Tracking is a Pain in the @$$

artsycella

Okay, it's rant time. For those of us who stay away from packaged foods and make a variety of recipes, tracking on MFP is a total pain in the butt! Entering the whole recipe (and remembering what you put in it) every time you make dinner? Especially if I measured in cups and whoever else measured in grams, or vice versa? Blergh. Okay, I'm done now.

Couldn't agree more, along with the other folks on this thread who have pointed out how hard it can be to find whole raw ingredients. I use the Recipe calculator, and I track everything, and I am glad of the tool, but I do cook something new almost every night and it usually takes me an hour or two on the weekend to put together all of my recipes for the week in MFP. It would be so helpful if searching for something (like a potato) first brought up the raw item with all of the different measurements, before having to hunt through all of the frozen prepared potato dishes.

It would also be great if it were easier to adjust a recipe through the app and on the fly as you change things up. Even in a Recipe created within the Recipes tab, you can't adjust the amount of an ingredient, only add a new one and delete the old one. Could be a lot easier.

laserturkey

I think the recipe builder on the site is marvelous, and very convenient. Sure, I'd like to be able to make adjustments to ingredient quantities without deleting and re-finding the ingredients, but other than that, it's very helpful.

Diamond05

I am curious why it is so hard in MFP to find raw, whole food. Like potato, put that in and you have to search for potato. Same with pineapple of other fruits, etc. The whole, raw version of the food should be the first thing that comes up, not a bunch of other crap that might have a potato in it. /rant

Totally wonder the same thing!


I also think tracking is a pain in the *kitten*! Since February I'm back and haven't been counting my calories except for the past week because my knee hurts and haven't exercised so I want to make sure I'm on track....

Yes the recipe calculator comes in handy but I've been cooking a different recipe everyday to keep things interesting...so yeah Eben with that, it is work and time comsuming. I wish we could scan everything lol

Contrarian

http://first-world-problems.com/

savithny

I have a CSA and buy most of my meat from the farmers market. Which means I cook by the seat of my pants a lot and the same recipe is never exactly the same.

My diary is full of random branded foods because I have no Idea why my favorite small farmers "hot italian chicken sausage" actually counts as.

With home cooked meals from whole foods, I will look at what used for dinner for the four of us and divide by four and put that in my journal. But a l lot of things are approximations. I try to be really conservative and go for the larger calories if there are multiple versions of something I'm looking for an equivalent for.

Ang108

I am curious why it is so hard in MFP to find raw, whole food. Like potato, put that in and you have to search for potato. Same with pineapple of other fruits, etc. The whole, raw version of the food should be the first thing that comes up, not a bunch of other crap that might have a potato in it. /rant

I am not sure what your needs are, but I just checked under " potatoes " ( and not " potato " )and there were 25 options of steamed, boiled and baked yellow, red and normal potatoes. I did not bother to count the scalloped, mashed, triple fried or otherwise prepared ones. I do find 25 options quite a lot.

Diamond05

I am curious why it is so hard in MFP to find raw, whole food. Like potato, put that in and you have to search for potato. Same with pineapple of other fruits, etc. The whole, raw version of the food should be the first thing that comes up, not a bunch of other crap that might have a potato in it. /rant

Agree! And why are there 50 different entries for a potato? 1 for 50g, one for 75g, one for a cup, another for half a cup, yet another for a slice, etc etc etc. I'd love them all to be in one place called raw potato.

joining in the rant! this is my 1st one yall. lol.
I agree w/ this ranting here - which goes with kinda the op rant.
that's the one off-putting thing of the website - is that there are 50 different versions of the ONE thing i need to register. pineapple, potatoes, etc.
or even for the fast food listings - there are at least 7 different zaxby's fries on the list...different grams...different oz...etc. how does this data base get 'made' anyways?

arrrrg!

okay rant over lol

Adding raw helps. Like if I was going to put in an egg, I'd search for "whole egg, raw." Choose the one with no asterisk that has options for cups and grams. That's the one that is not user entered and has been checked against the USDA database.

Good to know. Thanks!

meshashesha2012

I am curious why it is so hard in MFP to find raw, whole food. Like potato, put that in and you have to search for potato. Same with pineapple of other fruits, etc. The whole, raw version of the food should be the first thing that comes up, not a bunch of other crap that might have a potato in it. /rant

Agree! And why are there 50 different entries for a potato? 1 for 50g, one for 75g, one for a cup, another for half a cup, yet another for a slice, etc etc etc. I'd love them all to be in one place called raw potato.

joining in the rant! this is my 1st one yall. lol.
I agree w/ this ranting here - which goes with kinda the op rant.
that's the one off-putting thing of the website - is that there are 50 different versions of the ONE thing i need to register. pineapple, potatoes, etc.
or even for the fast food listings - there are at least 7 different zaxby's fries on the list...different grams...different oz...etc. how does this data base get 'made' anyways?

arrrrg!

okay rant over lol

Look for the entries with out asterisks. These are USDA values I believe. Problem solved.

i just want to motorboat your bacon avatar right now!

salladeve

I really like the tracking, it helps me a lot to know exactly what I'm eating. Then I have the recipe logged so if I make the same dish again it is already in there.

LorinaLynn

I don't often use the recipe builder, because I don't always make things the exact same way. For those recipes I do have saved, and might make a little different each time, I just figure, "Eh, close enough."

Mostly, I just have the raw ingredients saved on my diary, so it's just a matter of going through the checklist. Easy peasy.

Kacey11312

I really like the tracking, it helps me a lot to know exactly what I'm eating. Then I have the recipe logged so if I make the same dish again it is already in there.

And here I thought I was just about alone, I love tracking. It really helps me to see what's going into my body and how I can adjust amounts to feel better about my decisions. I use the recipe builder everyday because I love to cook and I do NOT trust my judgement when it comes to calories. I'd rather know the exact amount and eat less than to just guess and be SO far off and back track.

BrainyBurro

Okay, it's rant time. For those of us who stay away from packaged foods and make a variety of recipes, tracking on MFP is a total pain in the butt! Entering the whole recipe (and remembering what you put in it) every time you make dinner? Especially if I measured in cups and whoever else measured in grams, or vice versa? Blergh. Okay, I'm done now.

maybe you should go back to eating packaged foods. they are easier to log.

maybeazure

That is the downside of letting people enter their own foods. The upside is that most stuff is there already. I agree though that the raw, plain food should be listed first when you are sorting by relevance. I wonder if anyone has made that a feature request.