Stop lying about nutritional info or supporting the lie

tinaruby

Can you only correct it on the computer? I generally only use the mobile app. and have never seen that option.

obifatkanobi

What's even worse is when you enter a specific food correctly, and it is edited to an incorrect calorie amount.

MEWC

Well if you have a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich at home, you can make a reduced calorie version. I make a homemade Egg Mc Muffin with a poached egg and 100 calorie English muffin. That's under 200 calories. Occasionally I add 1/2 slice of cheese, so it's a little more. If I added a 1/2 piece of bacon, it wouldn't get too crazy calorie-wise either.

I make smoothies that are very low calorie, but again I make them at home, and am not buying them in a smoothie place where I don't control the ingredients.

Yep, I make a bacon egg & cheese sandwich at home several times a week for 220 cals, a small deli sandwich for lunch for 170 cals, etc. All about adjusting the ingredients...making things myself end up being cheaper and healthier

birdlover97111

I think the issue isn't really how many calories is in a cup of pasta as much as how much is a cup of pasta. Let's face it, even if you are eating the most decadent pasta dish, but you stick to 1 cup, you are not taking in an ergregious amount of calories. The problem is - no one sticks to one cup. They eat 3 or 4 and log 1 cup.

^-^ You can't say "no one" unless you including yourself....Some of us out there are honest with our diaries...Just sayin'...

confuzzledwife

ah.. I noticed the calories were off on something I was going to add into my food diary last night! I always check the calories before I eat something, so even if I do have take out I will look at the restaurants take out nutrition info first. Some people may just not know and assume what's put in here is easier or correct than getting the info themselves.. hopefully they will look now!

PeaceCorpsKat

I think the issue isn't really how many calories is in a cup of pasta as much as how much is a cup of pasta. Let's face it, even if you are eating the most decadent pasta dish, but you stick to 1 cup, you are not taking in an ergregious amount of calories. The problem is - no one sticks to one cup. They eat 3 or 4 and log 1 cup.

I don't even know if people realize they are doing this. i think they really believe that a bowl is a cup.

I try very hard to measure everything. And I use both a scale and measuring cups.

But sometimes it is really difficult, esp when you are eating things like nuts and fruit - where it isn't premeasured and there is a lot of space/variability in size.

I wish I understood all this better and that portion sizes match up with real life. A cup of pasta? Really? What does that even look like? I just guess most of the time.

About a year ago, I decided to portion out a few thing I eat often to see if I was guessing right. To my surprise, I was overestimating by a lot. So, I was counting rice, for example, as a cup, when it was closer to 1/2 cup...things like that. I was pretty far off, but in the other direction.

I think I'm pretty good at estimating now. Once you see how a cup of rice looks on you plate, it's easy recognize how much it is. I use my hands too. Like an amount about the size of my fist is about a cup. A serving of protein is generally the size and thickness of your palm, minus the fingers. Etc.

My point exactly.

I bought lots of little glass containers, like tupperware, that are in standard sizes - 1 cup - 2, etc. So I know when I measure 1/2 cup of greek yogurt that i will fill half of the container. This has really been helping.

I am better able to visualize how much I am eating, but I still feel better measuring most stuff I eat.

JacksMom12

Meshed=measure. Stupid phone, wouldn't let me edit for some reason.

agthorn

If you see something where the nutritional info is not right, fix it. Otherwise aren't you kind of "supporting the lie" too?

How do you fix it? I would love to, but I have only been able to create yet another entry.

I hate pulling up the info only to find that it was entered incorrectly, makes me paranoid specially when I can't find something in writing, like at a restaurant. :-) Sometimes I go back to the basics and add in individual ingredients then add it as my own meal just to avoid inaccuracies. Sad, I know, but I want it to be right... lol

Click on any food you just searched for. There's a blue box on the right where you enter the quantity to add to your diary. Under the title of the item, there's a link that says "nutritional info". Click on it, it will bring up a new box with all the nutritional information. In that box it says "Is this data accurate?" and there are two big buttons that say Yes and No. If you click yes, you will increase the "confirmed by x members" count. If you click no, it will change to say "To correct the information for this food, click here:" and there is a big edit button. Click the edit button, and you can correct the nutritional information.

PeaceCorpsKat

I think the issue isn't really how many calories is in a cup of pasta as much as how much is a cup of pasta. Let's face it, even if you are eating the most decadent pasta dish, but you stick to 1 cup, you are not taking in an ergregious amount of calories. The problem is - no one sticks to one cup. They eat 3 or 4 and log 1 cup.

^-^ You can't say "no one" unless you including yourself....Some of us out there are honest with our diaries...Just sayin'...

Oh sweetie I am certainly including myself. I try extremely hard to log things correctly, but I am honest, it is really easy to underestimate the amount that I eat. I find it extremely difficult in resturants and places where I am removed from my trusty scale and measuring cups.

