Frequently Asked Questions

Absolutely! All features and functions you currently see on the FatSecret site are free. In the future, FatSecret may add some other paid services, but all the features and functions you have currently been enjoying on FatSecret will always remain free!

Please contact us with a description of the error you received and what you were doing in when you received the error.

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in "my toolbox" box click on "my image". Once there you can upload your own image or select one from our image gallery.

Please make sure the image you are attempting to upload is a format FatSecret accepts (.gif, .jpg). Next, make sure the file name is simple and short, with no spaces or funny characters. If this doesn't help, it's possible that the image is corrupted.

Please contact us with a description of how far into registration process you were as well as the error you received and we'll endeavor to help you through the process.

Please ensure that you are logging in with the correct member name and password and that you have confirmed your account by clicking on the email sent by FatSecret at the time of registration. You should also try to clear your browser's cookies and temporary internet files and then try logging in again. If you cannot log in or find your profile on the site, your membership may have been cancelled or your profile may have been deleted. FatSecret may cancel memberships or delete profiles if they violate the site's terms and conditions. You cannot retrieve a cancelled or deleted account. You can contact us here.

You can retrieve your password by clicking here. You will need to enter the email address that we have on file for your account. We'll then email your password to that address.

Your member name is the name you used to create your account. You can retrieve your member name by clicking here. You will need to enter the email address that we have on file for your account. We'll then email your member name to that address.

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in "my toolbox" box click on "my account". Once there, type in the new email address you want to use and click on "save".

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in "my toolbox" box click on "my account". Once there, type in the new password you want to use and click on "save".

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in "my toolbox" box click on "my bio". Once there, type in your new bio and click on "save".

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in "my toolbox" box click on "my signature". Once there, type in your new signature to be used in posts and click on "save".

Please see our Account Deletion Information page for how to delete your account.
Alternatively, you may email us at register@fatsecret.com.

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in "my toolbox" box click on "my account". Once there, go to "share my weight/journal" in "my preferences" and change the setting to "keep private" or to "with my followers" if you only want to share your weight and journal with your followers, then click on "save".

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in "my toolbox" box click on "my account". Once there, go to "allow journal comments" in "my preferences" and uncheck the box, then click on "save".

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in "my toolbox" box click on "my account". Once there, go to "remind me to weigh in" in "my preferences" and change the setting to "never" or to any other frequency you want, then click on "save".

In most instances the best thing to do is simply ignore them... in most cases they will soon leave you alone. If they are one of your FatSecret buddies, you can always remove them. By not responding to users who are bugging or harassing you (i.e., not giving them any attention), most people will simply go away. If they persist, please go ahead and send us a note through report abuse

If there is content on a page or an image that is inappropriate or offensive, go to the bottom of the page and click on the "report abuse" link and let us know about it. By doing this you'll help FatSecret maintain the quality of the site and keep out the trash.

Please contact us with the URL to the profile of a spammer and details of how you were spammed and we'll do our best to kick them to the curb.

Users must be at least 13 years of age to join. If you believe you have sighted a user under 13 years of age on FatSecret.com, please contact us with the users member name.

If you believe that your copyright-protected work has been copied and posted on FatSecret.com in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our Copyright Agent with the following information: (i) an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; (ii) a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; (iii) a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Services; (iv) your address, telephone number, and email address; (v) a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; (vi) a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf. Please contact us.

You can follow any member you see on FatSecret unless they are private. From the member page of the person you would like to follow, just click "Follow". Members that only permit followers they accept will be able to accept or reject your request.

To stop following someone, click on "Following" from their member page.

It depends on your sharing settings. If you are sharing with everyone then anyone can follow you. If you are sharing with my followers then you'll need approve (or reject) each follow request. If you are private then no one can follow you.

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and across the top the second last icon is a graph and your current weight - this takes you to your Weight History where you can Weigh in and view your diet and weight progress. If you have not weighed in for a week, you will see a "Weigh in now" message next to your member name (in the top left corner). You can click on "Weigh in now" to get to the weigh in screen. At the time of weigh in, you can also make a journal entry and/or submit a new tip for the diet that you are following.

Yes, you can enter a new starting weight. Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in the top right hand "my profile" box click on "my diet". Once there click "Change starting weight" and enter your correct starting weight information.

You can restart your diet from today. Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in the top right hand "my profile" box click on "my diet". Once there click "Restart diet" which will enable you to start your diet over from today. You can also select to remove your prior diet history from all charts.

Yes, you can enter your weight information up to 6 months from the time you become a FatSecret member. Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in the top right hand "my profile" box click on "my diet". Once there click "enter historical weight" and enter your historical weight information.

Yes, if you have made a mistake entering your weight information for the current date, proceed to weigh in again and you will be prompted to confirm that you would like to overwrite the last entry. Click "Ok" to then enter the correct information.

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in "my toolbox" box click on "my diet". Once there click on "change goal weight" and you can enter a new goal weight.

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in "my toolbox" box click on "change my diet". Once there find the new diet you are following in the FatSecret diets directory or enter your own personalized diet. You will then be prompted to confirm the diet that you have chosen as well as your goals and starting and finishing dates.

At the time of your weigh in, you can change the phase of the diet that you are following. From then on you will be recorded as following that phase of the diet, so when you rate a recipe or submit a tip and everything else on the site, you are associated with that phase of the diet.

