food scales that sync to fitness pal?

jerber160
jerber160 Posts: 2,606 Member
in Getting Started
I just saw digital food scales that calculate nutrition. Do any sync to MFP?

Replies

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    I don't know of any. How would that work? How would the scale or MFP know what type of food you'd put on the scale?

  • jerber160
    jerber160 Posts: 2,606 Member
    you record what you're weighing. "cherry tomatoes" it weighs them and calculates nutrients. some have blue tooth capability and some big data bases. why can't they send it to mfp? Just asking.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    the API for MFP is available if one of those companies wants to use it - but they need to develop the integration (typically) - not the other way around
  • jerber160
    jerber160 Posts: 2,606 Member
    i don't know what that means dean. api?
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    edited November 2018
    jerber160 wrote: »
    you record what you're weighing. "cherry tomatoes" it weighs them and calculates nutrients. some have blue tooth capability and some big data bases. why can't they send it to mfp? Just asking.

    Seems like as many steps as just weighing and entering into MFP, to me. You're just entering into the scale instead.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    the API is the programming behind websites that allows others to access it - like MFP uses the FITBIT API to pull in your step data; etc
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
    deannalfisher wrote: »
    the API is the programming behind websites that allows others to access it - like MFP uses the FITBIT API to pull in your step data; etc

    Yep, and it also works the other way too and an app could hook into an MFP API to pull information. For example, if a fitness clothing company could link their website/app to an MFP API and pull in your current measurements in order to show you clothing they offered that would fit you well given your current height, bust, waist, etc
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
    edited November 2018
    You can do it indirectly by getting a scale that syncs with Fitbit (Aria), create a Fitbit account, and then sync the Fitbit account to MFP. There are also other wifi scale brands that you can probably sync with MFP in this way.
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
    edited November 2018
    vingogly wrote: »
    You can do it indirectly by getting a scale that syncs with Fitbit (Aria), create a Fitbit account, and then sync the Fitbit account to MFP. There are also other wifi scale brands that you can probably sync with MFP in this way.

    The OP was talking about a food scale rather than a bathroom scale. So if you weight 123g of chicken breast the scale syncs with MFP and adds that entry to your food diary automatically.

    It's a very good idea in theory and definitely doable from a technical perspective. There are a couple of hurdles you'd face with the implementation though. Firstly it would require some pretty significant database work to ensure that the database entry the scale/app selected was accurate.

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