And obviously, I speak in generalizations. Of course there are some people who log perfectly.

Don't take such combative defence to that generalization. I am sorry you were offended.

Congratulations on doing so well.

BrienJD

I "generally" take the info on MFP at face value, a few cals here or there are not going to change things too much in the grand scheme of things, but if it sounds WAY to good to be true.....I check. Although I am doing my best to stay under, it is not a life or death equation. There are days when I have a large margin of error and some where I push the envelope to the limit. Take the info with a grain of salt (pun intended) correct it if you can. I beleive they have posts in the technical section (I think) about how to correct itens.

marsellient

Like other posters I always double check the info. I have spent a bit of time entering my recipes so I can have an accurate count for myself. At the bottom of the page where you do this, there's an option to share with the database or not. I always choose not to for this very reason. If the name of my recipe shows up in the database how is anyone else supposed to know what's in my frittata or honey mustard salad dressing, for example. Perhaps a little tutorial when people join the site would be helpful?

That said, if you're careful the database is way better than any other I've seen, easy to use, and it's also easy to adjust the measurements once you find what you're looking for.

Oh, amd measure, measure, measure!

Mary1757

Sometimes the web site is off. I found a place where the info paper at the restaurant had been update 6 months later then the website and several items had gone up in calories.
I have index cards made up with all the nutrition info on them. One binder for fast food places and one for food eaten at home. That helped me a lot when I started. I do change info that I see is wrong on this site. I use only cups info but put grams also for the people keeping track that way.

chattipatty2

I ALWAYS go to the website of the restaurant in another tab and compare to the MFP. Thank you for making others aware of this - I've made many corrections and saved to "My Food".

For raw foods, you want to check the USDA Nutrient Database or nutritiondata.self.com.

So look up USDA pork chop or chicken or whatever? Because the calorie fluctuations on meat here are incredibly variable!

slkehl

Interesting. I'm new to mfp so I didn't realize anyone could add stuff. I ran into that yesterday. I got a burger from a mom and pop place and was looking for something comparable. I saw the calorie counts for ones from 5 guys and couldn't believe it haha! I knew my burger definitely wasn't that low in calories

cressievargo

I always cross-reference items that just don't seem right, or something I've never logged before, especially if I don't have the packaging handy to refer to.

I also correct the listings when I find errors.

ETA: My personal peeve about it is when people enter their entire meal. "Ham sandwich with wheat bread mayo and cheese". Really? You couldn't look up each item individually?

wackyfunster

Five Guys isn't even that good... I bet I could make a better tasting burger and fry for less calories. If you think something is too good to be true, look it up on google or the restaurant's website. Change MFP database entries when you discover they aren't correct and move on in life.

Blasphemy! Five guys is a staple food for my rest days! Hamburger (2 patties) with onion, grilled onion, ketchup, and mustard for 700 calories, with a pretty good fat/protein/carb breakdown (for a buger)... how can you go wrong?!

Agree with OP though, went to La Madeleine yesterday and had to correct the 'confirmed' entries for EVERYTHING I ate their, as they were ~30-40% less than what the website nutrition said they should be. That "600" calorie meal? 1200 calories.

Athijade

I always cross-reference items that just don't seem right, or something I've never logged before, especially if I don't have the packaging handy to refer to.

I also correct the listings when I find errors.

ETA: My personal peeve about it is when people enter their entire meal. "Ham sandwich with wheat bread mayo and cheese". Really? You couldn't look up each item individually?

If someone eats the sandwich the same way, then I don't blame them for putting it in as a recipe. I have done that for a couple of items. Now, should they be sharing that into the database? That is questionable. I do not do so as it is for MY personal use.

Honestly, I have not had that much of an issue with it. If something is wrong, I use another one. I once ran across an entry for a large egg at 140 calories. Either that is one huge egg or they did something horrible to the poor thing! I just laughed and found a correct entry.

KeriA

What would help is if you could see what the calories attributed to the item before you added it instead of afterwards. Then you could choose the closest to what you are trying to log. I agree many aren't lying just accepting when they use something. However if I add something into the data base I make sure I am using good information. However I don't add that much since we have alot of duplication as it is. Sometimes there is a duplicate set for misspelled items.

KareninCanada

What would help is if you could see what the calories attributed to the item before you added it instead of afterwards. Then you could choose the closest to what you are trying to log. I agree many aren't lying just accepting when they use something. However if I add something into the data base I make sure I am using good information. However I don't add that much since we have alot of duplication as it is. Sometimes there is a duplicate set for misspelled items.

Click on the little blue link "nutritional information" and it will let you preview the info, as well as confirm or edit it.

