Premium worth it

natedoglara
natedoglara Posts: 27 Member
in Getting Started
Is premium worth it? How long have you had premium?

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,638 Member
    This will sound circular, but it depends on whether you need the features that are added in premium. The free version is pretty functional.

    It's the same food database, same exercise database, same general logging processes. In the phone/tablet app, premium gets you more workout routines, plus a bunch of plans stuff. In app or we version, premium has more options for tweaking your goals, plus features like net carbs. (This is not an exhaustive list. I'm sure MFP has a full list of premium features someplace.) Premium doesn't have the ads, which is nice if you have slow connections.

    I have premium now, I had the free version most of the time I've been here. I was able to do what I needed with the free version, don't use even remotely all the premium features. Mostly, I just use the more fine-grained control over nutrients, personally.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    For me its not worth it.

    I log my food on here. my fitbit (thinking about breaking down and getting an apple watch) tracks my activity/exercise and syncs/adjusts calories on here. I can adjust my calories and macros as needed (with premium I think you can do macros by number and not only percentage but im fine with percentage- thats not a big deal)

    Theres really nothing premium offers that I feel I NEED or that would make a difference in meeting my goals.
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,664 Member
    I only use premium to get rid of the ads - slow connection made loading anything very slow or even impossible. Getting rid of the annoying flashing ads means I can use the database 🤷‍♂️
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,700 Member
    I used the free version for two years and lost a ton of weight with it. I subscribed the third year, mainly as a “thank you” to support the developers and keep it available.

    I didn’t realize there was much of a difference til I set up a free account for my husband a couple of weeks ago.

    The ads on his are driving me bonkers, particularly the one that always looks like an incoming call.

    I particularly like the paid version ability to see the macro percent/gram on individual meals. It helps me see if a meal I’m having needs a little “boost”.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    It doesn't say much for a "premium" service when the main reason people use it is not due to any features but rather lack of ads...

    There are free ways to get rid of ads on desktop but we are not allowed to link to them as that is considered linking to the competition O_o
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    It doesn't say much for a "premium" service when the main reason people use it is not due to any features but rather lack of ads...

    There are free ways to get rid of ads on desktop but we are not allowed to link to them as that is considered linking to the competition O_o

    lets just say there is a reason (actually several, but one main one, lol) I prefer mfp on my laptop and rarely use it on my phone ;)
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,700 Member
    This^^^^^

    Well stated.
  • natedoglara
    natedoglara Posts: 27 Member
    It does seem that ads was the biggest issue of going premium. I have not made the jump yet, still using the free app as of right now.
  • amyers0714
    amyers0714 Posts: 6 Member
    I am using a free trial right now and I don’t see much difference than the free version for what I use it for.
  • Jackie9003
    Jackie9003 Posts: 1,124 Member
    My thought process is that if I'm paying for it I'm going to make sure I flipping well use it lol
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 2,087 Member
    I have a few things I wanted that were not allowed in the free version (previously I was using Spark People for tracking which did offer those features) - in particular, I needed to turn off having exercise calories added to my daily calories (but I still wanted to be able to track my exercise), and I wanted the gram breakdown of the macros. Neither of those were available on the free version, so I ended up upgrading.

    I use a TDEE averaged over the week's activities, and generally eat the same amount each day rather than vary based on that day's calories. This also allowed me to track my exercise without it affecting my weekly totals (I sometimes will bank some calories during the week for a special meal(s) over the weekend, and I couldn't do that and track my exercise with my preferred method) - again, something I couldn't do with the free version.

    Sure, I could have done all of that manually, but for the cost of premium, decided to take a little out of my work bonus to upgrade just for ease of use.

    SO, basically, it depends on what you want/need out of a database.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,986 Member
    edited March 2022
    I've been here since... 2014 or so and have found no reason whatsoever to use premium. The free membership is sufficient for me. Sure, there's no negative calorie adjustment, but there are database entries that do exactly that. Removed 5g of fat from something? Just find a negative fat entry. Done.
  • cw106
    cw106 Posts: 952 Member
    1 ads
    2 macro info
    3 free app way too buggy now.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,638 Member
    cw106 wrote: »
    1 ads
    2 macro info
    3 free app way too buggy now.

