Why hasn't MFP improved?

shaunshaikh

I joined MFP in December 2010 or January 2011 to help me lose weight before my wedding. I lost it all, then gained it back and then some when I did my MBA while working, so I've come back to make my way back down.

Back in 2011, I was a big forum junkie like I am now, and what is striking to me is that the threads, questions, and mistakes are the same as 2011.

• Naturally, there are daily threads debating the latest diet fad
• There are the threads about people who wonder why they aren't losing weight, and honestly the issues have not changed since 2011
• Finally, there still appear to be a large amount of people who don't understand appropriate goal setting or how the tool is supposed to be used.

And my question is this -- why hasn't MFP done literally anything to improve the education and outcomes in those areas in the tool itself? Sure, people may get the answers if they lurk in the forums enough, but even then you're surrounded by so much noise and uninformed people it may be hard for the truly educated to shine through.

Here are some low-hanging items I'm SHOCKED have not been addressed in 6-7 years of using this website/app:

1. Why doesn't MFP help people with realistic goal setting? There is not even a minimal amount of information about how many lbs/wk to use when setting your goal, so many novices default to 1,200 calories or 1,500 calories per day, then consequently burn out.
2. Why doesn't MFP make it clear that you're supposed to eat back your exercise calories?
3. Even worse, why does MFP give a false sense of accomplishment if someone severely undereats by telling them they'll lose a ton of weight in 5 weeks, rather than noting that their calorie consumption is below recommended levels and could lead to long term issues if sustained?
4. Why does MFP still have an awful exercise calories burned database? The numbers are so inflated, either people are eating too much and are not seeing results or they ignore the number entirely and starve themselves. I'll see people claim 600 calories for going grocery shopping, it's absurd.
5. Why does MFP handle the macro and micro nutrient goals and results so sloppily? For example, if I go over my goal in healthy fats, MFP will show me a red number as if I've violated something. Why doesn't it educate people on which things matter and which don't and when to pay attention to them?
6. Why doesn't MFP trend weight recordings, like many other third party apps?

My suspicion is that this is about liability. If they are just a dumb counting tool, they can free themselves of any culpability of offering health or medical advice to anybody. I'm disappointed though, I think that this can tool can be more than that. Thanks to the great people of the forums I've learned so much, and it just makes me constantly sad to see how misled people can get. There is SO MUCH BAD INFORMATION out there in the world about health, I'm frustrated that MFP doesn't do more to be a beacon of (science-based) light.

nikkipoooo

I think that the tools are there, but you can lead a horse to water...

You're seeing the same questions and such on the forums, but I'm it's mostly different people doing the asking. There are LOTS of people who will not delve into features of a site or an app at all beyond the basics, and if faced with a whole process of realistic goal-setting before getting to the basic functions they'll move on and use something else instead. This is why there will always be people who set unrealistic goals, or have no idea why they're not losing weight even though they're only having 1200 calories (made up of 3 16.9 oz bottles of pop, 2 pieces of cheese, and a head of steamed cauliflower "with just two little pats of butter") every day.

AnvilHead

...and it just makes me constantly sad to see how misled people can get. There is SO MUCH BAD INFORMATION out there in the world about health...

The diet industry (I'm speaking in general terms here, not pointing fingers in any specific direction) relies upon people failing so they come back over and over. If people just got straight useful information (eat at a caloric deficit), who'd buy all the books, diet plans, weight loss supplements, etc.? Who'd repeatedly visit the websites, read the blogs and click on the videos to drive advertising revenue? Bad information/woo is a godsend to the diet industry - it keeps people failing and keeps them coming back for more, always looking for that miraculous magic pill or potion to melt those pounds away.

aeloine

I'll just address this one: 3.Even worse, why does MFP give a false sense of accomplishment if someone severely undereats by telling them they'll lose a ton of weight in 5 weeks, rather than noting that their calorie consumption is below recommended levels and could lead to long term issues if sustained?

The app DOES give you a warning when you close out your diary at too low of an intake. It won't show you the calculation at under 1,200 calories. It'll just say that you should be consuming more for health reasons, etc

lorrpb

This a FREE app. One of the best freebies you can find anywhere for any purpose. The food and exercise databases undoubtedly are drawn from an external source rather than created specifically for MFP users. Users can add to the food database, which people want to do, but inevitably makes it sloppy. UA has no financial benefits from investing a ton of resources into maintaining it. I'm impressed they do as much as they do. They did add the WOO button recently! It's a FREE app by a for-profit business!

shaunshaikh

I know it's free (although there are premium options). I assume they still monetize this site since there is a UA sponsorship (there was no such sponsorship in 2011) and ads on every page.

Many free sites have improved themselves since 2011. My question is that why hasn't this one?

lynn_glenmont

shaunshaikh wrote: »

I know it's free (although there are premium options). I assume they still monetize this site since there is a UA sponsorship (there was no such sponsorship in 2011) and ads on every page.

Many free sites have improved themselves since 2011. My question is that why hasn't this one?

It isn't a "sponsorship." UA now owns MFP.

shaunshaikh

On February 4, 2015, MyFitnessPal was purchased and acquired by athletic apparel maker, Under Armour, for $475 million. MyFitnessPal had 80 million users at the time.

On May 4, 2015, MyFitnessPal introduced a premium subscription tier for its applications. According to Mike Lee, the premium service allows subscribers "to make custom reports, to dig deeper into the nutrient density of the food, and to customize the measurements used to plan their meals.

