Getting started with FitnessPal

bellINC

Hello all,

I am new, 1st time, and I am starting to log the food diary. The problem is, how do I enter a home made breakfast dish, ingredients, etc, portions and figure out the calorie, etc.? Amy ideas? point me in the right direction and away I go! I am a Vet so just started a program calle MOVE with them, logging food, exercise, etc. perfect partner to MyFitness Pal I hope.

PacificLotus

Thank you for your service! To enter a recipe, go to the food tab, then right underneath that, click recipes - that will take you to the place where you can enter your own recipes. I've only done it the old way...if you click on the old recipe calculator on the right, you can enter each ingredient separately and indicate the number of servings the recipe makes. Best to you on your journey - MOVE can be really helpful.

zichab

Retired Air Force wife here and I can help you out!

If you are on the web: Go to: Food-recipes-and then on the right you will see a "Old Recipe Calcualator". Click on "Create New Recipe" and add all your special ingredients and the number of serving and MFP saves it for you!

If you are on your IPad (and I assume IPhone works the same way although I am not sure because I do not have one )-Go to Home-Settings-MyFoods and Exercise-My recipes-+ to create a new recipe where you enter your special ingredients and number of servings etc and MFP saves it for you.

Have fun entering all the great recipes you have been eating, but do not be surprised if some of them get the axe when you see how many calories, fat or sodium they contain. We gave up a few of them that we had no idea were probably contributing to my husband's High Blood Pressure based on the outrageous sodium level! The VA is much happier now. :laugh:

424a57

You can enter the information for all the ingredients individually, or you can enter a recipe. By entering a recipe, you can log it later if you eat the same dish. Recipes can be entered manually by specifying how much of each ingredient is in the dish, or by referencing an online recipe.

Good luck

sugaraddict4321

Welcome to MFP. You have a few options for entering your foods. You can create your own recipes, or you can enter ingredients separately. I use a combination of both. The most accurate method of calorie and nutrition tracking is to weigh all your solids and measure all liquids in a measuring cup. That way you know you're more accurate than "a cup of broccoli" (whatever that is). I prefer grams and milliliters, but you can work with ounces and fluid ounces too.

To enter ingredients one at a time, go to your food diary and search for the ingredient. Eggs, for example. Tip - Entries with a star were put in by a user. They may or may not be accurate. Instead, go for the entries without a star. Those were put in by MFP and you'll see they have many more confirmations and are more likely to be accurate. To find the MFP entries, you often need to search for the plural of whole foods (carrots, apples, bananas, etc.) as opposed to the singular (carrot, apple, banana). The system will calculate all the calories for your individual ingredients as well as the total for the meal.

You can also create recipes you use often. Try the recipe builder. You'll still enter ingredients one at a time, but then you can name and save the recipe. I like to make all my portions per 100 grams. So I take the total weight of the food when it's finished - like a cake - and divide that by 100. That's how many portions the recipe makes.

If for some reason you have a food that is not in the database yet (which is pretty rare) then you can make a new entry. Please try to use weight or volume for portion size as opposed to the generic "one portion." Also try to enter as much of the nutritional info as you can. Sometimes you'll see an entry for something and the person only enters calories. I hate those entries, as then I cannot accurately track my macros (fat, protein, carbs) or my sodium intake.

Sorry for the long post but hope it helps!

424a57

Here is a reference to the recipe builder

myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/questions/8977229-recipie-builder