The App That Changed Nutrition Tracking - and the Company That Kept Selling It
When Mike Lee and Albert Lee launched MyFitnessPal in 2005, they built something genuinely new: a large, crowdsourced food database that made calorie tracking practical for everyday people. By 2015, over 80 million users were logging meals, and the app had become the default nutrition tracker for a generation of fitness enthusiasts.
Then came the acquisitions - and with each one, the app's direction shifted in ways that users noticed.
Under Armour Buys In: 2015
In February 2015, Under Armour acquired MyFitnessPal for approximately $475 million - one of the largest fitness app acquisitions at the time. The vision was ambitious: combine MFP's food database with Endomondo (a GPS fitness tracker Under Armour had also acquired) and MapMyFitness to build the world's largest digital health platform, Under Armour Connected Fitness.
For a few years, the investment seemed to be paying off. MFP added premium features, improved its interface, and expanded its food database. But the larger Under Armour strategy struggled. The company's core apparel business hit headwinds, and the Connected Fitness division never turned a meaningful profit. By 2017, Under Armour had written down the value of its digital health acquisitions significantly.
For users, this era brought both improvements and early signs of what was to come: a 2018 data breach exposing approximately 150 million accounts - one of the largest in consumer app history - underscored the risks of consolidating health data under a company whose core business was athletic wear.
Francisco Partners Takes Over: 2020
In 2020, Under Armour sold MyFitnessPal to Francisco Partners, a private equity firm, for a reported $345 million - roughly $130 million less than the original purchase price. The transaction was framed as Under Armour refocusing on its core business.
Private equity ownership brings different incentives than strategic acquisition. Where Under Armour wanted MFP as part of a connected health ecosystem, Francisco Partners' goal is financial return - either through improved profitability, a future sale, or an IPO. That typically means cost reduction, monetization optimization, and maintaining the user base with limited new investment in core features.
Users noticed. The free tier became more restrictive. Ads became more prominent. Premium pricing increased. Feature development slowed relative to newer competitors entering the space with AI-native architectures.
2025-2026: Francisco Partners Doubles Down on AI
After years of cost-cutting and free-tier restrictions, Francisco Partners shifted strategy in 2025. MFP acquired Intent, a meal planning startup, integrating its recipe and grocery list features into the platform. In January 2026, MFP launched a ChatGPT Health integration, allowing users to ask conversational questions about their nutrition data.
The biggest move came in March 2026: MyFitnessPal acquired Cal AI, the viral photo food logging app that had popularized AI-based calorie estimation. The acquisition signals that MFP is trying to modernize its core experience with AI rather than relying solely on its legacy database. Whether this investment results in a meaningfully better product or simply consolidates competitors remains to be seen.
For users, these moves are cautiously positive. Active investment in the product is better than the maintenance-mode trajectory of 2021-2024. But the underlying ownership structure hasn't changed - Francisco Partners is still a PE firm, and these acquisitions may be positioning MFP for a future sale or IPO rather than a long-term commitment to the product.
What This Means for Your Health Data
Every acquisition raises a legitimate question: what happens to your data when the ownership changes? In MFP's case, your years of food logs, weight history, macro targets, and eating patterns have transferred between corporate owners twice - each with their own privacy policies, data practices, and commercial incentives.
Key considerations for current MFP users:
- Data portability: You can export your MFP data at any time. If you're concerned about ownership changes, do this regularly and store it somewhere you control.
- Privacy policy changes: Each ownership transition typically comes with updated privacy terms. Review them carefully, particularly around third-party data sharing.
- Feature trajectory: Private equity ownership prioritizes profitability over feature development. Expect continued pressure on the free tier and premium pricing.
- The 2018 breach: If you used MFP before 2018, your username, email address, and hashed password were exposed. If you reused that password anywhere, change it.
The Broader Pattern: What Happens When Fitness Apps Get Acquired
MFP's story isn't unique. The fitness app industry has seen a wave of acquisitions - many following the same pattern. A beloved, user-focused product gets acquired by a larger company or PE firm. Initial investment follows. Then monetization pressure sets in, free features get restricted, and the product gradually drifts from the mission that made it popular.
This pattern reflects a structural tension: consumer health apps generate enormous amounts of valuable behavioral data, but turning that data into sustainable revenue is hard without either compromising user privacy or charging premium prices most users won't pay.
The apps that avoid this fate tend to be ones built from the ground up around a clear monetization model - typically a straightforward subscription - rather than ones trying to retrofit a revenue strategy onto a free-to-use product with massive user scale.
Alternatives Worth Considering in 2026
If MFP's ownership history gives you pause, several alternatives have emerged that offer comparable or superior nutrition tracking without the acquisition baggage:
- Cronometer: Best-in-class micronutrient tracking with 84+ nutrients. Independently operated with a transparent Gold subscription model.
- MacroFactor: AI-adaptive macro coaching based on your actual energy expenditure. Built by exercise scientists with strong privacy practices.
- Vora: AI photo food logging that eliminates manual database entry, with nutrition tracking embedded in full health coaching - workouts, recovery, sleep, and meditation in one platform.
Whatever tool you choose, the lesson from MFP's journey is worth internalizing: the app you trust with years of your health data should be one with a sustainable business model and clear privacy commitments - not one whose ownership trajectory is uncertain.