Same food, different calories

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  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    Honey do you have scale?

    how would a scale help?
  • jwdieter
    jwdieter Posts: 2,582 Member
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    This is my current favorite entry: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/homemade-carrot-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting-52568881

    34-calorie serving of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting is possible, but woe to anyone just picking it as a standard carrot cake with cream cheese.

    Potassium tracking is a total crapshoot. Wildly variable and often simply not entered.
  • DoingThiisForMe
    DoingThiisForMe Posts: 31
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    Its not really an issue for me as i dont put in generic food like pizza slice.. i'd put in pizza hut large super supreme pizza.. i'd usually visit the website first or look at the package so i already have an idea, then click on a couple if they are mostly simular choose it...

    I stay away from homemade generic stuff like the cheesecake link posted above! Medium Banana, Large Banana etc you should pretty much already have an idea of the calorie content and how to define an item before you consume it imo...
  • MysticRealm
    MysticRealm Posts: 1,264 Member
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    There are odd times when I have this problem, but most of the time if I can't scan it I search for it by brand name. There is the odd time when it doesn't come up the same as what the packaging says in which case you can either add it, or you can choose something close and adjust the amount till it equals the cals it should. Such as I have tortilla shells that are 140 cals, and couldn't find one with the correct cal count (even when looking at the same brand). I did find one at 100 cals so I entered it that I had 1.4 of those so it came up to 140 cals.
  • JessieTangerine
    JessieTangerine Posts: 91 Member
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    What I hate is trying to put white onion and having to scroll through 40 subway sandwiches first. Or heaven forbid trying to do salt the few times I use it.

    I usually stick into the search something like "onion generic" and it cuts through all the other stuff you mentioned.

    Then woe to me every time I need to enter buttermilk. I always forget the wonderful word combination that allows me to skip the +100 entries of buttermilk pancakes. I wish there was some way to sort by MFP added versus user added
  • beachlover317
    beachlover317 Posts: 2,848 Member
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    Once you have the correct food/calories/info add it to your "my foods" tab. Then you are only sorting through your entries. This is def. a problem. I realized this week that the boneless chicken breast I've been using had the incorrect sodium and calories listed. :noway:
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    i cross check what the MFP database says against nutritionselfdata.com...
  • KBSwinger
    KBSwinger Posts: 160 Member
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    I'm learning that one of the things that really bugs me about tracking on here is that the same food item can be listed a hundred times with different calorie counts.

    And what really baffles me is that this isn't just putting "pizza" in and getting information from different varieties of pizza. It happens if I put in 1 oz. of pistachios or 100 grams of brown rice or 1/2 a medium banana

    I really don't think it should make a difference whether the nuts are Wonderful Brand or the generic Great Value brand from Walmart. Likewise, I really doubt there's something so different about whether the bananas are Dole or Chiquita.

    So, how do you figure out what entry to use for these items, and why are the calorie counts so different at times? It just doesn't make sense.

    I do not track for this specific reason. I rather watch my portions then pull my hair out with number crunching. Saying that though when I did track I would just take the average calories of the choices listed and pick the middle one.
  • honeylissabee
    honeylissabee Posts: 217 Member
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    Yes, I have a scale and I use it.

    I understand the differences when it comes to pizza or pancakes or even popcorn- to an extent. What I don't understand is the varying calorie counts for the same portion size of whole foods: dry roasted nuts, rice, apples, bananas, carrots, spinach, eggs, etc. I'm sorry, but it really should not matter if you bought your brown rice from the local grocery store or the Asian market. 100 grams of rice should have the same calories regardless.

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