Calories and Macros aren't adding up -- what do I do to correct it?

DeWoSa

Hi everyone.

I hope this is the right forum.

I have a goal of 1410 calories a day, and when I multiply my carbs by 4, my fats by 9, and my protein by 4, I get 1411, so my calories and my macros are equal at the start of the day.

However, today's food diary says I have 90 calories left, but it also says I have still have 29 carbs, 7 fat, and 3 protein left.

All calories and macros in today's food diary is either from the package label or the restaurant website.

Does any one know why I would have 90 calories left when I should have 191 calories left?

I'm down 17 pounds, so clearly I'm eating at a deficit, but I want to get better at hitting my macros every day, so if there's something I'm not understanding, I'd like to learn.

Thank you very much!

ValerieMartini2Olives

Most calories are rounded up. 1g of fat is 9 cal but is rounded to 10

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

gmallan

One of the foods you logged might have incorrect macros. There's also the fourth macro that doesn't get mentioned much on here - alcohol. Did you have anything to drink?

Susieq_1994

As Zach said, make sure that all of the foods you're logging have complete macros, otherwise it won't add up. If foods have incomplete macros, I'll either fix them or find another entry, but I always double check.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

DeWoSa

Very good! Thank you all!

DeWoSa

gmallan wrote: »

One of the foods you logged might have incorrect macros. There's also the fourth macro that doesn't get mentioned much on here - alcohol. Did you have anything to drink?

Yes, I had 10 oz of Prosecco, which appears to be the culprit; not enough carbs in the database macro.

What do you mean by a fourth macro, alcohol? Isn't alcohol a carb?

Thanks!

_Terrapin_

zachbonner wrote: »

check all your foods, for example

Prosecco Sparkling Wine, 10 oz 100 cals 2carb???? 0 fat 0 protein

2 carbs is 8 calories, should show 25 carbs, someone who entered it into the database did it incorrectly

Now there is a smart Lad.

FromHereOnOut

Alcohol must be burnt (not stored) and is therefore burnt preferentially. But food eaten with alcohol most likely will be stored, because the body is being fueled by alcohol. That's always been my understanding of it.

Usually a bad entry is the culprit and some quick math should been done when selecting an entry for the first time. It also helps th database if you correct such errors and typos

DeWoSa

Well this sucks. Google search term "Prosecco nutritional information" and "Prosecco calories" gives me several seemingly crappy sources (happywinebar blog, Glamour magazine, Shape magazine, Livestrong) and they all have conflicting information.

I'm now on the Cavit website, and their Prosecco has 110 calories, 2.1 carbs per 5 oz serving.

The Livestrong website has a lovely article about Prosecco but different numbers, esp the carbs -- 5 grams per 5 oz serving instead of 2.1 grams

The Olive Garden website, where I had dinner, has a great nutritional chart, but they have 2 entries for sparkling wine: a glass and a bottle.

I had a 10 oz bottle that filled up the champagne flute 1.25 times.

I can't tell if that counts as a glass (130 cal with 8 carbs) or a bottle (550 with 35 carbs). They don't give any serving size measurements on the chart.

If it's a glass, 10 oz should be more in the 220 calories range. If it's a bottle, 550 seems far too many calories.

I don't mean to be obsessing about what is essentially a trivial thing, but at some point I'm going to be a lot closer to my goal weight and every calories and macro gram is going to count. I'd like to learn now so I can be prepared then.

Thanks!

*** eta: Probably I should get the name of the Prosecco vineyard and go directly to their website. le sigh.

FromHereOnOut

Your ten oz bottle was two glasses. Use the restaurants chart looks logged as two glasses. But your cal/macro will still be off because a macro is missing, alcohol which is seven cals per gram. The other three macros will be right, but won't add up to the total calories because of the missing macro accounting for the remaining cals.

JoRocka

gmallan wrote: »

One of the foods you logged might have incorrect macros. There's also the fourth macro that doesn't get mentioned much on here - alcohol. Did you have anything to drink?

You.
I like you

lemurcat12

If you log alcohol, your macros and calories won't add up, because alcohol isn't a fat, carb, or protein, although wine will have some carbs too.

Also, because of rounding they just don't add up. Mine never do, and the majority of the problem comes from the USDA entries, which is the majority of what I log. For example, I logged .2 tbsp. of coconut oil. That's 3 grams of fat, due to rounding, but only 23 calories, not the 27 you'd expect if it really was three full grams of fat.

Ultimately, it's no big deal--I focus on calories and try to keep my macros in the ballpark. I care most about protein, but my current protein goal (because of my own preference to round the percentages) comes to 120 grams, when I really just want it to be at least 105. I tend to eat well when I keep protein at about 30% (when at my current level of calories or a bit higher which I was doing for a while), so I aim for 120 (or really just think in terms of including a certain amount of protein-containing food at each meal, along with some fat and carbs), but I see no need to get it exactly there every day.

DeWoSa

^^^ good to know! Thanks!

erialcelyob

That was awfully confusing for me to read, I hope I understand one day :P

The_Enginerd

community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10025962/calories-and-macros-not-adding-up-heres-probably-why#latest

The_Enginerd

zachbonner wrote: »

check all your foods, for example

Prosecco Sparkling Wine, 10 oz 100 cals 2carb???? 0 fat 0 protein

2 carbs is 8 calories, should show 25 carbs, someone who entered it into the database did it incorrectly

Nope, it's just that alcohol is tragically not included as one of the macros on this site.

Francl27

The macro values are rounded up. So if you have several things with 3.5 or 4.5g of fat or something, it will correct it to 4 and 5, which will mess up your values.

Plus fiber is counted in carbs, but has no calories.

DeWoSa

Thank you! Excellent information have.