New to my fitness pal

tina2485

hello
Im looking to shed at least 6 stone and have heard great things about this app! Allowance is 1460 a day so far and aim to lose 2lbs a week if that's possible?! Anyone really benefiting from using this as a calorie guide? T x

sarahs1970

Hello,I've just started today and want to lose 3 stone + so hopefully using this app will give me some motivation

brentopia

I'm new here, too. Just wanted to say that using the Daily Food Diary thing is fantastic. The good peeps here have almost everything you'd eat in the database - so it's really easy. Be sure to search using your store name if you use the grocery store brand. You'll be surprised how almost anything you'd eat is in there without you having to type in the breakdown. Logging what I eat has opened my eyes. Good luck Tina and Sarah!

juliet3455

Welcome to the MFP Gang.
I have posted this before, it is a bit of a compilation of multiple different posts. The links included at the bottom are great reads. I was using MFP for at least 6 months before I stumbled across them so it is a personal goal to pass them onto newer users.
I Never select Homemade or Generic from the list of items in the Food Database.

The first thing you need is to buy a small kitchen food scale - that can weigh in grams.

rabbitjb wrote: »

There are always a range of choices and one inevitably has by weight

If I can't find an existing Food Database entry in grams I pick one that has Nutritional Values closest to the food based on Manufacture Label - cross referenced to un-biased nutritional information from the USDA web site at and then edit it by adding a 100 gram reference and confirm the nutritional values based on Manufacture Label again cross referenced to USDA database ( MFP seems to automatically add a 1 gm value in the database). HINT if 2000 people have confirmed the nutritional value of an item it's a good choice, if 4 people have its questionable.

http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search

@ blankiefinder and @ ‌arditarose Nailed it when it comes to Logging accurately and selecting food using the search feature.

blankiefinder wrote: »

if I haven't found an entry that lists the grams, I keep looking for a different entry. This [ Enter Food ] item is already listed a bunch of times. Better to edit and correct one that is already there than add to the database mess that exists now.

arditarose wrote: »

Weigh your eggs and find the appropriate entry. Two eggs at 50 grams is typically 140 calories. If you cooked them with olive oil, add that as well.

Don't log 2 eggs as it is a subjective number, where 50 gm. is very concise.

Read the information at these MFP post. They have links to multiple very good reads.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/833026/important-posts-to-read/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/872212/youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/10118-eat-train-progress

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1069278/acronyms-and-terms-for-new-mfp-members-v-6/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/31633130#Comment_31633130

buggie1101

Hello! Yes MFP works! I have been using it for 39 days now and lost over 11 lbs. It is a wonderful tool that will help you track your diet and exercise. The most important thing about the app is that if you don't use it it won't work :-) Best wishes to you all and hope you reach your goals. I am still working on mine but loving the convenience of this app!