Considering MyNetDiary Premium? Our in-house dietitians share their favorite Premium features and why they love them

Are you curious about MyNetDiary Premium membership? While the free version of MyNetDiary is an excellent place to start if you are new to food and exercise tracking, upgrading to Premium allows for various customization options and helpful upgrades. Read on to hear our in-house dietitians’ favorite Premium features and why they love them.

Step Bonus- Kathy’s favorite MyNetDiary Premium feature

With so many awesome features to select from at MyNetDiary, I was hard-pressed to think of my very favorite. But the one feature I have used for many years, even when I am not tracking food, is Step Bonus. Step Bonus calculates the calories burned from my steps count, adjusts it downwards based on my activity level, and then automatically logs these adjusted calories in my exercise log.

Since Step Bonus adjusts the calories downward to avoid double-counting calories already included in my Activity Level (which is set at sedentary for me), I avoid the problem of overestimating exercise calories. This is especially helpful since I choose to add exercise calories to my food budget. I do not bother logging my light resistance exercises and abdominals to my exercise log - they are more likely to overestimate my exercise calories since it is easy to overestimate the true net time of the activity as well as the intensity level.

I highly recommend Step Bonus if the majority of your exercise comes from walking and you are not already using an activity tracker to log your calories (e.g., Garmin, Fitbit, or Withings). I use an Apple Watch to track my steps, and I link my steps via the Apple Health app link in MyNetDiary exercise settings. I allow MyNetDiary to read my steps data. If you don't use an Apple Watch, your iPhone can be used to count steps (and you can allow MyNetDiary to read your steps data from your iPhone).

Premium Recipes- Brenda’s favorite MyNetDiary Premium feature

I enjoy searching the large number of healthy and tasty dietitian-approved recipes when planning meals and for inspiration. I find it helpful to search Premium Recipes according to specific ingredients, such as chicken or fish, or specific categories, such as "Soups & Stews" or "Salads & Dressings."

I often customize a Premium recipe when swapping out a few ingredients. These customized recipes can be saved for easy entry when tracking. I love that all Premium recipes have been analyzed for calories and nutrients, making tracking them easy.

Here are three of my favorite Premium recipes.

Chicken Vegetable & Bean Soup

I enjoy making soups, especially in the colder months. This hearty soup is chock full of vegetables, including green pepper, kale, and carrots, and gets a boost of heartiness and fiber from cannellini beans. You can use a mild or hot salsa in this recipe, based on your preference.

Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken

This super easy and healthy recipe is one of my go-tos because it is great for everyday cooking or entertaining. It is fun to use for a taco bar at gatherings served with street taco shells and lettuce leaves for those preferring lettuce wraps, and sides of shredded cheese, chopped lettuce, chopped tomatoes, a variety of salsas, sour cream, and jalapeno peppers. You can use this lean chicken recipe to make lettuce wraps, tacos, burritos, paninis, or quesadillas.

Overnight Oats with Flaxseed & Dried Cranberry

I enjoy this filling oat breakfast, especially when I prefer a cold over a hot oatmeal breakfast. I prep multiple batches of this recipe for the week and have a filling oat breakfast waiting for me in the morning. You can top it with fresh fruit, like berries, if desired.

Nutrient target and Dashboard customization- Sue’s favorite MyNetDiary Premium feature

My favorite Premium MyNetDiary feature is the ability to customize the targets and Dashboard display for more than 100 nutrients. Although the app’s default recommendations are useful, nutrition plans can be highly individualized. Nutrient customization includes setting macro targets, minimum targets for desired nutrients such as fiber and protein, and limits for less desired nutrients such as sodium.

As a dietitian, I love that my clients can use the app to support their personal goals. Some may closely track their carbohydrates, while others focus on protein, sodium, or other nutrients. The options are limitless.

For my personal use, I enjoy focusing on different nutrients from time to time. For example, though I don’t track it daily, I might keep an eye on potassium intake by adding it to my Dashboard for a week. It helps me confirm if I am meeting my goals and inspires me to include more nutrient-rich foods. There is always more to learn about our eating habits and nutrition!

I also enjoy the in-depth analysis of each nutrient. For example, I can see recent foods that provided the top sources of any nutrient of my choosing. This week, it is black beans for the win at 739 mg of potassium in one cup!

This video provides additional information on setting nutrient targets in the app.

AutoPilot- Joanna’s favorite MyNetDiary Premium feature

The AutoPilot feature takes calorie budgeting one step further. It truly takes the guesswork out of figuring out how many calories to eat each day to reach your weight goal by your target date.

Gone are the days when you need to track calories and plot your progress on a spreadsheet while making an “educated” guess as to when to modify your plan. This feature automatically adjusts your calorie budget behind the scenes, giving you more time to focus on weighing and measuring portions and accurate food tracking.

As a dietitian, I love recommending this feature to clients, as it offers a more individualized budget based on how their weight-loss journey is progressing.

Since the feature is based on body weight, weigh at least once a week for best results. Once the app has your weight and goals, it will adjust your budget (up or down) to increase your chances of meeting your goals by the date you’ve selected. If you are losing weight too slowly, AutoPilot may increase the weekly weight-loss rate. Or it will decrease the weekly weight-loss rate if you are losing too fast.

Losing weight is a science and an art, and it may take some time to figure out how many calories your body needs each day to see results. If you are finding this feature isn’t right for you, and you’d like to stick with a consistent daily budget, simply turn off this feature by going to "My Plan" >"AutoPilot." AutoPilot also works for weight gain as well.

Bonus favorite feature

Since we all love to cook and experiment in the kitchen, we all agree that Recipe Import is one of our all-time favorite Premium features. You can import recipe ingredients and directions directly into your personal account from most recipes on the web. You can then make changes and save the recipe as your own for easy and accurate tracking. If you want to get more familiar with this feature, watch this brief video to see how it works.

Tracking is a great way to learn how our habits impact our health goals. We hope you’ll try Premium to take your tracking to the next level.

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