Import Your MFP Diary in 30 Seconds: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Screenshot Your MFP Diary

Open MyFitnessPal and navigate to your food diary. Pick the days you want to bring over. You don't need to import everything—even a week of recent logs gives you a head start on staples and patterns.

Take a screenshot of each day's diary view. Make sure the food names and calorie/macro numbers are visible. If a day's diary is long enough to scroll, take multiple screenshots to capture the full list.

• Open MFP → Diary → select the date
• Screenshot the full day’s food list (scroll and capture if needed)
• Repeat for each day you want to import
• Don’t worry about perfect screenshots — the AI handles partial text and cut-off rows

Pro tip: if you've been on MFP for a while, focus on the last 1-2 weeks. That's your current rotation of foods, which is the most useful data to bring over. Historical logs from six months ago are less relevant than what you ate last Tuesday.

Step 2: Upload to Baisics

In Baisics, go to your nutrition log and tap the import button. Select "Import from screenshot." Choose your MFP diary screenshots from your camera roll. You can upload multiple screenshots at once—batch them if you've got several days to import.

The AI processes each screenshot and extracts the food entries. This usually takes a few seconds per image. You'll see a progress indicator while it works.

Step 3: Review and Edit

Once the AI finishes parsing, you'll see a list of extracted food entries with their macros. Each entry shows the food name, portion size, and calorie/macro breakdown as the AI interpreted it from the screenshot.

Review the entries. The AI is accurate on standard MFP diary formats, but it's worth a quick glance. Common things to check:

• Portion sizes — make sure “2 cups” didn’t become “2 oz”
• Food names — verify the AI matched the right item
• Macro numbers — spot-check a couple entries against what you remember
• Meal categories — breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks should map correctly

You can edit any entry before confirming. Tap a food to adjust the name, quantity, or macros. Delete anything that doesn't belong. Add missing items if the screenshot cut something off.

The goal isn't a perfect 1:1 replica of your MFP diary. It's a fast transfer of your recent food data so you don't start from zero. Close enough is good enough.

Step 4: Confirm and Save

Once you're satisfied with the entries, tap confirm. The foods are added to your Baisics log for that date. Your macros and calorie totals update immediately.

Here's the bonus: any food that appears in your imported data becomes available in your search history. Foods you ate frequently on MFP will surface quickly when you search for them on Baisics. And if you want to make any of them even faster to log, add them to your food staples and they're one tap away from now on.

What You Get After Importing

The import isn't just about preserving history. It's about reducing the setup friction that makes switching apps feel like starting over. After importing a week of MFP data, you've got:

• A populated food log with real data from day one
• Search history pre-loaded with your usual foods
• A foundation for your staples list — the foods you eat most are already identified
• Macro trends that carry forward instead of resetting to blank

The psychological difference matters too. Opening a new app to a blank screen feels like starting from scratch. Opening it to a week of your actual food data feels like continuing. That continuity makes it far more likely you'll keep going.

Why Screenshots Instead of an API?

Fair question. MFP doesn't offer a public data export that other apps can easily consume. Their CSV export is limited and the format changes. API access is restricted. Screenshots are the universal format—they work regardless of what MFP does with their export tools, and they capture exactly what you see on screen.

It also means this works for any food tracking app, not just MFP. If you're coming from Lose It, Cronometer, or any other tracker, the same screenshot import process works. Any diary screen with food names and macro numbers is fair game.

Your food data belongs to you. If the old app won't export it cleanly, a screenshot is all you need to take it with you.

The 30-Second Version

If you want the quick summary:

1. Screenshot your MFP diary (the days you want)
2. Upload screenshots to Baisics
3. AI parses food entries + macros
4. Review, edit if needed, confirm
5. Done — your data is here now

That's the whole process. No account linking, no CSV wrangling, no re-entering 50 foods by hand. If the switching cost was the thing keeping you on MFP, it's gone. Your data comes with you.

For the full story on why people are making the switch and what changes in practice, that post covers the day-to-day experience in detail.