Some things measured in cups, some in weight

Jahemian

So I'm started to get a bit annoyed at some things being measured in cups (like brocolli and diced chicken) and some things being measured by weight. And then having to go to Google to convert weights to figure out how much something is in LBS (I'm from NZ and we use the metric system).

I want to add 437grams of diced chicken. Not one cup. not 3 cups. Not half a cup. I didn't measure in cups because I assumed chicken would be measured on weight. I didn't dice the chicken myself. Things should either be measured in weight for solid things or cups / spoons etc for liquid measurements.

A cup isn't an accurate way to measure. What if there are bigger pieces of chicken? There are gaps between each chicken peice making it not a full cup. >.<

Phoenix_Warrior

This annoys me on the database too. Oh, a cup of diced strawberries? How much can I squeeze in there if I cut them really small. .. lol. I just muddle through and find an entry with a weight measurement for solid things.

barbalari

I hear what you're saying. I live in the UK and we don't use the cup system as a rule, however I have found that most foods are listed in various formats - cups/grams/ounces. It's just a case of trawling through and creating your own mini database really. Good luck :flowerforyou:

lucan07

I weigh everything not a problem its more accurate and have never had a problem just scan and add your own foods if necessary.

_Zardoz_

There's plenty of measurements for things like broccoli in weight as well I never have much of a problem finding them. Cups are not accurate for solid so avoid them

WhyDelilah79

I'm from the UK (in oz now) and was used to using cups, BUT as you say, it isn't accurate. I've compared and it is generally hugely out. I also just look for ones which have weights.

llkilgore

I hear what you're saying. I live in the UK and we don't use the cup system as a rule, however I have found that most foods are listed in various formats - cups/grams/ounces. It's just a case of trawling through and creating your own mini database really. Good luck :flowerforyou:

The ease with which I could create a completely stable, searchable, and in my case, almost exclusively metric personal database is one of two reasons I log on Sparkpeople rather than here. The other reason is the ability to enter the actual number of grams consumed rather than some fraction of the serving size assumed by the entry. So I ate 20 grams of peanut butter rather than the standard 34 gram serving some other user copied from the nutritional panel on the side of the jar? No problem, I just replace "34" with "20" and then move on to the next item.

Love MFP for the forums, though.

neandermagnon

the entries that don't have a star are the MFP database, those that have a star are user added. If you stick to the actual MFP entries, there's a drop down menu where you can choose grams. If the entry has 1g as the serving size (some do) then you enter the number of grams in the servings. If it's got 100g serving size, and you ate 150g of it, you'd enter it as 1.5 servings... still a fraction of a serving rather than the actual grams number, but the arithmetic's simple all you're doing is dividing by 100 i.e. shifting the decimal point a couple of places, so it's just as straight forward as adding the number of grams (and forgetting to do that can lead to some spectacular erroneous diary entries, like eating 15,000g brussels sprouts for some crazy number of calories lol

there should be an option to just search the official MFP foods, not the user added ones (if there isn't that option already and I just missed it)

SLLRunner

Weight solid foods and measure liquids.

For example, if the package of trail mix reads that the serving is 30 grams, or 1/4 of a cup, weight will get you more accurate results.

30 grams equals 1.05822 ounces, which is rounded down to one ounce. There are online converters for those of us who are not real up on our grams to ounce conversions.

Take your 1/4 of a cup of trail mix and put it onto your food scale and it will weight more or less than one ounce depending on the mixture (more nuts, less raisins OR more raisins and less nuts). Therefore your 1/4 of a cup will really have the same number of calories.

Also, weigh meat before cooking not after. If it's a steak, you can always cut it into the appropriate amounts prior to cooking. Weight all vegetables, cut up fruits, peanut butter, butter, almond butter, anything that is not liquid. It certainly renders more accurate results, in my opinion.

Oh, I also read the packages and online nutrition information rather than using the MFP database. Some are accurate, some are not.

pteryndactyl

Another option you can try is searching for "(food) grams" in the database, e.g. "Strawberry grams" and then user-created options using grams may be more likely to pop up.

Jahemian

I guess I get a little pee'd because usually I want to add something quickly and not trawl through heaps of brocolli that is measured in cups. Almost all of the diced chicken I searched last night was in cups. It took a long while to find one in a proper measurement.

zensugi

Metric too. What I've been doing is searching in the USDA data base: http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list and adding them to My Foods, so I can keep on using them quickly later.

melaniecheeks

But once you've found the one that you want to use, it's there in your most recent foods list. So while the database has lots of different formats to suit lots of different users, the annoying and painstaking hunt is really only done once.

zensugi

I'd like to be able to search only within things I've selected before. Some times I find something that I won't eat again for, say, a month so it disappears from my recent foods list.

SLLeask

I guess I get a little pee'd because usually I want to add something quickly and not trawl through heaps of brocolli that is measured in cups. Almost all of the diced chicken I searched last night was in cups. It took a long while to find one in a proper measurement.

Could you not just use an entry for "chicken" , as opposed to looking specifically for diced chicken? They would have the same calories by weight wouldn't they? Or am I being a bit thick and diced chicken isn't just chicken, erm, well, diced?

Also, for an item that has, say "1.0" servings of "160g" in the description, and you only have 87g for example, you don't have to work out how much of a serving 87g of 160g is, you just click on where the 160g bit is and it has a dropdown menu that shows 1g, so you would just select that and put in your 87g in the servings bit....

llkilgore

Also, for an item that has, say "1.0" servings of "160g" in the description, and you only have 87g for example, you don't have to work out how much of a serving 87g of 160g is, you just click on where the 160g bit is and it has a dropdown menu that shows 1g, so you would just select that and put in your 87g in the servings bit....

It would be nice if that were always that easy, or even usually that easy. But it isn't.