MyFitnessPal vs LogEat for Nutrition Coaches

If you are a nutrition coach, there is no doubt that you have probably used MyFitnessPal (MFP) with your clients or at the very least heard of it. MyFitness Pal is considered the OG of nutrition tracking. It started in 2005 and, almost 20 years later, is reported to have over 200 million registered users and is available in over 190 countries. Whether you are a fan of MFP or not, it’s safe to say that nutrition tracking became popularized because of MFP entering the market when it did.

But today's blog post isn't about rehashing the history of MFP; it's about detailing whether MFP, after all these years, is still worth using when compared to so many newer apps on the market.

In today’s review, we will put MFP head-to-head with a newbie nutrition tracking app, LogEat.

In addition to laying out how these two apps compare in features alone, the review will also cover how nutrition coaches can utilize these apps in their business, what types of users are best suited for using each of these apps, and the pros and cons of choosing one app over the other.

Features on MyFitness Pal versus LogEat Pro

Below is a detailed comparison of features between MyFitnessPal (Premium version) and LogEat Pro:

Advantages to MyFitnessPal (MFP)

Large Database of Foods

One of the primary reasons to consider using MFP is its large nutrition database. It’s reported that MFP has over 16 million entries in its database, making it an app that surpasses all of its competitors in sheer number of foods. Due to its global presence, it also has more internationally branded foods than any other nutrition app available. This can be particularly beneficial if you are living outside the US and Canada or have clients outside of the area - as they may have an easier time finding their regional foods. The only downside is that you may find multiple entries of the same food because the database is largely crowd-sourced, meaning anyone and everyone can submit foods to the database so often you see duplicate entries for the same food.

Recipe Discovery

In 2022 MFP released recipe discovery where users can search different recipe collections (e.g dinner, breakfast, gluten-free) and save those recipes for future use and log them in their diary. For users who struggle when it comes to coming up with recipe ideas this can be a helpful feature. It also may take some pressure off of coaches who feel like they need to provide meal plans to their clients if they are using an app that already has recipes included in it.

Wearable/Device Integrations

Another advantage of using MFP is the various integrations it offers. MFP partners with a wide variety of scales to make tracking body weight a seamless process. They also partner with wearable devices like Fitbit, Garmin, Apple Watch, and more. For users who like to monitor their activity in tandem with their energy intake, this may be useful.

However, the downside of integrating with fitness devices is that calories burned through activity may be added back to a user’s calorie budget. While this may not necessarily seem like a bad thing (great, I get to eat more calories!), it can pose a problem if calories burned through exercise are already accounted for in the calorie budget. This in turn can cause confusion for a weight-loss client and make them think they need to ‘eat back the calories’ they burned from their 30-minute spin class. That said, how exercise data or calories burned get integrated into food diaries can be a double-edged sword - since physical activity is usually already accounted for when setting calorie goals.

Free Version

While this review is dedicated to MyFitness Pal’s Premium or paid version, MFP also offers a free version of their app. This can be nice for users who want to focus more on calories since specific macro targets can’t be set and don’t mind the noisy ads and the lack of a barcode scanner.

Advantages to LogEat Pro

Fully Verified Data

Unlike MFP which heavily relies on crowd-sourced data which can be prone to errors, LogEat offers a fully verified database sourcing all of its information from Nutritionix. This means that users can trust the accuracy of the data they are logging, which is crucial for clients closely monitoring their intake and trying to achieve specific goals like weight-loss, muscle gain, or even blood sugar control.

In addition to using verified data LogEat also employs some other features to safeguard the integrity of its nutrition data including its ‘smart autocomplete algorithm.’ What’s nice about this feature is that nutrient averages are only calculated based on fully logged days. This ensures that nutrient averages aren’t artificially lowered when a user logs for example ‘breakfast’ and then forgets to log the rest of their meals.

Ad-Free and Intuitive User Interface

LogEat provides an ad-free nutrition tracking experience. The user interface is extremely easy to navigate, features are intuitive, and the food log has a more modern, minimalistic design. Whether you are new to nutrition tracking or are considered a macro-counting expert, tracking on LogEat feels simple even for a novice user.

Comprehensive Nutrient Tracking

LogEat allows users to track a full spectrum of micronutrients (more than 40), making it a comprehensive tool for identifying both nutrient gaps and excesses that go beyond simple calorie and macro tracking. This broader tracking capability gives users a more holistic picture of the nutrient density and/or quality of their diet and serves as a very useful tool for coaches when it comes to making nutrition and/or supplement recommendations.

