Calories

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why do the calories that are listed vary so much? Example two scrambled eggs listed from 140 to 240?

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  • monty619
    monty619 Posts: 1,308 Member
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    two eggs are 140.. people input their own foods into the bank of foods you have to be careful. just scan the items barcode
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
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    It would depend on what goes into the scrambled eggs. My scrambled eggs consist of:

    Eggs, whole, raw - 110 g
    Milk, 2% - .125 cup
    Publix shredded sharp cheddar cheese - 14 g

    Which altogether works out to be about 200 cals. Best bet is to enter each ingredient individually for your scrambled eggs.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    Just log each ingredient separately to actually get something accurate.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    Weigh your eggs and find the appropriate entry. Two eggs at 50 grams is typically 140 calories. If you cooked them with olive oil, add that as well.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Because people input their own entries and are wrong.
  • JPW1990
    JPW1990 Posts: 2,424 Member
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    Anything you look up in the database with an * in front, assume it's wrong until you independently confirm it yourself, either from the food label in your own kitchen, or the company/USDA website. For packaged food, even if it's something that has a bunch of other users' confirmation, it doesn't mean the info hasn't changed since it was first entered.
  • CooCooPuff
    CooCooPuff Posts: 4,374 Member
    edited February 2015
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    If the food isn't processed, I'd recommend looking for entries without the asterisk *. Those are official MFP entries.

    If the food is processed and I have to rely on user entries, I like looking up the nutritional information on Wal Marts website to make sure it's accurate. You can also check if something is on Calorieking as I don't believe it has user entries.
  • juliet3455
    juliet3455 Posts: 3,015 Member
    edited February 2015
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    I was using MFP for a good 6 months before I found these posts so it is a bit of a personal mission of mine to pass them on to other people who are just starting.

    My standard suggestion/tip is to do some reading and buy a kitchen scale!!!

    @ arditarose and @ blankiefinder‌ Nailed it when it comes to Logging accurately and selecting food using the search feature.
    arditarose wrote: »
    Weigh your eggs and find the appropriate entry. Two eggs at 50 grams is typically 140 calories. If you cooked them with olive oil, add that as well.
    if I haven't found an entry that lists the grams, I keep looking for a different entry. This [ Enter Food ] item is already listed a bunch of times. Better to edit and correct one that is already there than add to the database mess that exists now. :)

    When creating or editing a Food item from the existing database my Personal Bias is to Edit an existing Entry and enter the nutritional values based on grams ( 100 gm ) as it makes the portion size math easy. Especially when you use a scale and WEIGH EVERYTHING. Don't log 2 eggs as it is a subjective number, where 50 gm. is very concise.
    Re-train/calibrate your mind as to what a portion size is..
    You will be surprised how small some portions look when you start to weigh them out. The average cereal bowl I have in my kitchen will hold 2-6 portions.

    For Nutritional values start with the values from the product label and confirm it with the un-biased nutritional information from the USDA web site at 100 gm.

    Try the USDA site as a cross reference for nutrition values of different food diary entries.
    http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/

    http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/the-next-step/

    Visit the Eat-Train-Progress group and read the pinned topics. If you click on the little STAR you can bookmark the topic for future reference.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/10118-eat-train-progress

    Read the information at these MFP post. They have links to multiple very good reads.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/833026/important-posts-to-read/p1

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/getting-started

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1069278/acronyms-and-terms-for-new-mfp-members-v-6/p1

    Visit these links about building Habits.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/ihad/view/the-power-of-habit-part-4-making-good-habits-stick-1-000-days-on-mfp-and-counting-698617

    Some of these links will show up in the other Groups and discussions.
    There are lots of other good groups and discussions with really good information and some with a more Social aspect.
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
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    What? Where are the *s? I don't think I have ever seen on and also if I did see one I didn't know that no * meant it was a my fitness pal entry.
  • JPW1990
    JPW1990 Posts: 2,424 Member
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    Merkavar wrote: »
    What? Where are the *s? I don't think I have ever seen on and also if I did see one I didn't know that no * meant it was a my fitness pal entry.

    Go to the database and look up something like poptarts or doritos. You'll see an asterisk before the first letter of every food on the list. When you look up something like tomato or chicken breast, there should be at least one entry without one, that's official from MFP via the USDA site or similar, and a bunch of others entered by users that start with the asterisk.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Merkavar wrote: »
    What? Where are the *s? I don't think I have ever seen on and also if I did see one I didn't know that no * meant it was a my fitness pal entry.

    You're using the app then, on the PC version there are stars

    Scrambled eggs is a recipe ...build your own