dont trust entries for calories

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2

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  • leigh8679
    leigh8679 Posts: 19 Member
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    I've also found the food counts are sometimes off. I always check the label of whatever I eat. Since there are multiples of foods on here I can usually find the right one.
  • d2footballJRC
    d2footballJRC Posts: 2,684 Member
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    For exercise I use either my HRM and I have a bodymedia. I don't know how anyone can expect a mathmatical formula based off just your height and weight without any other data to be 100% accurate. If you want those to be accurate on here you need to get a HRM, fitbit, of bodymedia.. some device to make it more accurate.

    Food, yeah I try to avoid the ones that seem way too low.




    What is "bodymedia"? I know about HRM and own a fitbit but never heard of bodymedia before.



    Okay, I googled and found the body media site. Why would you need all three items? Which do you feel is most accurate? I would imagine a HRM but I find the fitbit is pretty accurate. I have been thinking about getting an HRM, which do you have/use? Thanks!

    I have a polar FT80 that I got before I got a bodymedia. I don't own a fitbit. Depends on your goals, I like lifting and the polar ft-80 was designed with weight lifting in mind and actually cut down on my time at the gym as it lowered my time between sets as I found I was resting too long. A great start out HRM is the FT7 by polar. I started with that HRM and loved it.

    I went with the bodymedia because I was curious what my total daily expenditure was, not just my workouts. I looked at both the fitbit and the bodymedia and I chose the bodymedia because of the sensors and I felt it would be a bit more accurate in the long run. I don't think any of the devices you can go wrong with. The big thing they are just tools, and we still need to be using them properly to get our weight loss!
  • donna_glasgow
    donna_glasgow Posts: 869 Member
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    I have stored all of my own foods and added my own entries onto MFP, I always know that my entered foods are exactly what it says on the lables of the foods I buy ... way too many entries here are totally off

    as for excercise, I only ever log half the work I do .. theres no way I can believe those numbers for some of the activities ...
  • Espressocycle
    Espressocycle Posts: 2,245 Member
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    I have found most of them to be correct, actually. It's tough with some packaged foods that come in many sizes though.
  • 3foldchord
    3foldchord Posts: 2,918 Member
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    even scanning my food labels myself is WRONG half the time!

    I often do a Quick Add of 50 to cover for it, and round down any cardio burn calories. I figure that should be good enough to even things out.
  • Pixi_Rex
    Pixi_Rex Posts: 1,676 Member
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    I have double checked ( when possible) the calorie content of many of the foods on here. Either people want to fool themselves or they are getting misinformation! Also the other way around... the exercise totals on here tend to say higher than an independent search , or the # on the machine when I am done. Find a site to double check against.

    Calories are also geographically different. I looked it up online one time because what I had in my hand didn't match what was in the data base, turns out the american food (I do not remember what it was ) had more calories the Canadian one as per the labels... so yes watch the labels.

    If I can't find what I am looking for than i just enter my own.

    As for the exercise totals - never used them, I have an HRM for that. I never trust the machine either - those things give either way to many calories burned or far to little calories burned.
  • bumblebums
    bumblebums Posts: 2,181 Member
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    Sure, but keep in mind that EVERYTHING on MFP is an estimate. This includes your BMR and TDEE, calorie burn from exercise (which depends on your weight and level of fitness and many other factors, so it can't be a single number for everyone), and foods. There was a nice article in the NYT about calorie labels being grossly inaccurate, when tested against one of them calorie burn machines.

    This is why it's silly to flip out about going "over" your MFP goal or consistently hitting it "under" by a few calories. There is a large margin of error in this process. But it works for many people, so I suspect it can't be that far off the mark when done consistently.
  • GoffGirl1029
    GoffGirl1029 Posts: 93 Member
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    I have taken to either scanning my foods or checking the entry against the label

    This. And as far as calories burned durin' exercise, I wear a HRM. May not be 100% accurate, but it's more accurate for me and the effort that I have put into that workout than estimation used for everyone.
  • Stdavis53
    Stdavis53 Posts: 233 Member
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    I agree with you on the food entries on here. I have seen raw almonds that go from 5 each all the way to 15 each. I personally don't enter my exercise on here though. I use a Fitbit and enter my exercise on the Fitbit website and allow it to auto transfer over here. While it might not be as accurate as a HRM, I truly believe it gives a much more accurate number than the general entries MFP gives.
  • NLKatherine
    NLKatherine Posts: 37 Member
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    curious - are you referring to packages foods with nutrition labels or things like fruits and veggies?
  • lbewley3
    lbewley3 Posts: 96 Member
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    It would be nice if you could add a food to your diary from the database search page. I will look for and find the accurate food in the database but when I go back to add to diary, I might not remember exactly which one was the one I found to be most correct. I also wish everyone would add the entire nutritional content from the food label, not just the calories. I hate when I add a food and it has 0 for carbs,fat,etc.
  • teelow22
    teelow22 Posts: 13 Member
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    When there are multiple entries for the same food, I usually pick the one that has the most confirmations. I also check most of the calories on the packaging against what is listed on MFP. I have found a few mistakes but usually the right one is there. It just takes some searching.

