Deleting Favorites

blademan37

Is there a way to delete food from your favorite lists?

CyberTone

A user currently can not delete items from the Recent list on the web version or iOS mobile app. MFP started rolling out a delete capability for the Recent list for the Android MFP mobile app version 6.13 on 21 April 2017. I have not had the opportunity to test that out, so the following only applies to the versions that do not have the delete capability.

Currently, the Recent list on the web version seems to be a plain, old database query that is regenerated each time the Food Diary is searched and displays up to the last 100 items a user added to their Food Diary, either by individual Meal, or by All Meals, depending on the display option. Those food items will eventually drop off of the Recent list display on the web version after a user logs more items. The Recent list query on the web version likely is not stored anywhere (it likely is regenerated every time the Food Diary is searched or the page is refreshed); which is why in the current design a user can not delete anything from it on the web version.

On the mobile apps, it seems the Recent list query can pull and display (using predictive text) more items from the mobile app Diary than what is displayed on the Web version.

The Frequent list displays up to 50 items from the Food Diary based on an algorithm that the user can not change, but a user can in effect hide particular food items from displaying in the Frequent list.

If desired, a user can change the default display to the Frequent list, from which the user can hide previous food items that were added to the Food Diary and which the user does not want to see displayed on a list of foods. On the Web version, navigate to FOOD > Settings and change Default Add Food View to Frequent. On the mobile apps, navigate to Settings > Diary Settings and set Default Search Tabs to Frequent.

Currently, the only way to have the Recent list query not display those items on the web version that have been added to the Food Diary is for a user to go back to the Food Diary and delete all instances of those unwanted items from every day that the item has been logged. A user can go back to individual days in the Food Diary and delete the food items one by one on the web version or by multi-delete on the mobile apps. However, once those unwanted entries from the Food Diary have been deleted, the Calories and other nutrients will not be correct for those previous days and any Reports, if viewed, will not be correct.

​Please see these articles, and search for other helpful articles, on the MFP Help/FAQ pages...

myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/374439-how-do-i-delete-an-entry-from-my-food-diary-

myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/152746-can-i-remove-a-food-from-my-%22most-used%22-or-%22frequent%22-list-what-if-i-change-my-mind-

blademan37

Ok so now it is 9/14/2019, have they come up with a way to delete items from favorites yet??

cmriverside

blademan37 wrote: »

Ok so now it is 9/14/2019, have they come up with a way to delete items from favorites yet??

You can delete from Frequents, Meals, My foods and Recipes, and of course from the daily food diary. You cannot delete from "Recents."

BarbaraHelen2013

I see this question come up from time to time and I’m really curious why people seem to want to be able to do this?

If it’s not something you think you’ll ever eat again then it’ll naturally decay from the list as new items are searched and added to the diary.

So yes, if there’s a specific reason why it’s desirable, do tell!? Enquiring minds need to know! 😂

callsitlikeiseeit

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

I see this question come up from time to time and I’m really curious why people seem to want to be able to do this?

If it’s not something you think you’ll ever eat again then it’ll naturally decay from the list as new items are searched and added to the diary.

So yes, if there’s a specific reason why it’s desirable, do tell!? Enquiring minds need to know! 😂

i often wonder the same. most of my dinners are built in the recipe builder and often its a one time thing (usually due to me not liking it lol). they fall off rather quickly from your recent items

cmriverside

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

I see this question come up from time to time and I’m really curious why people seem to want to be able to do this?

If it’s not something you think you’ll ever eat again then it’ll naturally decay from the list as new items are searched and added to the diary.

So yes, if there’s a specific reason why it’s desirable, do tell!? Enquiring minds need to know! 😂

I know one reason for me...

I sometimes look something up that is already in my Recents list and add it without thinking or I'll just pull it from the database without really checking to see if I already used that same food before. I mean, there are four pages/100 items in the Recents list and sometimes I don't see it just because of the way it's entered. For instance, if it is entered as, "Bread, whole wheat, Safeway" or if it is entered as, "Whole wheat Safeway bread," it will appear in different places alphabetically in my list. I especially don't like it if I enter it as suggested, then I have 25 items that start with "Safeway" and that isn't helpful when trying to find a food in the Recents list. When I'm trying to clean things up I take out the Safeway part altogether and I have a specific way I enter the food so it filters alphabetically in a way that makes sense to me.

At one point I wanted to make all my lists uniform for searching and for the names to start with the general description, of "Bread, whole wheat," and so I set out to change all MY FOODS. Once that is done it is easier to filter alphabetically but in the meantime I may have three different items in my Recents that are in fact the same thing. It would be great if I could get rid of the old ones so I don't have the confusion.

Another problem arises when the manufacturer changes the formulation/recipe/nutrition data or portion size and I don't catch that and I add a new one, in which case I have more than one Whole Wheat Safeway Bread and they are different in calories. In that case I would like to be rid of the "old" entry.

Some of the database entries are 14 years old and not even close to correct any more.

BarbaraHelen2013

Ahh ok, I guess there are reasons why! It makes sense now.

I had in my mind the idea that perhaps people were logging things they hadn’t planned to eat, in the interests of honesty. Like an entire dozen doughnuts or 15 Big Macs or, if it were me, an entire family bag of salted peanuts, then didn’t like seeing it pop up to remind them in the Recents!

