MFP Encourages "Convenience" Nutrition

WakkoW

Yes, 100% This is the reason I no longer log my food. When you eat a variety of home prepared foods from whole ingredients this site is not user friendly for logging meals.

I'm not really sure what you want. You're cooking your own foods and I assume these are recipes you're putting together, no?

What kind of website is available elsewhere that knows what's in your personal recipe before you input it?

All whole, unprocessed foods are available in the MFP database, but it can't preopoulate specific ingredients and amounts without user input. And if it could, I would be kind of frightened.

What do I want? Well, in my perfect world I would type in "green bell pepper" and have one entry come up and tell me the nutritional composition of the average green bell pepper.

There isn't a website available that will do that for you. However, I have bought green bell peppers that were the size of two apples and green bell peppers that were the size of a peach. So which one would be correct in your scenario?

Both. The entries would be by weight, of course.

ETA: actually there is a website that does that, but it does not allow logging.

So having it the first entry of several, and the only one marked as being non-user entered is too difficult for you?

If I type in "green bell pepper", approx. 104 entries come up. ALL have asterisks, 9 are labelled ‘USDA’. If I type ‘green bell pepper raw’ I do get the non-user entry.

Seriously, I’m okay with not logging. I know the tricks. I still find it overly cumbersome. And I have the right to agree with someone else that finds it cumbersome.

It is listed as a "sweet pepper", not a "bell pepper". This makes it more inclusive. You obviously don't know all the tricks if you weren't able to figure that out.

bcattoes

Yes, 100% This is the reason I no longer log my food. When you eat a variety of home prepared foods from whole ingredients this site is not user friendly for logging meals.

I'm not really sure what you want. You're cooking your own foods and I assume these are recipes you're putting together, no?

What kind of website is available elsewhere that knows what's in your personal recipe before you input it?

All whole, unprocessed foods are available in the MFP database, but it can't preopoulate specific ingredients and amounts without user input. And if it could, I would be kind of frightened.

What do I want? Well, in my perfect world I would type in "green bell pepper" and have one entry come up and tell me the nutritional composition of the average green bell pepper.

There isn't a website available that will do that for you. However, I have bought green bell peppers that were the size of two apples and green bell peppers that were the size of a peach. So which one would be correct in your scenario?

Both. The entries would be by weight, of course.

ETA: actually there is a website that does that, but it does not allow logging.

So having it the first entry of several, and the only one marked as being non-user entered is too difficult for you?

If I type in "green bell pepper", approx. 104 entries come up. ALL have asterisks, 9 are labelled ‘USDA’. If I type ‘green bell pepper raw’ I do get the non-user entry.

Seriously, I’m okay with not logging. I know the tricks. I still find it overly cumbersome. And I have the right to agree with someone else that finds it cumbersome.

It is listed as a "sweet pepper", not a "bell pepper". This makes it more inclusive. You obviously don't know all the tricks if you weren't able to figure that out.

Garsh, you is so smart and I is so dum. If only I's cud be more like u. :sad:

WendyTerry420

Obviously MFP is in cahoots with all the evil processed "big food" conglomerates and secretly they are brainwashing people to eat fast food and frozen dinners. Wake up and smell the Waffle Taco people!

:laugh:

SRS

WendyTerry420

I literally just found out yesterday that my phone has a scanner thing. So all this time I have been logging the old fashioned way.

I know about the scanner but I prefer to log on PC.


I don't know why. *shrug*

I'm the opposite, :laugh: I go to my phone if possible. I think it's just because it is what I am used to.

I haven't been able to use my scanner in awhile. Its all blurry and doesn't read it. I never bothered to see what the issue was or tried to fix it.

Maybe that's it. I started on PC and when I found the app I thought "oh, that's kinda cool" and then never used it again. Unless I have to change the amount in a recipe. :grumble:

And I'm one of those old fogies who only know how to PC and doesn't own one of those "take-it-everywhere" phones. :laugh:

WakkoW

Yes, 100% This is the reason I no longer log my food. When you eat a variety of home prepared foods from whole ingredients this site is not user friendly for logging meals.

I'm not really sure what you want. You're cooking your own foods and I assume these are recipes you're putting together, no?

What kind of website is available elsewhere that knows what's in your personal recipe before you input it?

All whole, unprocessed foods are available in the MFP database, but it can't preopoulate specific ingredients and amounts without user input. And if it could, I would be kind of frightened.

