frustrated with carb counts on MFP..help

nyclowcarb

I lost 52 lbs doing LC for and kept it off for a year. Gained about 11 back in 5 months and back on MFP. I find that carb counts on the same exact foods listed on MyFitnessPal can often vary widely..sometimes by over 20%. I know there are many factors but does anyone share this frustration with MFP with me? I love the app and site and the features but you even have to do net carbs yourself which is less than idea. But, what I dislike most of all are the varying carb , and even calorie counts of the same exact foods. How do you handle this?

Sunny_Bunny_

All of the information is from user entries. So, if I enter and save an item and it's wrong for whatever reason, it will offer my bad entry to you. It's best to build your own food list and get the first info from an outside source like USDA or product packaging. Or, reference an outside source and compare it to an MFP listing to know it's right. Once you enter an item once, it will offer you the same entry any other time you eat that food so you don't have to check it every single time. After a little while, you won't have so much crud to wade through because you'll have a lot of things in your "recent" foods to continue to use.
Also, searching terms like "sirloin (USDA)" will usually bring up better ones that you should still double check though.

daylitemag

I like using the bar code scanner to identify foods. I find that it's usually accurate. Of course, this is only helpful with packaged foods. In general, I find using the database so frustrating that I've pretty much stopped using it. After three months on strict LCHF I've come to know what I can and can't eat. I no longer worry about calories and because my carb intake is so low and I use Ketostix I don't really worry about closely tracking my carbs. I just don't eat them in any significant quantity. When I do have some carbs it's nearly impossible to track (ie when my wife makes a gravy and thickens with flour or cornstarch).

CMYKRGB

Barcode scan what I can, and build my own recipes.

KenSmith108

I use 2 good books as reference, Diabetes meal planning made easy for protein & Atkins for veggie carbs.

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nyclowcarb

Thanks..good information and guidance..I understand that most of the foods are user generated and I understood that when MFP was a small company, but now that they are owned by UnderArmour I would think they would strive to be more accurate.

ttgrandma

lots of great information. I had no idea there was a discrepancy, no wonder things are not moving. I will start building my own data base. Thanks!!!