How to track food in My Fitness Pal: A sample day’s menu

In this post, I will show you how to log food. Here is a sample of a day’s menu on keto:

Breakfast: 2 eggs fried in butter (1tbsp), 1oz cheddar cheese, and 1/2 an avocado

Lunch: Greek salad with feta (1oz) and a baked chicken thigh (Dressing made with 1tbsp avocado oil and 1tbsp vinegar)

Dinner: Ribeye steak, with grilled brussel sprouts and mushrooms, smoothered in butter (1tbsp) and covered with goat cheese (1oz)

Snacks: 1/4 pecans (roasted or raw)

Total calories 1564, Fat 130g, Protein 77g, Carbs 19g

Note: I am putting in the exact measurements of each ingredient to show you how to track. I do not think you need to be measuring every single food to the oz or gram or tbsp. You can if you want, but just eye-balling it is fine.

When you look at the above, I want you to remember that, there is a really good amount of fat included in every meal. Fat keeps you fuller for longer and more satisfied. It is a satiety-increasing food. So, you may feel full before finishing a meal or you may find you don’t need that much food. Don’t eat if you’re not hungry or if you feel satisfied. On the flip side, if this isn’t enough food for you, add more, just make sure to add more fat or SLIGHTLY more protein, NOT carbs. Follow your body’s cues!

Adding a food is easy. MFP has a huge database of foods. My only suggestion is, if you search for a food that has a few options come up (happens basically all the time), look at 3 of those suggestions. If they are all similar in nutrition makeup, you can be confident that it is accurate. MFP allows anyone to upload their own foods, so this sometimes can result in incorrect information. Even better, use the “scan” feature to scan barcodes of foods you’re eating to be 100% accurate. To add food, simply click “add” under the meal you are tracking:

The next screen will allow you to search the food you want to track:

Or click the barcode to scan a food with a barcode:

Once you’ve found your food, select your serving size and click the “checkmark” to add:

Note: You can always adjust the serving sizes of different foods, by clicking the “Serving size” and selecting the measurment you prefer to us (i.e. tbsp instead of grams).

You will continue adding all foods that made up your meal. Our meal plan will look like this at the end of the day:

The last thing I will show you is how to look at your daily food as it relates to macros, and how the food you’ve consumed that day relate to your goals. If you click on More again, from the bottom menu bar, then click on “Nutrition”, you will see the following breakdown and how under or over you are on your goals.

In our sample day, we’ve gone over our fat and protein slightly. Never worry about too much fat, its very regulating and if you do go over, it’s because you’re body needed it. Protein was a little over, but not significant. We’ve maintained a fantastic fat to protein ratio in any case (1.7:1). Our carbs are under 20g, so the day was a success!

Hope this helps!

Keto on,

Evie