How to add restaurant menu items to my food diary?

joandentler
joandentler Posts: 3 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have a premium account but I can't find any icon or whatever where I can look for restaurant meals to add to my food diary. I used MFP a year ago and it was easy to add some restaurant meals if they were loaded. I am using IOS16 and a Mac Desktop to log in. Thanks for any help

Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,868 Member
    Pretty much everything in the database is entered by users. You could search for name of restaurant (provided it's a chain) and the name of the meal. Anything else... how would that work? MFP is a global website, and restaurants in most countries are not even required to publish nutritional info. With restaurants keep in mind though that calories can vary greatly. Most cheap places will likely add more food than what's used for the calorie information. Hey, you don't want to be known as the cheap place that undercuts portions.
  • joandentler
    joandentler Posts: 3 Member
    Where do I search the restaurant name?
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,293 Member
    edited October 2022
    If they’re in there, same place you search any other food.

    Enter the name of the restaurant.

    It will either return a list of individual items like here:
    psfk9roa85cr.png


    Or give you an extra place to drill down to the chain’s full menu, like here. Just click on “choose item” to return the full menu:
    d1ciyhuut3f1.png

    My vague understanding is that listings like this seem to be entered, maintained and updated by the chain itself. I don’t know, but these seem to be more accurate and thorough than the regular “list”.
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member
    @joandentler : Not that many restaurants have their full menus in the database. When they do, you get a top search result that points you to the menu. It works for a few big-name fast-food restaurants, like McDonalds, Dunkin, Chipotle, etc., although sometimes the menus are out of date.

    Still, as said above, even if the whole menu isn't in the database, you can often find an item by searching on the name of a restaurant plus the name of the item.

    Best of luck!
  • Mamudafad
    Mamudafad Posts: 1 Member
    Open the MyFitnessPal app on your iOS device or log in through your Mac Desktop. Then, access your food diary by clicking on "Diary." Scroll to the meal or snack you want to log. To add the restaurant item, tap the "+" icon. In the search bar, type either the restaurant's name or the specific dish you're looking for. MyFitnessPal will show you a list of matching options. Choose the one that best matches your meal, and tap to add it to your diary. You can adjust the serving size and make any necessary changes. Keep in mind that the availability of restaurant items can vary, so if you can't find a particular dish, try searching for individual ingredients or a similar item from another restaurant. Enjoy tracking your meals, and don't forget to balance it with some European cuisine adventures, like my recent visit to that charming Irish cafe!
  • no1racefan2
    no1racefan2 Posts: 90 Member
    As others have said, search for it just like any other food/ingredient. I've been able to find most major chain restaurant items and it's easy to compare the entry to their nutrition info online to see if it's accurate.
    Ex. I go to Jimmy John's occasionally so I would search for jimmy john's turkey tom on wheat. Lots of entries come up but I happen to know which one is accurate because I've already perused Jimmy Johns website to confirm calories.
    Of course, there's always going to be some level of error because there's no guarantee that they are putting the same exact # of grams of mayo on, or that kind of thing. If in doubt, I'll choose an entry that is towards the higher end of average because I'd rather overestimate than underestimate calories.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,053 Member
    The OP is referring to the Restaurant Logging Feature that retired August 1, 2020.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Myfitnesspal/comments/ht1lb2/restaurant_logging_retiring_on_aug_1/?rdt=46901&onetap_auto=true

    The MFP support link in the above thread no longer works but I found it in archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20201129194124/https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045757052

    Beginning August 1, 2020, MyFitnessPal's Restaurant Logging feature on iOS and Android will no longer be accessible.

    cgbyr5w80ctq.png
    What are we doing?
    We will be removing the location icon between the search box and the barcode scanner.

    Why are we doing this?
    At MyFitnessPal, we aim to provide you with the best possible tools and experiences to help you achieve your health goals.

    As part of that commitment, we’re constantly evaluating and determining which tools work best so we can focus on building better features for you every day. This sometimes results in feature retirement or modification.

    Can I still search for foods from restaurants?
    Yes, you can still find foods from restaurants by typing it in the search box.

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