FitBit Food Tracker Vs MyFitnessPal or Weight Watchers

[RaeganBaker]

I wonder how many people use the food tracker within the FitBit App AND another one?

Do you track them separately or do you FitBit pull in the data from another source?

Which do you think is best to use with FitBit or without FitBit?  I have used MyFitnessPal and Weight Watchers (at different times).

[WendyB]

I'm a weight watcher so I just use that.

But I did log calories for a while and I like MFP better. Its data base was much better. You can link it over to here as well

https://www.fitbit.com/partnership

[elip123]

I use fitbit and ww. I like to see the breakdown with fitbit. 

[Baltoscott]

I've been using MFP daily for about 14 months now.  After a few weeks of use you'll wind up setting up meals for stuff you tend to repeat and just edit those entries as needed for the current meal.  Very easy. Syncs with fitbit letting you see the macos meal totals on this site, with more detail on the MFP site.  

[IonicGirl]

Hi there,

I use MFP to track all of my meals as it has a huge database and you can set up favourite meals for things you eat regularly plus you can input your own recipes onto there as well.

It has a huge range of UK and USA products and lively message boards.

It links seamlessly with the FitBit dashboard so you just log your food on there and the calories you've eaten pop up on your dashboard along with water intake etc.

It's free and very easy to set up....LOL Even I managed to do it!

Best of Luck

Sky

[SunsetRunner]

I dropped my Lifetime membership in Weight Watchers for several reasons. I am pre-diabetic and need to know the nutritional breakdown of my food. I have to know how many carbs I'm consuming and I've been using My Fitness Pal to do that for quite some time now. It is so much better than the Weight Watchers app. I like the flexibility of setting how many carbs I need to consume every day. I've ordered a Fitbit Zip from Fitbit (much better price than Amazon). I gave away my watchband-type Fitbit about a year ago, because I hated charging it all the time. I wear an iWatch by Apple and it counts my knitting stitches as steps, therefore, I don't need or want a watch-type fitness tracker, therefore, I'm anxiously awaiting my Fitbit Zip. I'm using my laptop to log my foods and exercises starting today on the Fitbit Dashboard. When my Fitbit arrives, I'm sure I will use my iPhone to log my foods into the Fitbit app. Actually I can use it now. I'll see which I like better - Fitbit or My Fitness Pal. 

[elip123]

  I would concur with your thoughts. I also though about nutritional breakdown for which I like to know. I'm not opposed to carbs especially healthy ones but I like to control them. I also felt ww doesn't address that but in a way they do by penalizing you for them with their number system. In the context of the day though I guess they do. I'm just a control freak. My wife  says trust in them they know what they are doing since they are pros. My cynical side says yes true but they have changed their system again which I don't have a problem with. I just like to control my carbs at dinner, more of a protein veg guy. Eat

[SunsetRunner]

Weight Watchers cannot help with diabetes because they are not doctors; that's what they told my friend, yet they advertise that they are diabetes friendly. If they don't count carbs, they are NOT diabetes friendly. Diabetics must know exactly how many carbs they consume per day. I have to know this as well as many others. Since Oprah came on the Weight Watchers scene, the program has changed and I personally do not think it is better. I was a lifetime member for many, many years. MFP is by far better and I'm using it to link in to Fitbit. We all have to eat carbs because they are a nutritional must - a source of energy for one thing. One person said they only ate 20 grams of carbs per day. That's utterly ridiculous; that person is headed down the road for big trouble ahead. 

Good luck on your journey. I wish you well, and I'm sure you and your spouse will make wise decisions. 

[PAL3]

I'm currently using MFP, but it seems really sluggish these days.  I'm kind of growing tired with it's lack of rendering pages.  That being said, I do like the database on it, and I have about 10 pages of meals saved.  So after all that, it might be the performance of the website that makes me move over to the fitbit app.  Anyone else having problems with MFP?

[SunsetRunner]

I moved over to FitBit app for tracking foods. Just as good as MFP after you get used to it. Plus it is free. Just as big a database and more accurate in my opinion. I’m not going to use MFP for another reason. Security as they e recently had a major data breach.

Sent from my iPhone

[SunsetRunner]

MFP is also free. 

[SunsetRunner]

I used it but prefer FitBit instead.

Sent from my iPhone

[CarinaToft]

Hi. I have just tried the My fitness pal app together with My fitbit app... It was a TOTAL disaster! My calorie burn (use) with steps were sent to mfp account and then put back to fitbit. My daily calorie burn is about 2500 - 2700 kcal per day (give or take a little) and using the 2 apps together the fitbit app thought I have burnt about 3.400 - 3.800 kcal per day. Therefore I have deleted My account with the mfp app and have turned over to just using the fitbit food plan.

The good thing about The mfp app, is that it had/has so many types of food in their database and that made/makes logging food much more easy than in The fitbit food app. Also it has connection directly with garmin connect. It's something I strongly adwice the fitbit team to get.

Also, I would be very happy og The fitbit team got a larger base. Many if you/I/se had the chance adding a barecode when adding new foods 

[SunsetRunner]

There is a fix for the problem you are having. I had the same problem, and there is a fix for it, but I don't remember where I found it. I think you contact FitBit support and they tell you what to do.

I have no problems at all with the FitBit database, and it has the ability to scan barcodes for everything I've tried. I used the premium version of MFP and I don't need to do that now that I'm totally into the FitBit Food Tracker using my iPhone. 

I love my new FitBit Charge 2, as I lost my Zip. The Charge 2 is so much better than the Zip and also better than my Apple iWatch. The iWatch is focused on all their apps and I prefer the better interface with the Charge 2 as it is totally into tracking fitness activities, yet it tells me when I have a text message and also phone calls just like my iWatch did. I find the Charge 2 much more comfortable than the iWatch. 

I know you aren't interested in the above paragraph, but I just love everything about FitBit for tracking my food, water and activity.

Blessings,

Linda

[CarinaToft]

@SunsetRunner

Dear Linda.

Nice to hear that you don't have any problems using the fitbit food tracker. I have tried using the barcode scanner, but when I use it it says it can't find the product. 

Which country do you come from? Maybe that's the difference? 

The thing I was suggesting, was, that when you (or I) are adding a new food, it could be good if it was/is possible to add the barcode, so if another scan the barcode one the same kind of food,they will be able to find all the informations you (or I) have added. (Hope it make sense).

And your advice is very helpful, so thank you very much ☺

Best regards 

Carina 

[SunsetRunner]

Carina, I am in the United States. It may be that some bar codes aren't in the database; however, I've not encountered that as of this time. I use an iPhone 6S Plus and the FitBit app by IOS for my phone.  My suggestion is that you contact FitBit support and tell them the issues you are having or even do an online CHAT with them. I've done that with my questions, and they've been very helpful.

I'm sorry you are having issues and I hope that you get them resolved to your complete satisfaction.

Take care and good luck!!

Linda

[tweaver2]

I always had trouble with the meal logging in MFP... there was such a wide range of options for each food entry with such varying information that it became overwhelming and I didnt have a whole lot of trust in it's accuracy. 

[KathyJM]

I would live to log/track my food within Fitbit, but it doesn't work. The database is tiny and the barcode scanner only works in the US. So I have to continue using MAP as well. 

[Yoggie]

Seamless is a strong word but I have issues syncing is slow I use both when Fitbit databases dosent have the food I use mfp

[McRobbieGT]

Fitbit's food database is woefully inadequate. I find MyFitnessPal a lot better, and it syncs with Fitbit, which is a good workaround, but I don't understand why Fitbit don't add more focus to this.