What Are the Most Common Myfitnesspal Mistakes

You're logging every meal in MyFitnessPal, hitting your targets, and the scale isn't moving. It’s one of the most frustrating feelings in fitness. You feel like you’re doing everything right, but getting zero results for your effort.

Key Takeaways

• The biggest mistake is eating back exercise calories, which completely erases your planned calorie deficit.
• Never use the default calorie and macro goals from the app; they are often inaccurate and not tailored to your specific body composition or goals.
• You must weigh solid food with a food scale (especially protein and carbs) because guessing portion sizes can lead to a 20-30% margin of error.
• Always verify food entries by choosing ones with a green checkmark or by scanning the barcode, as user-generated entries are frequently wrong.
• Forgetting to log small items like cooking oil, sauces, and coffee creamer can secretly add 300-500 calories to your day.
• Set your activity level to "Sedentary" unless your job is physically demanding (like construction or nursing). Most people overestimate their daily activity.

What Are the Most Common MyFitnessPal Mistakes?

To understand what are the most common MyFitnessPal mistakes, you have to realize the app is just a calculator. It only works if the numbers you put in are accurate. The reason your progress has stalled isn't because the app is broken; it's because a few small, consistent errors are adding up to hundreds of untracked calories, silently erasing your deficit.

You track your chicken breast but forget the tablespoon of olive oil it was cooked in. That's 120 calories you didn't account for. You grab a "small handful" of almonds, which is actually two servings, not one. That's another 170 calories. You trust a user-entered food log that's off by 100 calories. Do this a few times a day, and your 500-calorie deficit disappears completely.

This isn't about being perfect. It's about understanding where the biggest leaks are and plugging them. Most people are off by 20-30% on their daily tracking. For someone aiming for 1,800 calories, that's an extra 360-540 calories consumed per day. That is the exact difference between losing a pound a week and gaining weight.

Fixing this isn't hard. It just requires you to stop guessing and start measuring. The goal is to make the numbers in the app reflect reality. Once you do that, your results will finally start matching your effort.

Stop guessing your numbers.

Track your food with Mofilo. Know you're hitting your goals every day.

Start your 7 day free trial

The 7 MyFitnessPal Mistakes That Stall Your Progress

If you're stuck, you are almost certainly making one or more of these seven mistakes. Let's break them down and fix them one by one.

Mistake 1: Eating Back Your Exercise Calories

This is the single biggest error. MyFitnessPal will estimate you burned 400 calories during your workout and add those calories back to your daily budget. It feels like a reward, but it's a trap. These estimations are notoriously inaccurate and will destroy your calorie deficit.

Think about it: you create a 500-calorie deficit to lose weight. You work out and burn, let's say, 300 calories. The app tells you to eat an extra 300 calories. You've just reduced your deficit to only 200 calories, slowing your fat loss by more than half. Never eat back your exercise calories. Your workout is a bonus, not an excuse to eat more.

Mistake 2: Trusting the Default Calorie and Macro Goals

When you sign up, MyFitnessPal asks for your goal weight and spits out a calorie target. Do not use it. These goals are based on simple formulas that don't account for your body fat percentage, muscle mass, or specific fitness goals.

For fat loss, you need a controlled deficit of 300-500 calories below your maintenance. For muscle gain, you need a slight surplus of 200-300 calories. And for protein, you need a specific target-around 1.6-2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight-to preserve or build muscle. The app's default goals are too generic to be effective.

Mistake 3: Guessing Portions Instead of Weighing Food

A "medium" apple, a "cup" of rice, a "tablespoon" of peanut butter. These are guesses, and guesses are inaccurate. A tablespoon of peanut butter is supposed to be 16 grams, but most people scoop out 30-40 grams. That's an extra 100-150 calories you didn't log. A food scale costs $10 and is the most important tool for accurate tracking. Weigh everything solid-meats, grains, fruits, nuts-until you can accurately eyeball portion sizes, which takes months of practice.

Mistake 4: Using Inaccurate Database Entries

The MyFitnessPal database is huge, but much of it is user-generated and full of errors. Someone might have created an entry for "grilled chicken breast" but left out the oil it was cooked in, or just got the numbers completely wrong.

To avoid this, only use entries with a green checkmark next to them. This means the data has been verified by MyFitnessPal staff. Even better, use the barcode scanner on packaged foods. This pulls the exact nutrition label information and is the most reliable method.

Mistake 5: Forgetting to Track Liquids, Oils, and Sauces

This is the silent progress killer. That splash of creamer in your coffee (40 calories), the tablespoon of olive oil in your pan (120 calories), the two tablespoons of ranch dressing on your salad (140 calories). These small additions can easily add up to 300-500 calories per day. If you don't track them, you're not tracking your real intake. Measure them and log them. Every single time.

Mistake 6: Logging Cooked vs. Raw Weights Incorrectly

Food changes weight when you cook it. A 6-ounce (170g) raw chicken breast shrinks to about 4.5 ounces (128g) after cooking because it loses water. Nutrition labels are for the raw, uncooked product. If you weigh your chicken after cooking it and log it as "raw chicken breast," you are underestimating your calorie and protein intake by about 25%.