I’ll now actually keep an eye out to see whether I have a bunch of duplicates in mine!

kshama2001

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

Ahh ok, I guess there are reasons why! It makes sense now.

I had in my mind the idea that perhaps people were logging things they hadn’t planned to eat, in the interests of honesty. Like an entire dozen doughnuts or 15 Big Macs or, if it were me, an entire family bag of salted peanuts, then didn’t like seeing it pop up to remind them in the Recents!

I’ll now actually keep an eye out to see whether I have a bunch of duplicates in mine!

That is why I would want to delete something!

TraceyAOttawa

cmriverside wrote: »

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

I see this question come up from time to time and I’m really curious why people seem to want to be able to do this?

If it’s not something you think you’ll ever eat again then it’ll naturally decay from the list as new items are searched and added to the diary.

So yes, if there’s a specific reason why it’s desirable, do tell!? Enquiring minds need to know! 😂

I know one reason for me...

I sometimes look something up that is already in my Recents list and add it without thinking or I'll just pull it from the database without really checking to see if I already used that same food before. I mean, there are four pages/100 items in the Recents list and sometimes I don't see it just because of the way it's entered. For instance, if it is entered as, "Bread, whole wheat, Safeway" or if it is entered as, "Whole wheat Safeway bread," it will appear in different places alphabetically in my list. I especially don't like it if I enter it as suggested, then I have 25 items that start with "Safeway" and that isn't helpful when trying to find a food in the Recents list. When I'm trying to clean things up I take out the Safeway part altogether and I have a specific way I enter the food so it filters alphabetically in a way that makes sense to me.

At one point I wanted to make all my lists uniform for searching and for the names to start with the general description, of "Bread, whole wheat," and so I set out to change all MY FOODS. Once that is done it is easier to filter alphabetically but in the meantime I may have three different items in my Recents that are in fact the same thing. It would be great if I could get rid of the old ones so I don't have the confusion.

Another problem arises when the manufacturer changes the formulation/recipe/nutrition data or portion size and I don't catch that and I add a new one, in which case I have more than one Whole Wheat Safeway Bread and they are different in calories. In that case I would like to be rid of the "old" entry.

Some of the database entries are 14 years old and not even close to correct any more.

There are so many more reasons as well:

• I have changed the way I eat. For example, I don't want blueberry jam to come up when I am looking at adding blueberries.
• I have a mental disorder that makes it hard for me to see too many things at once.
• Trying to find an entry that better describes how I want to use the food. Like grams over cup measurements.
• I change the brand, but the food title is the same.
• I've added the wrong food item by mistake.
• It takes a lot for me to record and follow my food plan. Little frustrations are usually my downfall. I don't see them coming and all of a sudden I am "freestyling" my eating for a number of weeks.
  
  

cmriverside

TraceyAOttawa wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

I see this question come up from time to time and I’m really curious why people seem to want to be able to do this?

If it’s not something you think you’ll ever eat again then it’ll naturally decay from the list as new items are searched and added to the diary.

So yes, if there’s a specific reason why it’s desirable, do tell!? Enquiring minds need to know! 😂

I know one reason for me...

I sometimes look something up that is already in my Recents list and add it without thinking or I'll just pull it from the database without really checking to see if I already used that same food before. I mean, there are four pages/100 items in the Recents list and sometimes I don't see it just because of the way it's entered. For instance, if it is entered as, "Bread, whole wheat, Safeway" or if it is entered as, "Whole wheat Safeway bread," it will appear in different places alphabetically in my list. I especially don't like it if I enter it as suggested, then I have 25 items that start with "Safeway" and that isn't helpful when trying to find a food in the Recents list. When I'm trying to clean things up I take out the Safeway part altogether and I have a specific way I enter the food so it filters alphabetically in a way that makes sense to me.

At one point I wanted to make all my lists uniform for searching and for the names to start with the general description, of "Bread, whole wheat," and so I set out to change all MY FOODS. Once that is done it is easier to filter alphabetically but in the meantime I may have three different items in my Recents that are in fact the same thing. It would be great if I could get rid of the old ones so I don't have the confusion.

Another problem arises when the manufacturer changes the formulation/recipe/nutrition data or portion size and I don't catch that and I add a new one, in which case I have more than one Whole Wheat Safeway Bread and they are different in calories. In that case I would like to be rid of the "old" entry.

Some of the database entries are 14 years old and not even close to correct any more.

There are so many more reasons as well:

• I have changed the way I eat. For example, I don't want blueberry jam to come up when I am looking at adding blueberries.
• I have a mental disorder that makes it hard for me to see too many things at once.
• Trying to find an entry that better describes how I want to use the food. Like grams over cup measurements.
• I change the brand, but the food title is the same.
• I've added the wrong food item by mistake.
• It takes a lot for me to record and follow my food plan. Little frustrations are usually my downfall. I don't see them coming and all of a sudden I am "freestyling" my eating for a number of weeks.
  
  

Since you quoted me, I'll add:

This thread was first posted five years ago and at that time it was not possible to delete from "Recents." They've now made it possible to delete from all the areas.

Also, if you enter new items (or edit existing ones in the database) you can change that titling. Then they'll make sense to you and will forevermore be in your personal, "My Foods" list.