Checking the set level of vitamin A in Myfitness pal

antobbo
antobbo Posts: 7 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello guys, can anybody please tell me how I check the daily value of Vitamin A set for me in myfitness pal? Currently when I do my daily food diary and add any type of food I can only see it expressed in percentage, say x% of my daily intake of vitamin A, but what's that daily intake? How do I check it please?
thanks

Replies

  • kayeiam
    kayeiam Posts: 215 Member
    well if you go under goals and change goals, then custom goals, it will show you the Vitamin A but it isi n %'s. If you click reports at the top, then scroll down to vitamin A, it will show you numbers. Hope this helps you
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
    MFP is not an accurate way to monitor your vitamin intake as they are not required by law in most countries to be listed on packaging and a large proportion of the database entries will not include the vitamin content
  • antobbo
    antobbo Posts: 7 Member
    Hi, yes I tried under report already, but that is still %, in that the number are still in %.
    @_Zardoz_ (great name by the way!) I know that, I don't really want it to monitor it closely, I just would like to know what my profile is using as daily intake value
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    From the US Department of Agriculture and Nutrition.gov websites...

    nal.usda.gov/fnic/DRI/DRI_Tables/RDA_AI_vitamins_elements.pdf

    nutrition.gov/smart-nutrition-101/dietary-reference-intakes-rdas
  • antobbo
    antobbo Posts: 7 Member
    HI thanks, yes I am aware of the limits and daily intake, I just wanted to know what that limit is in fitness pal: is that the same as what's found here http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/DRI/DRI_Tables/RDA_AI_vitamins_elements.pdf?
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    Vitamin A is one of those complicated vitamins, because it depends on whether the source is from retinol from foods or whether the source is from alpha- or beta-carotene from either supplements or foods. My 100% goal in MFP tracks with the 5000 IU (International Unit) recommended dietary allowance (RDA). A good explanation of this can be found here at ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/.
  • antobbo
    antobbo Posts: 7 Member
    Cool, quick quesiton, how do you know that your goal is 5000IU? Where did you get that value from inside MFP?
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    antobbo wrote: »
    Cool, quick quesiton, how do you know that your goal is 5000IU? Where did you get that value from inside MFP?

    There is no direct way, but I presumed based on the logging of my multivitamin, so this is anecdotal. I take and log a multivitamin that lists 2500 IU of vitamin A as 50% of RDA for a 2000 Calories per day diet - I am set at 2040 per day, which is close. The multivitamin A percentage logs as 50% in my Food Diary, which tracks with the recommended total of 5000 IU for a 2000 Calories per day diet. I also tried checking with the USDA Foods List entry for carrots, which is very high in vitamin A, but it was very confusing trying to convert from micrograms per deciliter to IUs, but my calculations were "in the ballpark" at least.
  • antobbo
    antobbo Posts: 7 Member
    OK thanks. Seems odd that there isn't any easy way MFP allows users to check these sort of things
  • chuckbernard54
    chuckbernard54 Posts: 12 Member
    Yes, MyFitnessPal shows me as 953% over on vitamin a today. Should I be concerned? I googled Vitamin A and they said only be concerned if you’re over 10000 mcg.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited February 2020
    chuckbernard54 wrote: »
    Yes, MyFitnessPal shows me as 953% over on vitamin a today. Should I be concerned? I googled Vitamin A and they said only be concerned if you’re over 10000 mcg.

    953% is how many mcg? Looks like these are the upper limits:

    https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-a#toxicity-and-dosage

    The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for vitamin A is 900 mcg and 700 mcg per day for men and women, respectively — which can be easily reached by following a whole-foods diet (27).

    However, it's important not to exceed the tolerable upper limit (UL) of 10,000 IU (3,000 mcg) for adults to prevent toxicity (27).

    Though it’s possible to consume excessive preformed vitamin A through animal-based sources like liver, toxicity is most commonly linked to excessive supplement intake and treatment with certain medications, such as Isotretinoin

    *************

    Are you getting the vitamin A through diet only, or supplements as well?

    Since the MFP database has a lot of user-created entries, do verify the entries to make sure people entered the right values for A.

