DIFFERENT MACRO COUNT ON APP AND WEBSITE

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brow876
brow876 Posts: 3 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I just started counting macros 2 weeks ago. I've been dead happy with MFP (apart from all those people who've added in food with wrong macro numbers, I've started adding my own food in manually because it was driving me crazy) Anyway, today, looking through my macros at the end of the day, I've realised the total macros on my app do not match the macros on the website. Why is that? And which is correct? Thanks

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  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,203 Member
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    Differ by how much?

    I found that the web and phone/tablet app differ on calories occasionally because (it appears, after checking details) they round differently.

    That's a small difference, and my solution is to not worry about it. (I'd do the same if my macro totals were off by 1% or 1g or something. It's all estimates, anyway; and humans are adaptive omnivores. Exactitude isn't essential.)

    If it's a bigger difference, and the food list that day is the same, you could report it as a bug.
  • brow876
    brow876 Posts: 3 Member
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    I just mean, I log my food on my phone, but it's easier to see on the computer, so when I'm at work I check on my computer. So, for example todays food, they differ by just one number higher on the website. Thing is, I send my macros over to my PT and was wondering which is more accurate? But makes sense if they are rounding differently
  • jmcastro528
    jmcastro528 Posts: 1 Member
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    experiencing the same thing with a client of mine! the carb grams are DRASTICALLY different from app to website
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,203 Member
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    jmcastro528 wrote: »
    experiencing the same thing with a client of mine! the carb grams are DRASTICALLY different from app to website

    Check your client's net carb setting . . . I don't think the net carb function applies in web browser MFP, though I admit I could be wrong. If I'm right, net carbs on the app and total carbs on the web could indeed be drastically different.
  • LoriLinst
    LoriLinst Posts: 2 Member
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    I just realized that this is happening to me too. Today my app says I've gone over my carbs by two grams, and that I have 22 calories left. The website says I have 6 grams of carbs left and 22 calories. I'm in Europe, so I don't have access to a "net carbs" setting. An 8 carb difference seems like too much to be a rounding error (the 2-calorie difference could well be).

    Should I trust the app or the website?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,203 Member
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    LoriLinst wrote: »
    I just realized that this is happening to me too. Today my app says I've gone over my carbs by two grams, and that I have 22 calories left. The website says I have 6 grams of carbs left and 22 calories. I'm in Europe, so I don't have access to a "net carbs" setting. An 8 carb difference seems like too much to be a rounding error (the 2-calorie difference could well be).

    Should I trust the app or the website?

    Have you looked at the foods line by line? Are the same foods on both lists, with the same number of calories in each case? If you have a large number of foods with servings that you ate fractional servings or multiples of servings, a rounding error of 8 carbs is still possible, I think. You can even add them up yourself and see.

    In case it's not clear, when I say "fractional or multiple servings", I mean that (for example) the serving size in the database is 56 grams and you logged 1.2 servings or 0.75 servings, or something like that. I suspect (can't prove) that the rounding differences come from one of the two including or not including more decimal places behind the scenes in those kinds of multiplications, or from differences in the order of multiplying, adding, rounding.

    As far as which to trust: Honestly, if they're that close, it doesn't matter. 2 calories or 8 carbs are smaller discrepancies in those things than are likely to have come from things like the imprecision of home scales, one apple being sweeter than the next, and that sort of thing. It's not a difference that's going to make a difference in your overall progress.

    On top of that, there's no reason - not weight, nutrition, or fitness - that you need to be exactly exact on either carbs or calories. Plus or minus a bit daily, close to goals on average in the MFP weekly view - that'll be fine.

    Don't let small things like this distract you from things that make much, much more major contributions to success of any of those things.

    Best wishes!

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