URL Feature for Recipes does not Match the original recipe

susanlc10

I am brand new to this program and I use lots of recipes from Eatingwell.com. They used to publish a great magazine but are not solely on line and each recipe contains all nutritional info including macronutrients. When I cut and paste a URL from a linked recipe, the myfitnesspal program has completely different calorie and macronutrient information than the actual recipe. I think that part of the problem is that cooked foods contain different calories and macronutrients than raw foods, especially meat (25% loss in weight for starters). Has anyone else had this issue and second, is there a way to work around this. I find hand entering everything is incredibly cumbersome and if I make a mistake and have to delete an ingredient I can't get it added back. This program does not seem very user friendly, especially to someone who likes to cook.

AnnPT77

First off: No, cooking foods doesn't materially change the calories or macronutrients (short of burning it to solid carbon). Mostly, what cooking does is increase the water content (in boiled foods, for example) or decrease the water content (in baked/roasted ones, for example), or some fat may stay in the pan when cooking fatty meats. The calorie per weight unit for cooked vs. raw will differ because of that, but (for example) a potato raw has the same number of calories as the same potato roasted, even though the latter is lighter (lost water).

That's why most experienced people here suggest using raw weights when possible, since the amount of water gain/loss in unpredictable.

Cooking can change the bioavailability of some nutrients (up or down), but that's different from changing the amount actually in the food, and it tends not to be a major issue.

When you import a recipe, I'm sorry to say that you need to check the matched ingredients for accuracy. The MFP database is crowd-sourced, and sometimes people enter things wrong. Other kinds of matching errors can occur. You can modify a single ingredient (search for a replacement) or change the quantity, right from the matched ingredients page. If you delete an ingredient, you can also add it back there.

The links to do those things are subtle: On the web, you have to hover your cursor in the right spot to see the options for replacing or adjusting the ingredient - it's to the right of the ingredient. On the phone/tablet app, I think you have to long-press on the ingredient line (but I don't use the app for recipes very often). You can even edit a recipe (one or more of its lines) after it's saved.

On top of the need to check MFP's ingredients, the nutrition assessment for a recipe on a web site may itself be wrong. Without checking, I wouldn't assume those were accurate, either.

One alternative you would have is to add the recipe name as a food, and enter the nutrition information that's on the web site, i.e., not import the recipe details. Would that be better for you?

I'm sorry you find this cumbersome and difficult. I cook routinely, do use the recipe features successfully sometimes (but more often cook from scratch without recipes). There is a learning curve, for sure. Perhaps this will be a big enough dissatisfier for you that you'll seek another solution. I do think it gets easier with practice and experience, as you learn how to use the MFP features most effectively.

springlering62

I’ve often found that the calories listed on online recipes are radically different from real life.

I don’t know if it’s intentional, to lure traffic to LOW CAL!!!!! recipe sites, or if it’s ignorance on the part of the author when calculating the calories per serving.

For that reason, I never rely on the calories listed on recipes, even on well known sites.

I go in and hand enter the ingredients, and almost always find that taking the extra time to do so not only verifies accuracy but helps me find additional ways to cut calories.