Question re source of calories

rhianwhit
rhianwhit Posts: 1 Member
edited November 26 in Health and Weight Loss
Hiya
How can I be well under in carb, fat and sugar and yet over in calories?

I am 31 calories over my target today, yet each indiidual target is well under the limit.

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,421 Member
    edited April 2018
    I agree with everyone and would add that a lot of the foods in the database are entered incorrectly. The database was built by crowd-sourcing. Every food should be double-checked.

    Vet your sources, double check them on the USDA food database.

    Here:

    https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    edited April 2018
    rhianwhit wrote: »
    Hiya
    How can I be well under in carb, fat and sugar and yet over in calories?

    I am 31 calories over my target today, yet each indiidual target is well under the limit.
    As already mentioned, protein, carbs and fat make up calories, sugar is a subset of carbs, and one or more entries may be off. Small discrepancies can be because of rounding.

    (This isn't debatable. (ETA: Thanks for moving, MFP staff!))
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    As others have said, you could be over in protein, or you could have chosen incorrect database entries. If you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings we can let you know for sure.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    rhianwhit wrote: »
    Hiya
    How can I be well under in carb, fat and sugar and yet over in calories?

    I am 31 calories over my target today, yet each indiidual target is well under the limit.

    Protein? Sugar isn't a macro, it is a subset of carbs.

    Either that or your selections from the database are erroneous.
  • andreaen
    andreaen Posts: 365 Member
    Manifacturers are allowed to give a number that is 5% or 10% off the measured value, so sometimes the labels won't match. Choose wither macros or calories to go by, and then stay consistent to that one :)
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,979 Member
    andreaen wrote: »
    Manifacturers are allowed to give a number that is 5% or 10% off the measured value, so sometimes the labels won't match. Choose wither macros or calories to go by, and then stay consistent to that one :)

    Unless it has changed, they're allowed a 20% margin of error.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Enthusiast84 wrote: »
    The macros are a guide... they have nothing to do with calories. I don't often pay attention to macros it's the calories that matter.

    Plus it's not an exact science. So you could be under/over your macros but still consume more/less calories.

    No
  • andreaen
    andreaen Posts: 365 Member
    kami3006 wrote: »

    Unless it has changed, they're allowed a 20% margin of error.

    That might be right, there are also probably different rules depending on country
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,261 Member
    Or . . alcohol. No carbs, fats, or protein, but there are calories. Don't know if this is you, OP, but it trips a lot of people, numerically speaking. ;)
  • taziarj
    taziarj Posts: 243 Member
    If you log sugarless gum, which has 2g of carbs but 5 calories, it will cause issues. The manufacturers are able to round the calories which will cause them to not line up with macros. That gum actually has 8 calories, but they are allowed to list only 5.
  • Poisonedpawn78
    Poisonedpawn78 Posts: 1,145 Member
    Nobody has mentioned this either but if you are tracking alcohol that is another way you can be over since it is the 4th macro.
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