App Review: MyFitnessPal

(Author Rating)
8.25/10
220px-MyFitnessPal_Logo

8.25 /10

Cost

8/10

User
Experience

6/10

Tools &
Features

9/10

Setup

10/10

Basic App Info:

Name of the App: MyFitnessPal

Cost: Free for a basic plan or $9/99/mo or $49.99/annually for a premium subscription.

Availability: Android & Apple

Download the Android App
Download the Apple App

This app is best for people wanting to track their calorie intake for weight loss or weight gain.

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App Intro

On their website, MyFitnessPal says, “Take control of your goals. Track calories, break down ingredients, and log activities with MyFitnessPal.” 

Once you set up an account, you can set goals, join challenges, and add friends, but most importantly, you can track what you eat and drink in a day. Your “diary” consists of each meal – breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, with a category for exercise (to track the calories) and an option to track how much water you drink in a day. (Spoiler – not enough, most likely!) You can change the serving size of what you eat/drink as well to get the most accurate count possible. 

Premium features include food timestamps (which tell you how your meals affect your energy, workouts, and more) as well as your macro breakdown (carbs, fat, and protein). You can use your food history to learn which foods are the highest in each macro to make more informed decisions about what you consume. Additionally, with a premium subscription, you can customize macronutrient goals on top of caloric goals, take advantage of meal plans as well as a database of recipes, and naturally, enjoy an ad-free experience. (Learn more about premium.)

The App

Features

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Several features all in one place.

mfp-profile

Profile that shows you your goals and progress

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Track your food, exercise, and water all in one easy-to-use spot.

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Search for hundreds of foods found within our database.

Likes/Dislikes

Likes

  • Utilizing the app properly (measuring foods and using accurate nutrition information) helps users achieve their health, weight, and wellness goals. The key is accuracy and inputting every last calorie – down to the condiments.
  • We liked that the app shows a ballpark of what you consume in a day, which gives you a better sense of what calories feel like, in terms of energy.
  • We loved how you can input your own foods and recipes (despite the database overflowing with manual inputs) because you can track family recipes or nutritional information when cooking/baking.

Disikes

  • Anyone can input any food into the database, which means you could search and get inaccurate results for any given food. You’ll find indicators for when MyFitnessPal verifies that the food inputted is nutritionally correct, but even then, the information could be outdated. To combat this, we either checked the foods we consumed against the “verified” labels or we began inputting our own recipes and foods manually to ensure accuracy. The above practice shows us that there are infinite submissions for any given food – some accurate, some not even close – making things difficult to sort through and trust.
  • Using tracking apps such as these can also facilitate an unhealthy relationship with food if people live and breathe by the app’s calorie count. It’s critical to recognize that every day won’t necessarily be a win. Having leeway, the occasional slip-up, and every-so-often indulgences or splurges is important to living a happy life. Don’t get caught up in the numbers of it all.

App Ratings, Size, & Category

RATINGS

  • 4.7/5
  • 4.4/5

SIZE

  • 148.2 MB
  • 124 MB

CATEGORY

  • #7 in health and fitness
  • #2 in health and fitness

SIMILAR APPS

  • Fooducate (Android and iOS)
  • FatSecret (Android and iOS)
  • Cron-o-meter (Android and iOS)
  • PeopleOne Health (Android and iOS)
  • Lifesum (Android and iOS)
  • Lose It! (Android and iOS)
  • Jawbone UP (Android and iOS)
  • My Diet Coach (Android and iOS)
  • MyPlate (iOS)
  • Fitbit Built-In Calorie Counter (iOS, Android, Windows)

The Backstory

Allegedly, co-founder Mike Lee built the app as a way to track his weight before his wedding but started working on it full-time after interest from friends and family. It was the first of its kind; those interested in tracking their calories had to previously do it manually with a paper and pen. That has since grown into becoming one of the most well-known health and wellness apps on the market to date, with all the bells and whistles listed above.

Awards & Accolades

  • GQ 2020 Fitness Awards – winner of “Best Fitness App”
  • Featured in the New York Times
  • Featured in the Wall Street Journal
  • Featured on the Today Show
  • Featured in the U.S. News & World Report

Quotes

Education helped Stephanie lose 30 pounds:

MyFitnessPal gave me a wake up call to the way I was eating and made things clear what I needed to change.

Stephanie

The Bottom Line

MyFitnessPal is a great starting point for people wanting to learn more about nutrition and their body, especially if they’re ready to make long-term changes to their lifestyle to be healthier and happier. Whether you want to lose weight, gain weight (bulk up), or maintain your weight, using a calorie counter app like MyFitnessPal will help teach you all there is to know about food and nutrition. Give it a try to see if it works for you, but remember to keep with it and to be kind to yourself.

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