Bring the old food log interface back.

[grim1959]

It appears that the food log input format changed today (2/13/18). Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just me? The new format is much more cumbersome in my opinion. I prefer the original format. Any input/comments/recommendations welcome!

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[SQUEAKY]

I like the new format though I do think it takes some getting used to. 

I like that total sugar count has been added.

I would like to see more options for portions of food/drink.  Look at items that come in a bottle. Glucerna for instance.  The only option to choose from is the bottle.  No tablespoons, ounces and the like. Many food/drink items are not consumed as the entire serving. Sure a person can do the math to figure out the actual portion to be logged but the amount log only considers decimals not 1/4, 1/2 etc. so one has to figure out two components in order to log a food/drink as a partial serving.  More options would take less time and frustration when trying to log a food item that was not consumed as thee entire portion. 

As others have commented I find the huge graph on the top of the page unnecessary.  Perhaps it would be better if it were a click-on option. That way people who like to see a graph of their progress can do so by clicking on it in the right side menu as they do for favorites etc.  I feel the same about the history portion at the bottom of the page.  Both the graph and history take up a lot of room. Perhaps by moving them to the side menu as a click-on item the freed up space could be used for other items that have been suggested in other posts. 

[white55]

HATE THE NEW FOOD LOG FORMAT.  Takes longer and can't move foods from meal to meal.  I've used the Fitbit app for years, but this would push me to find something else.

[lindawrright]

I am diabetic and the old food log was much easier to use.  I had the favorite section with the foods I eat regularly and the time of day for it.  I tried using this new log and it is very difficult, so after 2 days I stopped.  I wish they would ask people before they mess up a good thing.  Guess I don't know how many calories I eat.  Maybe I should find a different tracker.  I contacted Fitbit and they told me to put my complaint on here.  So much for making the customer happy.

[hidalgo22]

Dear FITBIT, speed and time of entry ARE paramount to me. 

PLEASE, PLEASE put me back to the CONNECT we had up until a few days ago.  The one I have been using since 2011?  It was quicker to enter data, more compact and easier to see more data, and the new connect has a bunch of graphics I don’t need.   

Example.  Below is copy of the food log location.  I enter the food and I have to click the meal, breakfast, dinner, etc.  I log the food and the MEAL & SNACKS TIME which I JUST ENTERED defaults back to ANYTIME.  I enter the next food, it defaults back to ANYTIME, SO IF I ENTER 10 FOODS that is 10 extra clicks I did not have in the connect we had last week. 

That is not all.  I went in to enter “mct oil now” and the only option I had was “tblsp.”  I need OZ, preferably at the top.  But, If I enter “MCT Oil - Now Sports” I get “tablespoon.”  Same thing but different.  But, if I enter “Mct Oil - Novartis (Sandoz),” I get options “tbsp, and tsp.”  This was similar to the last disaster about three months ago when a similar format was loaded WITHOUT WARNING and lasted for about a day, AND THE ONLY OPTION FOR ALL FOODS WAS GRAMS!

Other samples below:

 Here is a sample of food entered.  This takes up one page in my computer and to see the remaining I have to page down, back and forth to ensure everything is there.  If, if the food was reformatted and put on a maximum of two lines I could see all my dinner foods in one page.  That’s not all.   

I am on page https://www.fitbit.com/foods/log at the top with the monster graphics.  Okay, how do I change to yesterday’s date?  Here?    nope, that changes a month.  Then where is it?  Start searching, testing. 

And where do I enter my new foods?????  Took me some time to figure out "custom" is “enter new foods??” 

Even more irritating than the new time-consuming connect is that my new computer, freaking windows 10, has a whole new fitbit, i.e., the one on my smartphone which I really dislike, the app.  LOTS more graphics, very trendy, but time consuming to try to figure out how to enter spinning.  I CALLED FITBIT ON THIS TO LOCATE WHERE, AND THEN THEY CONFIRMED THAT NO, there is no option to enter INTENSITY!  30 minutes of kind of pedaling vs. standing “very vigorous” is a difference of at least 200-400 calories.  This really, really needs to be corrected! 

