Any tips on how to account for healthy fats and carbs?

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shargreen18
shargreen18 Posts: 3 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I find it really annoying that carbs and fats are just grouped under one heading. If I have and avocado and some dark choc it takes me miles out of my range and also eating lots of veg bumps up the carbs macros. It's irritating as hell. I may as well be just writing it all down myself so I can see where the good/bad comes in.

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  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    edited October 2017
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    There isn't good or bad per sae, just too much. Just eat sensibly and don't over complicate things by mis info that is spread without data.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    edited October 2017
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    jgnatca wrote: »
    Ha! Your body really doesn't know the difference. Carbs are carbs and fats are fats.

    I would despise a food tracker that separated "good" from "bad". According to what trend?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ua-WVg1SsA

    What? No.

    Our bodies do react differently to different types of fats and carbs. Fiber vs. sugar vs. starches, unsaturated vs. saturated, even various types of unsaturated fats have different effects. Same with starches.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
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    You can change your settings to track saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and you can track fiber and sugar along with total carbs (or instead of).
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Are you tracking fat, carbs and protein? If not, go to settings and do that: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    A whole avocado is a usually a lot for one person in one meal.
    Carbs is not the enemy. Good nutrition is about balance and variety. Eat enough, eat a wide range of all the foods you like, but don't eat too much of anything, and not too much in total, over time.
    A healthy lifestyle is not restricted to healthy diet. It also encompasses a relaxed attitude towards food and eating. Dividing foods and nutrients into good/bad is not healthy.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
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    If you go to "view full report" at the bottom of your diary, it will give you a more complete breakdown including vitamins & things. What would you like to know you are lacking that you aren't already aware of in the course of a day? I basically know when I've had a well-balanced, nutritious day and vice-versa.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
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    Vegies are carbs...of course they take up part of your carb total. There are no "free foods". Everything counts.

    I don't need an app to tell me how "healthy" or otherwise my diet is, I can figure that out for myself. I do need the app to tell me how many calories/macros I eat though, as I could easily overeat, even with a diet made up of mostly wholefoods.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
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    try2again wrote: »
    If you go to "view full report" at the bottom of your diary, it will give you a more complete breakdown including vitamins & things. What would you like to know you are lacking that you aren't already aware of in the course of a day? I basically know when I've had a well-balanced, nutritious day and vice-versa.

    I haven't looked at mine in a while, so I went to see what all was on it. Am I crazy? Didn't it used to track vitamins & minerals?
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    Let's take the avocado and the dark chocolate.

    The fats in avocado are 75% unsaturated (good). Should a quarter of the avocado be thrown out?

    The dark chocolate (which is enjoyed for it's purported anti-oxidant properties) has three kinds of fats in equal proportion. One is heart-healthy (good) and two are saturated (recommend we limit). Should two-thirds of the dark chocolate be thrown out? How do you separate the fats?

    Let's look at vegetables (good). The carbs feed us, the fiber helps carry things along nicely, and there are the vitamins and minerals (good).

    Wouldn't it be much simpler to log the full nutrition label for the food including fiber and vitamins/minerals? It's not like you can subtract the carbs from the vegetables to keep them "good".
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
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    Good? Bad? That is all relative.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    edited October 2017
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    MFP is first and foremost a tool for weight management. In that sense, avocado calories are no different than chocolate calories. If you care more about specific nutrients or types of calories, then you can tweak what macros/nutrients show in your diary, and/or dig into the finer details through the report tool or on the app.

    If you want to sort/track in ways beyond the scope of MFP, dump your data into Excel and have at it. In most cases, a few rather basic formulas will do all the number crunching for you, so it's not especially tedious or time consuming.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
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    jgnatca wrote: »
    Let's take the avocado and the dark chocolate.

    The fats in avocado are 75% unsaturated (good). Should a quarter of the avocado be thrown out?

    The dark chocolate (which is enjoyed for it's purported anti-oxidant properties) has three kinds of fats in equal proportion. One is heart-healthy (good) and two are saturated (recommend we limit). Should two-thirds of the dark chocolate be thrown out? How do you separate the fats?

    Let's look at vegetables (good). The carbs feed us, the fiber helps carry things along nicely, and there are the vitamins and minerals (good).

    Wouldn't it be much simpler to log the full nutrition label for the food including fiber and vitamins/minerals? It's not like you can subtract the carbs from the vegetables to keep them "good".

    Isn't how to log that stuff what the OP is asking? It sounds like she's looking at the defaults, which don't include fiber or type of fat, and just wants to know if she can see that information.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    The original question from the OP is why all carbs are under one heading, and why all fats are under one heading. They are, because carbs are carbs and fats are fats.

    Then there's the problem of how detailed the food entries are. There's definitely not a category called "good fats" or a category called "good carbs". Manufacturers in North America at least, don't have to report the fiber content.

    Most annoying to me is the pop-up comments praising a prepackaged food for being "low in fat" or some other virtue, yet it's silent when I eat a simple fruit or vegetable. Simple foods don't have marketers I guess.

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