Vitasia Noddles

motyndall

I have never written on this app before and I am now writing to express my extreme anger. I have been very carefully counting calories since new year's day 2015. I have scanned and weighed loyally and rigidly and have only today discovered it has been a complete waste of time. I SCANNED THE PACKETS OF VITASIA NOODLE SOUPS AND WAS GIVEN TO BELIEVE THAT THE 108 GRAM PACKET I WAS EATING WAS ONLY 124 CALORIES. I AM ANGRY BEYOND BELIEF. I can never trust this app again. I eat these damn noodles nearly every day and try to make them healthy by mixing in fresh vegetables such as Pak Choi, mushrooms, bean sprouts, scallions ect. I have only just now discovered that half a packet is actually 245 calories, so I have been eating 500 calories not the 124 that this app was telling me. I am sick to the back teeth of counting calories, over 400 days now, and getting nowhere. I HATE MY FITNESS PAL!!!!!!

AmazonMayan

Did you not read the package? Pretty much everyone will tell you always read it and verify the entry and weight you choose to log matches it.

Entries are entered by other users.

123stefania

Dont be mad! Now you know, next time you will be careful, check the package, with fitnesspal, or even you can google it!

emdeesea

For real? You're supposed to read what's on the package and go by that. The entries are made by users and are so often very wrong. There have been times I've had to make an entry because they've all been incorrect.

snowflake954

Well---we all make mistakes. When you eat the same thing alot, and the calories are off, it can get you into trouble. Calm down, take a deep breath and start over. You can do it. At least now you have the answer if you aren't losing. Good luck.
PS: Good rant though.

rainbowbow

motyndall wrote: »

I have never written on this app before and I am now writing to express my extreme anger. I have been very carefully counting calories since new year's day 2015. I have scanned and weighed loyally and rigidly and have only today discovered it has been a complete waste of time. I SCANNED THE PACKETS OF VITASIA NOODLE SOUPS AND WAS GIVEN TO BELIEVE THAT THE 108 GRAM PACKET I WAS EATING WAS ONLY 124 CALORIES. I AM ANGRY BEYOND BELIEF. I can never trust this app again. I eat these damn noodles nearly every day and try to make them healthy by mixing in fresh vegetables such as Pak Choi, mushrooms, bean sprouts, scallions ect. I have only just now discovered that half a packet is actually 245 calories, so I have been eating 500 calories not the 124 that this app was telling me. I am sick to the back teeth of counting calories, over 400 days now, and getting nowhere. I HATE MY FITNESS PAL!!!!!!

the database is created by users, like you and I. It is important that YOU verify, check, and make sure the information is correct.

Doesn't matter which app you use, this is something you're going to need to check on your own.

motyndall

I did read the package which is why I believed the app. However when I was trying to verify the salt content via Google, I discovered that according to my fitness pal themselves, as well as others that the calorie count was totally different. I also did not know that the calories on the app were simply provided by its users as opposed to professional nutritionists. Why are not the calories given by my fitness pal online the same as on the app? It is infuriating. Now that I know that this is not professional assistance I will no longer bother with it. I am going back to pen and paper!

motyndall

Thanks for all your responses. My eyes have been opened.

ValerieMartini2Olives

motyndall wrote: »

I have never written on this app before and I am now writing to express my extreme anger. I have been very carefully counting calories since new year's day 2015. I have scanned and weighed loyally and rigidly and have only today discovered it has been a complete waste of time. I SCANNED THE PACKETS OF VITASIA NOODLE SOUPS AND WAS GIVEN TO BELIEVE THAT THE 108 GRAM PACKET I WAS EATING WAS ONLY 124 CALORIES. I AM ANGRY BEYOND BELIEF. I can never trust this app again. I eat these damn noodles nearly every day and try to make them healthy by mixing in fresh vegetables such as Pak Choi, mushrooms, bean sprouts, scallions ect. I have only just now discovered that half a packet is actually 245 calories, so I have been eating 500 calories not the 124 that this app was telling me. I am sick to the back teeth of counting calories, over 400 days now, and getting nowhere. I HATE MY FITNESS PAL!!!!!!

Why so angry, bro? Do you normally get this upset over things?

motyndall

If you have nothing useful to say, say nothing.

elphie754

So it is MfPs fault that you weren't logging correctly?

motyndall

Yes

elphie754

motyndall wrote: »

Yes

No it's not. It is your responsibility to verify your entries.

snowflake954

I know you said you're going back to pen and paper, but there is a good thread on the data base, it's problems and logging correctly. If I remember correctly it was started by Sexystef. Do a search and you'll be in the know.

bpetrosky

motyndall wrote: »

If you have nothing useful to say, say nothing.

Sage advice. You should take it.

