Google Fit is a useful addition for two main reasons.
- It can act as a master dashboard to view all of the data in one place. A kind of “one app to rule them all”, if you like Lord Of The Rings analogies.
- It also records data about steps automatically (as long as you carry your phone with you), so if you go for a nice long walk it can feed the calorie estimate back to MyFitnessPal, so you get the “credit” for this activity too. No need to remember to manually start tracking – it just does it. No-brainer 🙂
To install Google Fit
Android – Click here to visit the Google Fit app site
As well as being able to monitor all your stats through the app, you can also log in to the Google Fit website to review all your progress.
You can set goals within Google Fit, based on Steps, Duration, Calories or Distance.
Syncing Google Fit with other services
To make use of the dashboard approach, you will want to sync Google Fit to myFitnessPal, to Strava, and to your Withings scale (or similar), and any other activity apps you may use.
It’s essential to sync to MFP in order for the Steps from walking to filter through to earn some calories back against your daily MFP allowance. Of course, if you want to lose weight faster, you would be better off not doing this!
Apple users may achieve similar things with Apple Health, which is built in to iOS.
Troubleshooting Google Fit > MFP issues
MFP have a troubleshooting guide here