Hopelessbird

Omigosh. I really wanted to go to the 5 guys that just opened a few miles away from my house. So last week, I exercised extra hard everyday just to burn enough calories for a cheeseburger and fries (burned over 2000 calories and 6+ hours of cardio) . Over all it was suppose to be a ~1500 calorie lunch but I only ate half. My net calories during my cheat day was still under 1200.


I started planning my meals and logging them first. Then adjusting the actual portion I ate. So if I had a little bit too much during lunch, I will have a cucumber salad and soup for dinner.

paj315

I ALWAYS go to the website of the restaurant in another tab and compare to the MFP. Thank you for making others aware of this - I've made many corrections and saved to "My Food".

For raw foods, you want to check the USDA Nutrient Database or nutritiondata.self.com.

Basically if an entry has an * beside it in the database, I check it out to verify it. Those ones are entered by users, and can be notoriously wrong.

Yep I do the same thing.

BarbWhite09

Maybe the person wasn't educated enough...Maybe they mistakenly put the wrong info... Instead of getting on here & ranting, just change the info. I end up changing wrong info all the time...Not going to get on here and call people liars because they put some wrong info.

lovelee79

Yes the info on MFP drives me crazy, I've seen some ridiculous entries ....so I ALWAYS correct the info on here... you're welcome ! :flowerforyou: smooches !! :smooched: :bigsmile: :smooched: :bigsmile:

stablesong

I have seen "two crispy chicken fingers" for 60 calories, 4 oz pot roast for like 120, stuff like that. Crazy.

I have also seen overestimates. I eat breakfast Lean Pockets sometimes, (don't judge, I know they're gross) and every entry I could find had them at 270 when they are actually 180 according to the packaging. I usually try to enter my own so I can correctly log but it's so hard to get past the "duplicate entry" thing.

KellyBurton1

I had corrected something in particular one time only to come back and find it back to the same way again a while later. I see it all the time and you can correct it if you like but I gave up. Its impossible to sit down and correct everything. My advise is to double check your package, measure your food properly or even use google.

iridescentpink

New to this site...but went to add a coffee with lite milk and 1sugar, and guess what..the nutritional info said it had 0 sugar. Hmmm I will have to be careful!

Zichu

I think I've only corrected one thing and that was because the sodium wasn't put in probably. The person put the amount of grams of sodium and didn't calculate it as milligrams lol.

Some foods I have added myself and I hope they are correct. Such as the Schwartz Beef and Beer Stew with Herb Dumplings. I looked on there website and there weren't any nutritional information on there about this recipe. So I had to follow the recipe and use the ingredients as my guide. The recipe serves 4 people and it came at about 293kcal per serving without the Dumplings. You can make about 8 Dumplings from the recipe and 1 dumpling is about 92kcal.

castadiva

I find it annoying that some items are entered with ONLY the calorie count. No Protein, Carbs, Sugars or Sodium??? REALLY? Come on... ig you're going to add something to the MFP list pleeeeeese put in ALL the info. I've gotten to where I carry the pkd or box or label with me, until I can get to the computer & CHECK the Macros b4 I enter it to my MFP Diary. I WANT TO KNOW all the other stuff too, and if you fudge on what goes into your body (& the diary) then how can you tell what is orking or what isn't working? Yeah, imho, of course... J

Problem is, if you're making things from scratch or they don't come out of a box/bag etc (bread from a local bakery, for example) a lot of this information isn't readily available. Also, for many people. the important thing is the calorie count (that is what this website is advertised as, after all) and they pay little or no attention to the macro information unless they have a specific reason to do so.

To the OP, I think it's harsh and rather unfair of you to assume that people are 'lying' deliberately about the calorific content of foods. Misinformation abounds, and people can easily misunderstand or misread labelling, especially when nutritional information is provided not per serving but per 100g or similar.. For example, I picked up a bag of dried fruit the other day in a hurry, read the calorie count on the front, and only later saw the small print that said the count provided was for half the packet, rather than the whole, as I reasonably assumed of a snack-size packet. Mistakes do get made - it's human.

creative1981

I guess I'm guilty. I never double check. I just accept it. I assume people don't lie.

Up until now me too!

m60kaf

Really people a bacon ,egg and cheese sandwich for 200 calories!? wake up!

LOL

I always sanity check the info - another thing that gets me is a 'cup' wtf is a cup!!! if I eat 110g of food I put down 110g. Not 100g or 1/2 a cup!

I was fat because I kidded myself on a number of levels, fast metabolism, portion sizes, types of food, what I really need to weigh.

Along the way I have had lots of realisations about just how deluded I was.

I have a slowly simmering annoyance at people who are half way along their weight loss path moaning its failed/slowing etc. People who have succeed pointing out the fails on calories counting and portion control and them getting upset at the 'bluntness' and falling back into all the denial traps that make us fat.

Bottom line - you dont need to eat THAT much!