What do I want? Well, in my perfect world I would type in "green bell pepper" and have one entry come up and tell me the nutritional composition of the average green bell pepper.

There isn't a website available that will do that for you. However, I have bought green bell peppers that were the size of two apples and green bell peppers that were the size of a peach. So which one would be correct in your scenario?

Both. The entries would be by weight, of course.

ETA: actually there is a website that does that, but it does not allow logging.

So having it the first entry of several, and the only one marked as being non-user entered is too difficult for you?

If I type in "green bell pepper", approx. 104 entries come up. ALL have asterisks, 9 are labelled ‘USDA’. If I type ‘green bell pepper raw’ I do get the non-user entry.

Seriously, I’m okay with not logging. I know the tricks. I still find it overly cumbersome. And I have the right to agree with someone else that finds it cumbersome.

It is listed as a "sweet pepper", not a "bell pepper". This makes it more inclusive. You obviously don't know all the tricks if you weren't able to figure that out.

Garsh, you is so smart and I is so dum. If only I's cud be more like u. :sad:

If you say so.

It's okay that you don't feel the need to log. When I first started using this website, I was a bit confused too because it is so much easier when things are handed to me and organized in a way that is logical to me. Once you figure out the logic behind the entries, it really isn't all that cumbersome.

No_Finish_Line

the MFP database is user driven.

there for it is a reflection of users eating habbits.

the site doesn't promote anything other then the advertizements you see. I suggests a recommended calorie range. thats about it.

kgeyser

... Now if only the recipe builder would let me change ingredient quantities or copy recipes to alter (I cook similar things a lot), then I would be a very happy cook indeed.

That would be the most amazing thing! I hardly ever follow a recipe when I cook. (Which will happen once I get out of this "survival" mode and start cooking our meals again.) And that is the only problem I ever had, switching eggs for bananas, adding pumpkin, other substitutions. That's the only time I ever get annoyed with entering on MFP, though, as others have said, it really is just the nature of tracking calories.

+2. If any MFP techie people are reading this, I would love this as well. It's a pain to have to re-enter an entire macaroni and cheese recipe or lose the original recipe just because my regular brand of cheese wasn't available at the store and I had to use a different one.

geebusuk

Does anyone else fell like this site lends itself to prepackaged foods and/or commercial dining? It's easier to get nutritional information from those sources but you're really doing a disservice to your health!

So does a pen. Or a spreadsheet.

Care to explain why it would be "doing a disservice to your health" to include prepackaged food and/or commercial dining in your diet?

bcattoes

It's okay that you don't feel the need to log. When I first started using this website, I was a bit confused too because it is so much easier when things are handed to me and organized in a way that is logical to me. Once you figure out the logic behind the entries, it really isn't all that cumbersome.

You meant it really isn't all that cumbersome for you, which is awesome (not sarcasm). I found it cumbersome. Obviously, we have different levels of tolerance for this sort of thing. Maybe because I know I can do it without this tool. If I needed it, I suppose it would be worth more effort.

I feel I need MFP for fitness. The challenges and my friends keep me focused on that. But diet, I can do that on my own.

3dogsrunning

Does anyone else fell like this site lends itself to prepackaged foods and/or commercial dining? It's easier to get nutritional information from those sources but you're really doing a disservice to your health!

So does a pen. Or a spreadsheet.

Care to explain why it would be "doing a disservice to your health" to include prepackaged food and/or commercial dining in your diet?

I don't think the OP will care to explain, she deactivated a few pages back.

penrbrown

I am lazy. I admit it. I LIKE packaged foods because it's just QUICKER and EASIER to log them.

However, this site DOES have a recipe feature which DOES make it easier to track your food... if you're not a lazy butt, like me. :P

So no... I don't think the site caters to anything or anyone except those who want to track their food intake and exercise output.

kelly_e_montana

I don't feel that way, but I did feel that way about WW. That's why I quit WW and came over to MFP.

I get your point re MFP, OP. However, I concur with the person above and think most programs like WW are worse. When I was in WW, all they focused on was how to eat processed snack foods with less calories to get your treats in. I like that I have a holistic approach to eating now, and while it does take more time, I enter my own recipes into my data base and eat what I like/what's good for my body and soul.

DavPul

Does anyone else fell like this site lends itself to prepackaged foods and/or commercial dining? It's easier to get nutritional information from those sources but you're really doing a disservice to your health!

So does a pen. Or a spreadsheet.

