functions including: calculating energy burn in a WOD, macro recommendations, and total nutrition requirements. Make sure you read the article so you are using the tool correctly.
In order to obtain your calorie and macro recommendations, you will use the tab that corresponds with your goal. If you want to gain muscle use that tab, if your goal is to lose body fat, then select that tab. You’ll fill out the sections in red, in the correct tab, and the calculator will give you calories and macros for gym days and non gym days.
You will then enter the total calories in the goals section on MyFitnessPal, and use the percentage sliders to adjust your macronutrient goals. The app doesn’t allow you to put in two sets of goals in the free version, so I recommend putting in the macros for non gym days in the goals section. Now that you’re all set up, let’s talk about using the app
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Using MyFitnessPal
You will find that you spend the majority of your time in the diary section. This is where you will add food and your exercise into your daily diary. There are several methods of adding food, which we will cover below.
Adding Food into the Diary MyFitnessPal
If the food you are eating has a bar code, you can touch the barcode scanner, near the search bar, and scan the food. The app auto imports all the nutrition data from that product’s nutrition label. Make sure you are paying attention to servings size here. Often times it will default to one serving, and you might have had double or triple that!
The other method is searching for the food. Simply type in the type of food you are eating and select the result that is closest. If it’s a simple food, like Spaghetti, I would just add the component ingredients: the noodles, the sauce, and the meat. You can also create recipes and save those for dishes you make often.
You can search for dishes from restaurants as well. Simply input something like “Chipotle Burrito,” and you’ll find a large list to choose from. After searching for several items, you’ll start to get the hang of it. Now we can move onto the most important part, inputing food serving size.
Inputing Food Serving Size
There are really only two ways you can input most serving sizes. You can eyeball the amount of food you are eating, using the portion size from the food packaging for help. For example, one chicken breast is generally 4 ounces, and the label should say so. This; however, is the least accurate method of entry. Even trained dieticians can be off as much as 20% on estimating portion sizes.
I recommend purchasing a cheap food scale like this one (Amazon Affiliate Link). It’s pretty cheap and has over 50,000 positive reviews. This will allow you to get an exact idea of what you are eating. Remember, you don’t have to do this, but it will cut down on the guess work with your diet. Now let’s talk about inputing exercise.
Inputting Exercise into MyFitnessPal
There are a huge number of activities you can input into the exercise section, on the diary page. You can search and select anything from Zumba to strength training or mowing the lawn. I’ve found the app’s estimates to be reasonably accurate for functional fitness athletes, but the most accurate method is to use the activity calculator section from the nutrition tool.
Simply put the total exercise minutes into the tool and it will give you your active calories. Now, make an entry into the exercise section and select the calories section. You can then manually enter the calories you actually burned.
If you have a fitness tracker like my favorite Garmin smart watch, or an Apple Watch (Amazon Affiliate Link) , you can use those estimates if you like. Or you can always default to my activity calculator on the spreadsheet, which is based off of actual functional fitness research. Now let’s talk about analyzing the data.
Analyzing MyFitnessPal Data
The most important step for using this app is analyzing the data you are inputting. To do this you will need to use the nutrition button at the very bottom of the daily food diary. This section provides you with your goal calories and macros that you previously inputed. It allows you see how close you are getting with your food choices.
You will most often look at this in the daily view, as you want to get as close to your macro goals as you can each day. I also find it instructive to switch it from day view to weekly view. This can be done by selecting the day view drop down box at the top of this section. See the image below.
When you switch it to week view, this allows you see how accurate you’ve been on average. In my opinion, this more important than doing very well on one day. After all, if you hit your macros on one day, and are way off on the next four days, what good have you really done?
Picking Your Foods
You’ll notice that I haven’t said what kind of foods that you should be eating. That is by design, as that is a topic for a whole book, not just an already long article! I have found that as long as you are within 5-10% of your macro and calorie goals the food selection is not as important. I will offer some advice however.
First, eat like an adult. You need to eat lean meats, vegetables, and less processed foods. You don’t need to avoid any particular food type, but remember one piece of cake may take up half of your calories for a day, leaving you starving in a few hours. Choose your food wisely.
Some folks do very well by eating nearly the same diet every day. This is ok as long as you are taking a multivitamin, and are making an effort to include a variety of food groups. Smart dieting requires the inclusion all macronutrients and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). Otherwise, feel free to change your diet up, just hit your goals.
Secondly, if you are in need of a special diet, due to medical needs, then you need to consult a doctor or see a registered dietician. I’m not qualified to offer any type of medical advice. I’m just a weird internet dude.
For athletes who are looking for every performance edge they can gain, then I would also recommend that they work with a nutritionist, coach or dietician that has experience working with strength and functional fitness athletes. They can put together an exact meal plan that will help your overall performance and recovery.
Final Thoughts
I want you to understand that this is one method of tracking nutrition. This is not required to achieve your fitness goals. In fact, I lost over 30 pounds without tracking a damn thing. I just ate less and ran more. I also lost more muscle mass than I needed, and found myself very hungry throughout portions of the day.
My method introduces precision into your diet, and will help you achieve your goals without making your diet overly onerous. Remember, this method is used for gaining weight as well as losing it, and you need to make sure you are eating a reasonable amount, based on your goal.
The internet is often full of crazy advice. You’ll see things like crazy 6,000 calorie diets and other nonsense. While this might get clicks, it is not healthy or effective diet advice for actual people. By now you have all the tools you need to help achieve your goals. It’s up to you to put in the work. Now get out there and get training!
The opinions and information expressed in this article are solely those of the author and are not affiliated with any corporation, group, public or private entity including MyFitnessPal. This web site is not endorsed by, directly affiliated with, maintained, authorized, or sponsored by Crossfit Inc. All product and company names are the registered trademarks of their original owners. The use of any trade name or trademark is for identification and reference purposes only and does not imply any association with the trademark holder of their product brand.
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