Mastering Keto: Mfp For Beginners

MyFitnessPal is a popular app for tracking calories and macronutrients. It has a vast food database, covering over 11 million items, and is particularly useful for tracking packaged foods with barcodes. However, the free version of the app does not track net carbs, only total carbohydrates and fibre. This makes it more tedious for those on the keto diet, as they have to manually calculate their net carb intake.

There are, however, workarounds to enable keto-tracking on MyFitnessPal. One method involves downloading a program such as Tampermonkey to run a script on your MyFitnessPal settings. This will allow you to see your net carbs on the desktop version of the app.

Another method involves adjusting your macronutrient goals within the app. You can do this by going to 'More', then 'Goals', and adjusting your weight, activity levels, and weight loss/gain goals. From here, you can change your calorie and macronutrient goals, selecting one of the macronutrients (carbs, fats, or protein) to change your intake accordingly.

Set up your account

To set up your account on MyFitnessPal, you can follow these steps:

• Go to www.myfitnesspal.com and create an account.
• Set your macros properly: Go to 'My Home', then 'Goals', then 'Change Goals'.
• Select 'Custom' and continue.
• Set your macros for keto: Carbohydrates to 5%, Protein to 30%, and Fat to 65%.
• Set your total calorie intake relative to your total burn. MyFitnessPal's estimate is decent, but you can adjust it up or down according to your preference.
• Add additional measurements: Click 'Change Measurements' and add as many as you like. Measurements such as neck, waist, hips, thighs, chest, and arms are recommended.
• Add fibre as a tracking column: Under 'Nutrients Tracked', add Fibre. At a minimum, you should be tracking Carbs, Fibre, Fat, and Protein.
• Install a special script to add net carbs to the measurement statistics: Go to https://github.com/Surye/mfp-keto-userscript and install the script. Note that you will also need to install Greasemonkey (for Firefox) or Tampermonkey (for Chrome) first.

Once you have completed these steps, your MyFitnessPal account will be fully configured for the keto diet!

Adjust your macronutrient goals

To achieve nutritional ketosis, adjust your MyFitnessPal macronutrient goals to achieve a daily intake of 70–75% fat, 15–20% protein and 5–10% calories from carbohydrates.

If you want to be more precise by using the Keto Calculator, then play around with the macronutrient percentages until you get as close as you can to what the calculator suggests. Unfortunately, the free version of MyFitnessPal does not let you change your macronutrient goals by using grams.

If you are not using the calculator, you can play around with your daily calorie allowance depending on how much weight you want to lose per week. This is up to you, but we recommend no more than a 30% calorie deficit.

Once you’ve double-checked your macronutrient intake goals, you can click the arrow on the top left of the screen to go back to the Goals screen.

If you would like to set additional nutrient goals and/or fitness goals, then scroll down and tap on the relevant option to adjust it. Unfortunately, there is no option for “net carbs”, so you will have to calculate that on your own.

Now that you have set your goals, you are ready to track your food consumption.

Calculate net carbs

To calculate net carbs, you need to subtract the fibre and sugar alcohols from the total number of carbohydrates. This is because fibre and sugar alcohols aren't digested by the body and so don't impact blood sugar levels.

Net Carbs = Total Carbs – Fibre – Sugar Alcohols

However, this formula differs slightly depending on the type of sugar alcohol. Erythritol, for example, can be subtracted completely from the total carbs, whereas other sugar alcohols should be halved before being subtracted. This is because some sugar alcohols are absorbed by the body more than others.

It's also important to note that nutrition labels differ between countries. In the US, the total carbohydrates include fibre, whereas in the UK, the fibre is already deducted from the total carbohydrates.

Track your meals

Tracking your meals is an essential part of the keto diet. MyFitnessPal (MFP) is a great tool to help you do this. It is a free app with a premium option that allows you to track your meals and see your daily calorie intake.

To get started, you will need to download the app and set up an account. You will be asked to input your goals, height, weight, and activity level. You can adjust your calorie goals later if you wish.

Once you have set up your account, you can start tracking your meals. To do this, click on the "+" sign and select the "food" button. You can then search for the food you want to log by typing in the search bar, scanning the barcode, or selecting the location logo to find a restaurant.

After you have found the food you want to log, you will need to enter the serving size and number of servings. For example, if you ate four large eggs, you would change the serving size to large and the number of servings to four.

In addition to tracking your meals, you can also use MFP to track your net carbs. To do this, you will need to calculate the net carbs for each food entry by subtracting the grams of fiber from the grams of carbs. For example, if you ate four large eggs with 1.4 total grams of carbs and 0 grams of fiber, the net carbs would be 1.4 grams.

At the end of the day, you can see your total nutrient breakdown, including your net carb intake. To calculate your net carb intake, subtract your fiber intake from the grams of carbohydrates you consumed. For example, if you consumed 25 grams of carbs and 7 grams of fiber, your net carb intake would be 18 grams.

While MFP is a great tool for tracking your meals and net carbs, it is important to note that it does not track net carbs automatically. This means that you will need to calculate your net carbs manually or use a workaround, such as running a script on your MFP account.

Overall, using MFP to track your meals and net carbs can be a helpful way to stay on track with your keto diet. It allows you to see your daily nutrient breakdown and make adjustments as needed.

Configure your settings

To set up your MyFitnessPal account for keto, you will need to adjust your macronutrient goals. This can be done by going to 'My Home', then 'Goals', and then 'Change Goals'. Here, you can select 'Custom' and input your desired calorie deficit.

For keto, it is recommended that you set your macronutrients to 5% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 65% fat. This can be done by setting your calorie goal relative to your total burn. For example, if your BMR is 2620 and your goal is 2000, this would be a deficit of 620 calories per day, or 1.24 pounds per week.

You can also add additional measurements to track, such as Neck, Waist, Hips, Thigh, Chest, and Arms. This will allow you to see your progress over time.

Additionally, you can add fiber as a tracking column by going to 'Nutrients Tracked' and selecting Fiber. This will allow you to see your net carbs, which is essential for keto.

Finally, you can install a special script that adds net carbs to the measurement statistics. The script can be found here: https://github.com/Surye/mfp-keto-userscript. Note that you will need to install Greasemonkey (for Firefox) or Tampermonkey (for Chrome) in order to use the script.

Once you have configured your settings, you are ready to start using MyFitnessPal for keto!

Frequently asked questions