Is MFP Premium worth the cost?

princesswarrior1116
princesswarrior1116 Posts: 58 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Considering an upgrade to get rid of the ads (which are super annoying) and am wondering if it’s worth the expense. Have you found it helpful towards your goals? What do you like/dislike about premium?

Replies

  • liftingbro
    liftingbro Posts: 2,029 Member
    Not really. I only care about calories and my macros so the other stuff doesn't matter. I really don't think the other things really help that much.
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    I don't find it worth it for my goals, everything I want to track can be done in the free version, and the ads don't particularly bother me.
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
    I have it because I hate ads.
  • amy19355
    amy19355 Posts: 805 Member
    $5 a month for an ad free experience on an app I use multiple times a day is worth it to me.

    Plus, I can record fractional quantities, and that's a big deal for me.

  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    lgfrie wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    lgfrie wrote: »

    And Premium members get the same broken, insufferably frustrating search algorithm as free members.

    This right here is why I'd never pay for Premium. The other features just don't make up for how terrible search is right now.

    I just typed tonight's dinner, Mighty Meals Buffalo Chicken Burger, into the search box. Here's what I got:

    McDonald's Angus Burger
    Buffalo chicken burger from Burger 21
    Burger King buffalo chicken strips
    Mighty Meals Poblano chicken burger - close!! Although a completely different product.
    Burger King buffalo chicken fries
    Junior Burger from Mighty Fine
    Mighty Meals Lasagne
    Mighty Meals Chicken Parmesan
    Burger King chicken melt

    ... and so on

    So I went to create my own Food for this, and it won't let me because ... the exact food is already in the data base, though I can't retrieve it.

    It's such a mess it's unbelievable they haven't fixed it yet.

    If the search function is still debilitated when my premium renewal comes up, I'm out.

    Same here! I just made a comment on another thread how a simple search for "Fareway ketchup" (a local grocery chain) only yielded 2 ketchup entries, only one of which was Fareway, and the top "match" was butter. The 6th entry for *any* Fareway item I search is always tartar sauce (that one fascinates me!) It also did the same thing you mentioned to me the other day- wouldn't let me make a new entry for an item that wouldn't come up. I've never known MFP to be picky about duplicate entries. :/

    So if we're keeping score, that's a "no" vote on premium. Especially since the site has been down for half the day (for everyone, I assume).
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    try2again wrote: »
    Same here! I just made a comment on another thread how a simple search for "Fareway ketchup" (a local grocery chain) only yielded 2 ketchup entries, only one of which was Fareway, and the top "match" was butter. The 6th entry for *any* Fareway item I search is always tartar sauce (that one fascinates me!) It also did the same thing you mentioned to me the other day- wouldn't let me make a new entry for an item that wouldn't come up. I've never known MFP to be picky about duplicate entries. :/

    So if we're keeping score, that's a "no" vote on premium. Especially since the site has been down for half the day (for everyone, I assume).

    I'm trying to be tolerant, since this is undoubtedly MFP's busiest week of the year, but yeah, the site being down is just layering another problem on top of the database search issues and really makes me wonder if this site gets sufficient resources and attention at UA or if it's kind of an orphan.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited January 2020
    I think it's a sad commentary on Premium features that the main perceived benefit is no ads. I've had an ad-free desktop internet experience for free for over 10 years and a pretty good (and cheap) mobile solution recently. (I don't use the MFP app due to all the complaints about data usage in Feedback. I don't know if that is still an issue.)
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,097 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    I think it's a sad commentary on Premium features that the main perceived benefit is no ads. I've had an ad-free desktop internet experience for free for over 10 years and a pretty good (and cheap) mobile solution recently. (I don't use the MFP app due to all the complaints about data usage in Feedback. I don't know if that is still an issue.)

    I'd say data usage is still a problem, given that MFP is consistently my highest-ranked app for data usage. It's crazy that an app that should only involve the exchange of a fairly limited amount of text and numerical data should consistently use more data than streaming music apps that I typically use at least an hour a day.
  • moonangel12
    moonangel12 Posts: 971 Member
    I am so glad I am not the only one having search issues! There was something I was trying to add in this weekend, can’t remember what exactly, but it was a major food chain and a basic item... the results I got were ridiculous!

    And earlier I had spent time entering a recipe only to have it freeze up with an error :angry: Thankfully it gave me the info I needed to enter it in manually - but then it said my numbers didn’t add up and wanted to quadruple the calories... (it was a smoothie).