I used to be able to simply click the star on the right of foods and make it a favorites.  How do I do that now?  Thankfully, those that I entered are there, but how, where do I enter favorites now?   There is too much that is not READILY self-evident.  THE KEY IS TIME.  THE KEY to time is simplicity.  

ONE GOOD THING!  In the previous connect I had entered some NEW foods but when I tried to log them they would not show up in the “what did you eat” box.  I had to go to EDIT FOODS, page down, page down, page down to find the food, click, and enter the date and amount for each one.  Then I was thrown back to the food log page and I had to go back to edit foods, find the food, etc.  In the new connect they pop up upon entry. 

[ashwolve]

@hidalgo22 HI and welcome - your post may have been better off in the main thread for this as opposed to the feature suggestion

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Fitbit-com-Dashboard/New-Food-Logging-Page/m-p/3290219#M93047

I feel your pain as do many of us

when you say mct oil is it through search or something you have saved previously if it is searched you may have to spend even more time and create a new entry (right side, custom, create custom food) once this is done you can add as favourite also as should have a solid star for fav or an outline for non fav,  the star outline also appears on the search entry after you have selected an entry

im afraid its not a windows 10 thing but that is what we are all seeing now and it does take ages to load the page (we are not believed) its to do with the fact that flash player is being disbanded at the end of 2020 so they are trying to convert to another system (HTML5 I think)

to change the day to say yesterday or Friday you have to scroll to the bottom there is a section titled History click on the day you want and it should bring up that days data (whether it is correct is another thing) there is currently a bug being investigated for entries being miss valued or not appearing

Hope this helps for now but try the link provided for possibly a better response - FYI USA having a public holiday I think so Fitbit offices will be closed

Kind Regards

Wayne

[lindawrright]

No this does not help.  Please do not try and pacify me.  I have been
using the old food log for years.  This new one is difficult and I don't
need to see the graph above it.  This new system is hard and awkward to
use.   Why change a good thing?


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[ashwolve]

@lindawrright im sorry this does not help - but this is a feature suggestion page to vote to return to the old logs that you and the rest of us are used to, but as my post above, the link would be a better arena to talk about the dislikes as the moderators are gathering feed back and there are a lot of us that do not like the setup and have also suggested the moving of the chart to either the bottom or to have it collapsed within a drop down, a lot of us agree that this new outlay is not the best choice they have made but they had the choice we didn't which has also been suggested but if the past is anything to go by they will not allow us to choose between the two formats until flash does go and the old format will no longer be able to be shown

Sorry if you feel anyone is trying to pacify you - I too have been a member since 2015 and hate the change but it would have been more palatable if it actually worked properly and we had some sort of guide on how to use it (find features that may not be as easy to find as on the last format)

Kind Regards

Wayne

[sanja9]

I signed up here just to say this.  It is beyond worse.  It's like they had a designer make it in photoshop and no one ever even tried to use it. So disappointed.  I mean it's still not worse than MFP but I'm thinking about trying something else. 

If nothing else at least get rid of that huge useless chart on top.  Thanks. 

[lindawrright]

I agree the chart is completely useless for my purposes.  I count calories for my diabetes to make sure I don't overdo it.  This new page is awful and time consuming.

[hswolfmaniac]

The new changed food format is atrocious. There's a scroll bar to the right of various selections, but when I try to use the scroll bar it disappears, and then I have to start typing my food all over again. Not good. When a food I am trying to log is not shown, instead of clicking on the previous link to add new food, I have to figure out which link I have to use in order to add the new food item. The whole app change leaves much to be desired in the food section. The last format was SO MUCH BETTER than this current one in all aspects. If fitbit is going to change its apps to something "updated", then make it for the better, and not the worst. I hope someone at fitbit -- hello, programmers -- is reading all of our negative comments concerning the food logs' bad changes.

