Want gr/oz but MFP doesn't have that option.

Fivepts
Fivepts Posts: 517 Member
edited November 3 in Food and Nutrition
Hi Everyone, I am trying to be very precise about my logging but it seems that I keep stumbling across measurements such as med. something or other or 1/2 cup whatever. I want to measure my food with my kitchen scale but often the database doesn't have that option. Also I make most everything from scratch but end up randomly choosing some brand name food that's full of salt and sugar, so I'm afraid my food diary is pretty off. I'm not quite to the point of picking the vegetables out of my soup or salad to measure them but I'm not above that when at home:embarassed: Any advice?

Replies

  • bohdanko
    bohdanko Posts: 16 Member
    It's time consuming, but create entries that have those units of measure for yourself. Then they're there, you know their accuracy (because you made them!), and you have them available. It is kind of a pain in the neck when there are multiple entries for a food in the database, but if you want metric and it's not available, make it available!
  • Yooperm35
    Yooperm35 Posts: 787 Member
    It's tedious, but you can create your own recipe/meals and save them or add the item to the data with the info you provide.
  • Xiaolongbao
    Xiaolongbao Posts: 854 Member
    Yep, make your own foods list and use those. It is a bit of a drag to set up but since inevitably you'll be using the same raw ingredients over and over again it pays off.
  • FitterBody
    FitterBody Posts: 367 Member
    You still need to do the work, but the basic nutritional info for most "common" foods can be found on here or on similar sites:-

    ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list

    Input search for "Bananas, raw"

    Which will take you here:-

    ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2237

    and you see all the macro and other info for raw bananas.

    The most difficult bit is that it only shows the amounts for Vitamin content, not a % RDA so you need to do a bit more work to calculate those %'s for MFP if you want to do it/track it fully/correctly.
  • gigglesinthesun
    gigglesinthesun Posts: 860 Member
    the recipe maker is your friend and most base ingredients (i.e. veggies, fruit, meat, rice, pasta etc) have the gr or oz option
  • stef_monster
    stef_monster Posts: 205 Member
    I have the same problem. For most raw fruits, veggies, and staple foods (rice, beans, etc), MFP has its own (non member created) entries that have a bunch of choices in the drop down. Bananas, for instance, have options like "1 large", "1 cup, sliced", "1 cup mashed". However, down at the bottom, the last choice is always 100g. When you search for something in the database, look for the entry that doesn't have an asterisk by it- that'll be one created by MFP and always has a choice for grams.

    I desperately wish you could filter out member-created foods. The MFP ones seem to be in line with the USDA website most of the time. Hope this helps!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Scroll down until you find the information with oz/gr.

    Or edit the entries to add grams in the description. It's what I do for my frozen veggies... Typically a serving is like 1 cup (85g) but people only put 1 cup, so I just add the (85g) after.
  • Yooperm35
    Yooperm35 Posts: 787 Member
    Scroll down until you find the information with oz/gr.

    Or edit the entries to add grams in the description. It's what I do for my frozen veggies... Typically a serving is like 1 cup (85g) but people only put 1 cup, so I just add the (85g) after.

    Not always true - a cup of cereal (because I buy many different kinds) vary - 1 cup can be anywhere from 27g-32g. It depends. A cup and a gram (oz) are totally different things
  • maraq
    maraq Posts: 38 Member
    I cook most things from scratch too so I create a "recipe" (look under the Food menu for this option) and add the exact things I put in. Not really a big deal. Takes a few minutes and over time I have a huge database now to choose from.

    If you're eating processed food - whether you're going by g/oz or the serving size on the package, that is all listed for you on the packaging (for example 1oz chips = 28 g) so you can easily add that.

    If you're adding vegetables and you are worried about whether or not you added a medium zucchini or 1 cup of zucchini? The difference between those two estimations is 10 calories. 10 calories is not going to throw off your diet and when it comes to veggies the more the better.
  • ShannonMpls
    ShannonMpls Posts: 1,936 Member
    I weigh most foods by grams. If it's a processed food like peanut butter, I'll either just use the grams/serving weight indicated on the label or create my own food entry that is based on gram measurements.

