How to Save Recipes on MyFitnessPal: A Step-by-Step Guide

According to MyFitnessPal's own blog, creating custom recipes is a powerful way to make nutrition tracking effortless and more tailored to your needs. This guide shows you exactly how to save recipes on MyFitnessPal, ensuring consistent and accurate logging for all your home-cooked meals, whether on the mobile app or web.

Quick Summary

This tutorial explains how to save custom recipes in MyFitnessPal using the app or web interface. It covers manual ingredient entry, the recipe importer tool, and how to accurately track your servings for prepped dishes.

Key Points

• Manual Entry: Use the 'My Meals, Recipes & Foods' section to manually create and save recipes ingredient by ingredient.

• Recipe Importer: Save time by using the web importer tool, available on the website and app, which pulls ingredients directly from a URL.

• Accurate Weighing: For maximum precision, weigh the final cooked recipe in grams and set the serving size to the total weight.

• Recipes vs. Meals: Choose a 'Recipe' for multi-serving dishes and a 'Meal' for single, frequently eaten food combinations.

• Edit Anytime: Your saved recipes can be easily edited or deleted from the 'Recipes' section to keep your list updated and accurate.

• Log with Ease: Once saved, you can log a serving of your recipe in seconds directly from your daily diary.

• Available to All: Creating custom recipes manually is a free feature available to all MyFitnessPal users.

Why You Should Save Your Recipes on MyFitnessPal

Saving your custom recipes is a game-changer for anyone tracking their food. It eliminates the repetitive and time-consuming process of manually entering the same ingredients for meals you eat often. Here are some key benefits:

• Saves Time: Once a recipe is saved, you can log it with a single tap. This is invaluable for meal prep, batch cooking, or frequently eaten family dishes.
• Increases Accuracy: By logging the exact ingredients and measurements, your nutritional data will be more precise than relying on estimates or generic entries from the database.
• Provides Consistency: When you cook a meal repeatedly, using a saved recipe ensures you are logging the exact same nutritional information each time, leading to more reliable tracking over weeks and months.
• Enhances Planning: Having your favorite recipes saved makes it easy to plan your meals in advance and see how they fit into your daily nutritional goals.

Saving a Recipe Using the MyFitnessPal Mobile App

The process is straightforward, whether you are entering ingredients manually or importing from a website.

Enter Ingredients Manually

1. Access the Recipes section: Tap the More button (•••) in the bottom right corner of the screen.
2. Navigate to Recipes: Select My Meals, Recipes & Foods from the menu, then tap the Recipes tab at the top.
3. Start a new recipe: Tap the Create a Recipe button at the bottom of the screen.
4. Name and serve: Choose Enter Ingredients Manually and give your recipe a name and specify the number of servings. You can adjust this later for total accuracy.
5. Add ingredients: Search for each ingredient, enter its quantity and serving size, and add it to the recipe. Be as specific as possible to improve accuracy.
6. Review and save: Tap the arrow in the top right, review the nutritional summary, and hit Save to add the recipe to your list.

Import a Recipe from the Web

1. Access the Recipes section: As with manual entry, tap More > My Meals, Recipes & Foods > Recipes.
2. Start the import: Instead of Create a Recipe, tap the Add from the Web option.
3. Paste the URL: Paste the web address of your chosen recipe into the field and tap Import Recipe.
4. Confirm ingredients: MyFitnessPal will attempt to match the ingredients. Review them for accuracy and make any necessary corrections or additions before saving.

Saving Recipes on the MyFitnessPal Website

For those who prefer a keyboard, the website offers a robust Recipe Importer tool.

1. Log in and go to Food: From the top navigation, click Food, then Recipes.
2. Enter a new recipe: Choose either Recipe Importer or Add Recipe Manually.
3. Import from the Web: If you chose Recipe Importer, paste the recipe's URL into the provided box. MyFitnessPal will populate the ingredients for you to review and save.
4. Add manually: If you prefer manual entry, enter the recipe name, servings, and then add ingredients one by one.
5. Save your creation: After reviewing the nutritional details, click Save Recipe.

Recipe vs. Meal: Which Should You Use?

It's important to understand the distinction between saving a "Recipe" and a "Meal" in MyFitnessPal to use the features correctly.

