How to use the MFP data?

ankitchadha29
ankitchadha29 Posts: 5
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Gang,

So I've been trying to log my food/workouts regularly. Now after 65 odd days of daily logging, it seems to have become a habit. Which is a good thing.

What's not good: It's not very intuitive to make use of this historical data. Does MFP have some kind of 'reporting' mechanism which would be able to let me know stuff like:

1. You're eating way too many calories for dinner. Move some caloric-intake to lunch or breakfast for better results.
2. Stop guzzling all that beer and you'll be fitter in 20 days.
3. Pizza seems to be your weakness. Try to reduce it as much as possible. If you absolutely need to have some pizza, then chomp away on them slices for lunch (not for dinner).
4. Regulate your workouts. No point burning 1000 calories on Monday and then not working out the next 3 days.

I guess you get the idea of what I'm looking for. These are just a few examples that I was able to dig up by spending north of 6 hours at MFP over the weekend.
There should be an easier way.

It would be great if someone could share some thoughts on how to check this kind of reports.
If something like this doesn't exist, then how can we bring this to the attention of MFP's product-managers?


Cheers,
A

Replies

  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    1. You're eating way too many calories for dinner. Move some caloric-intake to lunch or breakfast for better results.
    Meal timing makes no difference - spread your calories out, or eat them all at once, your choice.
    2. Stop guzzling all that beer and you'll be fitter in 20 days.
    If the beer fits into your daily calories, you're good.
    3. Pizza seems to be your weakness. Try to reduce it as much as possible. If you absolutely need to have some pizza, then chomp away on them slices for lunch (not for dinner).
    See answer to questions 1 & 2. :smile:
    4. Regulate your workouts. No point burning 1000 calories on Monday and then not working out the next 3 days.
    Maybe. I find consistent workouts 5-6 days a week are good for me, others may workout less or more. Instead of a huge workout resulting in a 1000 cal burn, go for a shorter workouts several days in a row to avoid going gonzo one day and loafing the next three.

    As far as reports - there are ways to view your weekly diary totals, as well exercise and nutrition reports I think....been awhile since I've poked around for those things.
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
    Here you can download a nifty spreadsheet. If you are good with Excel you can add onto it or start your own.

    myfitnesspal.com/blog/EvgeniZyntx/view/mfp-data-export-tool-the-overview-659927
  • ankitchadha29
    ankitchadha29 Posts: 5
    Thanks, Amy.

    The examples were kind of random (and stuff that worked for me). What I'm really looking for is for MFP to be able to send me an app-notification on my phone with some very custom (again, depending on personal settings) stuff.
  • ankitchadha29
    ankitchadha29 Posts: 5
    edited March 2015
    @ncboiler89‌: Thanks! This would be extremely helpful. It'll be really cool if the MFP folks automate this so we don't have to download spreadsheets.

    It's still a start and should provide me with what I need.

    Cheers!
  • Cortelli
    Cortelli Posts: 1,369 Member
    I find the data available to be most useful just in terms of accurately gauging my TDEE / calorie needs. Weighing in daily, looking at 3, 5, and 7 day weight averages, and comparing to gross and net calorie intakes over periods has given me a pretty firm grasp on what I need to maintain (and therefore what I need to do to cut or to bulk).

    There's a forum for feedback and suggestions, but no real sense of how often that is actually fed back to product managers.

    Also, I suspect your desire for those sorts of personalized non-numerical data is years away in any event. A while back the app added little passive-aggressive notes (add protein powder to diary - "great job! this food is high in protein") when logging. It's a bit of a joke, really, but far simpler to incorporate than what you're looking for.
  • ankitchadha29
    ankitchadha29 Posts: 5
    @Cortelli‌: A while back the app added little passive-aggressive notes :D:D
This discussion has been closed.

Categories