MFP data is crowdsourced, entered by thousands of people with varying levels of accuracy.

MFP does a poor job of matching barcode scans to the best entries, but that's because they take no responsibility for the data in the food database. When producers change packaged foods, they only have to change the labeling and MFP doesn't get any information from them. It is YOUR responsibility to validate YOUR data.

If entries for your foods in the database are incorrect, you can always edit the entry or create your own entry. You can make your entry public and other people can find and use it (and change it), but it won't be tied to the barcode scans. MFP could do a better job of determining how barcode scans relate to database entries, but I don't know where that is on their development roadmap.

lemurcat12

motyndall wrote: »

I did read the package which is why I believed the app.

This isn't making sense. If you read the package you should have the proper information. Was it consistent with the app or not.

If you eat packaged goods you have to realize that depending on where you are the amount in the package, in a serving size, and the specific make-up of the ingredients may be different than elsewhere, which is why there are different entries for the same product (also sometimes people mess up when entering them or the producer changes the product or the serving/package size, etc.). For example, if I pull a Pret a Manger entry from the UK it is likely different than the similar product where I am.

The thing to do is BE RESPONSIBLE and check the information in MFP with that on the package to make sure it's correct.

If the information you logged is consistent with the package (as you seem to be saying), what's the problem?

However when I was trying to verify the salt content via Google, I discovered that according to my fitness pal themselves, as well as others that the calorie count was totally different.

What does this even mean?

I also did not know that the calories on the app were simply provided by its users as opposed to professional nutritionists.

There would be a lot fewer entries if MFP entered them all (somewhere like cronometer will give you that, but you will have to enter any packaged stuff yourself). And I'm not sure why someone would need to pay a professional nutritionist to copy information from a package, weird.

Why are not the calories given by my fitness pal online the same as on the app? It is infuriating.

It sounds like you are freaking out because you found a different entry for your product or a similar product. See what I said initially about there being many versions of many of these products and different sizes. Find the entry that is consistent with the information on YOUR package.

Now that I know that this is not professional assistance I will no longer bother with it. I am going back to pen and paper!

Whatever floats your boat. It's just a tool to make calorie counting easier, and works well if you bother to figure it out. There are annoying quirks with the database, that is true -- they've made the best (USDA) entries unnecessarily hard to find, instead of prioritizing them as they should -- but that different packages have different information because the products or sizes are different seems a weird thing to blame MFP for.

(Also I don't know why you would even want professional assistance in counting calories, it's not that hard if you are willing to be honest and avoid wishful thinking.)

vingogly

What exactly do you expect from a database that has thousands of user entries in it? If you use the entries with a green checkmark those have been vetted by MFP. RTFM:

https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1859089-what-does-the-check-mark-mean-

bpetrosky

vingogly wrote: »

What exactly do you expect from a database that has thousands of user entries in it? If you use the entries with a green checkmark those have been vetted by MFP. RTFM:

https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1859089-what-does-the-check-mark-mean-

I'm even careful with the "verified" entries...I don't think MFP actually has staff to manually validate the data, they just crowdsourced that aspect, too.

lemurcat12

Yeah, I actually think the "verified" entries was a step backwards, as they aren't always that good.

The USDA entries are good, but they are harder to find now and sometimes disappear.

snickerscharlie

OP: Sounds like your diet could use a bit more variety if Vitasia dried noodles form enough of a staple to be an issue. Also, if you've been counting calories for 400 days now and not losing the weight you expected to, why has it taking you over a year to figure out something you're doing just may not be working? Man, we get people here all the time who complain if they haven't lost weight from one day to the next!

zoeysasha37

It sounds like you are blaming mfp for this when really you where not logging accurately.

We all make mistakes. That isn't mfps fault. Nobody ever said the database was 100% accurate. Why would you assume that a professional nutritionist created each of the entries ? Although there is indeed some very wrong entries in the database, mfp still has the best database around. I have tried many other calorie counting sites and personally believe mfp is the best. Its up to you to check out each item and make sure everything adds up correctly. Especially if its a food you eat daily. It sounds like your anger is misplaced and you should really use this as an opportunity to learn from it.

Nony_Mouse

So the problem here is that you've been counting a whole packet as one serving, when in fact it's four? Yeah, that's your fault, not MFP's.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

Have a read of this thread.

