Why can't we delete foods?

jjl0412

Here is he definitive statement from the MFP Help/Support section. We are basically SOL. Makes no sense that we can not edit our own food lists, but here ya go. Maybe if enough people complain, this simple necessary function will help make this site that much better. There were others asking the same question I was in the Help section as recent as today. They got the same pat answer that is quoted from the instructions. Here is my experience with attaining this wonderful news.

How do I delete foods from list? jjl0412 — Jan 17, 2014 08:15AM PST
Ok, I read from the help files & questions. I am trying to clean up duplicates or food selections I no longer want in the list. In order to delete foods from the selection list, you have to use Frequent, then delete. It goes to a delete file. I get it. Problem is, I only get 1 page. I cannot access any foods beyond that 1 page. I needs to see the other pages so I can delete other selections. This should not be an issue! Any assistance to edit my food lists will be appreciated.

6 Community Answers
Best Answer Jan 17, 2014 08:57PM PST Justin
Hi, Thank you for taking the time to post your question.
At this time there are five food lists
Recent – This list updates on its own over time depending on what foods you added most recently to your diary, content cannot be deleted from this list manually.
Frequent – This list updates on its own over time depending on what foods you add to your diary the most, to remove content from this list simple check the items you want to delete and click “DELETE FROM LIST” at the bottom of the page. This can only be done from the website.
My Foods – This list contains any custom foods you have added to your personal database and foods that you have edited from the primary database, you can only delete personal database items. Edit/Delete My Foods.
Meals – To delete meals you have created, navigate to the “My Meals” page and select the item you want removed, then click “Delete Selected Meal”. Edit/Delete My Meals.
Recipes – Similar workflow as meals, navigate to the Recipes page, hover your mouse over the recipe you would like to remove and click “Delete”. Edit/Delete Recipes.
Cheers,
Justin
MyFitnessPal Staff
________________________________________
How do I delete foods from list? jjl0412 — Jan 17, 2014 08:15AM PST
Ok, I read from the help files & questions. I am trying to clean up duplicates or food selections I no longer want in the list. In order to delete foods from the selection list, you have to use Frequent, then delete. It goes to a delete file. I get it. Problem is, I only get 1 page. I can not access any foods beyond that 1 page. I needs to see the other pages so I can delete other selections. This should not be an issue! Any assistance to edit my food lists will be appreciated.
jjl0412 Jan 18, 2014 06:41AM PST
Thanks Justin for responding. It does not answer my question. I go to Breakfast, Frequent. There is a partial list of breakfast items, I delete what I do not want. It goes to Delete List. Fine. Now, I still multiple items on my Breakfast list I need to examine for deletion. Can't see them, can't get to them. Only thing I can see is that one page. I'm not done yet, I need to see ALL items in my Breakfast inventory. How do I see them?
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Justin MyFitnessPal Agent Jan 18, 2014 11:04AM PST
Hi,
Thank you for getting back to us. I apologize, for any misunderstanding. The frequent list is only 1 page long, it has a maximum of 25 items allowed on that list.
When you mention you want to see all items in your Breakfast inventory, are you referring to other lists such as recent?
Please clarify for me so I can make sure to get you the most accurate answer to this question.
Cheers,
Justin
MyFitnessPal Staff
________________________________________
jjl0412 Jan 18, 2014 04:42PM PST
Yes. I want to be able to scan ALL items I have added from the database to either Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or Snack for deletion. When I go to Breakfast list, I need to see everything included, 3 or 4 pages, so I can clean it up by deleting items I no longer want. Some are duplicates; some are no longer of interest. I need to edit all 4 groups, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snacks. We should be able to scroll the multiple pages we have acquired in any of these groups and select what no longer is applicable. How is it done?
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Justin MyFitnessPal Agent Jan 18, 2014 04:48PM PST
Hi,
Thank you for taking the time to post your question.
As I mentioned in my first email, it is not possible to do this. You can only delete items from your Frequent list, which has a maximum of 25 items/ 1 page. You want to delete from your Recent list, which has multiple pages, but it is not possible to do so at this time.
Justin
MyFitnessPal Staff
________________________________________
jjl0412 Jan 19, 2014 06:15PM PST
Please consider fixing this. There are many of us needing/wanting the ability to edit our foods. IMO, this should be a fundament basic for users. Thank you for responding.
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gamblerpl1

I have over 6 pages of Frequent Foods!!!! Many are dups and I can not clean up my lists!!! This is really bothersome because I have to go through several pages before I can find the food I want. This should be an easy fix for FMP. Many people have complained, Why haven't they fixed the problem!!!!!!????

jjl0412

kgeyser
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January 19, 2014 8:56 pmGreat. How often do we have to choose a food to have it come up in the frequent section? Are we just supposed to keep adding it to our daily food diary and deleting it from that day until it comes up in frequent and we can finally be rid of it?

ETA: HAHAHAHA, it works!

Ok, in your food diary, either create a new category or select a category that doesn't have a lot of variety of frequent food items if you don't have any categories left. Go into you diary, then add every item from your list that you want to delete to that category (you'll have to use All Meals). Then go back in, select frequent for that category, and start deleting. Then just delete the items from your food diary for the day and delete the category if applicable.