    Most unprocessed/non-labeled foods in grams can be found if you avoid user-entered database entries. It would be amazing if we could filter them, but until we can, a good trick to find them is searching "apples raw" or "spinach raw". Then look for the entry without an asterisk, which identifies user-contributed entries.

    I also create my own recipes. I have 19 pages of recipes here, and I edit the entries when I remake them. It would be great if (1) we could search our recipe box and (2) alter the ingredients on the website without having to delete/re-add them. You can edit ingredients using the mobile app so I create and edit most of my recipes on my iPad.

    Also, I appreciate an attention to detail...really, I do. But don't let perfect be the enemy of good. There will come a time in your life when plucking veggies out of soup to weigh them seems ridiculous...because it is. Weighing out a serving of a calorie dense food like peanut butter or potato chips makes sense. Stressing over the weight of your bell peppers does not. EVERYTHING about our intake is an estimate. Nutrition labels, usda data...it's all just based on averages. My steak might have more or less marbling than the average. My apple perhaps grew in more nutrient dense soil so has more micronutrients. We can never log with 100% accuracy. "Good enough" truly is good enough. And this is coming from someone who uses a kitchen scale a dozen times a day, even more than a year into maintenance....
  • Fivepts
    Fivepts Posts: 517 Member
    Thanks Everyone. Your comments and advice are really helpful. It's great to have someone to ask! Headed to the recipe tab now.
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
    Usually USDA entries will have "100g" or whatever set as the servings size which you change to reflect the proper weight.

    I've created all of my own entries in grams and weigh almost everything out to the exact gram (unless I'm out and about eating at a restaurant or something in which case i purposefully overestimate about 10-15%).
  • BrettPeirce
    BrettPeirce Posts: 2 Member
    edited March 2016
    I've personally run into g/oz conversion frustration and have made a bookmarklet which will convert between g and oz on at least the modify food popup on the web interface. it will convert e.g. "123g" put into the modify box, where the expected units is "1 oz" and convert it to "4.338" or whatever... there are probably lots of ways to break it, but it works for me when I need it.

    Don't know if it will work to post the code here (remove the line breaks to make a bookmarklet), but feel free to try it and modify if you can:
    javascript:(function(){
uf=/\d+\s*(?:g|oz)/;
um=/[A-Za-z]+/;
am=/[0-9]*(?:\.[0-9]+)?/;
cv={"oz->g":28.3495,"g->oz":0.035274};
$e=$('#food_entry_quantity');
var c=$e.val();
if(ru=um.exec(c)[0]){ra=am.exec(c)[0];
su=uf.exec($('#food_entry_weight_id option[selected]').text())[0];
tu=um.exec(su)[0];
ta=am.exec(su)[0];
f=cv[ru+"->"+tu];
$e.val(ra*f/ta)}
}())

    I could probably add in lb/oz, lb/g, cup/ml, tbsp/ml conversions, etc if people are interested, but since it only works on web, interest might not be there(?)
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    scibba wrote: »
    Scroll down until you find the information with oz/gr.

    Or edit the entries to add grams in the description. It's what I do for my frozen veggies... Typically a serving is like 1 cup (85g) but people only put 1 cup, so I just add the (85g) after.

    Not always true - a cup of cereal (because I buy many different kinds) vary - 1 cup can be anywhere from 27g-32g. It depends. A cup and a gram (oz) are totally different things

    If someone weights out 85 grams of a food and they know this is the weight listed for "1 cup" on the package, they can use the entry for "1 cup" with confidence. A cup and a gram are different, but the label will tell you the weight the manufacturer associated with 1 cup of the food, so you can use these to calculate your calories accurately when you are using a scale.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories