Inputting Grams when weighing food, Help!

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tjcalley
tjcalley Posts: 163 Member
I have tried searching for this answer but I cant seem to find an answer

I have been weighing all of my food (just started) and adding them to mfp in grams as I have seen suggested on the forums.

Heres my question: If I scan peanut butter (uusing the bar code) there are no options in the drop down to change to 1 gram. Ive noticed this with other foods as well. How do I change this because I cannot for the life of me figure it out.

Again I apologize if this has been asked already!

Ps. I'm terrible at math
pps..like really really bad at math
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Replies

  • avskk
    avskk Posts: 1,789 Member
    edited April 2015
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    For items like peanut butter, the jar should give you an idea -- something like "2Tbsp (30grams)" or whatever. When you weigh your peanut butter to 30 grams, then, you can log it as 2Tbsp. If you weigh it as less, say 15 grams, you log it as 1Tbsp or whatever percentage of the Tbsp measure that weight would be.

    I eat cottage cheese at 1/2cup(114grams). If I put a little scoop on a salad and it's... oh... 40 grams, I'll log it as .3 of 1/2 cup, because 40 grams is (a little more than) 1/3 of the 114 grams that makes half a cup.

    Does uh... does any of that make sense? Basically just log your foods as percentages of a serving by weight. If your peanut butter is 30 grams per 2Tbsp serving and you eat 45 grams, that would be 1.5 servings of 2Tbsp.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    You may have to do the math. Here's an example from Jif peanut butter. The label says that 2 tablespoons comes out to 32 grams. Let's say you weigh it and it is 35 grams. Divide 35 by 32. That comes to 1.09. You are going to eat 1.09 servings of Jif pb so that's the quantity number you enter. You should also be sure that the nutrition info on the Jif pb entry that you pick matches what's on your jar. There are a lot of bad entries in MFP so I always double check the protein, carbs, and fat against the label.

  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
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    Many foods won't be listed with 1 or even 100 gram options. It's going to be easiest in this case to take the number of grams you have and divide it by the number of grams in 1 serving. Then, when you scan, you can enter your result as number of servings.

    For example, if you have 15 grams of peanut butter and 1 serving is 30 grams, you had 15 divided by 30 grams of peanut butter, or 0.5 servings. You can enter this and the correct information will populate.

    Another exampe: if you have 45 grams of peanut butter and 1 servings is 30 grams, you had 45 divided 30 grams or 1.5 servings.

    The calculator is your friend!
  • tjcalley
    tjcalley Posts: 163 Member
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    I would have never thought of that! Gosh now I feel stupid!

    This all makes perfect sense. Thank you so much for the quick responses!
  • avskk
    avskk Posts: 1,789 Member
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    You're not stupid at all. You're trying to log accurately, you noticed a discrepancy, and you took action to find the information you needed. That's smart, not stupid.
  • tjcalley
    tjcalley Posts: 163 Member
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    avskk wrote: »
    You're not stupid at all. You're trying to log accurately, you noticed a discrepancy, and you took action to find the information you needed. That's smart, not stupid.

    Thank you so much! I was scared to post anything here before trying to figure it out on my own!
  • jddnw
    jddnw Posts: 319 Member
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    Seems like most foods I log have a 100g serving size option.
    10g is 0.10 servings
    30g is 0.30 servings.
    50g is 0.50 servings.
    etc.


  • Angelfire365
    Angelfire365 Posts: 803 Member
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    tjcalley wrote: »
    I would have never thought of that! Gosh now I feel stupid!

    This all makes perfect sense. Thank you so much for the quick responses!

    I never figured that out either. . . this is going to help a lot. I'm so glad you asked!
  • tjcalley
    tjcalley Posts: 163 Member
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    tjcalley wrote: »
    I would have never thought of that! Gosh now I feel stupid!

    This all makes perfect sense. Thank you so much for the quick responses!

    I never figured that out either. . . this is going to help a lot. I'm so glad you asked!

    Glad I wasnt the only one! I really want to make sure especially with peanut butter. I think that's where I am going over on my calories everyday and I don't want to cut it out completely
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    Math. I toggle between MFP and my calculator on my phone all the time! I've never used the calculator on my phone so much as when I started weighing my food. Now I use it almost daily! I've had someone comment that my serving sizes are so weird when I log like .86 cups or something. LOL! It's because I'm actually using the grams!
  • reachingforarainbow
    reachingforarainbow Posts: 224 Member
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    tjcalley wrote: »
    I have tried searching for this answer but I cant seem to find an answer

    I have been weighing all of my food (just started) and adding them to mfp in grams as I have seen suggested on the forums.

