Accurate calorie count

Hljazzergal

I'd like your thoughts on if you think the calorie count on MFP is accurate? When I look up some items to see what the calories are I'm worried they are under what they are suppose to be.

bdur76

I operate on two rules, and it has served me well.

First is verify whatever I can to ensure accuracy.
Second is if I don't have a calorie count for something, I always use the highest calorie item similar to what I ate. This typically has the added bonus of steering me in the direction of better/healthier foods!

cmccorma

I operate on two rules, and it has served me well.

First is verify whatever I can to ensure accuracy.
Second is if I don't have a calorie count for something, I always use the highest calorie item similar to what I ate. This typically has the added bonus of steering me in the direction of better/healthier foods!

Agree! It drives me nuts that some top sirloin says 240 and another says 320. I tend to go with the higher estimates

quiltingducky

I usually take the calorie information right from the package and compare it to the database. Typically the calories I don't verify are veggies and eggs. Everything else - make sure it's got the right count and then confirm when entering so that it's correct for others too.

jeme3

If something seems way off, I'll google it and cross check against a few other sites.

Pebble321

Do you mean food or exercise?
If you're talking about exercise - it's an estimate. Look for other estimates if you want to cross check.

If you mean food - be aware that most of the entries in the database have been entered by MFP users. That means that there is no guarantee of their accuracy. Or it may be that the food is accurate, but has different recipe/info in different countries (I'm in Australia and some of our products go by the same name but have different nutritional info to US products).
One useful tip is to look for entries that don't have a * in front. These have been entered by MFP and should be pretty accurate.
For everything else- if it doesn't look right to you, check it with another entry or online.

alie001

I try my best to enter accurate information but I also have a life and don't have time to obbsess over MFP. I use it as a guide but I don't let it rule my life. My weight loss may be slower than others but I think my life is maybe fuller...not meant to sound *****y but rather to say the thing I like about MFP is it isn't rigid. It has a lot of space for real life.

melaniecheeks

You are never going to get it absolutely 100% accurate. Best to accept a margin in both food and exercise calories.

Nicolee_2014

It's not always right - I have yoghurt that has the calories on the back of the container per 170gms - type it into MFP & it's higher in cals by 10 but it's the exact same amount/brand/type etc. So yeah, it's not 100% obviously.

mareeee1234

Most branded things are the same, but with things that aren't actual brands like a homemade meal or a meal from a restaurant, I'll sometime google it to make sure...
I just did it then!.. Tonight my mum is making this Greek hot pot made with lamb chops, so I just googled "Lamb chops hot pot calories" and looked at about 5 different recipes and they all said between 230-280 calories per serve. So then I'll estimate from that, and quick add my calories, depending on how much I think I'm going to eat

melaniecheeks

That's one way - though bear in mind that if you quick add it'll just be the calories, you'll not get the protein or crabs etc.

nicleed

This is not an exact science. But seriously, if your yogurt/cereal/bread/whatever is a few calories off, does it really matter? Obsessively counting calories is unsustainable in the long run (for me anyway!)

HopetoFaith

I do use my iPad when tracking my food , so I just scan the barcode and its all there very quick and makes my life so much easier, I know I know not all have an I pad but who have try it its great.

hughtwalker

A few calories off would not matter - some of the entries are so far into La la land that I am think about seeking an alternative database. Does no one moderate the database?

janemem

Every time I come back from food shopping I'll enter the nutritional content from any food/drink that I know I haven't entered before. That way when it comes to logging my foods in the diary or entering a recipe I know that the calories are accurate. :drinker:

Rope_Jumper

Bear in mind it's the accuracy of the person who put the info in as well. You can have 5 foods listed as the same but depending on who fills it out you could have 5 different sets of numbers here.

Livestrong tries to verify and marks these accordingly...and they are still wrong.:grumble:

sannsk

I think the food calories are pretty accurate, and if i see a mistake, I just correct it.

The exercice calories that MFP calculates are, for me, sometimes waaay off... For example: "Walking, 3.0 mph, mod. pace, walking dog" for 20 min., gives me 91 calories... I don't even get that running the treadmill with my HRM...

So I just stopped entering it when I walk the dog...