Calories don't add up???

WorkenAtIt
WorkenAtIt Posts: 6 Member
in Food and Nutrition
HI: I made a spread sheet to track my food intake and a few other things. I take the numbers off the myfitnesspal food diary page. On the spread sheet I break out fats, protein, and carbs and use the 4-9-4 method to calculate total calories.

The problem is the total calaries shown by the myfitnesspal food page and what my spread sheet totals almost always differ, sometmies by as much 600 calories. Using the 4-9-4 system comes up with the lower number of caleries, the myfitnesspal is always high.

Any one have any idea why these numbers don't add up?

Thanks,

WorkenAtIt

Replies

  • PaleoPath4Lyfe
    PaleoPath4Lyfe Posts: 3,161 Member
    A lot of the entries are incorrect in the database.
  • waldo56
    waldo56 Posts: 1,861 Member
    A lot of the entries are incorrect in the database.

    This.

    The calories are more likely to be right than the macros.

    Over time you'll develop a sense as to which entries are right and which are way off.
  • wheird
    wheird Posts: 7,963 Member
    I generally look for items that were added in using the USDA information.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    Inaccurate entries and rounding both play a part.
  • burtnyks
    burtnyks Posts: 124 Member
    A lot of the entries are incorrect in the database.

    This.

    The calories are more likely to be right than the macros.

    Over time you'll develop a sense as to which entries are right and which are way off.

    I was wondering about this myself. I typically will verify the foods I enter to avoid that problem. But you are saying MFP will round up on macros? I've been going by my macros and letting my calories come in lower, but maybe I need to go by calories from now on.
  • WorkenAtIt
    WorkenAtIt Posts: 6 Member
    I don't know. I've looked over the numbers several times and MFP total calories just don't add up to the micro totals using the 4-9-4. Rounding would throw it off a little, but not 600 calories in a day. Fiber also can be added in on the numbers from the packaging so those numbers could be off a little when people add to the database, but again 600 is a big number. I'm shooting for 1800 calories a day.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Inaccurate entries and rounding both play a part.

    This, and fiber always messes up my macros too, and it doesn't give you calories but counts as carbs.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    I don't know. I've looked over the numbers several times and MFP total calories just don't add up to the micro totals using the 4-9-4. Rounding would throw it off a little, but not 600 calories in a day. Fiber also can be added in on the numbers from the packaging so those numbers could be off a little when people add to the database, but again 600 is a big number. I'm shooting for 1800 calories a day.

    what is the 4 - 9 - 4 anyway? Calorie totals are calorie totals, from maths. If you add up the calories from all the food you eat, then you add the exact same foods up using another method, but the same data, and get a different number, one of the methods is wrong. Because if you add up a bunch of numbers, you should get the same totals no matter what way you add them up. If you're using different data (you say you're not) then it'd be a problem with the data. But if you're using the same data, and getting different results when you add them up, then one method you're using to add them up is wrong. My suggestion would be that you did the maths wrong somewhere along the line in your spreadsheet.
  • vanguardfitness
    vanguardfitness Posts: 720 Member
    4-9-4 is the average estimation (or rounding) of calories for a gram of carbs, fat, or protein. The reality is, is that carbs aren't exactly 4 calories a gram, neither is protein exactly 4 calories a gram, and fat I think has a pretty wide margin of energy per gram (something as low as 8 and as high as 10).

    And then to add that, if there is fiber, labels don't differentiate between the fermentable and non-fermentable kind, which the body sort of gets energy out of.

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