    Heres my question: If I scan peanut butter (uusing the bar code) there are no options in the drop down to change to 1 gram. Ive noticed this with other foods as well. How do I change this because I cannot for the life of me figure it out.

    Again I apologize if this has been asked already!

    Ps. I'm terrible at math
    pps..like really really bad at math

    One solution is for foods that you eat regularly, add your own foods to the data base with grams as the unit of measurement (and add all information as shown on the label). This is a bit time consuming but will be worth it for things you regularly eat
  • Virkati
    Virkati Posts: 679 Member
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    I do grams because I caught myself *cheating* with ounces...I would add juuuuust enough to keep it at the number I wanted, but if breathed on it, it would bump it up to the next ounce. Grams...MUCH harder to cheat.
  • bennettinfinity
    bennettinfinity Posts: 865 Member
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    avskk wrote: »
    You're not stupid at all. You're trying to log accurately, you noticed a discrepancy, and you took action to find the information you needed. That's smart, not stupid.

    Provided good information and was nice to boot... are you sure you belong on MFP? ;)
  • tjcalley
    tjcalley Posts: 163 Member
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    tjcalley wrote: »
    I have tried searching for this answer but I cant seem to find an answer

    I have been weighing all of my food (just started) and adding them to mfp in grams as I have seen suggested on the forums.

    Heres my question: If I scan peanut butter (uusing the bar code) there are no options in the drop down to change to 1 gram. Ive noticed this with other foods as well. How do I change this because I cannot for the life of me figure it out.

    Again I apologize if this has been asked already!

    Ps. I'm terrible at math
    pps..like really really bad at math

    One solution is for foods that you eat regularly, add your own foods to the data base with grams as the unit of measurement (and add all information as shown on the label). This is a bit time consuming but will be worth it for things you regularly eat

    I tried doing this the other day and got frustrated pretty quickly. I was at work while doing it so that could be why I wasn't able to figure it out. I inputted everything and then it still didnt give me the option to choose 1 gram. I might have to take some time tonight after work to really go through it
  • EmmaFitzwilliam
    EmmaFitzwilliam Posts: 482 Member
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    I use grams because it's easier for me to zero out the scale with the dish on it then add 130g of pudding, than to use a half cup scoop to measure a half cup - and then lose at least a whole gram of pudding to the cup. :)
  • Virkati
    Virkati Posts: 679 Member
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    I use grams because it's easier for me to zero out the scale with the dish on it then add 130g of pudding, than to use a half cup scoop to measure a half cup - and then lose at least a whole gram of pudding to the cup. :)

    ^^^This lol
  • tjcalley
    tjcalley Posts: 163 Member
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    Virkati wrote: »
    I use grams because it's easier for me to zero out the scale with the dish on it then add 130g of pudding, than to use a half cup scoop to measure a half cup - and then lose at least a whole gram of pudding to the cup. :)

    ^^^This lol

    The scale I have does not have the option for grams. So right now I am weighing the dish (which I should just zero out like you mentioned) and then adding the food then subtracting the weight of the dish and then converting from ounces to grams. It's a hassle...especially at work when everyone is looking at you like your a crazy person :neutral:
  • shellyb17
    shellyb17 Posts: 144 Member
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    Thanks for this quick lesson, I've always struggled with calculating the grams too. Makes total sense.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    jddnw wrote: »
    Seems like most foods I log have a 100g serving size option.
    10g is 0.10 servings
    30g is 0.30 servings.
    50g is 0.50 servings.
    etc.


    Most manufactured foods (i.e. not fruits/vegetables/meats) don't come that way here in the US, though
    Math. I toggle between MFP and my calculator on my phone all the time! I've never used the calculator on my phone so much as when I started weighing my food. Now I use it almost daily! I've had someone comment that my serving sizes are so weird when I log like .86 cups or something. LOL! It's because I'm actually using the grams!

    Me too. I was going to start using gram entries for everything a few weeks back, but then I decided I was too lazy to reenter every item I eat that I couldn't find the gram entry for.
  • ForeverSunshine09
    ForeverSunshine09 Posts: 966 Member
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    Math. I toggle between MFP and my calculator on my phone all the time! I've never used the calculator on my phone so much as when I started weighing my food. Now I use it almost daily! I've had someone comment that my serving sizes are so weird when I log like .86 cups or something. LOL! It's because I'm actually using the grams!

    That is me especially if I am building a recipe but, I also have memo open to keep track of what serving size is grams or ml wise and then how much I actually used. It is a very crowded screen at dinner time. Haha!