    Premium is not a complete separate piece of software. The basic pages are the same, with some logic in the code that checks for premium status and turns on access to certain features (vs. displaying a lock or a "buy premium" page). The bug level isn't going to be significantly different between the two, because they're overwhelmingly exactly the same code.

    Unless, of course, someone thinks they intentionally make the free version turn on bugs. That would be pretty dumb of them for a variety of marketing reasons, and a pretty conspiracy-theorist thing to believe.
  • sjl0210
    sjl0210 Posts: 31 Member
    I only get premium so I can add my own macros in grams :)
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    stianjl wrote: »
    I only get premium so I can add my own macros in grams :)

    You can do that (within 5%) in the Free version. Not sure I'd pay $10 a month for an exact gram amount, especially when 5% is close enough by far.

    Also, it's good to be aware that the database (food) items don't necessarily have the correct macros entered. The database is 99.9% created by the users. Vet your foods.

  • sjl0210
    sjl0210 Posts: 31 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    stianjl wrote: »
    I only get premium so I can add my own macros in grams :)

    You can do that (within 5%) in the Free version. Not sure I'd pay $10 a month for an exact gram amount, especially when 5% is close enough by far.

    Also, it's good to be aware that the database (food) items don't necessarily have the correct macros entered. The database is 99.9% created by the users. Vet your foods.

    Yeah i know but i dont want to use percent, i want to use numbers. I cant figure out to use numbers in free version. I never use database food or myfitnesspal's macros, I just use Myfitnesspal as a tool for my numbers :) I figured out that I only needed to use the trial premium, then change to numbers, and after the trial ended I still was able to change numbers instead of percent.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    edited February 2023
    stianjl wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    stianjl wrote: »
    I only get premium so I can add my own macros in grams :)

    You can do that (within 5%) in the Free version. Not sure I'd pay $10 a month for an exact gram amount, especially when 5% is close enough by far.

    Also, it's good to be aware that the database (food) items don't necessarily have the correct macros entered. The database is 99.9% created by the users. Vet your foods.

    Yeah i know but i dont want to use percent, i want to use numbers. I cant figure out to use numbers in free version. I never use database food or myfitnesspal's macros, I just use Myfitnesspal as a tool for my numbers :) I figured out that I only needed to use the trial premium, then change to numbers, and after the trial ended I still was able to change numbers instead of percent.

    The gram numbers show on the FOOD page for Free members too. I mean, you are always going to have to equal 100%, so 5% is tiny in actual gram numbers. Mine are set to default, but it's literally just a couple clicks to change them.

    That is kind of interesting that some of the features were retained for you after the trial period ended - if in fact that is true.

    d2d817xkptbe.png



  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,638 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    stianjl wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    stianjl wrote: »
    I only get premium so I can add my own macros in grams :)

    You can do that (within 5%) in the Free version. Not sure I'd pay $10 a month for an exact gram amount, especially when 5% is close enough by far.

    Also, it's good to be aware that the database (food) items don't necessarily have the correct macros entered. The database is 99.9% created by the users. Vet your foods.

    Yeah i know but i dont want to use percent, i want to use numbers. I cant figure out to use numbers in free version. I never use database food or myfitnesspal's macros, I just use Myfitnesspal as a tool for my numbers :) I figured out that I only needed to use the trial premium, then change to numbers, and after the trial ended I still was able to change numbers instead of percent.

    The gram numbers show on the FOOD page for Free members too. I mean, you are always going to have to equal 100%, so 5% is tiny in actual gram numbers. Mine are set to default, but it's literally just a couple clicks to change them.

    That is kind of interesting that some of the features were retained for you after the trial period ended - if in fact that is true.

    d2d817xkptbe.png

    FWIW: It was my experience that when I set gram goals in premium, then went back to free, it kept those custom gram goals. However, I could only reset those goals in even 5% increments if I changed them thereafter.

    AFAIK, it doesn't keep all settings, like if you have a custom allocation of exercise calories to macros in premium, switching back to free seems to result in it allocating exercise calories to macros according to the default allocations, or maybe the same proportion as the gram goals (can't remember which, but not the special/different percent allocation anymore).

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