Nutrition Diet: How do you copy a meal on MyFitnessPal?

October 14, 2025 •

4 min read

Tracking your food intake can be a tedious process, but features like copying meals can drastically simplify it and increase consistency. The MyFitnessPal app, a popular tool for nutrition tracking, includes a helpful feature that allows users to easily copy and paste food entries. Here’s a complete guide on how do you copy a meal on MyFitnessPal on both the mobile app and website.

Quick Summary

This guide provides detailed instructions on copying individual meals or entire days in MyFitnessPal using the mobile app and web. It explains how to use the 'Copy Meal' and 'Select All' features to save time and streamline the food logging process for consistent diet tracking.

Key Points

Accessing the Copy Feature: The core function to copy meals is found under the 'Edit' menu on the mobile app or 'Quick Tools' on the website's food diary.
Copying Individual Items: On the mobile app, you can select and copy specific food items from any meal to paste them elsewhere, even on another day.
Copying an Entire Day: Mobile users can select all food entries with one tap and copy the entire day's log to a new date, a feature unavailable on the web.
Saving Custom Meals: For food combinations you eat often, you can save them as a custom meal to add them with just a few taps instead of copying.
Cross-Platform Differences: While both platforms support copying, the mobile app offers more flexibility, including copying multiple items and full days at once, which is not possible on the web.
Best for Consistency: Using the copy feature is ideal for meal preppers and individuals with repetitive eating habits, as it dramatically reduces logging time and promotes consistency.

Why Use MyFitnessPal's Copy Feature?

The copy function in MyFitnessPal is a major time-saver for anyone who eats similar meals regularly, meal preps, or logs leftovers. By eliminating the need to manually re-enter each food item, it helps reduce the friction associated with daily food tracking. This convenience can significantly improve your consistency and adherence to a nutritional plan, making it easier to meet your long-term health goals.

Benefits of Copying Meals

Using the copy feature offers several distinct advantages for managing your diet and nutrition tracking:

Saves Time: Instantly populate your food diary with a pre-logged meal, which is particularly useful for repetitive meals like breakfast or lunch.
Improves Consistency: Makes it easier to stick to your diet plan by repeating known, successful meals, rather than searching for and adding new items daily.
Simplifies Meal Prep: If you prepare meals for the week, you can log it once and copy it across multiple days.
Increases Accuracy: Reduces the chance of manual data entry errors by using a pre-saved, correct meal entry.

How to Copy a Meal on the MyFitnessPal Mobile App

The process for copying a meal is slightly different between the iOS and Android versions of the MyFitnessPal app, but the core steps are similar.

For iOS and Android Apps (Current Versions)

Navigate to Your Diary: Open the MyFitnessPal app and go to your Food Diary for the day you want to copy the meal from.
Access the Edit Menu: Tap the "Edit" or pencil button, typically located in the top corner of the diary page.
Select Food Items: Check the box next to each item you wish to copy. You can select items from a single meal or across different meals.
Tap the Copy Button: After selecting your items, tap the "Copy" button (which often looks like two pages). A menu will pop up.
Choose Destination: Select the date and meal (e.g., Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner) where you want to paste the copied items.
Confirm: The selected food items will now appear in your diary for the new day.

How to Copy a Meal on the MyFitnessPal Website

For users who prefer using the web version, the process is equally simple.

Go to Your Diary: Log into your MyFitnessPal account and navigate to the "Food Diary" page.
Use Quick Tools: Below the meal you want to copy, find and click the "Quick Tools" link.
Select Copy Function: From the options that appear, choose "Copy to Date" or "Copy to Today".
Choose a Date: If you selected "Copy to Date," use the calendar to pick the day you want to copy the meal to.
Confirm: The meal's contents will be duplicated on the chosen date.

Copying an Entire Day in MyFitnessPal

If you have a consistent eating pattern, you can copy your entire day's food log to another day.

Copying a Full Day on the Mobile App

Go to the Source Day: Navigate to the day in your Food Diary that you want to copy.
Enter Edit Mode: Tap the "Edit" or pencil button.
Select All: Tap the "Select All" button at the top of the diary to select every food entry for that day.
Tap Copy: Hit the "Copy" button and choose the destination date to copy the entire log.

Copying a Full Day on the Website

On the web, there isn't a single 'copy entire day' button, so you must copy each meal individually using the "Quick Tools" function and then paste them onto the target day.

Saving a Meal for Repeated Use

For frequently used food combinations, you can save them as a custom meal for even quicker logging.

Log Items: Add the food items for your desired meal (e.g., breakfast of eggs and toast) to your diary.
Save as Meal: In the app, go to the Edit menu and select the items, then tap "Save Meal." On the website, click "Quick Tools" and then "Remember Meal".
Name and Save: Give your meal a descriptive name, and it will be saved under the "Meals" tab for future use.

Comparing Copying on the App vs. Website


Feature	Mobile App (iOS/Android)	Website
Copy a Single Meal	Tap 'Edit', select items, tap 'Copy', choose date/meal.	Click 'Quick Tools' under the meal, choose 'Copy to Date'.
Copy Multiple Items	Tap 'Edit', select multiple items (from different meals if needed), tap 'Copy'.	Not possible in a single action; must copy meals individually.
Copy an Entire Day	Tap 'Edit', 'Select All', then 'Copy'.	Not supported directly; must copy each meal separately.
Interface	Intuitive and touch-based.	Point-and-click interface, best for desktop.

Conclusion

Mastering how do you copy a meal on MyFitnessPal is a simple yet powerful step towards more efficient and consistent diet tracking. Whether you're a creature of habit who eats the same breakfast every morning or a diligent meal prepper, these shortcuts will save you significant time. By leveraging the app's various copy and save features, you can streamline your logging process and focus more of your energy on achieving your nutritional goals.

For more detailed instructions and support, visit the MyFitnessPal help center.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, when you copy items using the app, you can choose not only the date but also the specific meal (e.g., paste Wednesday's lunch into Thursday's dinner slot).

Yes, if your friend has set their diary sharing options to allow it, you can view their diary and copy one of their meals into your own.

Yes, on the MyFitnessPal mobile app (iOS and Android), you can navigate to the day, tap 'Edit', 'Select All', and then 'Copy' to duplicate the entire day's log to a new date.

'Copy Meal' duplicates a meal from a past day to a future day. 'Save as Meal' permanently stores a specific food combination as a template that you can reuse anytime.

Once a meal is copied to your diary, you can edit it just like any other log. Tap on the meal entry, and you can modify the food items, serving sizes, or delete certain entries as needed.

No, the copy feature works with items already logged in your diary. The barcode scanner is used to add new foods, not to copy existing ones.

Yes, when you copy a meal, the calories and macronutrients of the copied items are added to your diary for that day, which will update your progress towards your daily goals accordingly.