So they have. And it appears that MFP creators did a little more than make a free app/website out of the goodness of their hearts.

yung_baller_86

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

shaunshaikh wrote: »

I know it's free (although there are premium options). I assume they still monetize this site since there is a UA sponsorship (there was no such sponsorship in 2011) and ads on every page.

Many free sites have improved themselves since 2011. My question is that why hasn't this one?

It isn't a "sponsorship." UA now owns MFP.

UA bought it in 2015, when it had 80 million users. Agreed, they haven't done much to improve the app, but it's safe to say they weren't buying the app itself so much as the 80 million users who most likely fit their target market.... excellent marketing decision, props to UA.

kommodevaran

I imagine it would be really easy to rearrange the setup to automatically give a weekly weightloss rate of 1% of the person's bodyweight. I imagine it would be really easy to let some values be red, others green, when reaching a set limit. I imagine it would be really easy to adjust the exercise database. The food database is crowdsourcing at its worst.

But some people may have reasons to keep intake of any given nutrient below a certain limit, an another person may need to not go under on the same nutient.

I guess making it a little difficult, creates traffic. Traffic is good for business.

jemhh

I have wondered the same about a few of these things, OP. At one point I went back and created a new profile just so that I could see what was or wasn't mentioned as far as goal setting, eating exercise calories, etc. when you are new. I thought that maybe that info was there but I had ignored it when I first signed up. Nope. Instructions on what to do are pretty sparse if you just use the tracking tool and don't really read the boards.

ccruz985

Are you referring to the premium version? If not, perhaps people should spend more time taking accountability and being responsible for their health instead of shifting responsibility to a FREE app. Overestimate calories consumed, underestimate calories burned, work your butt off. Sometimes it really is as simple as that. It's not MFP's job to educate people, it's a TOOL to help those on their journey. Do your own homework!

doittoitgirl

I don't put any of this responsibility on MFP because.....well..... the info is out there if you are willing to look for it for 5 min. But I can't understand why 20 times a day someone asks "why am I not losing weight" and 100 ppl ask them the same questions: "are you logging accurately? Are you plateauing? Are you eating back exercise cals? Etc..." and no one ever learns. There's even an info graphic floating around to answer all these questions for the user.

Francl27

I'm not sure about your first point, because when I joined (5 years ago), it did tell me that 'lose 1 lb a week' was the recommended setting (I had 80 lbs to lose, and I picked that). Unless they removed it, the 1200 people are just ignoring MFP's recommendations, as far as I can tell.

And yeah, you can't close your diary if you're undereating.

bagge72

MFP could put all the helpful information out there right in your face, and the people who ask the same questions over and over still aren't going to read it, and are still going to ask "how to lose belly fat", and "why aren't I losing weight after 2 days". These people get all of the useful information in the threads, and they blatantly disregard it and end up calling people mean, because we try to shout through a keyboard "LISTEN TO ME, A DETOX ISN'T GOING TO DO ANYTHING".

nikkipoooo

doittoitgirl wrote: »

I don't put any of this responsibility on MFP because.....well..... the info is out there if you are willing to look for it for 5 min. But I can't understand why 20 times a day someone asks "why am I not losing weight" and 100 ppl ask them the same questions: "are you logging accurately? Are you plateauing? Are you eating back exercise cals? Etc..." and no one ever learns. There's even an info graphic floating around to answer all these questions for the user.

Like I said above, if it were the same people asking the same questions over and over it would be different, but it's mostly not and when it is it seems like people here call them on it. A good rule of thumb for online forums is "New users know nothing, including how to use the search function". Literally every forum on the internet that exists to give and receive advice or information has the exact same issue of 75% of new users asking the same questions as every other new user (regardless of FAQs or pinned posts that answer them), and of half of those users rejecting any and all advice given. It's not an MFP thing, it's not a weightloss/fitness thing... it's an internet forum thing.

shaunshaikh

Just because there are people who will not take helpful information shouldn't prevent MFP from putting that helpful information out there. That's also not an excuse for basically not improving the site at all since 2011.

shaunshaikh

nikkipoooo wrote: »

doittoitgirl wrote: »

I don't put any of this responsibility on MFP because.....well..... the info is out there if you are willing to look for it for 5 min. But I can't understand why 20 times a day someone asks "why am I not losing weight" and 100 ppl ask them the same questions: "are you logging accurately? Are you plateauing? Are you eating back exercise cals? Etc..." and no one ever learns. There's even an info graphic floating around to answer all these questions for the user.

Like I said above, if it were the same people asking the same questions over and over it would be different, but it's mostly not and when it is it seems like people here call them on it. A good rule of thumb for online forums is "New users know nothing, including how to use the search function". Literally every forum on the internet that exists to give and receive advice or information has the exact same issue of 75% of new users asking the same questions as every other new user (regardless of FAQs or pinned posts that answer them), and of half of those users rejecting any and all advice given. It's not an MFP thing, it's not a weightloss/fitness thing... it's an internet forum thing.

I still don't understand why MFP hasn't taken the common misuse and misunderstanding of their tool and tried to improve it?

beaglady

Newcomers who don't read the stickied threads, and just start asking dumb questions right away can't blame the app (and all the meanie heads who are sick of the same questions over and over).

I never understand folks who join an internet group, don't bother to browse around the wealth of existing information, start posting on what are hot-button topics, then get indignant when they don't get coddling responses.

bagge72

shaunshaikh wrote: »

Just because there are people who will not take helpful information shouldn't prevent MFP from putting that helpful information out there. That's also not an excuse for basically not improving the site at all since 2011.

But that information is there in the sticky posts.