New Member--Database Practically Useless!

Cinflo58

I see you got a lot of smart *kitten* answers to your post. There are some knuckleheads on this site. The DB is usually pretty accurate. For scrambed eggs I would add one egg plus 1/2 tsp butter or margerine and whatever else you put in it. I would say 99% of the time it's accurate. And the scanner is pretty cool!

dfonte

I was just joking

mommamills

I've noticed that there is a message "nutritional information confirmed" and the number of members that have confirmed it so I use that information when making entries.

^^ this. I normally use the one with the most confirmations if I don't have the info in front of me to confirm myself. Then when I use the same thing again I just get it from my recent or most used and I know it's the same one I've already checked.

rachelleahsmom

Thanks for the info on scanning bar codes. I never knew how to do that!

BeachGingerOnTheRocks

Hi Pow. First, don't enter things like "scrambled eggs." You end up with nonsense.

Enter egg, butter amount, milk amount, how much oil.

Yes, more tedious, but you'll be more accurate. If you make the same thing all the time create a recipe called Pow's scrambled eggs. Enter the above, and DO NOT put it in the database. You can access it in your own recipe section and select it that way.

Welcome.

turkeyhunter60

I agree. It is just a guide.

FightTheFrump

Garbage in, garbage out. Some people enter bogus/incomplete nutritional info when creating a new item. But I find that to be pretty rare. I've tried several calorie counters and this one's the best. It's not perfect but I find it to be quite comprehensive.

And why bother trying to add something like "scrambled eggs" when people add all kinds of things to their eggs that will make the calorie count fluctuate? Why not go with adding the main ingredient: eggs? This entry is much more reliable. Then add anything you like. I make mine with a small amount of olive oil. So I could create an item for myself that contains just those ingredients. And I will always know it's accurate because I created it.

I think it's helpful to keep the wrappers to your food items. So much easier to scan with your phone. Also way easier to add new food items on the phone than online. I don't know why. It just is.

powrwrap

Hi Pow. First, don't enter things like "scrambled eggs." You end up with nonsense.

Enter egg, butter amount, milk amount, how much oil.

Yes, more tedious, but you'll be more accurate. If you make the same thing all the time create a recipe called Pow's scrambled eggs. Enter the above, and DO NOT put it in the database. You can access it in your own recipe section and select it that way.

Welcome.

Yep, this is going to be my usual procedure from now on. I was doing it for a lot of stuff already. In a previous life I was a semiconductor researcher that weighed metallic elements to 4 decimal places, so I tend to be a bit anal when recording numbers!

greatmom2

I do use the scanner feature a lot but sometimes the original food packaging with the scannable data isn't available. Like you buy a brick of cheese, throw away the packaging and put it in a zip-lock bag.

We do this as well (put opened item in ziplock & throw original packaging away). I do not have a phone with these apps, but I do have an idea for those that do.
If you throw away the packaging, maybe cut out the barcode and tape it to the ziplock bag for future scannings. Might take a little extra time, but if the nutritional information is more accurate and easier that way, it might be worth the extra effort.
Just an idea!

FTClown

What do other members do to get accurate calorie and nutrition counts?

I SCAN everything.
No need to guess or to google a random number which is probably not right anyways, just scan it.

Eggs for example, my eggs from publix a70 cals, but winn dixie show 76cals

Just SCAN whatever you eat and you will be fine.

**When you go out to eat, ask what the cals and such are for your meal, if they dontknow you eating at the wrong place, but letssay you have zero way of scanning, thats when you google it, butonly then.

NinjaJinja

I had a much bigger problem with chicken breast. There's an option for the calories for the "yield of 1 lb" of chicken breast and it is GROSSLY low on calories. Like it says 132 calories for 1 lb of chicken breast. In reality a pound of chicken breast is 500 calories! Very annoyed when I figured out that the calories in my recipes were being grossly underestimated and I had likely been overeating the entire time!

I've also had trouble finding the entries for full fat things. Like cream cheese. I just wanted to enter regular, full fat cream cheese. Almost every single entry was for reduced fat cream cheese. UGH.

If I could enter my own nutritional information I would, but so far I haven't figured out how to do that.

cordianet

Most foods from the USDA is already in the database. If you notice at the bottom it says " * = Nutritional information provided by another MyFitnessPal member"

So look for foods that don't have the * next to it.

This. Everything else is user entered.

Taraanne76

I haven't read all the posts but in regards to generic items, they usually just list calories and not any macros. I like to see how I'm doing with those too.

Wynterbourne

You should just read the nutrition labels on your food and enter it in that way. The database isn't perfect, but people eat a lot of different things and enter them in. If you have the app you can also scan barcodes. Which is accurate. Where there is a will there's a way.

The scanner isn't always accurate. My bottle of Fuze iced tea came up as a chicken wrap.

Also, people use different ingredients to make things (like your scrambled eggs, for example), so if you're not looking up a whole or pre-packaged food, you should just enter the ingredients separately, or create a recipe or meal so you have it for the next time.

Scan it again. That has happened to me too, but if I scan it again it will usually come up correct. I think it may misread on the fist attempt. But if the nutrition info is on the back of the item and the barcode doesn't work a manual search will still produce the right one - just match up the calories and macros!

I did scan it again, because I wanted to show my friend how it worked.

Never never never scan the barcode and hit enter without checking what comes up. I scanned preserved mango with chili yesterday and it came up as a MacDonald's mango pineapple shake. And yes, I also scanned it again... and again... I scanned it four times and every time it came up as a shake. Not the first time something completely different has come up. The scanner is awesome, but not perfect. Always double check.

Inshape13

I just seem to find that people enter the item into the database regardless if it is in there alot of other times which is irritating. Normally what I do is enter in the item and then adjust the size to hit the correct calories based on label information or I save the correct listing under my foods so that it is easily accessed.

runrunjohnny

Most foods from the USDA is already in the database. If you notice at the bottom it says " * = Nutritional information provided by another MyFitnessPal member"

So look for foods that don't have the * next to it.

That's one feature request I'd like to see: a check-box to filter out the *entries

RedHotRunner

I've noticed that there is a message "nutritional information confirmed" and the number of members that have confirmed it so I use that information when making entries.

I wouldn't go by how many people confirmed something, either. I looked up a food that was confirmed by 13 people, and I knew there was no way the numbers were right (and according to the package they were not). If you find something that isn't correct, you can edit it in the database where you would confirm the information. Just say "no" and it will give you the option to edit.

One thing to know is that the nutritients also vary by location. A lean cuisine in California might have a different number of calories than the same lean cuisine in New York. That's why some will confirm the calories, but it will be different than what your package says.