How to Get Started with MyFitnessPal

Whether you're trying to bulk up, trim down, or simply maintain your weight, this easy-to-use calorie-counter app is a great asset. With over 5 million foods in its database, you're basically guaranteed to find information on a food that you're eating, including food from popular restaurants. I can even track the nutrition in my homemade meals! You can sync MyFitnessPal with your iPhone or fitness tracker to keep track of exercise and how many calories you burn throughout the day. The following are a few tips to help you get the most out of the MyFitnessPal app. Read & Analyze Nutrition Information

Counting calories is the main focus of MyFitnessPal as it's primarily a tool to help you achieve your ideal weight. When you set up the app, you will be given a daily calorie goal depending on your goal weight. If you're more interested in tracking your nutrition, however, MyFitnessPal also breaks down the carbohydrates, fat, and protein in your diet. The MyFitnessPal blog takes nutrition a step further, giving nutrition tips, such as suggesting you eat complex carbs, lean protein, and healthy fats. Enter Homemade Meals

You can easily enter the meals you make at home by opening the app and then tapping the + icon along the bottom of the screen. Then tap Food and select a meal. Tap Recipes > Create a Recipe and then either choose to add a recipe you found on the web (MyFitnessPal will automatically import the ingredients for you) or you can enter your ingredients manually. In this example, I am entering the ingredients manually for my turkey tacos recipe. Enter ingredients one by one and you will be given choices from MyFitnessPal's food database. Once you're finished entering your ingredients, tap the arrow at the top right and you will be given nutrition facts for each serving, including calories, fat, carbs, and protein. Enter Your Workouts

Entering workouts in MyFitnessPal is a satisfying way to add calories you've burned back to your daily allowance. To enter a workout, tap the + icon on the bottom of the screen, then tap Exercise and select either Cardio (increased heart rate) or Strength (weightlifting). Create your own exercise by selecting Create a New Exercise or search for an exercise from the Search bar. When you select an exercise, you'll need to enter a number under Minutes Performed. Once you're finished, MyFitnessPal will show you how many calories you burned during that specific exercise. Enter Foods Using the Barcode Scanner

Here's a shortcut for entering packaged food to MyFitnessPal. Simply tap the + icon on the bottom of the screen, select Food, and then select a meal. Next, tap the barcode scanner in the upper right corner of the screen and then scan the item's barcode. Nutrition information for the food will then be available and you can add it to your food diary by tapping the checkmark in the upper right corner of the screen.