Foods with calories WAY off????

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Inshape13
Inshape13 Posts: 680 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I went to Quik Trip today to get a cinnamon roll(calorie splurge for the week)....I eat half and throw the other half away immediately so I do not have THAT many calories. I planned ahead by checking the calories online and came up with 2 totals that were different-260 on one and then 390 on the other so I checked with the employee there and it is actually 440.

It was more than I anticipated because I was headed to the gym after that to work off the calories and it made me wonder how many other foods are off by calorie count that much because that could really add up if it is a lot of different foods. Soooooo, what foods have you seen with nutrition info that is that off???

Replies

  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
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    Yep - most of them are entered by members, so there's a chance for good old human error on entry. Plus, sometimes manufacturers change or tweak a recipe which changes the nutritional info, or people put the entry in for their own needs - I've seen them put a serving as "half a cinnamon roll" (just as an example) instead of putting the actual serving size and then logging it as half a serving in their own diaries, which is really tedious in my book - why share it with the whole community in the database if you're not going to put the proper info in? :tongue:

    So yes, always good to double check the actual label on the item whenever possible, and confirm if it's correct here on the website as well - that helps when you look something up and it's got 50 confirmations.
  • Eat2Win
    Eat2Win Posts: 123 Member
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    I have also found many items way off or the calories and the serving sizes didn't match, they were not entered in properly.
    Most foods, I enter my food choice to tally on my allowance and then I check the packages to be sure it's correct. Most things
    we eat will be redundant over time, but sometimes it's good to go online and check ahead if you have time. I have found all
    places I want to frequent have their nutrition online, except of course restaurants that are not chain.
    Don't rely on what others entered, always check with packages or online nutrition sites for chains to visit.
    Good Topic!!
  • lemmyhead
    lemmyhead Posts: 116 Member
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    I've had the same problem with Corn Thin Crackers....even using the barcode scanner on my iPhone app, I was taken to a bad database entry. It was telling me that each cracker was 100 calories, when I have another brand that each cracker is about 25 calories... Checking the ingredients frantically and boycotting the first brand, I did some research because I just knew that couldn't be right!

    Their kiloJoule numbers and ingredients were almost identical, so why the huge difference in calories?! I soon found another database entry for the product, with confirmations, and a much more realistic calorie count.

    It always pays to do some research, with new foods and the ones you thought you could always trust.
  • lemmyhead
    lemmyhead Posts: 116 Member
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    I have also found many items way off or the calories and the serving sizes didn't match, they were not entered in properly.
    Most foods, I enter my food choice to tally on my allowance and then I check the packages to be sure it's correct. Most things
    we eat will be redundant over time, but sometimes it's good to go online and check ahead if you have time. I have found all
    places I want to frequent have their nutrition online, except of course restaurants that are not chain.
    Don't rely on what others entered, always check with packages or online nutrition sites for chains to visit.
    Good Topic!!

    I also have problems with the serving sizes! For 2 years I have been on-and-off-again with MFP with varying successes...but I recently read some advice to log everything by weight....because your bananas and my bananas probably aren't the same! And your idea of a "medium sized" anything will most definitely be different to mine!

    I always thought I had a pretty good eye for these things, but reading that put it into a new perspective. My kitchen scales now live on the counter (instead of the back of a hard-to-reach cupboard) and when I serve a meal, my plate is on the scales.

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