MyFitnessPal Accuracy - Are you tracking foods WRONG?

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Average Read Time: 1.5 minutes


You may already be tracking your food intake, but are you doing it wrong? Whether you’re trying to slim your waistline or pack on some muscle, correctly tracking your foods is important to succeed. The key word is “correctly”.

When logging foods in MyFitnessPal (and other tracking apps), there will often be entries for foods created by other users that are incorrect. There are a few things you can do to help avoid incorrect entries.

 
 

Scan barcodes.

Whenever possible, use the barcode scanning feature to scan the label on the food you want to enter. Give a quick glance at the result that pops up to make sure the numbers match. This also has the benefit of being faster than using the search function.

Use your judgement.

As you become more experienced, you'll start to learn approximately how many Calories and grams of protein, carbs, fats, and fiber should be in certain foods. If you come across an entry in MyFitnessPal that doesn't seem quite right, click on a different entry.

For example, if you want to log an apple and the entry you click on says it has 0 carbs, you can be certain that entry is incorrect.

Look for green checkmarks.

Look for foods with green checkmarks. Green checkmarks mean the MyFitnessPal system believes an entry is correct. Keep in mind, not all green checkmarks are correct and just because an item doesn't have a checkmark, doesn't mean it’s incorrect; however, if you're guessing at a food item you're trying to log, you're probably safer going with the item that has a checkmark.

MyFitnessPal Green Check Mark.png

Following these tips will make it easier to spot incorrect entries, helping you to log your foods more accurately and will even save you some time.

Thank you so much for reading! If you found this information helpful and want to help the Treadaway Training blogcast grow, simply share this post with a friend. If you like what I have to say, sign up below to become a Treadaway Training insider or check out my YouTube channel. I will be back here Saturday with another fat loss topic. As always, God bless you AND your family and I'll see you Saturday.