Guide
How to export your MyFitnessPal data and import it
Years of food diary is the main reason people stay somewhere they have stopped enjoying. It does not have to be. Here is how to get your MyFitnessPal history out, what happens to it here, and the honest list of what does not make the trip.
You do not need Premium to get your data out
This is the part that trips most people up, so it is worth saying first. MyFitnessPal offers a diary export to Premium subscribers as a CSV file. It also has to give every account, paid or free, a full copy of its data on request, and that arrives as a zip.
Most trackers only read the Premium CSV. The practical effect is that people on the free tier are told to subscribe to the app they are leaving in order to leave it. Whey to Go reads both, so whichever file you have is the right one.
Getting the export from MyFitnessPal
Do this on the MyFitnessPal website rather than in the phone app. The export lives in your account settings, and the wording moves around from time to time, so look for the data download or export section rather than a specific button name.
If you pay for Premium, ask for the diary export and you will get a CSV covering the date range you choose. Take the whole range rather than the last month.
If you are on the free tier, request a copy of your data instead. It is prepared in the background and emailed to you as a zip, usually within a day. Save it somewhere your phone can reach, such as Files or iCloud Drive.
You do not need to unzip it. Whey to Go opens the archive, finds the food diary inside and ignores the rest.
Bringing it into Whey to Go
Open the import screen, pick the file, and check the summary it shows you before anything is written. It reports how many days and entries it found, so a truncated or wrong-range export is obvious before it lands in your diary rather than afterwards.
Your meals are placed into the day and slot they came from. MyFitnessPal's meal names are matched to breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, and anything it does not recognise becomes a snack rather than being dropped.
What comes across, and what does not
Worth reading before you start, so nothing is a surprise afterwards.
It brings: every diary entry with its date, its meal, the food name, calories, protein, carbohydrate and fat, plus fibre and serving counts where your export recorded them.
It does not bring: weight history, exercise and workouts, saved recipes, progress photos, step counts or water logs. This is a food diary import, not a full account migration.
That is a deliberate limit rather than an unfinished feature. Your food log is the part with years of work in it and no way to recreate; the rest is either a handful of numbers you can re-enter or data your phone already holds. Apple Health can hand your weight history straight over, which is the faster route for that piece anyway.
When the file will not load
Exports vary more than you would expect, and an old account can produce a file that other apps refuse outright.
Old exports are tab-separated, not comma-separated. Whey to Go checks the header row and reads either, so a file from a decade-old account still parses.
Dates come in three orders. UK, US and ISO all appear depending on where and when the account was created. All three are understood and normalised, so a January entry does not become an October one.
Quotes and commas inside food names are handled properly rather than splitting a row into the wrong columns, which is the usual cause of a garbled import.
If it still will not load, the export is most likely a summary rather than the diary itself. Ask for the full data copy rather than a nutrition summary and try again.
Common questions
Can I import my MyFitnessPal data without paying for Premium?
Yes. Whey to Go reads the free data export that MyFitnessPal has to give you on request, not just the Premium CSV download. Most trackers only accept the Premium file, which means most people are told to pay their old app on the way out. You do not have to.
How do I export my data from MyFitnessPal?
On the MyFitnessPal website rather than the phone app, open your account settings and look for the data download or export option. Premium accounts get a diary CSV directly. Free accounts request a full copy of their data, which arrives by email as a zip file, usually within a day or so. Whey to Go takes either one.
Will my weight history and workouts come across?
No. The import covers your food diary only: the date, the meal, the food, and its calories and macros. Weight entries, exercise, recipes, photos and step counts stay behind. It is a food-log import rather than a full account migration, and it is better to know that before you start than after.
How far back does it go?
As far back as your export does. MyFitnessPal gives you your whole diary, so years of history come across in one file. There is no cut-off at our end.
My export is an old file and other apps rejected it. Will it work?
Probably. Older MyFitnessPal exports are tab-separated rather than comma-separated, and dates appear in UK, US or ISO order depending on when and where the account was set up. Whey to Go detects all of those rather than assuming one shape, which is the usual reason an export bounces elsewhere.
Do I need an account to import into Whey to Go?
No. There is no sign-up and no password, because there is no server holding your diary. The import happens on your phone and the food log stays there.
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