Hi

Honestly, I feel like the very best ways to get out of the app - at least in the early stages of using it - are the same whether premium or free MFP. That's learning how to use it efficiently, and sticking with it consistently, pretty much.

I have premium, and I think it's useful, but which things will be most useful kind of depend on the individual.

I'm interested in sticking with good nutrition, not just managing my weight. For me, the most useful premium features are those that let a person fine-tune macro goals, manage which macros exercise calories affect, and drill down into details about nutrients and logged foods.

For someone new to exercise or healthy eating, some of the special meal planning or exercise content might be most helpful. People with diet-related health conditions might like features like setting macro goals by meal. The features for intermittent fasting or net carb counting are in premium, and can help people who want to do those things, though I know that people who used those strategies did use MFP successfully even before those features existed. Some people love the bar-code scanning for logging, but I never use it because it doesn't suit me at all. The data geeks like premium's longer retention of log data, and expanded ability to download it for analysis with other tools. I've even seen people who have slow internet want premium to avoid the extra time involved in loading ads, or who just don't want to see ads.

If you're new to MFP, I'd say just get started using the basics, and as you go along, you'll figure out which premium features add to the effectiveness for you.

Best wishes!