How to Create and Use a My Fitness Pal Account

Trying to lose weight? 

Losing weight can be a difficult process for many individuals.  Fortunately, it doesn't have to be. 
With the My Fitness Pal website, users can log their food into an online diary that keeps track of all their calories and nutrients. It is incredibly important to keep a food diary when you are in the process of either losing weight or trying to maintain your weight. Being able to look back and see where all of your calories are going makes it much easier to be proactive about your weight and your health.  This website will provide each user with the amount of calories an individual should intake in order to lose the amount of weight they determine in the amount of time they wish. This website also allows you to track your exercise and how many calories you have burned, think of it this way...the more calories you burn, the more calories you get to eat! Hopefully, these instructions will help aid you in your pursuit for a healthier and happier you.

This instructable is a step by step guide on how to set up and use a My Fitness Pal account. 

Step 1:

1. Go to www.myfitnesspal.com

- Sign up by entering your email address and selecting Join Now.

Step 2:

2. You will be directed to the webpage Your Account Information.

                Enter:

- username

- email address

-password

- After entering your information, press Continue

Step 3:

3. You will be directed to a page entitled Tell Us About Yourself.  Fill in the following fields with the

                Appropriate information:

                                -Current Weight

                                -Goal Weight

                                -Height

                                -Gender

                                -Date of Birth

                                -Country

                                -Zip/Postal Code

Step 4:

4.  You will then be prompted by the question: How would you describe your normal daily activities? There are 4 options, you should read the description and choose the option that is most like your daily activity level. This will be determined by your lifestyle: are you a waitress who is on their feet all day, or do you work in an office for the majority of the day?

-  After choosing your activity level, you will be asked the following:

                                How many times a week do you plan on exercising?

                                -You will first use the scroll down bar to pick how many workouts per week you exercise

                                -You will then entire how many minutes the workouts are.  Ex: enter 30 for 30 minutes

- You will then be asked how you would like to track your expended energy (how many calories you have burned).  You should choose either calories or kilojoules.

- After this you need to choose what your goal is: press the scroll down and choose how much weight you want to lose or gain per week or you can choose the option to maintain your current weight.

- After choosing your goal, go ahead and press save and continue.

Step 5:

5. You then will be prompted to share friends’ emails. This is good to do if you want to work with a partner, or someone to keep you accountable to your fitness goals. However, if you do not want to share any emails, hit Skip.

Step 6:

6. You will then be greeted by a page titled Your Suggested Fitness and Nutrition Goals

- This page shows a breakdown of the calories you need per day, and how they are divided up between the different nutrients: Pretty much this is a schematic to how you should be eating on a daily basis. This page will also show you how many pounds you can plan to lose at a certain date if you follow the specified guidelines.

                - After viewing this page, press the Get Started Now button

Step 7:

7.  On the Your Daily Summary page there are two buttons, Add Exercise and Add Food

- To add food, click the Add Food button

Step 8:

8.  Under each meal heading there are two buttons, Add Food and Quick Tools

- Too add food, click the Add Food button under the meal heading (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack)

Step 9:

9.  Use the search bar to look for food. 

- Example:  Type in buttermilk biscuit and click Search

-There will be a list of foods on the left hand of the page. Find the biscuit you want and click on it   On the right will be a box with the number of servings, type in the appropriate number of servings.

                -you will also choose which meal of the day you would like to add it too

                -now click Add Food

Step 10:

10. Next, a table showing the breakdown of this food will show up

Step 11:

11. When you are finished logging for the day, press Complete This Entry.

                               -And you can also document your water intake for the day...the more water, the better!

Step 12:

12.  Upon completion, you will be given a figure for projected weight loss. It is nice to be able to see where all of this hard work will get you!

Step 13:

13.  To enter a full meal, repeat steps 8 - 10 as needed. 

Step 14:

I sincerely hope that these instructions have helped you! My Fitness Pal is an incredible tool for those that are serious about weight loss or even just want to be more aware of the calories that they are taking in and burning. It is definitely a great tool that takes a little bit of practice but once you make it a part of your everyday life, it is so simple. Please remember that food should never be a chore, it should be something to love and enjoy. I hope you have found this helpful, Happy Eating!