New to calorie counting

daniigirl84

Hi all, is there an easier way to input my exact food amount? The options all come in odd servings. For eg, my breakfast is usually half a Banana, 6 blackberries, 6 blueberries with alpro yoghurt but I'm finding it difficult to input it like that. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance! 😁

Lietchi

My suggestion would be:
- weigh everything with a food scale
- find food database entries that have serving sizes in grams (htere are many entries in the database, it's a good idea to look around for entries that are complete, correct and have the serving sizes you need)

yirara

Use a foodscale for all your food. If you always eat the same and you use the app then you can easily swipe the breakfast over from the previous day. Check that the weights are the same. If you find there's 1g difference in the blueberries then you're probably fine ignoring it. But bananas and the yoghurt might pack in more calories, thus best to weight them every morning and adjust the weight.

AstraL12

Use kitchen scales to be accurate and weigh it out in grams, or whichever measurements you usually use.. A lot of the food items on MFP are generated by other people's inputs so I recommend scanning the barcodes on everything you purchase

janejellyroll

AstraL12 wrote: »

Use kitchen scales to be accurate and weigh it out in grams, or whichever measurements you usually use.. A lot of the food items on MFP are generated by other people's inputs so I recommend scanning the barcodes on everything you purchase

FYI, scanning the barcode is just another search method -- it will still pull up database entries created by other users. You still have to ensure the entry itself is accurate.

yirara

janejellyroll wrote: »

AstraL12 wrote: »

Use kitchen scales to be accurate and weigh it out in grams, or whichever measurements you usually use.. A lot of the food items on MFP are generated by other people's inputs so I recommend scanning the barcodes on everything you purchase

FYI, scanning the barcode is just another search method -- it will still pull up database entries created by other users. You still have to ensure the entry itself is accurate.

Oh yeah, and depending on the country you're in these can be wildly inaccurate. The barcode scanner here is worse than typing out the name for some reason. And doesn't work at all for everything from one supermarket chain.

priscillarivera96

I have trouble myself majority of the answers gave me insight thanks guys.

Milliardo5

First thing: don't count calories. It's not even going to work, and you'll only end up becoming obsessive counting calories, which often leads to eating disorders. Instead of counting calories, be more practical in how you eat: no junk food or at least moderate/control it, for one. Portion control is also good: know your limits. Eat non-calorie dense food like vegetables. Nutrition is mainly common sense and you don't have to complicate it with such things as counting calories.

Lietchi

Milliardo5 wrote: »

First thing: don't count calories. It's not even going to work, and you'll only end up becoming obsessive counting calories, which often leads to eating disorders. Instead of counting calories, be more practical in how you eat: no junk food or at least moderate/control it, for one. Portion control is also good: know your limits. Eat non-calorie dense food like vegetables. Nutrition is mainly common sense and you don't have to complicate it with such things as counting calories.

OP is asking a practical question about logging food, not asking how she should accomplish her goals (which she hasn't even stated).
Also, MFP is a calorie counting app. Many people have found success here with calorie counting. Is it right for everyone? Of course not, just like your suggestions wouldn't be right for everyone (including me).

OP hasn't even told us about her goals here, so I don't see how anyone could give proper advice on whether or not calorie counting is the right choice for her.

riffraff2112

Milliardo5 wrote: »

First thing: don't count calories. It's not even going to work, and you'll only end up becoming obsessive counting calories, which often leads to eating disorders. Instead of counting calories, be more practical in how you eat: no junk food or at least moderate/control it, for one. Portion control is also good: know your limits. Eat non-calorie dense food like vegetables. Nutrition is mainly common sense and you don't have to complicate it with such things as counting calories.

Overeating can be the result of compulsive behavior. Counting calories is simply a more accurate way of 'portion control' as you mentioned. What is sensible to some people is definitely not for others. People that struggle with weight often do not have a sense of their own limits and needs and MFP does help them set some limits and develop some habits that allow them to succeed long term.

