Hello

rightsensible

My name is Victoria, and I'm just trying to figure out how to use this thing, and then hopefully lose weight.

juliet3455

Welcome to the MFP Gang.
I have posted this before, it is a bit of a compilation of multiple different posts. The links included at the bottom are great reads. I was using MFP for at least 6 months before I stumbled across them so it is a personal goal to pass them onto newer users.

The first thing you need is to buy a small kitchen food scale - that can weigh in grams.

Personally I Never select Homemade or Generic from the list of items in the Food Database.

rabbitjb wrote: »

There are always a range of choices and one inevitably has by weight

If I can't find an existing Food Database entry in grams I pick one that has Nutritional Values closest to the food based on Manufacture Label - cross referenced to un-biased nutritional information from the USDA web site at and then edit it by adding a 100 gram reference and confirm the nutritional values based on Manufacture Label again cross referenced to USDA database ( MFP seems to automatically add a 1 gm value in the database). HINT if 2000 people have confirmed the nutritional value of an item it's a good choice, if 4 people have its questionable.

http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search

blankiefinder and ‌arditarose Nailed it when it comes to Logging accurately and selecting food using the search feature.

blankiefinder wrote: »

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.

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.

Don't log 2 eggs as it is a subjective number, where 50 gm. is very concise.

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/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/872212/youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1

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

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

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/31633130#Comment_31633130