My Fitness Pal Health & Fitness Tracker A User s Guide By: Angela McCall
Introduction My Fitness Pal is an online diet, health, and fitness tracker that allows you to track your nutrition and fitness goals from any mobile device with internet access. By using information such as weight, height, age, and activity level, My Fitness Pal creates a guided nutrition plan suited to your specific needs. My Fitness Pal tells you the amount of calories, fat, protein, and other vital nutrients your body needs on a daily basis based on the demographic information you provide in the Creating Your My Fitness Pal Account task. The website, myfitnesspal.com, is available for you online and as an app on smart phones. However, this manual will focus on how to use the website only; it will not discuss how to use the app for smartphones. This manual is geared towards novices. If you have never used My Fitness Pal before but would like to start tracking your progress on your health and fitness journey, this manual is for you. In addition, this manual will only discuss the basic functions of the website. The basic functions to be covered in this manual are: Create your My Fitness Pal account Add Food to your Fitness Diary Add Exercise to your Fitness Diary Change your Fitness Goals View your Diet and Fitness Reports There are additional tasks that may be performed; however, they are not considered basic functions of the website. The tasks that will not be included are: Adding Your Recipes Community Blog Apps Check-In Mail Profile My Blog Friends Settings to: There are several limitations to the website. These limitations include, but are not limited Not all foods are in the database. This mostly pertains to recipes you make yourself. However, through My Fitness Pal, you do have the ability to add recipes to your profile. That task will not be discussed in this manual. Not all restaurants are in the database. If you are trying to add food from a local restaurant rather than a chain, most likely the local restaurant will not be available in the My Fitness Pal food database. 2
Not all exercises are in the exercise database. This mostly pertains to strength training and bodyweight exercises. I. Creating Your My Fitness Pal Account During this first task, you will learn how to create an account on myfitnesspal.com in order to begin your health and fitness journey. 1. Go to myfitnesspal.com. 2. Click on the Sign Up link in the top right hand corner of the web page. 3. You be will prompted to choose a username, enter your e-mail address, and choose a password. Enter this information. See Figure 1. Figure 1: Create Your Account Step One. 4. Click the green Continue button to move onto the next step. You will now see a page titled Tell Us About Yourself. 5. Enter the information it asks for. 6. Hit the green Save and Continue button to move onto the next step. The third step in creating your account is optional. You may choose to: Enter one or more of your friends e-mail addresses to invite them to join My Fitness Pal. If you wish to skip this step click Skip. 7. Congratulations! You have successfully created your My Fitness Pal account. Your diet and fitness goals will be displayed. See Figure 2. 8. Click Get Started Now to start your health and fitness journey. 9. You must now decide which task you wish to complete next. To add food to your health and fitness diary, go to the second task. To add exercise to your health and fitness diary, go to the third task. To change your health and fitness goals, go to the fourth task. To view your health and fitness reports, go to the fifth task. 3
Figure 2: Health and Fitness Goals. II. Adding Food to your Fitness Diary In this second task, you will learn how to add food to your online health and fitness diary. 1. If you are not currently logged into your My Fitness Pal account, go to myfitnesspal.com. 2. Login with your e-mail address or username and password. 3. Once you are logged into your account, click on the Food tab at the top of the home page. See Figure 3. Figure 3: My Fitness Pal Home Page. 4
4. You will have the option to add food under four categories: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Under the category you wish to add food to, click Add Food. See Figure 4. Figure 4: Daily Food Diary Page. 5. Type the food item you wish to add in the search box. 6. Click Search. Options that match the key words for you search will appear in a box. See Figure 5. Figure 5: Food Search. 7. Select the food that best matches your search. You may need to modify your key word search if your food does not appear. 5
8. Once you select the food you wish to add, My Fitness Pal will prompt you to enter the amount, the number of servings, and the meal to which you wish to add your food. Enter the correct information. 9. Click Add. 10. Repeat this step till you have completed adding all the food you wish to add to your health and fitness diary. 11. You must now decide which task you wish to complete next. To add exercise to your health and fitness diary, go to the third task. To change your health and fitness goals, go to the fourth task. To view your health and fitness reports, go to the fifth task. III. Adding Exercise to your Fitness Diary In this third task, the user will learn how to add physical activity and exercise to his/her online fitness diary. 1. If you are not currently logged into your My Fitness Pal account, go to myfitnesspal.com. 2. Login with your e-mail address or username and password. 3. Once you are logged into your account, click on the Exercise tab at the top of the home page. Depending on which type of exercise you wish to add to your diary, click Add Exercise under either the Cardiovascular or Strength Training category. See Figure 6. Figure 6: Daily Exercise Diary Page. 4. Type the exercise you wish to add in the search box. 5. Click 'Search. 6. Select the correct exercise from the options that appear in the box. 7. Enter the correct information for How Long?. The Calories Burned will automatically show up when you enter the amount of time. See Figure 7. 6
Figure 7: Add Exercise to Your Fitness Diary. 8. Click Add to add the exercise to your health and fitness diary. 9. Repeat the steps until you have added all your exercises for that day to your health and fitness diary. 10. You must now decide which task you wish to complete next. To add food to your health and fitness diary, go to the second task. To change your health and fitness goals, go to the fourth task. To view your health and fitness reports, go to the fifth task. IV. Changing Your Fitness Goals Task four will guide you in how to change your health and fitness goals. This may be done at any time during your health and fitness journey. 1. If you are not currently logged into your My Fitness Pal account, go to myfitnesspal.com. 2. Login with your e-mail address or username and password. 3. Once you are logged into your account, click on the Goals tab at the top of the home page. 4. Click on the green Change Goals button at the bottom of the page as shown in Figure 8. 7
Figure 8: Change Your Fitness Goals. 5. Select Guided. 6. Click Continue. See Figure 9. Figure 9: Select Guided Fitness Plan. 7. On the Update Your Diet Profile page, edit the information you wish to change. 8. When you are done, click Update Profile as shown in Figure 10. Figure 10: Update Your Diet Profile. 8
9. My Fitness Pal will update your diet profile. 10. You must now decide which task you wish to complete next. To add food to your health and fitness diary, go to the second task. To add exercise to your health and fitness diary, go to the third task.. To view your health and fitness reports, go to the fifth task. V. Viewing your Fitness Reports This task will guide you in how to view reports during your health and fitness journey. Viewing your reports is a great way to ensure you are staying on track. 1. If you are not currently logged into your My Fitness Pal account, go to myfitnesspal.com. 2. Login with your e-mail address or username and password. 3. Once you are logged into your account, click on the Reports tab at the top of the home page. 4. Select the report you wish to view from the Choose a Report dropdown box. 5. Select the period of time for which you want your report to cover. Your report will be displayed as a graph as shown in Figure 11. 6. You must now decide which task you wish to complete next. To add food to your health and fitness diary, go to the second task. To add exercise to your health and fitness diary, go to the third task. To change your health and fitness goals, go to the fourth task. Figure 11: Weekly Weight Report. 9
Conclusion Through this manual, you have learned how to: Create your My Fitness Pal account Add food to your Fitness Diary Add exercise to your Fitness Diary Change your Fitness Goals View your Diet and Fitness Reports 10