How to Easily Use the Recipe Function on MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal is one of the leading calorie counting websites that most people know of. Seamlessly type in the food you are eating, and it shows you exactly how many calories you have eaten. It breaks down the macronutrient content and shows as much or as little detail as you want. Big Mac? No problem. Whopper? Consider it done. Taco Explosion salad from chilis? No worries, here is the breakdown.

Now, all that said, there is one difficult aspect of the program: Homemade recipes. In a world where people are looking to live healthier lives, making your own recipe on MyFitnessPal seems like a daunting task. Today, I come to you with good news. Making your own recipe just got easy. Here I will show step by step process on how to make your own recipe and how to portion it correctly. All you need are your ingredients and a way to measure your food.

For measuring your food, I recommend this scale. Simply put your measuring cup onto the scale, turn the scale on, let it zero out, then add your food to know how much of each item you are adding. I find adding the item in grams instead of cups (1/4 a cup, ½ a cup) is significantly more accurate.

An important note, when determining how many servings are in your recipe, look to the main ingredient of your dish and portion it out based on the servings per main ingredient. For example, if you add an entire box of pasta noodles to your recipe and the box says there are 7 servings of noodles per box, your recipe should probably have 7 servings.

Onto the recipe. When you click on the food link you will see a recipes tab. Click on the tab to begin!

You have the option to an import a recipe, but for your own recipe, click on the “Add Recipe Manually” button.

From there you will have the ability to add your own list. Type the name of your recipe in the first box, then type out the exact name of the item, if there is a brand name include that. Do not include the amount of each serving, only the name of each ingredient. When you finish listing your items, click “Match Ingredients”.

Once you click “Match Ingredients” it will show you everything on your list. Here is where you need to adjust based on what it could find. Sometimes, you need to make additional adjustments based on a lack of information of the name. Simply retype the name adding additional information and click search.

After making initial adjustments to find all your ingredients, you need to check on the serving sizes to ensure accuracy. Make sure that each of your ingredients reflects the amount you added to your recipe. This may take some time as the measurements listed may not reflect exactly how much you have used.

Be sure to include how many servings is in your recipe before you submit. Once completed you will then be able to log your new meal by clicking the “Log It” button! And that is it! You are done creating your recipe! Now that you have completed the recipe, you can click the “My Meals” button to view this recipe again and add it for future meals.

Changing your lifestyle doesn’t have to be a complicated process. By using this tool with MyFitnessPal, you can easily list your own recipes to help you reach whatever goal you have. Enjoy your food and be sure to check out our nutrition ebook at the link below!

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