You can log food in MyFitnessPal and walk with a team in another app. MyFitnessPal does not count steps itself; it imports them from a connected phone or watch. Let that tracker record your walks instead of also logging them by hand, and use a walking app for the daily habit and the team.
Two questions about how your walking reaches your food app.
How steps reach MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal’s help center says it does not track steps on its own. It imports them from a connected app or device you pick as your step source, and syncs at intervals, so its number can lag your phone for a while.
When a tracker reports more daily burn than MyFitnessPal expected, it can add a calorie adjustment. Negative adjustments, which lower your goal on quieter days, are optional.
Am I double dipping if I log my walk?
MyFitnessPal says it includes logged cardio in its adjustment to prevent double counting. It also advises letting a connected tracker record activity, because logging the same thing again may lead to incorrect adjustments.
So the simple rule is: if your watch or phone already records the walk, let it. Log by hand only what your tracker misses.
Where a walking app fits
MyFitnessPal is built for food. Walk & Water is built for the habit around it: a daily step goal, a water check-in, and a team of two to four on a live leaderboard. They don’t connect to each other, and they don’t need to. Your phone already shares steps with both.
Find your number first
Your BMR estimate, a daily calorie target & Coach Josh’s protein range, from four quick questions.
Two to four of you on one team: a friend’s, your own, or one you join in the app. Your team gets a name, a crest & a spot on the live leaderboard.
2. Walk + water, 3 days
Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday. A step goal & a water goal sized to where you are today. The board updates as you walk & closes Thursday at midnight, Arizona time.
3. Friday winners
Friday morning the results go up. The winning team’s card glows gold, badges land beside names on the board, and a new round starts Tuesday.
Bigger isn’t better. Teams rank on their AVERAGE.
A team’s score is its average per woman, not its total. So two friends can beat a team of four, and every walker’s day counts the same. When one of you goes quiet, the others notice & send a nudge in team chat.
Your team card. The big number is the average per woman.The live leaderboard. Solo, team & global ranks for this round.
A clean setup in three steps
One step source, one calorie target, one walking habit.
1
Pick one step source
Connect your phone or watch as MyFitnessPal’s step source, per its help center.
2
Don’t log the same walk twice
If your tracker records walking, skip adding the same walk by hand.
3
Walk with a team
Use Walk & Water for the daily walk, the water check-in & a team that notices.
Questions
How do I get my steps into MyFitnessPal?
You don’t type them in. MyFitnessPal imports steps from the connected app or device you choose as its step source, per its help center. If your phone or watch is that source, the same walk can also count in Walk & Water, which reads Apple Health or Health Connect, without the two apps being connected.
Does Walk & Water sync with MyFitnessPal?
No. Both can read steps from your phone’s health hub, so you don’t need them to talk to each other.
Should I eat back MyFitnessPal exercise calories?
It depends on how your calorie goal was set. Coach Josh’s suggestion: start from your daily calorie target & treat walks as extra, not a second food budget.
Is Get Your BMR affiliated with MyFitnessPal?
No. Get Your BMR is not affiliated with or endorsed by MyFitnessPal, a trademark of its owner. This page is independent & based on MyFitnessPal’s public help center.
Sources
Written by Coach Josh and checked against these sources on October 20, 2026. General information, not medical advice.
Professional trainer since 2018 · ISSA & NCCPT certified · Creator of Get Your BMR & the Walk & Water Challenge (BodyByReason)
I’m Josh. I built Get Your BMR so you could see what your body burns at rest, & I built Walk & Water so you’d have somewhere to use it with people who notice when you show up.
I walk every round too: same board, same three days, on my own team. I don’t always win. Tap Chat with Coach in the app & it’s me who answers.
About 7 in 10 women who finish a round come back & play the next one.
Walk & Water app data, 73 finishers, snapshot October 19, 2026.
Get Your BMR is Coach Josh’s free calculator. The 3-Day Walk & Water Challenge is where you put the number to work, and it runs inside the APEX: Walk & Water app on iPhone and Android.
