How to add food not in the food bank?

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iamnotjerry
iamnotjerry Posts: 17 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have not been adding my meals other than breakfast and some lunch as I found the food in the food bank. But supper is more complex. Fish, vegetables, etc. Looking for tips. Thanks. George

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  • SorchaRavenlock
    SorchaRavenlock Posts: 220 Member
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    You can either add the ingredients separately, or if you eat that particular meal often you could create your own recipe. If the item you are looking for is not in the database at all, there is an option to add it yourself as well.
  • shelbyfrootcake
    shelbyfrootcake Posts: 965 Member
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    I add by the ingredients, not the meal 99% of the time.
  • saratf
    saratf Posts: 49 Member
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    Most ingredients are in the food bank (a surprising lot of them!). You can create meals with all of your different ingredients. I find that it works best to plan meals ahead of time and enter them before I cook. But sometimes I just remember what all went into the pot and enter the ingredients after dinner.
  • divinenanny
    divinenanny Posts: 90 Member
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    I enter all ingredients separately for a meal. However, I eat the same thing very often, so I copy from a previous date to today. When I freeze meals (usually a portion of what I had) I put the date on the container, so I know which MFP day to copy.
    I don't use recipes because then I can't see what each ingredient does for all the cals/fat/protein/carbs and such, and replacements are harder.

    When I cook I write down all totals of all ingredients, and then just divide them by the number of portions. What I might eat extra today will come off a portion for another day, so it evens out.
  • Lrdoflamancha
    Lrdoflamancha Posts: 1,280 Member
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    First off let me say that I used to live in Marin County and I love your name Second I find that the calorie counter at this site is not all that good. There is a heck of a lot of information in the data base that is put in by members and a lot of it has not been checked and is not accurate. If I have a question about a food I use Calorie Counter.com. The database there is more accurate and easier to use. That being said I love MFP and use it constantly. For the total weight loss package MFP is a giant leap forward. But the food database is very suspect here. Once I have gotten a number from Calorie Counter I then check the database on MFP if they are close to the same I just add the item in as quick calories.
  • iamnotjerry
    iamnotjerry Posts: 17 Member
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    First off let me say that I used to live in Marin County and I love your name Second I find that the calorie counter at this site is not all that good. There is a heck of a lot of information in the data base that is put in by members and a lot of it has not been checked and is not accurate. If I have a question about a food I use Calorie Counter.com. The database there is more accurate and easier to use. That being said I love MFP and use it constantly. For the total weight loss package MFP is a giant leap forward. But the food database is very suspect here. Once I have gotten a number from Calorie Counter I then check the database on MFP if they are close to the same I just add the item in as quick calories.

    Thank you for the information and I will check out Calorie Counter.com. MFP is a great tool. I am really watching my intakes of sodium, fats, cholesterol more than exact calories. According to MFP I am always way under each day. Having a better picture will help.

    Glad you appreciate the Jerry reference. It is the name of my website. I am a concert photographer.
  • T1mH
    T1mH Posts: 568 Member
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    If you have a smart phone and your using the MFP app you can scan things by the bar code. I get frustrated a lot not being able to find that I know are in the database because I've added them before. Most of the time I just scan the bar code with my phone and it's there. I've checked a lot of things against the label on the package and haven't found errors.
  • Holly_penguin
    Holly_penguin Posts: 149 Member
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    caloriecounter.net the dot com is inaccurate
  • iamnotjerry
    iamnotjerry Posts: 17 Member
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    If you have a smart phone and your using the MFP app you can scan things by the bar code. I get frustrated a lot not being able to find that I know are in the database because I've added them before. Most of the time I just scan the bar code with my phone and it's there. I've checked a lot of things against the label on the package and haven't found errors.
    I find that the best method, but now a lot of what I eat do not contain bar codes, such as veggies, fruits, fish.

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