Appeal: Please use serving size as grams

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  • ksuh999
    ksuh999 Posts: 543 Member
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    I agree!!!! I mean, when I see 1 cup or half a cup, it drives me crazy! I don't know how big your cup is!
    Thank you for bringing this up!

    I don't know where you're from, but I'm hoping that it's not a place in the world where 1 cup = 8 fl oz.

    I also like to weigh my food . . . in ounces, which is a smaller unit for a pound. I renounce your grams.

    ^^^This. My scale weighs in ounces, I hate it when items are listed in grams. My cup is also a measuring cup.

    An ounce is 28g. 16oz per pound. Therefore, a pound is 448g.
    I'll be pedantic and say that 1lb is actually closer to 454 grams (453.592 grams)
  • ragingmrs
    ragingmrs Posts: 34
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    [/quote]
    Apparently it is hard. That's actually not universal (the conversion to grams). For example, a cup of water is 236 grams. One cup of condensed milk is about 306 grams.
    [/quote]

    That is because items have a volume and a weight. A cup is 8 fluid ounces which is by volume where as depending on the density of what you are measuring it may not weigh 8 ounces by weight.

    As demonstrated in the above quote grams are purely a weight. So unless you are converting from ounces by weight instead of fluid ounces the conversion will most likely not be correct.
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
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    I don't think it needs to be in one unit of measure. I just think there should be something that allows people to choose their own measurements. The LoseIt app does that so MFP can too.
    myplate also does this. If someone enters a unit of measurement, it uses conversions to list a bunch of units to choose from. I understand not listing grams and converting it to cups since it depends on what it is, but listing volume measurements with volume measurements and weight measurements with weight measurements can be done. I don't want to sit down and think how many grams are in my lb of wings. I don't want to sit down and think how many tablespoons are in several cups. It's primitive but not everyone here has the same education, and it could be done for speed and efficency and cuts down on a lot of the quadrouple entries we have. They advertise it as a large database, but they fail to mention they list the same thing over and over because the units may change.
  • sunshyncatra
    sunshyncatra Posts: 598 Member
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    Hmmm... If I can't find something the way I like to record it, I adjust or add a new entry. I don't care if there are ten entries for a box of shells & cheese. I know that I eat 1/3 of a box because of the way I serve it to my family of three. Calories are not an exact science anyway.
  • laceylucas86
    laceylucas86 Posts: 120
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    I agree!!!! I mean, when I see 1 cup or half a cup, it drives me crazy! I don't know how big your cup is!
    Thank you for bringing this up!

    uh....a cup is a unit of measure. one cup = one cup.

    THIS! HA HA :)
  • Bry_Fitness70
    Bry_Fitness70 Posts: 2,480 Member
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    I agree, either kgs or ozs, not cups.
  • ksuh999
    ksuh999 Posts: 543 Member
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    I agree!!!! I mean, when I see 1 cup or half a cup, it drives me crazy! I don't know how big your cup is!
    Thank you for bringing this up!

    uh....a cup is a unit of measure. one cup = one cup.

    THIS! HA HA :)
    It makes me sad because it tells me that person doesn't cook from scratch.
  • sealet
    sealet Posts: 2 Member
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    I don't think it needs to be in one unit of measure. I just think there should be something that allows people to choose their own measurements. The LoseIt app does that so MFP can too.
    myplate also does this. If someone enters a unit of measurement, it uses conversions to list a bunch of units to choose from.

    A few of the admin generated entries in the food database are like that (see gruyere cheese) while the user generated entries tends to be a total mess (one medium zucchini). Shouldn't be too hard to consolidate a lot of the entries. Just a lot of effort.
  • woodwardtm
    woodwardtm Posts: 361 Member
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    I agree!!!! I mean, when I see 1 cup or half a cup, it drives me crazy! I don't know how big your cup is!
    Thank you for bringing this up!

    One cup = 8 oz
    1/2 cup = 4 oz.

    Standard unit of measure in the USA
  • peeaanuut
    peeaanuut Posts: 359 Member
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    I agree!!!! I mean, when I see 1 cup or half a cup, it drives me crazy! I don't know how big your cup is!
    Thank you for bringing this up!

    1 cup = 8 oz (or 226.796 grams)
    1/2 cup = 4 oz (or 113.398)

    It ain't that hard.

    I personally find it rather annoying when I measure something in ounces then have to go back and figure out the grams.

    Math is hard

    findx.gif
    Apparently it is hard. That's actually not universal (the conversion to grams). For example, a cup of water is 236 grams. One cup of condensed milk is about 306 grams.

    Those are both 2 different types of measurements. You are comparing volume to mass. Of course they dont compare.
  • jayb0ne
    jayb0ne Posts: 644 Member
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    I weigh my food in grams a lot. I also use pre-packaged measures like '1 pizza' - and I definitely wouldn't weigh something like an apple or a tomato, I just want to log one apple or 6 cherry tomatoes..

    I notice that some items (generally the things added by MFP rather than users) have a bunch of different units of measure. So for sweet red peppers for example, I can add a small, medium or large one (with guides on diameter), or I can add a cup of sliced sweet red pepper etc.

