When you add a food or a meal from the library to a meal plan, the plan receives a copy, with the values at that moment, that does not follow changes in the library. The same happens when you add a food to a meal in the meal library and when the client logs what they ate in the food log. So editing or deleting a food or a meal in the library does not change the plans you have already made: the change only applies to what you add from then on.
This way, a plan the client is already following only changes when you edit that plan, and you can fix the library without touching the assigned plans. To bring a library change into a plan you have already made, you update the plan, as explained in “Updating a plan you have already made”.
What the copy stores
Each food you add to a plan or to a library meal stores:
- the name, with the brand in parentheses when the food has one;
- the quantity, in the unit you chose;
- the calories, protein, carbs and fat for that quantity and, when they are declared, sugar, salt, fiber, saturated fat and potassium;
- the food's photo;
- for units such as slice or cup, the weight of one unit, in g or ml.
A library meal goes into the plan with its name, shortened to 50 characters, the time, the note and the foods, each with its substitutions. If pasted into a calendar period that isn't the one for its time, it goes in without a time. Whether through the Add Meal window, the side panel or Copy and Paste, what goes into the plan is always a new copy, as a meal or as an option within a meal, that does not follow the one in the library. See Copy and paste meals, supplements, questions and lessons.
What changes when you change the library
For each change in the library, the table shows what happens to what already uses the food or meal and to what you add later.
| Change in the library | What already uses it | What you add later |
|---|---|---|
| Editing one of your foods: name, brand, values, unit or photo | No change. Plans, library meals and food logs keep the old copy, photo included. | The food goes in with the new version. A library meal that already had it still carries the old copy. |
| Deleting one of your foods | No change. The name, quantity, values and photo stay. | The food is no longer available. |
| Editing a library meal | No change. The plans where you already added it keep the meal as it was. | Gets the new version. |
| Deleting a library meal | No change. The plan meals that came from it show Save to library in the ⋮ menu again. | The meal is no longer available. |
There is one exception: if the photo file is deleted from your storage, the photo is also removed from the copies.
Only the MyFitnessClient team changes the foods in the Catalog, from MyFitnessClient and from the INSA table. When the copy of one of them lacks an optional value, such as fiber, the photo or the weight of one unit, MyFitnessClient may fill it in, when showing it, with what the Catalog has at that moment. What is already stored in the copy does not change.
Food names in another language
In the library, the foods in the MyFitnessClient catalog appear in the language you use the site in. The copy keeps the name in that language, and it does not change afterwards: if you added a food with the site in Portuguese and the client uses MyFitnessClient in English, the client sees the name in Portuguese. Foods from the INSA table always have their name in Portuguese, and yours appear as you wrote them. See The food library: catalog, INSA and your foods.
Updating a plan you have already made
The plan does not follow the library, so you update the plan meals that need the new version yourself. Open the plan in Nutrition and, in each meal:
- For a food, open its ⋮ menu, or right-click the row, select Remove food and confirm; that food's substitutions go with it. Then add it again with Add Food: it goes in with the current library values. See Add, edit and remove foods in a meal.
- To fix only the values in the plan, without going through the library, open the food's ⋮ menu and select Edit Food. The change stays only in that plan meal.
- For a whole meal, add the current version with Add Meal, in the Library tab, and delete the old one with Delete meal, in the meal's ⋮ menu. The current version goes in as a new meal: check its day and position in the plan. If you changed one of your foods, the library meal still has the old copy of it: update it first, as in Edit a library meal and the foods in it. See Add and organize the meals in a meal plan.
The changes you make to the plan reach every client it is assigned to.
What the client sees
The client sees the copy that is in the plan, with the stored name and values, even after you edit or delete the food or meal in the library. Only the changes you make to the plan itself reach them. See What the client sees and gets from the meal plan.
When the client searches for a food to log what they ate, they find your foods used in the meals of their plans, in their current library version. A food that is only a substitution, or that you deleted, does not appear in that search.
Questions
Can I link a plan to the library to update it all at once?
No. MyFitnessClient does not update plans from the library. Update the meals of each plan as in “Updating a plan you have already made”.
What happens to what the client has already logged in the food log?
It stays as it is. The food log stores the foods with the values the client logged them with, and editing or deleting the food in the library does not touch it.
Does changing a meal in the plan change the one in the library?
No. The copy works both ways: what you change in the plan stays only in the plan, and what you change in the library stays only in the library.
What about the meal I save to the library from a plan?
It stays in the library as another copy. Save to library, in the plan meal's ⋮ menu, opens the editor with that meal, where you can change the name, up to 50 characters, and the foods without touching the plan. Another copy is also made when you turn on Also save to library while creating a meal in the Custom tab: the library meal gets the name, the time, the note and the foods. Once saved, the plan meal and the library meal each change on their own, and that plan meal's ⋮ menu stops showing Save to library as long as the library meal exists.