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and in the bottom left hand side of the page click on "create my own diet" and you will be taken through steps to build your own customized diet.

The FatSecret weight loss/gain calculation looks at a member's weight change since their last weigh in and calculates a corresponding average weekly weight change. This weekly weight loss/gain is also displayed by an up or down arrow in a member's journal entry if the weigh in and journal entry are done at the same time. So for example if a member has a one lb weight loss over a three day period since their last weigh in, this equals an average weekly weight loss of 2.3 lb.

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and click on "enter food" and you will be taken to "my food diary". Select a date to record the foods you ate and whether the entry reflects some or exactly what you ate. To add a food, click on "add item" under one of the meals (like breakfast), which will enable you to copy a meal from the previous day or week, or choose from items you recently added for that meal type, or find a food from the database.

When you click "Add item" from your food diary, you can click on "New Item" or if you search for a food and can't find it in the database, you can click on "Add this item to the food database". You will then be able to add an item to the food database by completing all details for the food such as the brand, product and nutritional information. You can choose to share the food with other members and add it to any meal and use it over again.

Go to your "My FatSecret" page and click on "exercise" and you will be taken to "my exercise diary". Select a date to record all the activity and exercise you did and whether the entry reflects some or all of your exercise. To add an exercise, click on "add exercise" and select one of the exercise types from the database provided and then select the amount of time spent doing that exercise instead of one of the existing or default exercises listed in that 24 hour period.

If you can't find an exercise or activity in the database, you can click on "other" at the bottom of the list and create your own, by describing the exercise or activity, the energy you burned and the time spent doing it.

To change the nutritional columns shown in your food diary click on "my account" from the toolbox on you my FatSecret page, and in the setting for "Food Diary Nutrition Facts" you can select your preferred columns of nutritional information to be displayed in your food diary. So if you would like to see values for net carbs, fiber or cholesterol, select the appropriate nutritional value boxes (up to 6) and the columns in your food diary will automatically adjust to your preferences.

There's two ways to add a new meal, both from your food diary. You can click on "add new" which is under "My Favorite Meals" to start from scratch or you can click on one of the meals (breakfast, lunch etc.) under "copy current meal" and the foods in the chosen meal will automatically be pre-saved as a favorite meal. You'll then be taken through the steps to create a new meal, such as giving the meal a title, listing whether it is suitable for breakfast, lunch, dinner... and recording the foods/quantities in the meal. Once saved, the meal will appear by its given name in your favorite meals.

To add one of your favorite meals to your food diary you can click "Add item" and you will see an option to choose from your favorite meals or you can click on the meal directly and then you will be able to add it to your food diary. The individual foods in the meal will then appear in your food diary.

Yes, you can view the favorite meals of other members from their food diary and if you like, add their meal to your food diary which will automatically add that meal to your favorite meals as well.

To edit one of your favorite meals, click on "view all" under My Favorite Meals and a complete list of your favorite meals will be shown and you will be able to edit any of your meals or delete those belonging to other members.

Go to the "kitchen" page and in the top right hand box you can use the recipe search tool to find recipes for all types of meals that FatSecret members have rated whether they are good for your diet, including for each phase of the diet where appropriate. The more stars, the better the recipe is for your diet and/or diet phase based on FatSecret member opinion.

FatSecret members can submit recipes for approval by clicking on "submit a recipe" on the "My FatSecret" page or the "kitchen" page. You will be taken to the FatSecret recipe builder whereby you need to fill in all sections including recipe name, a description, the ingredients and their quantity and the recipe directions. FatSecret will then review the recipe for suitability for publication in the FatSecret kitchen and inform the member upon publication. FatSecret would like to publish all member submitted recipes but gives priority to recipes that are unique, not already listed and where the quality of the recipe descriptions and directions is high.

Each recipe has its own unique page which includes full nutritional information based on the recipe's ingredients and serving size. You can also use the "calorie counter" on the "kitchen" page to find nutritional information for all foods listed in FatSecret's food database.

You can rate whether a recipe is good for the diet and/or diet phase you are recorded as following by going to an individual recipe page. Once there you can look at the ingredients and the nutritional information per serve of the recipe and rate whether the recipe is good for the diet and diet phase (where appropriate) that you're following. Rating recipes and adding comments helps the community work out if a recipe is good for their diet.

There are a number of ways you can submit a new tip for the diet that you are following. Tips can be submitted from your "My FatSecret" page or each time you weigh in by completing the tips box. Periodically, FatSecret will seek to remove tips for each diet that are largely duplicated so the more unique and special your tips, the greater likelihood of the tip being included on the site.

There are a number of ways you can record a new journal entry. A journal entry can be recorded from your "My FatSecret" page or each time you weigh in by completing the journal entry box.

Go to a member's journal entry and in the "submit a comment" box, enter your comment and click "save". Some members may have stopped allowing other members writing comments on their journal entry which is a setting in "my preferences".

Each time a new topic is created in the forums, the FatSecret member who started the topic selects whether the topic relates to a particular diet, which by default is the diet that they are recorded as following, like Atkins or South Beach. Once the relevant diet for that topic is chosen, thereafter all posts to that forum topic are associated with that diet. Alternatively the topic starter can select that the topic is for "all diets" and not specific to any particular diet and all the posts to that topic will relate to all diets and not any diet in particular.