How to Add Custom Food to MyFitnessPal: A Complete Guide

Over 90% of MyFitnessPal users rely on the app to track their daily nutrition, but not all foods are in the database. Knowing how to add custom food to MyFitnessPal is crucial for accurately logging homemade recipes, unique products, or items from local restaurants. This guide provides a complete walkthrough for the process.

Quick Summary

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on creating new food entries, recipes, and meals within MyFitnessPal using both the mobile app and website, ensuring precise and comprehensive nutritional tracking for any dietary plan.

Key Points

• Mobile App Method: To add a custom food, tap 'More' -> 'Meals, Recipes & Foods' -> 'Foods' -> '+ Create a new food', then enter the nutritional details manually.

• Recipe Creation: For multi-ingredient meals, navigate to 'More' -> 'Meals, Recipes & Foods' -> 'Recipes', then 'Create a Recipe' to add ingredients from the database.

• Website Option: Custom foods and recipes can also be added through the MyFitnessPal website under the 'Food' tab, offering a larger screen for data entry.

• Precision with Grams: For the most accurate tracking, set the serving size to '1 gram' when creating a new custom food item and use a food scale to log the exact amount consumed.

• Verify Nutritional Info: Always double-check nutrition labels and use reliable sources to ensure the data you enter for custom foods is correct and accurate.

• Save Meals for Speed: For frequently consumed combinations of foods, save them as a 'meal' to log them with a single tap in the future.

• Cooked Weight for Recipes: For maximum accuracy with recipes, weigh the final cooked product to determine a total weight in grams, which can then be used as the total number of servings for more precise portion tracking.

Why Add Custom Food?

MyFitnessPal's database is extensive, but it can't cover every single product or homemade meal. Adding custom food allows for a more personalized and accurate tracking experience. This is especially important for individuals following strict dietary protocols, macro-tracking, or those who frequently prepare their own meals. Instead of guessing the nutritional content of your mother's famous chili, you can precisely calculate and save it for future logging. This reduces logging fatigue and increases the reliability of your daily nutritional reports.

Types of Custom Entries

MyFitnessPal offers a few options for creating your own food entries, each serving a slightly different purpose:

• Individual Food Item: Best for single, unpackaged ingredients (e.g., a specific cut of steak) or packaged foods not found by the barcode scanner.
• Recipes: Ideal for multi-ingredient dishes you cook at home, such as stews, casseroles, or baked goods. The app aggregates the nutritional data of all ingredients to give you the total for the entire batch.
• Meals: Allows you to bundle frequently consumed food items into a single entry for quick logging. This is perfect for a standard breakfast or lunch you eat often.

How to Add Custom Food Using the Mobile App

The mobile app provides the most common way for users to add new food entries.

Adding an Individual Food Item

This process is for creating a single, custom food entry from scratch.

1. Navigate to the "Create a Food" screen: From the MyFitnessPal home screen, tap the 'More' button in the bottom-right corner. Select 'Meals, Recipes & Foods', then tap the 'Foods' tab. Finally, tap the '+ Create a new food' button.
2. Enter basic food information: Input the Brand Name (or 'Generic' if none) and a clear description. This makes it easier to find later. Add the serving size and servings per container. For precision, use grams as the serving size and '1' for servings per container if you want to track by gram.
3. Input nutritional facts: Fill in the calorie count and macronutrient information (Protein, Fat, Carbohydrates) from the nutrition label or your own calculations. You can also add other micronutrients like fiber, sugar, and sodium, although it is not required.
4. Save the new food: Tap the checkmark or 'Save' button. The custom food will now be saved in your personal 'My Foods' database.

Creating a Recipe from Ingredients

For dishes with multiple components, creating a recipe is the most efficient method.

1. Start a new recipe: Go to 'More' > 'Meals, Recipes & Foods' > 'Recipes'. Tap 'Create a Recipe'. You can either enter ingredients manually or use the bulk import feature with a recipe URL.
2. Name and define servings: Give your recipe a descriptive name and enter the total number of servings for the batch. It is often easiest to enter '1' serving initially and adjust it later based on the final weight of the cooked food.
3. Add all ingredients: Manually add each ingredient by searching MyFitnessPal's database. Accurately enter the quantity used for the entire batch.
4. Calculate nutritional information: MyFitnessPal will automatically sum up the nutrition for all ingredients and divide it by the number of servings you specified. This provides the nutritional data per serving.
5. Log the finished recipe: Once saved, you can find the recipe under 'My Recipes' when logging a meal. If you divided the recipe by total grams cooked, you can log the precise number of grams you consume as the number of servings.