    For exercise, I go on the treadmill everyday. The calories list on my treadmill are usually higher than what is on MFP. But I figure MFP doesn't take into account incline levels plus I vary the pace and use handwieghts. So for calories burned I take an average of what is listed on MFP and my treadmill and try to stay somewhere around that. It seems to be working so far.

    I agree!! I also choose the most confirmations. If any of you find something and it is the same as what you have found - confim the entry!
  • KenosFeoh
    KenosFeoh Posts: 1,837 Member
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    How much of a discrepancy are you talking about? Most things I double-check are close enough - within 15 calories plus/minus. Only once did I get a ridiculously low value. A slice of bread showed up as 17 calories when it said 90 on the label. But there was another choice in the data base that matched the label.
  • trishmce
    trishmce Posts: 59
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    Pretty much everything is an estimate, food or exercise. I played with the numbers until I found an intake that allowed me to loose while I didn't eat my exercise calories--1570 is working for me now. I have that everyday, regardless of exercise. If I do something big like 2 or 3 hours of spin for a charity I go higher because I can feel I need it but it is usually the next day I have the hungry horrors.
    use them as guidelines not absolute truths.
  • loumaag
    loumaag Posts: 118
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    The right way to do this for food items is to first search and see if the correct entry is there, if so use it. If not, find the one that seems to be closest or the one without the "*" and if you are at the site (as opposed to the mobile app), then fix the entry. You are helping others when you do that. I would guess that I have corrected at least 100 different entries in the database since I started here last June. Fix rather than add; yesterday I tried to use the bar code scan to enter a Lean Cuisine meal I was having for lunch, the entry was wrong. I then searched for a named one (same meal) and found over 20 entries for the same meal and only one was matching the back of the package.

    Now as for the exercise entires, well that is a completely different matter. You cannot compare yourself to anyone else. The calories burned by me doing 20 minutes of this or that will not match anyone else. Your calorie burn is based on all your body entries (weight, age, sex, etc.) Personally I just let my FitBit take care of that anyway (unless I am doing something it cannot record correctly) so I don't enter exercise at all.

    ETA: Oh, and also, if you are referring to food items that don't have a label, then the place to look for the accurate information is here ==> http://ndb.nal.usda.gov
  • Puggles04
    Puggles04 Posts: 37
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    Use a heart rate monitor(HRM) for an accurate calories burned count.
  • CharlieOverby
    CharlieOverby Posts: 82 Member
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    This site list food, calories and all of their nutrients. The info is compiled by the uSDA

    http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/
  • quirkytizzy
    quirkytizzy Posts: 4,052 Member
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    I just wrote this exact sentiment in my food journal. I had 1 slice of Pepperidge Farm's Cinnamon Raisin Swirl bread (80 cals). Someone had marked 2 slices as 40.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    I have double checked ( when possible) the calorie content of many of the foods on here. Either people want to fool themselves or they are getting misinformation! Also the other way around... the exercise totals on here tend to say higher than an independent search , or the # on the machine when I am done. Find a site to double check against.

    Or get a HRM. Any database with exercise calories is just going to be an estimate of what the average Joe might burn. I think that would be a given considering calorie burn from exercise is a very person to person kind of thing given there are so many variable involved.

    I find the calories for food goods to be pretty accurate unless you're using someone's generic "Homemade Chicken Soup" or whatever...if it's an actual brand food product/ingredient, etc I find the numbers to be pretty accurate...I come across something now and then that is off, but rare.
  • IslandRider
    IslandRider Posts: 244
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    When there are multiple entries for the same food, I usually pick the one that has the most confirmations. I also check most of the calories on the packaging against what is listed on MFP. I have found a few mistakes but usually the right one is there. It just takes some searching.

    For exercise, I go on the treadmill everyday. The calories list on my treadmill are usually higher than what is on MFP. But I figure MFP doesn't take into account incline levels plus I vary the pace and use handwieghts. So for calories burned I take an average of what is listed on MFP and my treadmill and try to stay somewhere around that. It seems to be working so far.

    I agree!! I also choose the most confirmations. If any of you find something and it is the same as what you have found - confim the entry!

    ^^This. I also use the edit button and update the values to match the package if they are off. I figure the more people do this, the more accurate the database will get.

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