Recipe Analyzer

gizzzo

Hi, I've been evaluating and using many food and fitness monitoring apps for my health, for example MyNetDiary Pro, Noom, Calorie Count, etc. besides MyFitnessPal. I've decided to use MyFitnessPal because of its strong automatic links to my other apps like Fitbit, Digifit, Withings, etc.

However, there are 2 weaknesses I see in MyFitnessPal, which if not improved, may drive me to go back to MyNetDiary. They are:
1. measurements are limited and hard to customize. Given than not everyone is on the english measurements, I find that I need to use conversion apps just to log in a food. MyNetDiary automatically provides minimum units in both (eg 1 oz, 1g) for all food even those entered by users. It should be easy to programatically calculate that and provide that for the user's convenience. It takes me 3 times the amount of time to log in my food in MyFitnessPal than with MyNetDiary. It's a hassle for me and it's a hassle for people I eat with. Logging should be as fast and simple as possible. It is not about the logging in but the analysis and the action you do after looking at what you've recorded. The difficulty of entering food is a big negative.

2. creating recipes are difficult as well. Given that I don't live in the US (most of the food items are US centric), I find creating recipes in the app just to log in foods that I don't find in the database. I have not found any app or website that makes this easy except for calorie counter's web recipe analyzer: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php. (Their app sucks and the website is generally unfriendly except for their recipe analyzer which I think is the best of the bunch.) Most recipe creators / analyzers, including MyFitnessPal, forces users to enter 1 item at a time so you add, search, select for every item in the recipe. This is so time consuming and super unfriendly I tend to give up after the 3rd item. Calorie Count's recipe analyzer allows you to copy paste entire ingredient list. Once done it will analyze the whole recipe with 1 click. (When there are ingredients or measurements that it doesn't understand, that's the only time it asks you to correct it.) Not 1 painful item by painful item.

So to MyFitnessPal developers, I love your app especially because it works well with my other fitness apps. But these 2 calls for improvements are serous flaws with the user friendliness of your app. You are obviously great developers so I'm sure these improvements would not be that hard. Please make them because if given a choice between better links with other apps and better ways to enter foods, I'll choose the latter since that's what the app is primarily about.

thanks.

errantbehavior

I TOTALLY agree with this post. Two great suggestions!

Pelly57

I agree!

donnaleighh

Gizzo great post - I too use the Recipe Analyzer everyday and invest a great deal in building my own data base of food that links here to MFP.

I also wrote a similar suggestion some weeks back calling for:

1. the ability to change recipes with more ease - all good cooks tweak recipes
2. a notes section at the bottom
3. the ability to index them.

Thanks for maintaining the rage - Donna

RoxieMyers

I agree - if each food option could provide both Metric (if that is the correct term) & US measuerments, that would be great! I don't have the issue with they types of foods in the data base because I am in the US; but I can see how that would be frustrating.

mbvell

Donna,

Do you mean that your database of food on Calorie Count (using their recipe analyzer) links back to mfp? Have you figured out an automated way to do that, or do you use the CC analyzer then manually enter the results into MFP?

MaryBeth

errantbehavior

Thank you so much for redoing the recipe calculator and adding the import feature. So GREAT!!!!