How to Add Custom Food on the Website

The web version is still a viable option and may be more convenient for some users.

1. Access the 'Food' tab: After logging in on the MyFitnessPal website, click the 'Food' tab at the top of the page.
2. Navigate to 'My Foods': Select the 'My Foods' sub-tab, then click 'Create a Food' on the top right.
3. Follow the guided steps: The website will prompt you to enter the food's name, brand, serving size, and nutritional information across two easy steps.
4. Create recipes or meals: Similarly, you can access the 'Recipes' sub-tab to create multi-ingredient recipes. Here you can also bulk import ingredients by pasting them from an external recipe.

Comparison: Custom Foods vs. Recipes

Feature	Custom Food Item	Custom Recipe	Custom Meal
Best For	Single-ingredient items not in the database (e.g., a rare fruit, specific cut of meat).	Complex, multi-ingredient homemade dishes (e.g., chili, lasagna).	Bundling frequently eaten foods for quick logging (e.g., a consistent breakfast).
Setup Time	Quick. Only requires one set of nutritional data.	Longer. Requires inputting each individual ingredient.	Fast. Can be created from an existing diary entry.
Serving Flexibility	High. Can be logged by grams, ounces, or other units.	High. Total nutritional value is divided by total servings (often grams).	Low. Logged as a single unit, requiring manual adjustment for different portion sizes.
Nutritional Detail	As detailed as the source information allows.	Comprehensive, as it's built from individual database entries.	Combines nutritional information for all saved foods.

Tips for Accurate Custom Logging

• Use grams for serving sizes: When creating a custom food or recipe, entering the serving size as '1g' and '1' serving per container allows for the most precise logging. If you use a food scale, this method ensures accuracy with every log. For recipes, you can set the total number of servings to the total final weight in grams.
• Verify nutrition labels: Double-check the nutritional information you are entering from product labels. The MyFitnessPal database sometimes contains user-generated entries with inaccuracies, so copying directly from the package is best.
• Account for cooking changes: For recipes, the nutritional information is most accurate when logging raw ingredients. Cooking can change the weight of food due to water loss or absorption. Weighing the final product and creating servings based on total cooked grams is a recommended advanced technique.

Conclusion

Adding custom food to MyFitnessPal is an essential skill for anyone serious about accurate nutrition tracking. Whether you're recording a homemade recipe or a unique single-ingredient food, the app provides straightforward tools to save and log your items efficiently. By following these steps and incorporating best practices like using grams for serving sizes, you can significantly improve the precision of your dietary records and ensure your logs truly reflect your intake.

For more information on advanced MyFitnessPal features, including barcode scanning and meal planning, you can explore the official support page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I find the option to add custom food in the MyFitnessPal app?

You can find the 'Create a new food' option by tapping 'More' on the main screen, then going to 'Meals, Recipes & Foods,' and selecting the 'Foods' tab.

Is it possible to add a custom food item that isn't packaged?

Yes, you can add any food from scratch, such as fresh produce or homemade items, by choosing 'Generic' as the brand name and manually entering its nutritional information.

Can I import a recipe from a website into MyFitnessPal?

Yes, on the website, you can use the recipe tool to enter a URL from a recipe website. The system will attempt to match the ingredients from its database.

How do I ensure my custom food entry is accurate?

To ensure accuracy, copy nutritional information directly from a product's nutrition label and use a food scale to measure portions, setting the serving size to '1 gram' for precise logging.

What is the difference between a custom food, a recipe, and a meal?

A custom food is a single, manually entered item. A recipe is for multi-ingredient dishes you make at home. A meal is a shortcut for logging a combination of foods you eat together often.

What if the food label has kilojoules (kJ) instead of calories?

If the label only lists kilojoules, you can convert it to calories by dividing the kilojoule number by 4.2. Enter this calorie amount when creating your custom food.

Why is my new food item not showing up in the search results?

Your custom food items are saved in a private database under the 'My Foods' tab, not the main public database. You must select the 'My Foods' tab when searching to find and log your custom entry.