The totals of my calories showing wrong number

xMidox
xMidox Posts: 42 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello everybody,
This the first post for me here but I have tried to search first on my topic but I can't find something smilier or maybe I am searching wrong!

Anyways, at the end of my dairy page it shows me the total of my calories for that day is 1,594 however in my calculation it should be 2139. and that's because I have on that day 191 Carbs, 75 fat, and 175 of protein. Please advise how myfitnesspal is doing the counting?

Here is my details in case it helps you do the math:
174 CM
Wight: 75 KG
Activities: 5 days a week
My target is to reach to 10% of body fat. I think I am around 15:18 now

Replies

  • servilia
    servilia Posts: 3,452 Member
    I've seen others comment that the macro counts seem to be off sometimes. I guess individual database entries can be off.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,048 Member
    Did you log exercise? Because the 'total' is your goal minus and calories you have recorded as burnt.
  • xMidox
    xMidox Posts: 42 Member
    Thanks guys for the reply but I think the problem on the way it counting calories in each meal. for example my 2nd meal include 44 of carb, 0 fat and 1 gram or protein. so it should be (44*4) + (0*9) + (1*4) = 180 calories. however it shows me for this meal 101 calories only!! i am getting crazy here!!
  • Yooperm35
    Yooperm35 Posts: 787 Member
    if you made your diary public, we could see what you are seeing
  • thisismeraw
    thisismeraw Posts: 1,264 Member
    It could be that the numbers entered into the database for whatever foods you selected are wrong. The majority of entries in the food database are from users. If they have entered a wrong calorie amount, fat amount etc it can throw off your calculations.
  • meaningful99
    meaningful99 Posts: 174
    .
  • TimeForMe99
    TimeForMe99 Posts: 309
    On the second meal, either the calories or carbs are wrong on the pineapple. Post workout, the salmon is incorrect - I suspect it's the fat grams.

    The math won't always work but it should be close. Non-soluble fiber, such as found in grains and vegetables, is included as carbs but not calories. Also, alcohol calories aren't part of the macros.
  • xMidox
    xMidox Posts: 42 Member
    if you made your diary public, we could see what you are seeing

    it is already public
  • xMidox
    xMidox Posts: 42 Member
    On the second meal, either the calories or carbs are wrong on the pineapple. Post workout, the salmon is incorrect - I suspect it's the fat grams.

    The math won't always work but it should be close. Non-soluble fiber, such as found in grains and vegetables, is included as carbs but not calories. Also, alcohol calories aren't part of the macros.


    Yes you are right about the Salmon, there is definitely something wrong about it, it shoes me it contains 60 of Fats and the total calories is only 130!! that doesn't make any sense to me.

    Shall i just concentrate on the total of my protein, carbs and fat I should take every day and forget about the total of the calories since is not accurate or what? please guys i need some serious help from the expert here!
  • Hotsauce16
    Hotsauce16 Posts: 5 Member
    I also count macros, and have noticed the same issue. I think there may be a few different reasons for the discrepancy in calories vs macros. The site goes by calories that users have entered and does not add up macronutrient amounts. Also, fiber is often uncounted in the calorie totals with products here in california. So if your getting a decent amount of fiber, that will probably account for a good number of the mismatch in calories
  • Hotsauce16
    Hotsauce16 Posts: 5 Member
    Yes, stick to your macros and ignore the calories.
  • MysticRealm
    MysticRealm Posts: 1,264 Member
    Thanks guys for the reply but I think the problem on the way it counting calories in each meal. for example my 2nd meal include 44 of carb, 0 fat and 1 gram or protein. so it should be (44*4) + (0*9) + (1*4) = 180 calories. however it shows me for this meal 101 calories only!! i am getting crazy here!!

    Maybe I am dumb but your macros are counted in grams and have nothing to do with your calorie count. Calories are one thing and the weight of your macros is something totally different (someone correct me if I am wrong)
  • Hotsauce16
    Hotsauce16 Posts: 5 Member
    Mystic, his math is correct. The three macronutrients; carbs, proteins and fats are what we use to calculate calorie count of specific items. The grams into which he is referring to has nothing to do with weight. When it comes to calculating calories 1 gram of carbohydrate = 4 calories, one gram of fat = 9 calories and 1 gram of protein= 4 calories. For example if you had a fun size candy bar and the calories = 96, the calculation was made by the following
    4g of fat = (4 x 9) = 36calories
    11g of carbs= (4 x 11)= 44calories
    4 grams pf protein= (4 x 4) = 16calories.
    Add them all together and you get 96 calories. I hope this makes sense
  • xMidox
    xMidox Posts: 42 Member
    Is there is no one from the Admins here can explain to us what is going on.
    See, it seems the calculation is not working fine but that with not all the product. another example you can see on my public dairy, i added a 3oz of chicken breast and it contains 16g protein and 1g fat, so the count should be 73 calories and it shows me right, but the question is why this is not happening with the other stuff? also i can notice that most of the supplements like protein shakes and stuff like that are right with the calories number!
  • xMidox
    xMidox Posts: 42 Member
    You guys gived up on me? :)
  • watfordjc
    watfordjc Posts: 304 Member
    MFP does not itself calculate calories. The 4 things most people enter when creating a food are calories, total carbs, total fats, and protein. MFP then uses the calories it has, divided by servings per pack (if applicable), multiplied by number of servings (or serving size). It does the same with carbs, fats, proteins, sodium, etc. One thing that is most often incorrect (i.e. from what I've seen if anything is incorrect it probably this) is sodium: for example, 1.1 salt grams is entered as 1.1 milligram (or 1,100 milligram) sodium instead of (the correct) 440 milligrams sodium. The majority of entries are accurate though.

    You can modify the food and it'll be added to your my foods list (and you can share the changes). That will create a new food, so you'd have to delete past entries of the old food entry and re-add with the new food entry (did it once after the fat content in walnuts was so far off it was making it look like my diet was 70% fat). OTOH, if you are using the generic entries entered by MFP themselves, I'm not sure if there is a way to alert them of something being incorrect so they can fix it.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help/section/1-food-diary-and-food-database - see "Can I edit incorrect nutritional info for a food in the database?"

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