FAQ

My Fitness Pal: Step by Step

1. Download the MyFitnessPal app and set up your profile

2. You can friend me on MyFitnessPal by requesting to be my friend through my email address.  I will receive an email requesting your "friendship" and I'll accept. It’s helpful if your username is one that I will recognize as yours or attach your name to the request.

MyFitnessPal Friend requests:  

If you're unfamiliar as to how to do this, follow the following steps:

1. Log into your MyFitnessPal account 2. Hit the "more" tab at the bottom right side of the screen 3. Scroll down to "friends" and click on it 4. Click on requests and then click on "add friends" 5. Pick the email way of inviting me and enter (synchealthcoaching@gmail.com) 6. I will receive that request and accept it and you will be linked as a friend.

Opening your diary on MyFitnessPal:

1. Go to your home screen and click "more" on the bottom right side of the screen 2. Scroll down to settings and click 3. Click on "Diary Settings" and click 4. Scroll down to "Diary Sharing" and click 5. Set your sharing options to "Friends Only" and check the check mark at the top right of your screen

Being your “friend” on MyFitnessPal and Opening your “diary” enables me to view your log in if you need advice or help.

Make sure that you set up your MyFitnessPal app by MACROS, not calories.

If you’re having trouble with this, here is a step by step:

1. Log in and go to your home screen

2. Click on “more” on the bottom right of your screen

3. Next click “Goals”

4. Under Nutrition Goals, click “Calorie & Macronutrient Goals”

5. Then manually add your custom Macro numbers by clicking on the blue numbers and adjusting.

If you have the Premium membership, you can have goals down to the very gram. The free version is within a range or percentage. I find having the Premium membership to be Very helpful but you can also track with the free version.

After you’ve inputted your custom macros, make sure to click the checkmark to save. Then go back to “goals” scroll all the way down to “exercise calories” and turn it “off”. This will ensure that the MFP app won't change your macros when you enter in exercise.

Note:

Do not log in your exercise into MyFitnessPal. It will alter your calorie or Macro numbers. If you want to keep track of your exercise, just add it to your daily “notes” in the daily food diary. Also, do not adjust your weight in the profile section of MyFitnessPal as you lose. It auto adjusts your macros and automatically assigns you different macros.

Log Food:

You can log food by manually typing the food item into the search box in your diary. Another way is to use the SCAN option. If you go into your food diary and “add food” then to the right of the search box, you’ll see a barcode. If you tap on the barcode, it will access the camera on your phone and you’re able to scan (like a grocery store) any food item that has a scan bar! It will automatically pull the nutritional information into your diary. This makes logging very convenient and quick. Be sure to manage the serving sizes. You’d be surprised how many food items, even produce, have scan bars!

Restaurant finder:

When you’re in an area with a lot of restaurant options, MFP has a handy option that will help you quickly pull up the restaurant’s menu. Go to your food diary, tap “add food” and next to the search box where you type in a food, you’ll see a “drop” shape icon. Tap on that icon and the nearby restaurants will appear.

Entering a Recipe:

There is an awesome feature in MFP where you can input your own recipes and find out the macro count per serving. You can access it by:

1. Go to “more” on the bottom right of your home page

2. Click on “Meals, recipes and foods”

3. Then click on “create a recipe” on the bottom of the screen. It will give you the option of manually entering the ingredients (you can also cut and paste from other documents) or add from the Web which means you can cut and paste the link of your favorite recipe into MFP and it will automatically import the recipe for you. Just review what has been imported and their serving sizes before continuing to ensure it was done correctly. The only thing left to do at this point is to designate how many servings the recipe makes. (Example: If you’re making a Lasagna then you put the ingredients in and then decide how many pieces you cut it into...maybe 12...so you designate that the recipe makes 12 servings. Then MFP will calculate how many macros are in one serving) You then can add it to your diary and that recipe will always be under your recipe section to add to your diary the next time you have it.

There are many very cool options in the MFP app to be explored. The more time you can spend discovering the in’s and out’s of the app, the better!

Set up tutorial for setting up MyFitnessPal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2ZUjki_XDY

or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaQAdmVCx_A&list=Mclw8z5BKbNRLA5liK mBJgRBo15C0iXQ&index=9

Introduction to MyFitnessPal: Click Here!