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Using MFP My Foods

PamamaJane
PamamaJane Posts: 288 Member
in Social Groups
Can anyone tell me how the My Foods section is supposed to be used? My thought was that I could use it to keep my regularly used foods from the database so I could find them again more easily, but I couldn't get it to work for me that way.

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  • sammyliftsandeats
    sammyliftsandeats Posts: 2,421 Member
    My foods is for entries you have inputted yourself. Ie, if you tried to find a certain packaged food but couldn't find one with the right stats so you 'created a food'.

    Your most commonly used foods are in the diary portion when you go to add food (in the web version)
  • Sunny_Bunny_
    Sunny_Bunny_ Posts: 7,140 Member
    Mobile IOS version will also automatically provide your frequently entered foods once you hit add food.
  • PamamaJane
    PamamaJane Posts: 288 Member
    edited May 2016
    Thanks. I figured out the most commonly used foods in my diary. The part I'm having trouble with is creating my recipes. I can't select from my diary for entries in recipes. Just the effort of finding my brand and flavor of tomato sauce in the data base can be daunting. If I search for Stevia, for example, I get several pages of entries for things like "Coffee with Stevia" before I find an entry for just plain Stevia. Then it turns out the only quantity for that entry is "1 packet" and I have no idea how many of those packets make a cup of the stuff.

    Should I just start creating food entries in the main database for those things that are hard to find? I really hate adding to the multiple entries of the same thing just because I have trouble finding it.
  • sammyliftsandeats
    sammyliftsandeats Posts: 2,421 Member
    Are you using mobile or web version?

    Mobile version lets you scan the barcode of packaged foods to find the entry - not always a guarantee, but it is usually there.

    For the recipe builder, what I find works is typing in the individual ingredients and then it will find the best match. If the match is incorrect, they let you search for alternatives. If it is the wrong serving size but the right product then I click on search for alternatives and it brings up the option for the right product, but all the different serving size entries. (This is on mobile)

    For the recipe builder in web, it provides a dropdown list of options for serving sizes.
  • PamamaJane
    PamamaJane Posts: 288 Member
    Actually, I was using the web version but I have the mobile, too. I'll try the barcode scan thing and hope it is easier than the web version. Thanks!
  • Sunny_Bunny_
    Sunny_Bunny_ Posts: 7,140 Member
    Try searching terms with the word USDA after it. I feel like you get less stuff like "coffee with stevia" and more actual stevia only entries doing it that way. You still have to look over those to see which one makes the most sense though.
  • KenSmith108
    KenSmith108 Posts: 1,967 Member
    PamamaJane wrote: »
    Can anyone tell me how the My Foods section is supposed to be used? My thought was that I could use it to keep my regularly used foods from the database so I could find them again more easily, but I couldn't get it to work for me that way.

    My diary is made up of only "My Foods" items.
    It lets me have a completely custom diary.
    I also am not limited to the 4 page list either.
    Take a look & if that is what you're after I can
    help you with the ins & outs. For free software
    you can do a lot with it.

    >:) or o:)

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