Chart for reviewing historical Marco trends to help review/set percentages easier

Ray_4331

As a new user, I love how easy it is to track calories, and so much other stuff about MFP! The one areas I do not have a good handle on yet is what % to set my macro targets at. To help, I would love a way to better review historically how I have done against my macro goals. On the IOS app, the Dashboard tab has a GREAT macros view with 3 rings/circles (Carbs, Fat, Protein) which is SSSOO easy to see and understand. However, this is only available for the current day. When I go to my Diary tab, then pull up the Nutrition page, I can flip back to prior days, but it is not as readable as the 3 ring/circle view from the Dashboard! The thin lines are harder to read, 100% is not visibly shown and do they do not show overages well, for example, I have a line for Fat with a goal of 48, total 74, left is -26g, but visually the line looks confusing. It simply stretches all the way across the screen as if it was a 100%. The 3 ring/circle views show it better since the overage is clearly shown by the striped potion highlighting the overage. The view is just so much easier to see! I would love to be able to see the 3 ring/circle view for past days, but there are other ways of seeing the info that may be good too. I love the idea of a 3 line graph showing C/F/P over time, but why invent something new when you already have a great way to show a day (but are only showing for current day).

Ray_4331

Sorry, one more thing! I just saw in the MyFitnessPay.com website, under Reports / Weekly Digest there is a Macronutrients chart for a week with what looks like a beautiful data visualization making it easy to see Progress vs Goals for the 3 Marcos over time. Only a week at a time, but it looks Great! I am only on day 5 using this, so I don’t have much to see yet. I wish I could see my current week here, but suppose I will have to wait till Monday. Any chance of being able to see this so I can see week to date? And is this available via the IOS App or just the website? Thanks!

Ray_4331

Wow, I also just found the “Week View” under Nutritients / Macros that gives a stacked bar chart of the 3 Marcos for each day this past week. That is also a nice and easy way to see see them combined.

I guess, there are more charts than I realized, but they are just not obvious. So, while I like the idea of the 3 ring/circle chart being available for past days or other types of charts, I think it might just be more helpful to better organize and make it easy to find all the charts!!!!

On the IOS App, I had to go to Diary, tap on the Calories Remaining (where it is SO NOT obvious that tapping there goes to more info!!!) or go to More -> Nutrition, and then to Macros, and then switch from Day to Week view (completely missed that option as well first several days!!!!). The website on the other hand, has a very easy to find “Reports” tab, making it much easier to find the charts!!! Unfortunately, the charts on the website seem to be far more limited — just a single line graph, not the more comprehensive charts the app has.

I guess my take away from this is, you have some great charts, I think they can be improved a bit more but also making them more readily found would be great too! Dashboard could have a link to a full reporting/charts page (or let me pick and choose from what charts I want added to the Dashboard page!!!) with all the different options for looking at current numbers, numbers over time, numbers compared to goals, etc. Don’t hide them from me (a new user that otherwise might have thought you lacked good reports based on when I saw online).

Plus, can you make the app and website both show the same great charts and stuff? Still, it has only been a week and I love the app, thank you!

Ray_4331

WOW, I am still finding new charts!!! I was reviewing the Nutrition Macros, Week view, showing the stacked bar chart of Carbs / Fat / Protien and I loved how I could see how in just my first week, i have brought my daily caloric intake down and really reduced fat and carbs….

Then, I tapped Protein to see if I could switch the view from Avg/Goal PERCENT to maybe GRAMS, but instead I got a whole other chart drilled down just for Protein, now breaking down each day by MEAL and shown in relation to my goal. THIS IS THE CHART I REALLY WANTED IN MY FIRST POST ABOVE to view a macro over time against my goal!!! SWEET!

You had the chart I wanted, but it was just VERY hard to find in the app (and not available on the website)… So if users see your website’s flimsy little line graphs, they may never realize there are in fact great graphs of historical data over time compared to goals, broken out by Marcos / meals, etc.

Besides the time it took me to find out you had this great info, I guess my only other real complaint is the color…. Blue, Blue, Blue and Blue are not the best choices to use for graphs. At least with the stacked bar charts, breakfast is at the bottom, then lunch, then dinner, etc, but when reviewing the pie charts you have with blue/blue/blue/blue, the slices move around and it is a royal pain to really know what is what.

Ray_4331

So after 4 months of using the app, I can say I do not care about the charts now…. So ignore everything I said above!

When I started, I thought seeing charts would be great, but now after months of use, I just care about my daily diary entries. Each day is a new day to stay below my calorie goal. The real number I am tracking/charting is my weight.

I do think the user interface could be improved to find and have some better charts, but in the grand scheme of things, they do not seem to add much (for me).

I would rather see improvements in just the daily diary entry and sharing abilities.