[Don-H]

I do not like the new food log.  The other one was simple & easy to use.  This one is complicated & difficult to use.

[hbmagnum]

I totally agree with this entry. The new format for the food log is a disaster in my opinion. The screen at the top is some kind of graph that in no way interests me but is distracting from the task at hand. Either bring back the old food log or make the display adjustable.

[wallin]

looks like they want to go out of business. i hope they can get better it
help.

[Steph418]

I agree! The new interface is VERY cumbersome. I miss the at a glance view of my day's eating! It is taking me longer to look in the food lists to see what matches what I ate.

[Posting]

I am upset about the food log change. When you buy a fitbit, the logging and tracking is as important as the device. This new page is not functioning on my ipad- the page freezes at the graph, can’t scroll down, and I am not going to reload page after each and every atttempt at entry. So now we have a device that basically makes it more work to log- an important part of the food fitness - not just activity. Customer service no help except to suggest to leave a comment. What other companies with devices out there do people recommend for their logging and data? Thank you. 

[KarenLouisePete]

I agree. The new format is cumbersome. It is not an improvement. Change it back. 

[Joelyn]

The new format is simply not user friendly AT ALL.  I am trying to find a new app to use for tracking food and calories.  Any suggestions?

[Don-H]

Please do not screw up anything else without having some input or beta testing by actual consumers. I realize that Fitbit is a dictatorship, but unlike most dictatorships, we do have a choice. 

[BonnieT]

Yes, the new format is awful! It reminds me of when I have tech support at work come to assist and they do in 5 moves what I can do in 2. Much too cumbersome and a real pain in the butt.  And NO, I don't want to get used to something that's more time consuming. What WAS worked beautifully and was easy. Return us to the old format. It works. It's simple. All information is there at a glance, not this crap where we are forced to click, click, click. Had to be strictly tech people who did this. This format is dead in the water as far as I'm concerned.

When I sent an email to fitbit what I got back was a note that included this statement --- We'd like to share with you that there's no possible way to continue using the old version of fitbit.com web dashboard. The 'dashboard' didn't change - the 'log' changed! If you MUST make a change for some technical reasons, how about asking the end users what they like or don't like about the OLD version before you put something out there that we're completely unhappy with? You've made a whole lot of people very unhappy!

 You fitbit people, managers/admins need to fix this and fix it quick.

[Steph418]

I have read that many people use myfitnesspal

[Joelyn]

Thanks - I was just checking Myfitnesspal out - linking my tracker and
scales. It will be a bit of a learning curve but looks much better than
the disaster that Fitbit has made of their food log. Absolute time vampire.

[ashwolve]

If they continue with the new format , not sure if it would help but I have put forward a concept for a new page layout with this new programme - its not ideal but it may tidy it up a bit - please feel free to take a look to see if it is a reasonable compromise

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Suggested-new-food-page-Format/idi-p/3292653#M20...

Kind Regards

Wayne

[MisterRDZ]

I don't know about anyone else, but I've decided to move on from Fitbit. There are new devices being release later this year and I feel certain I'll find one I like. It's too bad this company has decided a phone interface is good enough for a desktop environment, but that's their choice/decision. I happen to disagree and will take my business elsewhere in the next few months and recommend the same to my extended family and friends!

[Squeak_Kitty]

The new food logging page layout and interface is a hot mess.  As it stands, it involves a horrendous amount of clicking, scrolling, and wasted space/effort/time.  This does not even address all the functional errors that are being reported.   It will probably take longer for IT to resolve/rework than it took originally to throw this mess together. Obviously no one did in-depth UAT on this before deployment.

I also have to state my displeasure that there was no email or pop-up screen announcement/warning of this change before it was thrown into place.

[Joelyn]

Does anyone ever look at that graph that now appears on top of the food log?  I always found it to be useless and cannot for the life of me understand the placement.  At least before you could just ignore it.