Macros not equal to calories

Rayson1

Is any body else having trouble with there said macros equaling up to said calories? When the math is done out fitness pal says I have more calories than I have macros carb=4 protein=4 fat=9 not so when added up. Go says 2007 I say 1887. What gives?

malibu927

How far are they off? It may be a rounding issue, or it may be using inaccurate entries.

Alatariel75

some of the entries you are using might be off. When they are user added, they can be wrong. Look at the individual entries and see if the macros add up to the calories.

Rayson1

I posted a pic. The numbers are way off regardless of what's entered.

MegaMooseEsq

It's probably a combo of rounding errors and bad data - nutritional info is all estimates, when it comes down to it, so I wouldn't stress too badly. It is good to make sure you're using as complete of entries as possible, though.

MegaMooseEsq

Rayson1 wrote: »

I posted a pic. The numbers are way off regardless of what's entered.

You had 2000 calories for breakfast?

Rayson1

No. I just mark everything as breakfast

Alatariel75

Can you post a pic of the actual entries?

MegaMooseEsq

Not addressing the data entry errors, but related to rounding: https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/nutrition/calories-not-matching-macros-qa.html/

Rayson1

Understand that everything is an estimate but when they tell you the macros and the calories the totals should line up

rcervetto

Well there are 2 possibilities:

1. The entries you used are off. Since entries are user-generated, sometimes they are incorrect. The person may have put the calories but doesn't care about certain macros/micros and didn't enter them or input them incorrectly by accident.

2. If you drank any alcohol, MFP does not include that as a macro, even though it's about 7cal/g (of pure ethanol). So it appears you had "empty" calories. A 5 ounce glass of red wine is about 120 calories, but MFP only shows ~4g carbs. So should it only be 16 calories (I wish!)?

Alatariel75

It could simply be that a single entry for your day has the wrong macros. The database is largely user-entered, and people get things wrong all the time. There's no "they" telling you anything.

ccsernica

You're only 120 calories off. Rounding errors can account for that, depending on how many different foods you ate and how many servings. Macros are given more or less exactly on nutrition labels, but listed calories are rounded to the nearest 10 if they total more than 50. So they're not going to match correctly even on a legally conforming nutrition label, never mind daily totals.

For instance, I'm looking at a box of Nature Valley Pecan Crunch granola bars. It tells me there are 190 calories for a 2-bar serving -- but a 1-bar serving isn't 85 calories; it's 100. Adding up the 8g of fat, 28g of carbs, and 3g of protein gives 196 calories -- but the label only lists 190. If the macros are exactly correct they should be rounding up to 200, but they're rounded to the nearest gram themselves and you'd probably end up with fewer than 195 if you used the exact figures.

Note that this 6 calorie difference amounts to about 3% off the listed value. Your 120 calorie difference (cumulative across many different foods) comes to about 6%. So you're in the ballpark. This is all rounded and approximate. Don't sweat it.

Rayson1

Not to beat a dead horse but all the numbers were generated by fp I would think there math would equal out. I entered the macros I wanted to hit and fp did the math and it came up with the right amount of calories based on the macros. The problem is now there math is off. It's not based on anything I entered or didn't enter fp generated the numbers

malibu927

Rayson1 wrote: »

Not to beat a dead horse but all the numbers were generated by fp I would think there math would equal out. I entered the macros I wanted to hit and fp did the math and it came up with the right amount of calories based on the macros. The problem is now there math is off. It's not based on anything I entered or didn't enter fp generated the numbers

As @Alatariel75 said, MFP users are the ones who create the entries in the database. Many people will enter them with incorrect numbers. That is where the issue lies. You have to double-check the entries you chose against the food label or the USDA's nutrition database to ensure they are correct.

Alatariel75

You're not understanding. The entries in the database that you use when tracking your food are largely entered by users. They are not checked or confirmed. If a user enters a 100g steak as having 1000g of protein but only 200 calories, and you use that entry, your diary will reflect 1000g of protein and 200 calories.

One of the foods you added to your day may have had the incorrect macros entered by the user who added it.

Rayson1

Ok. So basically if a user enters a food (X) and say it has 1carb, 1 fat, 1 protein it should be 4+9+4=17 cal. But they say it was 25 cal. Fp won't fix the math on that item and I'll end up with 8 extra cal. And the right macros or vice versa? Got it! Thanks for being patient.

Alatariel75

Yup, you've got it. There's no automatic check to make sure that the numbers entered by the user add up.

dwilliamca

Only the foods with green arrows have actually been verified by MFP and if you click on the green arrow MFP explains that occasionally even some of those slip by and need corrected. However, more than that is what others said about food labels being "confusing" because of rounding and reporting standards. If you scan an item, or read the label, and do the math most times it will not add up correctly. I went through my list of foods scanned and verified from nutrition labels and had a hard time finding any that came close to grams of macros multiplying out to match the total calories.

lynn_glenmont

Rayson1 wrote: »

Ok. So basically if a user enters a food (X) and say it has 1carb, 1 fat, 1 protein it should be 4+9+4=17 cal. But they say it was 25 cal. Fp won't fix the math on that item and I'll end up with 8 extra cal. And the right macros or vice versa? Got it! Thanks for being patient.

There's rounding, both by the manufacturers on their labels, and by the MFP display (although more digits are retained behind the scene by MFP if entered).

E.g.
1.4 g carbs (shown on pkg label as 1) = about 5.6 cals
ditto for protein, another 5.6 cals
1.4 g fat (shown on pkg label as 1) = about 12.6 cals

5.6 + 5.6 + 12.6 = 23.8 cals, and I'm pretty sure manufacturer is allowed to round to 25 cals.

Mystery solved.

Please let dead horse like in peace.

Aaron_K123

OP did you have any alcohol that you logged that day? Alcohol is 7 cal per gram and is not accounted for in carb/prot/fat. If you had a couple of drinks the alcohol content could account for the missing 100+ calories.

Aaron_K123

Reading the thread now I realize the explanation of user error in terms of user entered macros with calories in the MFP database of food seems like the more likely explanation.