Track Micronutrients

PrettyMeAgain

I'm new here and appreciate the ease of tracking macronutrients that this app provides. I'm concerned, however, with micronutrients -- amino acids, vitamins, minerals. How does one track that here? I thought I'd get that data when I paid for the service but I'm not finding it. All help is appreciated. Thank you.

Upstate_Dunadan

I don't look at them myself. I focus on calories and macros only.

Protein, Fat, and then Carbs.

sixxpoint

Just focus on hitting your macronutrients through a varied diet of primarily whole, unprocessed foods.

ndj1979

on the phone app it breaks down a few like potassium, vitamin A, C, and I think D, as well as Iron ....so you can see if you are meeting those; chances are if you are hitting those, you are hitting your others as well.

Upstate_Dunadan

This of course assumes all the food entries have accurate micros. I know the macros are all over the place, so unless you're entering all your own food, I'm not sure how much faith I'd put in the micros. All conjecture on my part, again, since I don't look at them.

PrettyMeAgain

I think it's fine that most of you are not interested in the micronutrients. That doesn't mean I'm not. If I weren't interested, I wouldn't have expressed concern in the first place. Good luck to you but I'm doing something different than you are.

ndj1979, thank you for the tip about the phone app. I agree with you about how getting enough potassium, vitamins A, C, etc., probably covers all the bases I'm concerned about. I'll certainly check the phone app out.

allyphoe

FitDay has much, much better micro tracking. Their database is not as good, though - I was adding custom foods all the time, whereas I've never needed to add anything, no matter how obscure, to MFP.

PrettyMeAgain

Thanks, allyphoe, for the recommendation. I'll check it out. I was using NutritionData but it seems to have become a rather unstable website in recent months. I don't mind adding custom foods but they weren't always there when I went back to use them again. I also like the way that website measures foods in ways that relate better to the kitchen -- cups, tablespoons, each, etc. -- instead of in grams. I'm not going to measure everything by the gram but I can see as I'm cooking or eating that I've got a whole one of these and a half of that. Makes more functional sense to me. Maybe FitDay is similar. Thanks again!!

intangiblemango

The computer version has potassium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, and calcium also. You can change which nutrients you track (you can look at my food diary as an example of what this looks like if you like; it's open) or you can go to "reports" and select one to look at a graph of how those micros have looked for the last 7, 30, or 60 days.

PrettyMeAgain

Thank you for that, intangiblema... I thought I explored all options but I sure missed that.

MakePeasNotWar

The main issue is that most entries don't contain more than a few micronutrients, and all but a few packaged food wouldn't have more than vitamins C and A, plus calcium and iron.

It would be great to track Vit K, selenium, etc., but unless you eat exclusively whole foods from the USDA database, you are unlikely to be able to determine your true intake.

charliebunnie

I need to track my potassium and am finding out that the tracker is very inaccurate. I entered oranges and celery only to find that myfittnesspal doesn't enter any potassium for those foods. I know they contain a moderate amt. of potassium. I'm currently searching for another site that is true to it's nutrient tracking. Any ideas?
Charlie

CyberTone

The vast majority of food items are user-entered from the information found on the US FDA Nutrition Facts label (or other labels for international users). The MFP Food Database is based on the US FDA Nutrition Facts label, so the only nutrients you will find are those that can be entered in the create food workflow (see screen capture). Not every label contains all of the information, and not every user enters the information accurately. Note that only Calories is required to create and save a new food item, so every other nutrient may or may not have been added by a user when the food item was created.
Check all food items for complete and accurate information; if it does not have that information, you can either find another item, edit the item, or create a personal My Food item.

lemurcat12

As others have said the reports tab is how you see it, or change up the particular micros you track until you are comfortable you are getting enough.

However, it's not going to work unless you are careful to use entries that track the particular micros you are interested in or input your own. I find trying to monitor precisely something like Vitamin A to be difficult (and I even use a lot of the non asterisk entries that MFP put in from the USDA that tend to have that information). Thus, beyond a few things I just focus on eating well, lots of veggies, etc. and trust that a good diverse diet will cover me.

PrettyMeAgain

Thank you all for your input but most of it misses the mark. I have studied nutrition all my life, worked as a professional chef cooking healthy foods, and designed diets to help people deal with specific medical diagnoses. I haven't worked this way in a few years and want to improve my own diet at the moment. For me, that means paying close attention to the micronutrients I've tracked all my life. I tracked these things using reference books, pen, paper, and calculator in the dark days before computers. I know all about food labels, yada, yada, yada. I just want to pay close attention to my personal diet at the moment and, regardless of how YOU feel about micros, they are important to me. Thus the question.

My question was if it was possible to track micronutrients using this app. I did not ask for an education on micronutrients, your own diets, opinions, or anything else other than if it is possible to track micros on this app. I was not asking for nutritional advice. I was asking a technical question about the workings of this app.

I've got a couple of informative, on-topic responses and I appreciate them. I've explored them. Thank you for sending them my way.

It seems to me MyFitnessPal isn't such a good pal for me. It does not provide the info I want.

Thank you all but let's end this conversation, OK? I've got the answer to the question I asked.

Catashep

Sorry... 1yr after last post in this thread...have you tried Cronometer? I am on a ketogenic diet and found it to be a great way for me to track details (paid version adds some micro-balances ... such as Zinc/Copper & Potassium/Sodium. I use MFP because of its connectivity with my Garmin Fenix.

dingalingking

I fully agree. For me (someone who has no need to gain or lose weight) micronutrients are more important ESPECIALLY when trying specific diets.

titusmk23

So the answer is no? Any suggestions of other apps? I see Cronometer. Ideally I'd like to track various nutrients and sync to my fitbit. Barring that, looking for an app that best tracks b complex, iron, and typical multivitamin nutrients.

lemurcat12

The answer is that you can track micros here IF you choose the right entries (those that have them, like USDA). You will not be able to track micros accurately if you eat more than a tiny amount of foods that are packaged, IMO, unless you reconstruct what's in the package (or restaurant meal or whatever) rather than relying on the standard information.

I find it easier to track micros at Cronometer (and I mostly eat homecooked meals from whole foods), but it's possible to do it here too, just harder to see, IF you use entries that have that information (which is mostly the USDA stuff).

janejellyroll

titusmk23 wrote: »

So the answer is no? Any suggestions of other apps? I see Cronometer. Ideally I'd like to track various nutrients and sync to my fitbit. Barring that, looking for an app that best tracks b complex, iron, and typical multivitamin nutrients.

Chronometer offers Fitbit syncing and it tracks micronutrients. As others have said, it works really well for USDA-style entries. They do have some pre-prepared foods in their database, but they don't have as many nutrients attached on most of those entries.

Nikki11369

I love how people here decide for you what your concerns should be. I too have been searching for several years for an app that tracks micronutrients. I'd like to know if I'm meeting or exceeding my zinc, copper, and magnesium requirements each day not simply vitamin C and iron, et al. I'd like one that integrates with mfp and Fitbit so that I'm not having to reenter the same meals that I already enter to mfp.