Hearts_2015

motyndall wrote: »

I have never written on this app before and I am now writing to express my extreme anger. I have been very carefully counting calories since new year's day 2015. I have scanned and weighed loyally and rigidly and have only today discovered it has been a complete waste of time. I SCANNED THE PACKETS OF VITASIA NOODLE SOUPS AND WAS GIVEN TO BELIEVE THAT THE 108 GRAM PACKET I WAS EATING WAS ONLY 124 CALORIES. I AM ANGRY BEYOND BELIEF. I can never trust this app again. I eat these damn noodles nearly every day and try to make them healthy by mixing in fresh vegetables such as Pak Choi, mushrooms, bean sprouts, scallions ect. I have only just now discovered that half a packet is actually 245 calories, so I have been eating 500 calories not the 124 that this app was telling me. I am sick to the back teeth of counting calories, over 400 days now, and getting nowhere. I HATE MY FITNESS PAL!!!!!!

@motyndall I'm sorry that happened to you...what a mess. I'd be mad too. I don't scan my food, I input it manually but if I was at the store and wanted to check something and scanned it I'd like to think I could trust it otherwise what's the point of having a scanner to use. That makes no sense at all!

I think a lot of ppl are jumping on others expecting that everyone on MFP knows how messed up the database can be sometimes. It's obvious from the many threads that not everyone is aware of it. I never trust it, I always have a pkg. in hand or use the USDA site and something when I'm ridiculously OCD I check even another site to compare.

Pkg. sizes, label, ingredients change constantly... the only things I trust are what's on the pkg. label or what's already in my food diary. Could those now be wrong? Absolutely but I'd go crazier if I worried about that too.

I gotta call limits on my crazy. lol I can understand the frustration in finding out you're been eating something via scanning it and then one day you find out someone that added it to the database totally screwed it up when they input it.


I'm done, too nice a day to ramble...

lemurcat12

It doesn't actually sound like this is a messed up database problem. It sounds like a user error problem.

bpetrosky

lemurcat12 wrote: »

It doesn't actually sound like this is a messed up database problem. It sounds like a user error problem.

Correct. According to the OP's original post, she used that entry for over a year and never looked at the information or double checked against the label. The OP is upset because she has the expectation that all of the data in the database has been professionally screened. That's simply an unreasonable expectation for a free app.

MFP has lots of bugs, bad data, and poor design assumptions. The app scanning feature promotes an extra level in trust in that matching, and doesn't provide a good way to signal that entries are bad. The OP's problem, however, could have been avoided in less than a minute by taking some time to check.

elphie754

bpetrosky wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

It doesn't actually sound like this is a messed up database problem. It sounds like a user error problem.

Correct. According to the OP's original post, she used that entry for over a year and never looked at the information or double checked against the label. The OP is upset because she has the expectation that all of the data in the database has been professionally screened. That's simply an unreasonable expectation for a free app.

MFP has lots of bugs, bad data, and poor design assumptions. The app scanning feature promotes an extra level in trust in that matching, and doesn't provide a good way to signal that entries are bad. The OP's problem, however, could have been avoided in less than a minute by taking some time to check.

Or realizing that a serving is 1/4 of a packet, not a whole packet.

FredDoyle

Do you trust everything in your life without verifying it in any way? Yikes.
Do some research. Here's a good start for getting your head around estimates and inconsistencies:
https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/

tomw86

A bad workman always blames his tools; and that is all that MFP is - a tool to be used. If you don't learn to use a tool properly then you will foul up or hurt yourself.

Hearts_2015

tomw86 wrote: »

A bad workman always blames his tools; and that is all that MFP is - a tool to be used. If you don't learn to use a tool properly then you will foul up or hurt yourself.

Do you think when someone joins here their first thought is ...uh oh that database is likely wrong I better use USDA instead. I know I trusted this one... though back then in 08 there were a whole lot less entries and members. Maybe that's why the trust came easier. I dunno...but the trust is gone now. lol

I think what you shared about tools makes a lot of sense...it's a good way for us to think of it.

Sometimes though when I see a thread like this it really makes me wonder how many other members just click something for their diary and move on.

Alatariel75

Hearts_2015 wrote: »

tomw86 wrote: »

A bad workman always blames his tools; and that is all that MFP is - a tool to be used. If you don't learn to use a tool properly then you will foul up or hurt yourself.

Do you think when someone joins here their first thought is ...uh oh that database is likely wrong I better use USDA instead. I know I trusted this one... though back then in 08 there were a whole lot less entries and members. Maybe that's why the trust came easier. I dunno...but the trust is gone now. lol

I think what you shared about tools makes a lot of sense...it's a good way for us to think of it.

Sometimes though when I see a thread like this it really makes me wonder how many other members just click something for their diary and move on.

Lots. And often they then don't lose, and either start a thread here asking why, or quit. Often when they start a thread asking why, they get mad if it is suggested that they're not logging accurately. The lucky (smart?) ones listen, tighten up their logging and start having success.

I too don't get how the OP says that the database entry is the same as the packet, but MFP is wrong - if OP has misread serving size, then that's user error.