MyFitnessPal

Before touching a single Bubble setting, it is essential to understand the landscape so you choose the right path and do not waste time chasing a dead end. MyFitnessPal's public API shut down in 2019. Before that, a small number of developers used unofficial or partner-granted access to api.myfitnesspal.com. All of those integrations broke when the API was closed. There is no replacement, no waitlist, and no way to apply for access. Any tutorial published before 2019 describing how to connect to the MyFitnessPal API is describing an integration that no longer works. Verify this yourself: navigate to myfitnesspal.com and look for a developer section. You will not find one. Any call to api.myfitnesspal.com from an API testing tool will return an authentication error or 404. Choose your path based on your use case: Path A — CSV Import — is ideal if your users already use MyFitnessPal and want to bring their historical data into your Bubble app. No API key needed, no ongoing API costs, and it works on Bubble's free plan. The limitation: data is a static snapshot. Users must re-export and re-upload to refresh it. Path B — Nutritionix API — is ideal if you want to build an interactive nutrition-tracking feature. Users type food descriptions in real time and get instant calorie and macro data. This requires an API key from developer.nutritionix.com (free tier available) and the Bubble API Connector plugin. If your production app has many users tracking multiple meals per day, factor in WU (Workload Units) consumption for each API call. The steps below cover both paths. Follow Step 2 for the CSV path, or skip to Step 3 for Nutritionix.

This path lets your users upload their MyFitnessPal food diary export directly into your Bubble app. No API key, no ongoing costs, and no WU consumption beyond the one-time data ingestion. Create the FoodEntry Data Type Go to your Bubble editor and click the Data tab in the left panel. Click New type and name it FoodEntry. Add the following fields: - entry_date (Date) - meal_name (Text): Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or Snacks - food_name (Text) - calories (Number) - protein_g (Number) - carbohydrates_g (Number) - fat_g (Number) - fiber_g (Number) - user (User): links the entry to the person who imported it Then click Privacy → Define rules for FoodEntry → Add a rule: When Current User is FoodEntry's user — check all visible fields. This ensures users can only see their own food diary entries. This privacy rule is required, not optional — without it, any authenticated user can read another user's food diary data through Bubble's data API. Install a CSV parser In the Plugins tab, search for a CSV parsing plugin. The CSV Importer by Zeroqode is a commonly used option. Install it and follow the plugin documentation to place its Upload element on an import page. Build the import page Create a new page called import-mfp. Add the CSV Upload element. In the element's workflow, map the CSV columns from the MyFitnessPal export format to your FoodEntry fields. The MyFitnessPal export CSV has columns: Date, Meal, Name, Calories, Carbohydrates (g), Fat (g), Protein (g), Fiber (g). Use the plugin's column-mapping settings to match these to your Data Type fields. Add a Create a new FoodEntry action for each row, setting user to Current User. Set user expectations in the UI Add a text element that explains: This imports a one-time snapshot of your MyFitnessPal data. To refresh your data, export a new file from MyFitnessPal and re-upload it here. Users need to understand data freshness upfront.

The Nutritionix API is the active alternative for real-time nutrition tracking. Follow these steps to configure it in Bubble. Get your Nutritionix credentials Go to developer.nutritionix.com and click Sign Up. Create a developer account and register a new application. After registration, you will receive: - app_id: a short alphanumeric identifier for your application - api_key: your secret authentication key Verify current free tier limits on the Nutritionix developer dashboard before building. The free tier is suitable for development and low-volume production use. Install and open the API Connector In your Bubble app, click the Plugins tab in the left panel. Click Add plugins and search for API Connector. Select API Connector by Bubble and click Install. Once installed, click the plugin to open the configuration panel. Create the Nutritionix API group In the API Connector panel, click Add another API. Set: - API Name: Nutritionix - Authentication: None or self-handled - Shared headers for all calls: - Header name: x-app-id, value: your Nutritionix app_id — check the Private checkbox - Header name: x-app-key, value: your Nutritionix api_key — check the Private checkbox Marking both headers Private is critical. Bubble runs API Connector calls from its servers, and the Private checkbox ensures your credentials are never included in the client-side JavaScript that loads in the user's browser. CORS is not an issue here because Bubble proxies all API Connector calls server-side.

1{
2  "API Name": "Nutritionix",
3  "Shared headers": [
4    { "key": "x-app-id",  "value": "<your_app_id>",  "private": true },
5    { "key": "x-app-key", "value": "<your_api_key>", "private": true }
6  ]
7}