Customizable Tracking Experience

Another unique aspect about LogEat is that a user’s tracking experience can be fully customized by either the user or their coach. Not only do coaches have full control over editing a client's calorie and macro targets but they are also able to toggle on (i.e. display) exactly what nutrients and progress metrics a client should be tracking. So whether you want your client to focus on macros alone or a full spectrum of micronutrients - you can decide what’s best for your client.

Supports Intuitive Eating & Photo Tracking

Coaches using LogEat Pro also have the ability to fully turn-off and blind nutrition information for clients that are embracing a more intuitive eating or non-numbers approach to tracking. When nutrition information is turned-off clients can still log foods without seeing nutrition information (helpful for clients triggered by seeing calorie information or prone to obsessing over numbers) but as a coach you can still see all of their nutrition data. Alternatively, your clients can log food photos and even include a note on hunger, mood, or other self-reflections.

LogEat Pro Coaching Features

Aside from LogEat’s focus on providing accurate nutrition insights and a highly customizable tracking experience - LogEat Pro offers a suite of tools that help coaches run their businesses.

Centralized Client Management

With a Pro account, nutrition coaches have direct access to their clients' food logs. Getting access to your clients nutrition data is as simple as inviting your clients by email, at which point they will go through the onboarding process, and then be instantly connected to your coaching account. Coaches then have full control over editing and customizing the clients nutrition plan from their coaching dashboard.

Streamlined Client Communication

LogEat Pro also offers robust communication features, including in-app chat and mass messaging for coaches working with multiple clients. While chat doesn’t seem like a big deal, their chat goes beyond basic text messaging like on MFP.

In fact, LogEat’s chat functions similar to your smartphone where you can share links, photos, videos, and even react with emojis and GIFS. Plus, LogEat coaches receive push notifications ensuring you don’t miss a message from your client and vice versa. Chat is available both on desktop and on mobile for coaches.

Automate Forms and Check-Ins

Another cool feature offered to coaches is the ability to create custom forms and send them directly to your clients nutrition tracking app for gathering feedback. Once a form has been created, you can send it with a single-click, schedule it to go out on a certain day and time, or you can set-up a form to be repeatedly sent at a certain cadence like for check-in forms. The ability to automate forms is a great way to free up more time for doing more important tasks and is one less thing you have to remember to do before preparing for a client check-in.

Effortless Resource Sharing

The last feature worth mentioning is the ability for coaches to create shareable links to their favorite resources such as meal plans, workout guides, courses, or even payment links. These resources can be easily shared to your client’s mobile tracking app, ensuring clients have everything they need to be successful - right at their fingertips!

How Coaches Can Utilize MyFitness Pal vs LogEat

Using MFP as a Nutrition Coach:

• Accessing Client Data: Coaches often use MFP’s friending feature to get a glimpse of their client’s food logs, have clients manually send spreadsheet reports, or receive screenshots of food logs. These methods are workarounds to accessing their clients nutrition data since MFP doesn’t have a built-in coaching backend. These methods also make it more difficult to scale,

• Integration with Coaching Platforms: A number of coaching platforms integrate with MFP to provide a coach with total macros but very little qualitative data or details on the actual foods that were eaten. In addition, integrations can be more complicated to set-up as it requires MFP users to make their profile public and/or share their passwords. Coaches also don’t have the ability to adjust their clients nutrient targets using integrations but instead any changes to their nutrition plans must be communicated and performed by the client.

Using LogEat as a Nutrition Coach:

• Seamless Client Connection: LogEat Pro provides coaches with a direct connection to their clients nutrition tracking data. Coaches can manage all of their clients’ nutrition plans through the web or mobile app, without the need for complicated integrations or workarounds.

• Enhanced Customization and Coaching Tools: Coaches can customize nutrient targets, communicate, send custom forms, and share resources all within the LogEat Pro platform making it a comprehensive tool for not only tracking your clients nutrition but coaching your clients from start to finish.

Conclusion: Is LogEat Pro a Better Alternative to MyFitness Pal?

Choosing between MyFitnessPal and LogEat Pro depends on the specific needs of the coach and their clients. For coaches and clients who live outside of the US and Canada, MyFitnessPal may be a great option. Clients may have an easier time finding certain international or regional foods than on LogEat. MyFitness Pal also offers a variety of wearable device integrations if seeing your clients daily activity is important and MFP can be synced with a variety of other coaching platforms to give coaches at least macro totals.

LogEat Pro on the other hand, provides a seamless connection to your clients nutrition tracking data along with a comprehensive picture of your clients eating habits and progress metrics that can’t be matched by spreadsheets or using MFP integrations. Also, if having accurate data and being able to fully customize your clients nutrition plan is important to you, then LogEat Pro is a smart choice. Lastly, their suite of coaching tools makes LogEat a standout for streamlining your coaching while also providing your client with a premium nutrition tracking experience.