I do not count calories anymore, as I have a staple of foods that I enjoy and serve my needs and goals, it took a few months of strict counting to figure this out for myself. I will also admit that despite having two University degrees, I understood very little about nutrition and was filled with many misconceptions.

janejellyroll

Milliardo5 wrote: »

First thing: don't count calories. It's not even going to work, and you'll only end up becoming obsessive counting calories, which often leads to eating disorders. Instead of counting calories, be more practical in how you eat: no junk food or at least moderate/control it, for one. Portion control is also good: know your limits. Eat non-calorie dense food like vegetables. Nutrition is mainly common sense and you don't have to complicate it with such things as counting calories.

I've lost 40 pounds counting calories in 2015 and I've been counting calories to maintain since then. When will the obsession begin?

Nobody is saying that counting calories will work for everyone, but it's ridiculous to make blanket statements like this. There are many, many people here who learned how to manage their weight counting calories and are either happily counting calories long term to maintain or have transitioned to other habits that help them maintain their weight loss.

For many of us, counting calories isn't a complication -- it's a simple tool that helps us meet our goals while ensuring we meet our nutritional needs.

Annie42019

I lost 75 pounds in 2018 by counting calories and have kept it off. With apps like MFP calorie counting is very simple. It takes me less than 10 min a day to log my calories ( usually less)

gaiaresurrected

If you find a shortcut, let me know? It is getting easier, because I repeat a lot of foods, but I mostly cook-from-scratch, so inputting new recipes takes time finding one that has metric measurements, then working out what percentage of the listed quantity I've eaten... my 'recipes' section contains some irregular quantities, because I tend to eat based on what I have 'in' the house. I haven't tried scanning barcodes, usually by the time I remember that's 'a thing', I've started preparing, and don't want to handle my phone with food all over my hands!

I agree with the posters who have objected to the 'Counting calories is bad' comment, while it IS possible for people predisposed to disordered eating to become obsessive, most of us starting out on a healthier lifestyle need some baseline guidance at first. 'Nutrition is mainly common sense' doesn't always make sense, 'healthy option' or 'reduced fat' foods can have higher quantities of sugar and salt than regular ones, and foods are often sold in odd sizes, so we need to be mindful of what a serving-size should be. While Reference Daily Intake figures can be accessed, it's not always as simple as 'This is a carbohydrate' 'This is a protein' and 'This is a fat', using the (imperfect) calorie counter on here, and looking at the combination of macro- and micro-nutrients in a food, rather than just the calorific value will help some of us to achieve a more healthy diet.

goal06082021

gaiaresurrected wrote: »

If you find a shortcut, let me know? It is getting easier, because I repeat a lot of foods, but I mostly cook-from-scratch, so inputting new recipes takes time finding one that has metric measurements, then working out what percentage of the listed quantity I've eaten... my 'recipes' section contains some irregular quantities, because I tend to eat based on what I have 'in' the house. I haven't tried scanning barcodes, usually by the time I remember that's 'a thing', I've started preparing, and don't want to handle my phone with food all over my hands!

Are you using the recipe builder or trying to import from the MFP blog/other websites?

If you mostly cook from scratch, use the recipe builder and manually enter your recipes - list your ingredients by weight in grams, and weigh the finished dish and report the weight in grams as the number of servings (so 1g = 1 serving). Then just weigh out your portion and log that (so if you eat 350g of, say, beef stew, log 350 servings - it's a little weird to see in the diary but the math checks out). You will still have to check the ingredient entries for accuracy, there's no getting around that unless and until they really overhaul the database. The barcodes are just searching the database without having to type anything. I keep a pad of paper and a pen right next to my food scale in the kitchen and write down ingredient weights as I prep them, along with other important info (weight of final dish, weight of portions if it's something I'm meal-prepping), then I take those notes and enter the recipe in MFP after the fact.