Now add the specific API calls you need and initialize them so Bubble can expose them as data sources and actions in your app. Add the search call (for finding foods by name) Inside the Nutritionix API group, click Add another call. Configure: - Call name: Search Foods - Method: GET - URL: https://trackapi.nutritionix.com/v2/search/instant - Parameters (query): - query — default value: chicken (you will make this dynamic later) - branded — default value: true (set to false for generic USDA foods) Click Initialize call. Bubble will send a real GET request with these test values. You need a successful response (HTTP 200 with a JSON body containing branded_foods and common arrays) for Bubble to register the call as a data source. If the call fails with 401, double-check that your x-app-id and x-app-key values are entered correctly in the shared headers. Add the natural language nutrients call (for meal description parsing) Click Add another call again. Configure: - Call name: Natural Nutrients - Method: POST - URL: https://trackapi.nutritionix.com/v2/natural/nutrients - Body type: JSON - Body: {"query": "2 scrambled eggs with toast"} - Use as: Action (this is called from a button workflow, not bound directly to a data display element) Click Initialize call. Bubble sends the POST and detects the response shape. Nutritionix returns a foods array where each item contains food_name, nf_calories, nf_protein, nf_total_fat, nf_total_carbohydrate, and other fields. After successful initialization, Bubble maps all detected fields so you can reference them in workflows and page elements. Make the query dynamic Once initialized, go back to each call and replace the hardcoded test values with dynamic placeholders: - In the Search Foods call, set the query parameter value to a dynamic expression wired to a text input - In the Natural Nutrients call, set the body query value to a dynamic expression Bubble will prompt you to map these dynamic fields to page inputs when you use the calls in workflows.

1{
2  "Search Foods call": {
3    "method": "GET",
4    "url": "https://trackapi.nutritionix.com/v2/search/instant",
5    "params": {
6      "query": "<search_text>",
7      "branded": "true"
8    },
9    "headers": {
10      "x-app-id": "<private>",
11      "x-app-key": "<private>"
12    }
13  },
14  "Natural Nutrients call": {
15    "method": "POST",
16    "url": "https://trackapi.nutritionix.com/v2/natural/nutrients",
17    "headers": {
18      "x-app-id": "<private>",
19      "x-app-key": "<private>",
20      "Content-Type": "application/json"
21    },
22    "body": {
23      "query": "<meal_description>"
24    }
25  }
26}

With the Nutritionix API configured, build the user-facing food logging page that ties everything together. Create the FoodEntry Data Type (if not already done in Step 2) Data tab → New type → FoodEntry with fields: entry_date (Date), meal_name (Text), food_name (Text), calories (Number), protein_g (Number), carbs_g (Number), fat_g (Number), user (User). Add a Privacy rule: FoodEntry visible only when Current User is FoodEntry's user. Build the food lookup UI Create a page called log-food. Add these elements: - A Dropdown element for meal selection with values: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack - A text input with placeholder: Describe your meal (e.g., 2 cups oatmeal with banana and almond milk) - A Button labeled Look up nutrition - A Repeating Group to display returned foods - Inside the Repeating Group: text elements for food_name, nf_calories, nf_protein, nf_total_fat, nf_total_carbohydrate - A Button labeled Save all to diary below the Repeating Group Wire the lookup workflow Click the Look up nutrition button → Start/Edit workflow → add action Plugins → Nutritionix — Natural Nutrients. Set the meal_description dynamic value to the Input element's value. Store the result in a custom state on the page. WU economy tip: Call the Nutritionix API only when the user explicitly clicks the button — not on every keystroke. This keeps your WU consumption predictable and avoids unnecessary API calls. Wire the save workflow For the Save all to diary button, use a Create a new FoodEntry action for each food in the returned list: - food_name → Current cell's food_name - calories → Current cell's nf_calories - protein_g → Current cell's nf_protein - carbs_g → Current cell's nf_total_carbohydrate - fat_g → Current cell's nf_total_fat - entry_date → Current date/time - meal_name → Dropdown's value - user → Current User Build the diary history view Add a Repeating Group with data source: Do a search for FoodEntries with constraints user = Current User, sorted by entry_date descending. Show food_name, calories, entry_date, and meal_name in each row. If you need team review support for complex food logging workflows or nutrition analytics features in Bubble, RapidDev's team has built dozens of health and wellness Bubble apps — free scoping call at rapidevelopers.com/contact.

Before going live, verify that data is secure and both integration paths work correctly end to end. Verify Privacy rules on FoodEntry Go to Data tab → Privacy → click on FoodEntry. Confirm that the rule reads: When Current User is FoodEntry's user — all fields visible. Without this rule, any logged-in user can potentially view another user's food diary through Bubble's data API. This is a required security step, not optional. Test Path A (CSV import) Download a sample MyFitnessPal CSV export (or create a dummy CSV with the correct column names: Date, Meal, Name, Calories, Carbohydrates (g), Fat (g), Protein (g), Fiber (g)). Upload it on your import page and verify: - FoodEntry records are created for each CSV row - Each record's user field is set to the uploading user - The diary history Repeating Group shows the imported records - Logging out and logging in as a different test user shows NO records from the first user Test Path B (Nutritionix) In the Bubble editor's preview mode, go to the log-food page. Type: 1 cup brown rice with 150g grilled chicken. Click Look up nutrition — verify that Nutritionix returns foods with realistic calorie values. Click Save all to diary — verify FoodEntry records are created in the Data tab. Check the Logs tab → Workflow logs to confirm the API call succeeded and review WU consumption per call. Set expectations for CSV freshness If you have built the CSV import feature, display the import date next to each import batch so users know how current their data is. MyFitnessPal allows data export at any time — encourage users to re-export and re-upload monthly if they want updated history.