We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

How can I display nutrients as units instead of percentages?

lriffle831
lriffle831 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Vitamins A, C, Calcium and Iron show only as a % of DV. I'd like to see them as units (mg, g ..) so that I can keep track of how much calcium I'm getting. (Also the lack of Vitamin D in this list is disappointing, paying for Premier I'd think at least that would be available.)
Does anyone know if there is a way to change these? if not, I think it referred to the Daily Value as from a 2000 calorie diet, which is far more than mine ... can that change? or does someone know if the math would be correct if I recalculated -- for example, if it says 50% based on 2000 calories, would it be 100% based on 1000 calories?
thanks for any help

Replies

  • melosea58
    melosea58 Posts: 1 Member
    It would be nice if iron was listed as a unit. Does the iron percentage pertain to what age group or does the app automatically adjust for the correct amount. For example a 55 year old woman only need 8 mg of iron per day so that is 100% as opposed to premenopausal woman need 18 mg?
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,128 Member
    melosea58 wrote: »
    It would be nice if iron was listed as a unit. Does the iron percentage pertain to what age group or does the app automatically adjust for the correct amount. For example a 55 year old woman only need 8 mg of iron per day so that is 100% as opposed to premenopausal woman need 18 mg?

    To the extent that numbers in the database are drawn from US nutrition labels, 100% for iron = 18 mg
  • nigelhelen
    nigelhelen Posts: 1 Member
    18mg for women 19-50 and 8.9mg per day for men over 19 so I agree it would be helpful to know what 100% means as my I take seems way lower than I calculate.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,055 Member
    Regarding iron values, I'm anemic and more often than not the iron values for USER-created entries are wrong. I've never had an issue with micros from ADMIN-created entries that were pulled from the USDA database.

    Other members have mentioned Cronometer as a better site for tracking micros.

    Unfortunately, the green check marks in the MFP database are used for both USER-created entries and ADMIN-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database. A green check mark for USER-created entries just means enough people have upvoted the entry - it is not necessarily correct.

    To find ADMIN entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP. All ADMIN entries from the USDA will have weights as an option BUT there is a glitch whereby sometimes 1g is the option but the values are actually for 100g. This is pretty easy to spot though, as when added the calories are 100x more than is reasonable.

    https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

    Use the “SR Legacy” tab - that seems to be what MFP used to pull in entries.

    Note: any MFP entry that includes "USDA" was USER entered.

    For packaged foods, I verify the label against what I find in MFP. (Alas, you cannot just scan with your phone and assume what you get is correct.)
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,519 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Note: any MFP entry that includes "USDA" was USER entered.

    And I will add that some, even ones I created way back when, are incorrect. The most common error being people entering the numerical value from the USDA database instead of converting that value to a percentage of the reference value when creating the entry. Incorrect unit conversion is another one.

    In addition food labels are often specific to countries and are sometimes based on different reference values. And manufacturers do have errors on their labels at times. And food package labels do not include most micros.

    Micros cannot really be considered to be reliable on MFP. Even on crono, where I now log my food,
    you would have to restrict your search to the USDA SR28 (SR Legacy mentioned above) and the NCCDB databases in order to get reliable micro information.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,330 Member
    lriffle831 wrote: »
    Vitamins A, C, Calcium and Iron show only as a % of DV. I'd like to see them as units (mg, g ..) so that I can keep track of how much calcium I'm getting. (Also the lack of Vitamin D in this list is disappointing, paying for Premier I'd think at least that would be available.)
    Does anyone know if there is a way to change these? if not, I think it referred to the Daily Value as from a 2000 calorie diet, which is far more than mine ... can that change? or does someone know if the math would be correct if I recalculated -- for example, if it says 50% based on 2000 calories, would it be 100% based on 1000 calories?
    thanks for any help

    Google is your friend.

    The USDA labeling information is what's in play here. I'm sure there are others, but I think this is a current document, and it'll do:

    https://www.fda.gov/food/new-nutrition-facts-label/daily-value-new-nutrition-and-supplement-facts-labels

    That would imply that 100% = 18mg. Since it's input into MFP in percents, the percents are (theoretically) coming from the labels, the underlying gram value should be the one that's implied on the labels. In your MFP goals, you can change the percent (to whatever percent of 18g you prefer), if you like.

    The PP above is right, though: The values in the food database may not be correct, even if the data was on the label, because the database is crowd-sourced, international, etc. Choose carefully, edit if necessary.

Categories