Care to explain why it would be "doing a disservice to your health" to include prepackaged food and/or commercial dining in your diet?

I don't think the OP will care to explain, she deactivated a few pages back.

well i, for one, am totally shocked that the OP took the easy way out


.

SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish

Well feelings like this happen if you are being a lazy person. I freely admit its a pain in the *kitten* sometimes, and I get too lazy to put in accurate info. But that's because *I'm* too lazy to use the tool correctly.

The MFP database is another topic though, it could use major overhaul and the abilities to both "vote down" or alter bad entries so you don't see them anymore, and to change recipes easily to make things more convenient. Its still better than nothing, or finding and putting them all in myself, even though its infuriating that it wont allow me to be as lazy as I'd like and just click a few clicks and have my foods all there.

Again: if you do a little bit of work, its great, if you are too lazy to do it, maybe not so much. But that's all on you, not the tool. Maybe if you are feeling extra specially lazy, you could be tempted to eat something packaged just so you don't have to find and enter fresh components I guess. But I think that's an extreme in sloth right there. Sounds like this is you sometimes, so try what I do occasionally instead when I'm feeling extra lazy: find something similar you have eaten in recent foods (yes you still have to use your brain and analyze components and estimate portion sizes) and click the box next to an appropriate serving of that for the meal. Not perfect, but its better than eating something out of a container so that you dont have to find and log fresh food, and prevents you from having to take a minute or two to estimate/record weights in your head while preparing, or getting off the couch for a couple minutes to look/scan/enter.

DavPul

I literally just found out yesterday that my phone has a scanner thing. So all this time I have been logging the old fashioned way.

I know about the scanner but I prefer to log on PC.


I don't know why. *shrug*

App logging>>>>>>>>>than the PC for me. If only because it lets me easily search the foods i've already used instead of making me either go thru 4 pages of entries or search the entire database and try to get the right entry again.

This site is very odd in that certain things you can only do on the app, and certain things you can only do on the PC version. And after each app update, good luck finding the right button combo to send a FR from the app. It's not very convenient. Not convenient at all.

WakkoW

It's okay that you don't feel the need to log. When I first started using this website, I was a bit confused too because it is so much easier when things are handed to me and organized in a way that is logical to me. Once you figure out the logic behind the entries, it really isn't all that cumbersome.

You meant it really isn't all that cumbersome for you, which is awesome (not sarcasm). I found it cumbersome. Obviously, we have different levels of tolerance for this sort of thing. Maybe because I know I can do it without this tool. If I needed it, I suppose it would be worth more effort.

I feel I need MFP for fitness. The challenges and my friends keep me focused on that. But diet, I can do that on my own.

Anyone can do it without this tool. I've never been more than on the high side of my healthy weight. I do it because I find it interesting and fun and I have an interest of what I put in my body.

But you are being dishonest with yourself when you said that you figured out all the tricks, because you obviously didn't and got defensive when it was pointed out. I really wasn't trying to insult you.

AsaThorsWoman

MFP is a tool to use and you get out of it exactly what you put into it, if you are too lazy to weigh and log your food accurately who's fault is that? It takes me about 5 minutes to log my food for the day maybe 10 if I'm multitasking. Took me longer to backspace my snarky response to this than entering my food

I just glanced at a couple of days of your diary, but most of the foods were packaged foods which, as the OP pointed out, are easy to log.

I just glanced at a couple of days of your diary, but they were all blank.

Ad hominem, Ad hominem, ad hominem.

WakkoW

I literally just found out yesterday that my phone has a scanner thing. So all this time I have been logging the old fashioned way.

I know about the scanner but I prefer to log on PC.


I don't know why. *shrug*

App logging>>>>>>>>>than the PC for me. If only because it lets me easily search the foods i've already used instead of making me either go thru 4 pages of entries or search the entire database and try to get the right entry again.

This site is very odd in that certain things you can only do on the app, and certain things you can only do on the PC version. And after each app update, good luck finding the right button combo to send a FR from the app. It's not very convenient. Not convenient at all.

I agree that some things are easier on the PC and some easier on the app (like finding a previously used item). It is sort of funny.

geebusuk

I don't think the OP will care to explain, she deactivated a few pages back.

Bah - I at least checked she wasn't at 1 or 2 posts and that the post date wasn't a recently resurrected 3 year old necro thread .

Dayhiker

I have been totally impressed with the huge database and the ease of logging!! MUCH better than Weight Watchers e-tools and even much better than SparkPeople!