    I paid for the ad free side of it, not even sure what the free would look like because I ditched the ads after just a day.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    amy19355 wrote: »
    $5 a month for an ad free experience on an app I use multiple times a day is worth it to me.

    Plus, I can record fractional quantities, and that's a big deal for me.

    Do you mean fractional quantities of food that you log? I'm pretty sure you can do that in the free version. I use decimals myself, since I don't have a problem converting most fractions to decimals and if I have to use a calculator, it spits the answer out in decimal form. But I think using fractions instead is just a settings change?

    @amy19355 I'm not quite sure what you mean by fractional quantities either. My old scale used fractions for ounces so I taped a fraction-to-decimal cheat sheet on the side of my monitor.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    As for if it’s worth it, I’d take a look at what the premium features are and which of those you think would be beneficial.

    If they are things that you will find helpful, or if having no ads (or simply the act of paying) will help keep you wanting to be here, then it could be worth it.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,295 Member
    I am not a light user, I would think!

    950MB in 20 days of which , only 160KB (so not much) is background data in an app in which I have explicitly disabled background data in my android settings

    Ads were auto playing video yesterday and today, something also explicitly disabled in my MFP app settings.


    1.69GB in 27 days of Wi-Fi usage (the dates don't match with mobile usage). Of which 159MB (much more than on mobile) are explicitly disabled in android settings background data!

    And this is not the worse usage.
  • Mshlhslp
    Mshlhslp Posts: 1 Member
    I think it depends on what you want to track. If you want to track calories, then it's not worth it. I have it because I need to track my sodium, so I find it totally worth it.
  • princesswarrior1116
    princesswarrior1116 Posts: 58 Member
    Thank you all for your replies! I found your comments interesting and helpful :)
  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
    I got premium so I could set up different calorie goals for different days of the week. It can be very useful if, for instance, you want to plan for fewer calories on weekdays and more calories on weekends. I don’t use that feature currently, though.

    I do love the ability to designate a calorie goal for each meal, but I’m not sure if that’s a premium feature, or if it’s in the free version?
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,097 Member
    lightenup2016 wrote: »
    I got premium so I could set up different calorie goals for different days of the week. It can be very useful if, for instance, you want to plan for fewer calories on weekdays and more calories on weekends. I don’t use that feature currently, though.

    I do love the ability to designate a calorie goal for each meal, but I’m not sure if that’s a premium feature, or if it’s in the free version?

    You can't allocate a specific number of calories to a given meal in the free version (I mean, you obviously could have a goal in your head to adhere to, but MFP won't know about it and won't tell you if you're over or under).
  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    lightenup2016 wrote: »
    I got premium so I could set up different calorie goals for different days of the week. It can be very useful if, for instance, you want to plan for fewer calories on weekdays and more calories on weekends. I don’t use that feature currently, though.

    I do love the ability to designate a calorie goal for each meal, but I’m not sure if that’s a premium feature, or if it’s in the free version?

    You can't allocate a specific number of calories to a given meal in the free version (I mean, you obviously could have a goal in your head to adhere to, but MFP won't know about it and won't tell you if you're over or under).

    Ok, thanks for clarifying. So then I would say yes, premium has been worth it to me, because I love having the meal calorie goals right there, alongside my actual meal calories logged. I’ve set mine up as Breakfast 30 (black coffee only), Lunch 400, Snack 220, Dinner 550, and Late Night 350. That gives me my total of 1550 for the day.
  • Avidkeo
    Avidkeo Posts: 3,211 Member
    bpetrosky wrote: »
    If I could see that paying for Premium was actually supporting making improvements to the core functionality of the site and apps, I'd consider it. Obviously, the site and apps appear to be getting more brittle and less functional as time goes by. Things like per meal calorie goals are worthless to me, especially if the basic search and logging functions are getting worse instead of better.

    I've also developed an immunity to iocane powder and website banner advertising, so it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

    Handy if you are going up against a sicilian and death is on the line.
  • Avidkeo
    Avidkeo Posts: 3,211 Member
    Try using the database if you are 8n a non-us country. Thank goodness for barcode scanning. It's a lifesaver for me.

    I'm sick of the app freezing everytime I start it, but I'm happy to wait the few minutes. And thank goodness I get free WiFi at work, cause the data thing was infuriating when I didn't.

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