recipe calories are different in MFP recipe center

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seashell709
seashell709 Posts: 123 Member
in Recipes
I love myfitness pal but i really wish there was a recipe center to look up recipes. I have been looking for healthier versions of beef stroganoff, macaroni and cheese and tuna casserole. I have looked at spark recipes since they have a variety of recipes and all has all the nutrition info.

I have noticed that when i find a recipe on spark recipes and put it into MFP recipe spot there are 150-350 more calories than what was stated on spark recipes. I have used the same ingredients from the spark recipe too. Is there anyone else out there that is having this problem too?

One of the examples of beef stroganoff was from spark recipes states that its 350 calories but when placed into MFP recipe using same ingredients it's over 500.

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  • IbiH
    IbiH Posts: 250 Member
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    I guess different people have inputted the recipe and used slightly different ingredients. May be an idea to create your own, at least you know exactly what goes in it. Have quite a few recipes on my page which are not shared.
  • WFBaum
    WFBaum Posts: 5 Member
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    carb and protein are 4 calories per gram each. fat is 9 calories per gram. alcohol is 7 calories per gram. i use the mfp recipe thing to get counts of grams and then just use these facts to figure iout the calories.
  • katorihanzo
    katorihanzo Posts: 234 Member
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    I'm guessing you're already inputting each ingredient into the recipe maker and "creating your own"? You have to realize that even when you do that, you're choosing from basic food items ("ground beef," "green peppers," "button mushrooms") that other people have entered and filled out the information for.

    Don't worry about whether or not your recipes are the same as spark recipes. Worry about whether or not yours are accurate. The only way to really do that is to enter your own foods into the food database based on exactly what your packages say or what the internet tells you is the actual nutrition information. Nutritiondata.com is a good site for veggies/fruit/poultry etc nutrition info.

    Anyway, it's a lot of work but if you want accurate calorie and information for your recipes, you're going to need to check each pre-entered ingredient from MFP on the web to make sure it's accurate, and if you aren't sure, make your own. Then create your MFP recipes from your own ingredients and there ya go. That's as accurate as you can possible be. Also, if you don't already have a food scale, I can't think of one thing more necessary for accurate nutrition logging.

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