    I'm anemic, and notice people often mistakenly put the value in grams for iron when they should be putting the percent, giving a value much lower than it should be.
  • Maxxitt
    Maxxitt Posts: 1,281 Member
    chuckbernard54 wrote: »
    Yes, MyFitnessPal shows me as 953% over on vitamin a today. Should I be concerned? I googled Vitamin A and they said only be concerned if you’re over 10000 mcg.

    If that comes from food, no worries at all.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,218 Member
    Two things that might be useful for some of the questions above:

    1. USDA dietary reference calculator, which will tell you the USDA recommendations for many nutrients based on your age, size, etc.

    https://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/dri-calculator/

    (Personally, I think their protein recommendation is lower than optimal, based on recent research, for reasons described in this research review by a source most people consider neutral and evidence-based: https://examine.com/nutrition/how-much-protein-do-you-need/ . YMMV.)

    3. USDA information (for professionals, but easily understandable by consumers) regarding vitamin A intakes, risks, sources, etc.

    https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited February 2020
    Maxxitt wrote: »
    chuckbernard54 wrote: »
    Yes, MyFitnessPal shows me as 953% over on vitamin a today. Should I be concerned? I googled Vitamin A and they said only be concerned if you’re over 10000 mcg.

    If that comes from food, no worries at all.

    Unless it's something like seal or polar bear liver (which I'm assuming it is not).

    In theory eating a lot of other animal foods with lots of A (like liver in general) could be an issue, but it's unlikely if one is eating normal amounts.

    Here's more information: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamin-a/

    Since A is pretty easy to get plenty of in food, I'd personally not supplement it, but I wouldn't worry about dietary A unless you eat lots of animal sources of A, as noted above.
  • chuckbernard54
    chuckbernard54 Posts: 12 Member
    I have to make sure I undestand this. So it is only disturbing if is animal fat? I have had a plant based diet since 2003.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    Vitamin A from vegetables isn't really A, it's carotenoids which the body can convert into A as needed. Any excess just doesn't get converted.

    The only way to OD on A is to get it from animal sources, where it has already been converted, or supplements. It's quite unusual to OD from dietary sources anyway, but is possible, and would happen if one were to eat some sources that are very high in it (like seal or polar bear liver, but obviously no one here is going to be eating those anyway). Beef liver is high-ish in it, but you'd have to eat an unusual amount to worry.

    If you are just getting it from plant sources (and NOT supplements), no worries. If you eat lots of produce I think it's quite common to have high amounts of it (but since your body will convert it as needed that's not a worry).
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,218 Member
    chuckbernard54 wrote: »
    I have to make sure I undestand this. So it is only disturbing if is animal fat? I have had a plant based diet since 2003.

    As Lemurcat has described, as long as your only sources are non-fortified plant foods, your only risk from overdosing on vitamin A (beta carotene form) is that at an extreme you might turn orange.

    Really. Not making it up. ;)
  • areality41
    areality41 Posts: 1 Member
    As Lemurcat has described, as long as your only sources are non-fortified plant foods, your only risk from overdosing on vitamin A (beta carotene form) is that at an extreme you might turn orange.

    So is that Trump's excuse? lol
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 7,080 Member
    chuckbernard54 wrote: »
    Yes, MyFitnessPal shows me as 953% over on vitamin a today. Should I be concerned? I googled Vitamin A and they said only be concerned if you’re over 10000 mcg.

    Glad you asked this, I'm usually 500-1000%, a huge lunch salad and veggies for dinner usually get me up there, especially on days I eat a bunch of butternut squash. The answers are reassuring!
  • rajikaurbajna
    rajikaurbajna Posts: 21 Member
    Does anyone know If my Vitamin A shows 900% in mfp, how many mcg it is? I take centrum multivitamins also which provides Vitamin A 1,050 mcg (29% as Beta-Carotene) 117%. Can anyone help here please. I recently started taking supplements and mfp ones comes from vegetables.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    The RDA for A is apparently 900 ug (micrograms) for men and 700 for women, and usually they use the higher (I know they do for iron, which is much higher for pre menopausal women than men/older women).

    If so, 900% of 900=8100.

    I find A something unnecessary to supplement, although you can't OD on the amount from vegetables (from meat or from supplements, yes, if you took too many or ate some polar bear liver).

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