Connecting Apple Health to MyFitnessPal is one of the most useful integrations you can set up if you use both. It allows your step count, workouts, and other activity data from Apple Watch or iPhone to flow into MyFitnessPal, and your nutrition data from MFP to flow into Apple Health — creating a more complete picture of your health in both apps.
Here's exactly how to set it up, what to expect, and what the sync doesn't do (which matters more than most guides tell you).
Step-by-Step: Connect Apple Health to MyFitnessPal
- Open the MyFitnessPal app on your iPhone.
- Tap More in the bottom navigation (the three-dot menu).
- Select Apps & Devices.
- Find Apple Health in the list and tap it.
- Tap Connect.
- A permissions dialog from Apple Health will appear. You'll see a list of data types MyFitnessPal wants to read and write. Review and tap Allow for the ones you want to share.
- Return to MyFitnessPal — the connection is now active.
Note: If you don't see Apple Health in the Apps & Devices list, make sure you're using the iPhone app (not the web version) and that you're on iOS 9 or later.
What Data Syncs (In Both Directions)
Apple Health → MyFitnessPal
- Steps — daily step count from iPhone or Apple Watch flows into MFP's exercise log and counts toward your active calories
- Workouts — Apple Watch workouts logged in the Health app appear in MFP's exercise diary
- Weight — weight entries from Health app (including from Withings, etc.) update MFP's weight log
- Body fat percentage — if supported by your scale
MyFitnessPal → Apple Health
- Nutritional data — calories, protein, carbs, fat, fiber, and other macros you log in MFP appear in Apple Health's Nutrition section
- Weight — manual weight entries in MFP sync to Apple Health
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What Doesn't Sync (The Important Caveats)
The Apple Health / MyFitnessPal integration is useful, but it has real limitations that are worth understanding before you rely on it.
Exercise calories can double-count
If you manually log a workout in MyFitnessPal and have Apple Health syncing the same workout, you can end up with duplicate exercise entries and inflated "active calorie" numbers. MFP has attempted to handle this, but the logic isn't always reliable. Watch your exercise calorie totals carefully if you use both methods of logging.
The step sync logic is inconsistent
How MFP uses step count data in its calorie calculations has changed over the years and varies by user. Some users find step data properly adjusts their daily calorie budget; others find it inconsistent. Check your MFP settings under More → Steps to see how it's configured for you.
The sync is not instant
Data doesn't always transfer between the two apps in real time. Syncs can be delayed by 15–60 minutes, and occasionally require you to open both apps to trigger a refresh.
Apple Health only stores the data — it doesn't analyze it
This is the bigger limitation. Even with the integration running perfectly, you still have two apps showing you two different slices of the same data. MyFitnessPal shows you nutrition in the context of calories. Apple Health shows you steps and workouts in the context of activity. Neither one shows you whether your calorie intake is actually producing the weight change rate you'd expect.
Making the Most of the Connection
The best use of the Apple Health / MFP integration is as a data consolidation layer — getting your nutrition and activity data into one place (Apple Health) where other apps can access it. Third-party apps that read from Apple Health can then see both your nutrition and your activity data simultaneously, enabling cross-data analysis that neither MFP nor Health alone can provide.
This is the foundation of what a unified health dashboard can do: see your MyFitnessPal calorie data, your Apple Watch activity, your Withings scale weight, and your sleep data all in one view — and understand how they interact. That's what turns individual data streams into actual insight.