It is an annoying and sucky way to do it, but it works and it will rid you of the foods forever.
Edited by kgeyser On January 19, 2014 9:05 pm Report Post|Quote|Reply
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jjl0412
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January 20, 2014 10:35 am Thanks kgeyser! And to MFP-

jjl0412

I copied this response from another member posted on another thread, My actuaul response was:

:drinker: Thanks kseyer! And to MFP-:mad: :explode: :grumble: :noway: :huh:

AlabasterVerve

Thanks for that... when I'm feeling more ambitious I'm going to use it to clean up my food lists.

jjl0412

January 20, 2014 9:27 pm Yep, Me too! I actually received a request from Survey Monkey for a survey re my experience with MFP Help/Support.. It was for the same issue I started this thread as relayed in msg 1.

Asking if I was satisfied with response or if solution was resolved, my answer was of course, No & No. Responses were courteous and timely, but resolution or any attempt to resolve was ignored.

Nope, you get 1 page, 25 items, and that's all ya get. I ask you, how hard would it be to give us a scroll bar to Frequent that reveals the foods in our Recent inventory, and allow us to edit our own list of foods we have accumulated? You can still leave it at 25 items for each scroll. Or add a Delete function to the Recent list?

Maybe I no longer buy a particular brand. Maybe when in a hurry, I over look what I am searching 4 pages for, and enter it again! Maybe it's a no brainer in the simplest of considerations, to fix an oversight effecting & frustrating so many users. Maybe I'm just peeing in the wind....:frown:

kgeyser

Yay, I'm glad it's working for people. :drinker:

jjl0412

Folks, if you do not speak up to MFP moderators, Help, Support and em the contacts with the desire to fix an obvious problem, nothing will ever be done.

Chantelmcleod

I totally agree with this thread. All of my Myfitnesspal friends are having the same problem. It makes it sooooo hard to find food and it sometimes makes me give up on searching in the long list of food to find the right one.

ALNoog

If you use the app and an iPhone and did yesterday's update you can do it now.... I deleted a bunch of stuff that I no longer eat.

fredman2

I agree.
One problem is there are sooo many foods replicated in the 'choose food' list, and a lot of them have slight variances in the calorie/fat/protein/sodium count, enough to make you want to make up your own.
Look up Kellog's Special K Brownie Bites - there must be ten of them listed.

beachgod

kgeyser
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Joined Apr 2013
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January 19, 2014 8:56 pmGreat. How often do we have to choose a food to have it come up in the frequent section? Are we just supposed to keep adding it to our daily food diary and deleting it from that day until it comes up in frequent and we can finally be rid of it?

ETA: HAHAHAHA, it works!

Ok, in your food diary, either create a new category or select a category that doesn't have a lot of variety of frequent food items if you don't have any categories left. Go into you diary, then add every item from your list that you want to delete to that category (you'll have to use All Meals). Then go back in, select frequent for that category, and start deleting. Then just delete the items from your food diary for the day and delete the category if applicable.

It is an annoying and sucky way to do it, but it works and it will rid you of the foods forever.
Edited by kgeyser On January 19, 2014 9:05 pm Report Post|Quote|Reply
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jjl0412
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January 20, 2014 10:35 am Thanks kgeyser! And to MFP-

I would love to do this and this will make MFP's most glaring defect easy to work around but the bolded part makes absolutely no sense to me. How exactly do you do this?

I created a new category called "Delete". I put all the foods I want to remove in it, which made my diary say I'll gain over 130 lbs in 5 weeks. Then I go to my Frequent tab and start deleting foods but they are still in my All Meals section and I have to manually delete 80+ items from my daily diary since I didn't eat all that stuff. How do I make my Delete category Frequent?

I had 4 pages of food in my All Meals tab, most of which i don't want. I tried doing this and have been deleting stuff for over an hour and still have 4 pages when I go into my All Meals tab, even though I thought I just deleted most of it.:mad:

edit: or do you just have to use your Frequent tab from now on instead of the Recent one? I always used the Recent tab and nothing is being removed from it even if i delete it from the Frequent tab. I thought deleting it from the Frequent tab completely got rid of it from my food lists, except where they were logged in my diary.

I am so confused.

edit II: so is there another free site that doesn't have this idiotic problem? I'll dump MFP in a heartbeat for a site that does it right. Being able to edit your food list should be a main feature of a calorie counting website!

marekdds

I have been waiting for a delete button on recent foods for over 3 years. I don't think mfp cares that this is a problem. People have complained numerous times to no avail.

beachgod

They don't care. I've PMd and made threads about this, too.

Here we have what appears to be a workaround but the method above needs to be explained in a way that it can be understood. Nothing I'm trying is working. I finally decided to experiment with just 1 item instead of a whole friggin list and I cannot make it go away.

Also, FYI I'm a thread killer so this will go unanswered.

ALNoog

I can do it... Maybe it's just available on the iPhone app.

cita1950

We simply need a way to delete and organize our foods as we see fit. This should be such an easy thing to do! My goodness MFP if all other sites provide this option why can't your tech do this for your faithful members! It is getting very tiresome to have to search for everything everytime! Thank you! Please won't someone from MFP reply with the answer we have all been waiting to hear? Please??:flowerforyou:

beachgod

They don't care. I've PMd and made threads about this, too.

Here we have what appears to be a workaround but the method above needs to be explained in a way that it can be understood. Nothing I'm trying is working. I finally decided to experiment with just 1 item instead of a whole friggin list and I cannot make it go away.

Also, FYI I'm a thread killer so this will go unanswered.

see what I mean?

drgeorge7

Yes that is a huge help. It does take a while to go through everything but at least we can delete much more than just doing it in All Meals. Thanks a million.