Calorie Discrepancies

CAgirlinIA

I have seen so many recipes in recent months that state a certain calorie count and then when I plug it into MFP to match ingredients, it's entirely different, usually more. Plus when I do a search for a food there is a range of calorie counts for the same manufacturer. How can I be certain I'm being accurate? I love food so I don't want to short myself. On the other hand I want to be as accurate as I can be.

kshama2001

I only use the recipe importer for the thumbnail and the link to the recipe.

I assume that EVERY ENTRY pulled in by the recipe importer will be wrong, and I am usually right.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I used the exact syntax from the MFP-created entry that comes from the USDA database for the ingredient to be imported, the importer gets it wrong, but the recipe builder finds it when I use the EXACT same entry to Replace the one the importer messed up.

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.

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

The USDA changed the platform for their database in 2019 and it is unfortunately a little more difficult to use. I uncheck everything but “SR Legacy” - that seems to be what MFP used to pull in entries.

Note: any MFP entry that includes "USDA" was USER entered. I will use these if the admin-created entry does not exist or is corrupted, like the zero-calorie pecans.

L1zardQueen

I’m down for nuts with zero calories. Oh yeah.

CAgirlinIA

Thanks for the very informative reply!! Do you think the pecan count also applies to peanut butter??

wilson10102018

Most of the entries in the MFP database are wrong. But, once you find one that is correct and use it, it appears in your frequent list and eliminates the needed step of confirmation from a manufacturer or third party source. UnderArmor should be ashamed of their database, but apparently they don't care. All they would have to do is eliminate the entries that are not being actually posted to diaries.

cmriverside

wilson10102018 wrote: »

Most of the entries in the MFP database are wrong. But, once you find one that is correct and use it, it appears in your frequent list and eliminates the needed step of confirmation from a manufacturer or third party source. UnderArmor should be ashamed of their database, but apparently they don't care. All they would have to do is eliminate the entries that are not being actually posted to diaries.

The database really needs to have two categories: User entered and Admin-vetted/Admin-entered ones. Separate lists.

But then people from other countries wouldn't have their foods in there.

It's the best system for the money and I can add any food I want in any way I want and have it be there for ME when I want it.

It used to be that every single food entered by a user became part of the database. That's how every food comes up on Google as being in Myfitnesspal for the first 10,000 hits. That doesn't happen any more...after about 2009-ish.

It's well built for ad placement and search engine hits.

If you want "special" food or nutrients, you enter it yourself one time and that's it. Could not be easier.

goal06082021

Where can I find some of these zero-calorie pecans, those sound great!

But yeah you have to check and double check that the entries you use are accurate, especially in the recipe builder. It's a bit of a time and effort investment up-front, but (1) sure beats being fat forever and (2) if you generally buy the same things week over week, you'll be able to log things more quickly as you build up your recents list. It's not a one-and-done thing for sure, especially for packaged foods, as companies can tweak their recipes over time.

kshama2001

There's also zero calorie broccoli, but somehow I think that won't be as popular as the zero calorie pecans...