Recipe vs. Meal Comparison

Feature	Recipe	Meal
Best for...	Batch-cooked dishes, such as chili, soups, casseroles, and baked goods.	Common single-serving combinations, like a sandwich, smoothie, or standard breakfast.
Serving Size	Allows you to define the total number of servings, so you can log a portion (e.g., 1 out of 8 servings).	Logs all component foods at once as a single entry. You can't log a portion of a saved meal.
Flexibility	Allows for ingredient adjustments, substitutions, and updates to the total yield.	All ingredients are logged together; editing a meal means editing all of its components.
Creation Method	Can be created manually or with the Recipe Importer tool.	Can be saved from a previously logged entry in your diary.

The Ultimate Tip for Accurate Recipe Logging: Weighing the Final Product

For the highest degree of accuracy, especially with cooked dishes where water is lost and ingredients merge, follow this advanced method popularized by some users and coaches.

1. Weigh your empty cooking vessel: Before adding any ingredients, place your pot, baking dish, or slow cooker on a kitchen scale and zero it out (or note the weight).
2. Add all ingredients: Proceed with your recipe as planned, weighing each ingredient in grams as you add it.
3. Cook the recipe: Once the dish is cooked and ready, weigh the entire contents of the finished food in the same cooking vessel.
4. Subtract the tare weight: Subtract the weight of your empty vessel to get the total weight of your finished recipe.
5. Update the servings: In MyFitnessPal, edit your saved recipe and set the number of servings to be equal to the total finished weight in grams (e.g., if the finished recipe is 1,200g, set servings to 1,200).
6. Log by grams: When you serve yourself a portion, weigh it in grams and log that number as the number of servings. For example, a 300g portion would be logged as "300 servings" of your recipe.

This method offers unparalleled precision, as each gram of the final product will have the exact same nutritional value.

How to Edit and Manage Your Saved Recipes

Your recipes are not set in stone and can be updated at any time. This is useful for adjusting ingredient quantities or if you've changed your preparation method.

• In the app: Navigate to More > My Meals, Recipes & Foods > Recipes. Tap on the recipe you want to change, and then tap Edit Recipe.
• On the website: Go to Food > Recipes. You'll see an Edit option next to each saved recipe.

You can also delete old recipes from these management screens if you no longer use them.

Conclusion: Streamline Your Food Tracking

Learning how to save recipes on MyFitnessPal is a simple but highly effective way to improve the efficiency and accuracy of your nutrition tracking. Whether you opt for the quick web importer or the precise manual entry, you'll spend less time logging and more time focusing on your health goals. Take advantage of this powerful feature to streamline your meal prep and make food tracking a seamless part of your routine. By using the methods outlined here, you can be confident that the nutritional information for your favorite homemade meals is consistent and correct every time you log it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a saved recipe and a saved meal in MyFitnessPal?

A recipe is designed for dishes with multiple servings, like a casserole or chili, where you track a portion of the total. A meal is for a single-serving combo of foods you eat often, like 'Breakfast Oatmeal,' which logs all items at once.

Can I save a recipe from a website directly into MyFitnessPal?

Yes, MyFitnessPal offers a Recipe Importer tool on both the website and the mobile app. You simply paste the recipe's URL, and the app attempts to match the ingredients from its database.

How do I edit or delete a recipe I've already saved?

To edit, navigate to 'More' > 'My Meals, Recipes & Foods,' select your recipe, and choose 'Edit Recipe.' To delete, you can often swipe left on the recipe (on iOS) or find a delete option within the edit menu (on Android).

How do I ensure my custom recipe's nutrition information is accurate?

For best accuracy, use verified ingredients whenever possible. For home-cooked meals, a pro tip is to weigh the total cooked recipe in grams and set the serving size to the total weight. This allows for precise, 1-gram logging.

Do I need a Premium subscription to save my own recipes?

No, the ability to manually create and save your own custom recipes is a feature available to all MyFitnessPal users, both free and premium. However, the 'Recipe Discovery' bookmarking feature is for Premium members.

Can I save a meal I have just logged in my diary?

Yes, a quick way to create a custom meal is by saving a meal you've just logged. In the diary, tap the three dots at the bottom of the entry and choose 'Save as Meal'.

Why are some of the ingredients incorrect when I use the Recipe Importer?

The importer uses algorithms to match ingredients, which can sometimes be imperfect, especially for unique items or ambiguous terms like 'milk.' You should always review and confirm the imported ingredients and adjust them manually for accuracy.