creating personal foods

LovesDogsAndBooks

Hi, I'm new here (well, I registered a while back but never did anything, just now starting to use this place), and I'm trying to figure out how to create my personal food items. When I open the tab "my foods" it doesn't have a space to enter a food, it just says you can create one, but how? I am not very intuitive with computers and websites, so I am probably missing something that's obvious to everybody else. Help would be much appreciated!

CyberTone

You should not have to create many personal food items. There are millions of foods in the public Food Database. Start by going to your Food Diary, then select Add Food, type the name of a food item and click Search. Look through the matches and choose one to add to your Diary. The next time you click Add Food, the item you just added to a Meal, such as Breakfast, will be in the Recent list query of your Food Diary.

If you do not find a matching item through a search of the Food Database, then you can create a personal food item.

​Please see this article, and search for answers to Frequently Asked Questions and other helpful articles, on the MFP Help/FAQ pages...

https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/525941-how-do-i-log-a-food-that-is-not-in-the-database-

ccsernica

If you can't see that button, try making your window wider.

Although, if what you want to do is calculate calories for a dish you're cooking, you'll be better off with the Recipe Builder.

LovesDogsAndBooks

Thank you both! I found a you tube video that explained it, so I think I understand it now, sort of ... Wow, this is a lot of initial work, but I guess once everything you regularly eat is entered, it will be a breeze!

CyberTone

LovesDogsAndBooks wrote: »

Thank you both! I found a you tube video that explained it, so I think I understand it now, sort of ... Wow, this is a lot of initial work, but I guess once everything you regularly eat is entered, it will be a breeze!

It is not a lot of initial work if you search the public Food Database and log an existing food item.

I have been logging food in MFP for five years, and I probably have only about a dozen personal My Food items I have created that I could not find in the public Food Database. Ninety-nine percent of the items I log I find using either a text search or using the barcode search on the mobile app.

LovesDogsAndBooks

I did find everything in the database except for a homemade sauce. When I initially looked at the items in the database and saw the portion sizes, I thought that was a fixed number, I didn't know you could click the item and then adjust the portion to what you had. That's why I thought I had to create my own food items for the specific portions that I had. But now I understand. Thank you!

CyberTone

Great. And for the homemade things with lists of ingredients that don't change, I use the Recipe Tool, which is available on both the web version and the mobile apps. I have over 150 Recipes I have created.

Also, look into using the My Meals feature. If you normally log a couple food items together in the same Meal slot, you can click Quick Tools and remember the meal. The next time you want to log those items together, go to the My Meals tab, add the saved My Meals, then adjust the quantities that you ate for that next time.

LovesDogsAndBooks

Good tip, thank you! I may not be the fastest, but I'll figure it all out eventually.