2 questions I'm sure you'll know the answer to...HELP!

For tea I usually just count it into my water by the little glass since it really is just a flavoring to water, I will count any sugar or milk I put into it separately though. As for "favorites" below is what I found in the "help" tab by your log-in name at the top of the page. Hope this helps, it's not as user friendly as some other sites but it does conform to the foods you eat.

Q. What is the Most Frequently Used Items list for?

A. Most of us tend to eat the same foods every day for each meal. MyFitnessPal takes advantage of that to make logging your meals easier.

As you log what you've eaten, MyFitnessPal remembers what you like to eat in your "Most Frequently Used Items" list. You can then add any items from those list just by checking the box and clicking the "Add Checked Items To Meal" button.

The more you log, the easier it gets!


Q. How do I add a food to my Most Frequently Used Items list?

A. Foods are added to your Most Frequently Used Items list automatically based on how often you add them to your diary. As you add items to your diary, they will appear on your list if you add them frequently enough. There isn't anything special that you need to do to make an item appear on the list.

It's really up to you as it makes little difference diet wise.

It was once believed that tea, coffee and alcohol wouldn't count because of their diuretic effects. This is minimal however and if you're dehydrating on a desert island, any of these will hydrate you.

Obviously don't count alcohol as water in terms of dieting though...

I drink nothing but coffee all day, if the old standards were true, my water intake would be at 0 and I would be clinically dead. Since starting this I have switched some drinks to water as I need my coffee sweet so can save a few cals by removing it completely.

Of course they count. Saying otherwise would imply that you could die of dehydration while drinking nothing but tea. Lots and lots of people never drink any pure water AT ALL, and yet are perfectly well hydrated. Babies don't drink water for the first few months of life, do they? The goal here is to stay properly hydrated, not meet some rigorous definition. Use some common sense, Folks, and stop parroting back what "they" say.

ANYTHING liquid except distilled spirits counts as water. Milk, beer, soda, tea, pure water, flavored water, etc. They may have calories along for the ride that you need to account for as such, of course.

Caffeinated drinks are counter-productive to hydration so cannot be counted as water.

Bob Greene, Oprah's old trainer, used to say that only water could be counted as water, but then he changed his mind about it and said that herbal (non-caffeinated) teas could be counted toward 1/2 of our water intake. Green, black and white teas cannot be counted as water since they are caffeinated, but herbal teas (like Chamomille) aren't technically tea - they are just water with herbs.