The rule is simple: always weigh meat and grains raw whenever possible. If you can't, search for a verified "cooked" entry in the database (e.g., "cooked brown rice" or "grilled chicken breast") and be consistent.

Mistake 7: Setting Your Activity Level Too High

When setting up your profile, MyFitnessPal asks for your activity level: Sedentary, Lightly Active, Active, or Very Active. Almost everyone should choose "Sedentary."

Unless your job involves manual labor for 8+ hours a day (construction, farming, professional athlete), you are sedentary. An office job plus a one-hour daily workout is still a sedentary lifestyle. Choosing "Lightly Active" or "Active" will overestimate your daily calorie needs by 200-600 calories, giving you a calorie target that is far too high to lose weight.

Your daily macros. On track.

No more confusion. See exactly what you're eating and watch the results happen.

Start your 7 day free trial

How to Set Up MyFitnessPal Correctly (Step-by-Step)

Let's fix your setup right now. This will take 10 minutes and will make all your future tracking efforts effective.

Step 1: Calculate Your Actual Maintenance Calories (TDEE)

Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is how many calories you burn per day. A simple, reliable formula is to multiply your body weight in pounds by a number between 14 and 16.

• Use 14 if you are mostly sedentary.
• Use 15 if you work out 3-5 times a week.
• Use 16 if you have a physical job AND work out.

Example for a 150-pound person who works out 3 times a week: 150 lbs x 15 = 2,250 calories. This is your maintenance. To lose about a pound a week, subtract 500 calories. Your fat loss target is 1,750 calories per day.

Step 2: Set Custom Calorie and Protein Goals

Go into the MyFitnessPal settings. Navigate to "Goals" -> "Calorie, Carbs, Protein & Fat Goals." Do not use the default. Manually enter the calorie number you just calculated.

Next, set your protein. A good target for almost everyone is 1 gram of protein per pound of your goal body weight, or 1.6-2.2g per kg. If you weigh 180 lbs and want to weigh 160 lbs, aim for 160 grams of protein. This ensures you lose fat, not muscle. Let the carbs and fats fall where they may for now; calories and protein are the two numbers that matter most.

Step 3: Turn Off Exercise Calorie Adjustments

This is critical. In the app, go to "Settings" -> "Diary Settings" and make sure "Show Diary Food Insights" is off or that you simply ignore the exercise calories it adds back. Some versions of the app have a setting for "Exercise Calories." If you see it, turn it off. If not, you must mentally subtract them. Your calorie goal is your calorie goal. It does not change because you went to the gym.

Step 4: Build Your "Accurate Foods" Library

Your first week of accurate tracking will be the slowest. Every time you scan a barcode or find a verified (green checkmark) entry for a food you eat often, save it as a frequent food or create a meal. Scan the barcode for your favorite protein powder, your brand of Greek yogurt, your bread. After 1-2 weeks, you'll have a library of 20-30 go-to foods and meals that you can log in seconds.

What to Expect When You Start Tracking Accurately

When you first start tracking correctly, it can be a shock. You'll realize that your "healthy" salad with nuts, avocado, and dressing was actually 800 calories. You'll see that your morning coffee with cream and sugar was a 200-calorie habit. This isn't a reason to feel bad; it's a reason to feel empowered. You're finally seeing the real numbers.

Within the first week, you will feel a sense of control you didn't have before. You'll know, with 95% certainty, that you are in a calorie deficit. The anxiety of "am I doing this right?" will disappear.

Expect the scale to start moving consistently within 2 weeks. A realistic and sustainable rate of fat loss is 0.5% to 1% of your body weight per week. For a 200-pound person, that's 1-2 pounds per week. It's not dramatic, but it's real progress that adds up.

The habit of weighing and logging your food will feel tedious for about 14-21 days. After that, it becomes second nature. It will take you less than 5 minutes per day. Stick with it through that initial learning curve.

Frequently Asked Questions About MyFitnessPal

How do I track restaurant meals in MyFitnessPal?

Find a similar entry from a large chain restaurant. For example, if you ate a burger and fries from a local diner, search for "Cheeseburger with Fries" from a place like Applebee's or Chili's and use that as an estimate. Add 20% to the calorie count to be safe. It's not perfect, but it's better than logging nothing.

Should I pay for MyFitnessPal Premium?

The free version of MyFitnessPal is all you need to lose fat and build muscle. The premium features, like setting specific gram targets for macros or a barcode scanner, are convenient but not necessary. Master the free version first. The barcode scanner is now a free feature, which is the most valuable part.

What if I go over my calories for one day?

Nothing. One day doesn't matter; your weekly average does. If your daily goal is 2,000 calories and you eat 2,800 on a Saturday, just get back on track Sunday. Don't try to overcompensate by starving yourself the next day. Consistency over a week or a month is what drives results, not perfection in a single 24-hour period.

Why did MyFitnessPal change my calorie goal?

If you log your weight and it changes, the app will sometimes automatically adjust your calorie goal based on its own formulas. This is another reason to use your own custom goals. Check your calorie goal every week or so to make sure the app hasn't changed it without you realizing it.