Export and analyze your own data in Excel

Now that the program is a lot more stable - I'll do a few posts on how to read it and use the info you are getting. There is a lot there.

#1 What to look for on the extractor and trend watcher

The majors on tracking

We want to track calories and macros. Are you tracking well?

Look at the Report Card on the start tab. How is the logging section? If you aren't logging, significantly going over or under your objectives then you aren't using MFP effectively.


(1) Gives you a score based on how well you can track and log your info or meet your goals
(2) Explains the issue

How are your calorie goals and macros?

Look at Calories Tracked, how are you doing on the weekly averages and 30 days. You should be hitting your cals here (or you might also have a tracking issue).

Again on the report card, how are you meeting your macros? Look at Macro Tracking. See if you are getting the fat and protein you need. If not look at the uneaten macros, how much protein, fat are you leaving on the table?


(1) Gives you the goals you set up
(2) How are you hitting those over the last 30 days. If you had hit your goals, you would have left 0 protein and 0 fat on the table. It's fine to leave some, but if you are consistently leaving a lot either you need to focus more on these macros or consider that your goals are not set correctly.
(3) Gives you the 90 day average.
Lets say you are still leaving 88g average over the last. That's a lot! But perhaps the trend (4) is in the right direction? Keep at it.

Lets look at the macros in another way. Look at the remaining protein, for logged days graph.



See that line (1)? If you are improving, and meeting your protein goals it should be pointing towards zero or close to it. Here, in this case, there is room for improvement.
You can also review the remaining fat graph in the same way (not shown).

Good point, I'll do that next.

Posting this for a discussion



weekly tracking of macros, weight and calories

Update version

The updated extraction tool is here
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/EvgeniZyntx/view/mfp-data-export-tool-the-overview-659927

I just updated to a new version 5.10 - resolved issue on uploading configuration data from an update done by MFP.

discnjh wrote: »

First of all, thanks so much for the tool and all the work you've put into it. For a data geek like me its quite nice to have.

Couple things I've been having issues with.

The first is around updating for changed calorie/macro goals. But given that MFP can't even seem to keep their stuff straight with their apps right now, I'm not surprised. My iPad app can't keep my adjusted calorie goal straight on the Home page, although it shows properly on the Diary page. So honestly not sure if there's even anything you can do about this issue, because the problem may be entirely theirs.

What happens is when I select to update the user configuration, it imports a calorie goal of zero. I can work around this by just manually entering the calorie and macronutrient goals. Not a big deal.

The second issue is around the spreadsheet itself. If I hit my at goals for 30 straight days, the spreadheet reports that I have missed it for all 30 days. In Cell Y8 on the checkin Tab, it reports 30 if the sum of all of Q4:Q34 is zero, which means that if none of those days had remaining fat, it reports that ALL of those days have remaining fat. Looks like the same thing would happen with protein.

Oh, and the other thing I just remembered, although I think this is a function of changes in MFP as well, I'm now showing weight changes for every day in the past month, even though there were a handful of days I missed. Is MFP maybe now reporting interpolated data?

I'll check those issues out in the next week.