    Can't we have it so every item can have multiple units of measure? Grams, Oz, Cups, units, servings, etc...

    Jay
  • cutchro
    cutchro Posts: 396 Member
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    I am on the opposite spectrum as you. I don't weigh out my food on a gram scale (sanity reasons for this). So if all the foods in the database were listed only by grams I wouldn't be able to calculate. I have to accept that different people prefer things different ways.
    I think restricting folks who are trying to do a good thing for themselves because it doesn't fit how you want to do that good thing for yourself is not the right answer.

    Pip

    ^^This sometimes I get frustrated because an item is only listed in grams... thankfully my scale converts from ounces to grams with the touch of a button.
  • Mustangsally1000
    Mustangsally1000 Posts: 860 Member
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    I agree!!!! I mean, when I see 1 cup or half a cup, it drives me crazy! I don't know how big your cup is!
    Thank you for bringing this up!

    I don't know where you're from, but I'm hoping that it's not a place in the world where 1 cup = 8 fl oz.

    I also like to weigh my food . . . in ounces, which is a smaller unit for a pound. I renounce your grams.

    ^^^This. My scale weighs in ounces, I hate it when items are listed in grams. My cup is also a measuring cup.

    America..home of the cup, the ounce, the tablespoon and teaspoon. I'm clueless when it comes to grams...I have to find a table and convert....and I don't like that.
  • BaconMD
    BaconMD Posts: 1,165 Member
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    MFP's programmers could solve this easily enough by allowing multiple serving size entries, so if the package says 1/3 cup (50g), we could enter both the weight and volume so those who like to be accurate can be, and those who measure steak in cups can still be nuts.
  • Calliope610
    Calliope610 Posts: 3,775 Member
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    In aviation we have a saying:

    Measure it with a micrometer, then split it with an axe!

    Meaning we agonize over super precise calcuations and measurements trying to get an accurate number, and it ultimately doesn't matter because our ability to execute something in exact accordance to the calculations is so limited. An example is navigation where we measure stuff with a scaled ruler, measure our airspeed, fold in the wind with trigonometry and determine our ETA to the exact minute and second. And then what does my instructor say? Forget all that. Put your thumb on the map. It's 3 minutes per thumb...5 thumbs is 15 minutes. Doh!

    In the overall scheme of things it won't really matter. So long as you are overall accurate enough to be in a deficit, you will lose weight. In a surplus, you'll gain. If your deficit is so narrow that 40kcal makes the difference...that's not good.

    Even if you weigh a pizza exactly it doesn't help because pizza is so prone to varying amounts of cheese, crust, pepperoni, all of which drastically alter the caloric content. Yes, a glass of milk is something different, you can argue that the difference between 250mL and 275mL is meaningful, and it is because it's repeatable. But not pizza.

    Having said all that, I make use of ALL measures available to me. Sometimes it's 1 pizza, sometimes 1 cup, sometimes 46 grams. It just depends. I can't agree that the 1 pizza measurement is not useful to anyone. Nor do I advocate a loosey-goosey logging attempt, because 40kcal here and there does add up. But I don't agonize over one or two items a day being logged as "1 slice" or "1 orange".

    Carry on.

    This is precisely why I use SWAG when logging my calories. Scientific wild-*kitten* guess.
  • jlapey
    jlapey Posts: 1,850 Member
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    I use the mobile apps where you can just scan the bar code and it simply populates the serving size and calorie amounts. Often the manufacturer will determine the calorie size as 1/2 cup, 1 cup, etc.

    Be careful with this. Sometimes it pulls up the wrong item and sometimes the entry you are getting is from a member who alters the info to their convenience; whether it's accurate or not is anyone's guess.
  • LaRaAnHa
    LaRaAnHa Posts: 14 Member
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    If I can't find a version of what I am eating that has the serving weight listed I look up the serving weight and edit the listing to add the weight in parentheses. I weigh my food but I think it is good to have both the volume and weight measurements.
  • AllonsYtotheTardis
    AllonsYtotheTardis Posts: 16,947 Member
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    I use the mobile apps where you can just scan the bar code and it simply populates the serving size and calorie amounts. Often the manufacturer will determine the calorie size as 1/2 cup, 1 cup, etc.

    Be careful with this. Sometimes it pulls up the wrong item and sometimes the entry you are getting is from a member who alters the info to their convenience; whether it's accurate or not is anyone's guess.

    I have found that more than 1/2 the time, using the bar code scanner results in information different from the package. Sometimes it's not even the same type of food!
  • mkrz
    mkrz Posts: 5 Member
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    I'd rather see cups than grams. Ask for a choice, don't try forcing your preference on the rest of us please.
  • peeaanuut
    peeaanuut Posts: 359 Member
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    I agree!!!! I mean, when I see 1 cup or half a cup, it drives me crazy! I don't know how big your cup is!
    Thank you for bringing this up!

    uh....a cup is a unit of measure. one cup = one cup.

    THIS! HA HA :)
    It makes me sad because it tells me that person doesn't cook from scratch.

    not everyone has the time, skill or equipment to cook everything from scratch. They do the best they can with what they have.

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