MFP Nutritional accuracy

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mitchiemo
mitchiemo Posts: 61 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Like most people I am using MFP to watch my calorie intake (to take away the pain of working out calories myself) however I am concerned that the database appears to be full of user/member inputs which has the potential to be inaccurate. I live in China and shop from the local market 90% of the time, my supermarket visits are for cheese, milk, grains, honey etc... I keep it all very simple! Therefore, I find it odd that when I search something as simple as 'onion' I get a load of different brands, ways it was cooked and what it was cooked with rather than different types i.e. spring, red, brown, shallots. Surely a Tesco red onion is no different in nutritional value to an Aldi one?!? Yesterday I was looking for sunflower seeds and got many different options. I chose two different options and got two very different nutritional values. My seeds in their shells were bought at my local market and came with no label (not that I can read Chinese labels anyway) so I had to research on the internet to find out which one was the most accurate...time consuming!!! Am I missing something here...where is the MPF.com (owners of the site)'s database of basic foods with 100% accurate nutritional values? Maybe I am searching incorrectly or something? I know I can input foods myself but I am trying to save time plus exercise is now taking up most of my spare time so...??!?!? Does anyone know if there is a reliable search I can input, can I access someone's well researched database and/or is there a basic MFP one which I don't know how to access? Please help.

Replies

  • stacw1987
    stacw1987 Posts: 206 Member
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    Hey there,

    Do you use it as a phone app? If so you can scan the barcode of the food you have bought and it will find it on the database usually. Maybe give that a go :-)
  • manda_c_182
    manda_c_182 Posts: 14 Member
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    It's very easy to get stressed out about counting calories. I think just try and be consistent ie always pick the same onion in the database. It's all a guessing game as you can't know exactly how many cals are in each onion, it depends on growing conditions. Just like it is very hard to be exactly accurate in counting calories out - exercise. Good luck
  • melissalatzel23
    melissalatzel23 Posts: 9
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    the foods put in by myfitnesspal dont have an asterix next to it... so if youre looking for onion for example.... type "onion raw" in the search bar and you will see asterix options by members or the real thing by myfitnesspal :)
  • jaxxie
    jaxxie Posts: 576 Member
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    The other option is to create your own database for the foods you purchase. I think someone mentioned the barcode method, but if not you can do it manually by entering data directly off the box and saving it as " Jaxxie's Onion" For example. Just a thought!
  • melissalatzel23
    melissalatzel23 Posts: 9
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    she doesnt need to put her name on it because if she adds her food to the database with the nutri value, it will be in her 'my foods' section and if she does the random search , the MFP foods and HER foods she added to the database will come up with no little star next to it so she knows which is hers
  • mitchiemo
    mitchiemo Posts: 61 Member
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    Thanks for the replies guys. I don't have a fancy phone unfortunately plus I don't think the barcode thing will work in China. Most of my food is from the local market where labels don't exist (plus I can't read Chinese characters) and I really don't have the time, well truthfully, patience to input my own food database. I hear what you're saying about the "guessing game" too. Since posting this I've read a few articles arguing that calories don't really exist anyway, it's all about how nutrients react with one another in our bodies, however I do know that counting them does work for weight loss. I'll try looking for non asterix things - is there any way I can filter the search so all I get is the "real thing"?

    I figure as long as I don't stuff myself silly and eat healthy then I'll be OK. I've been counting calories for a week and exercising regularly now for 3 weeks and I already feel brilliant. I don't have any scales so I'm taking measurements & photos which I think is probably better.

    Thank you...xie xie ni
  • ron2e
    ron2e Posts: 606
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    If in doubt I tend to look at three or four options and compare. I disregard the highest and lowest. I don't believe it makes a lot of difference anyway if you're talking tens of calories. If it's hundreds, I check other databases (a search for say "onion nutrition" will always come up with answers, for example this site - http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2501/2 - seems to be fairly accurate.
  • Tiffa0909
    Tiffa0909 Posts: 191 Member
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    I usually do a quick add if I have the label , for example I usually use chicken breast in the database which is around 110 calories for 4 oz but I recently purchase a bag that says 90 calories for 4 oz. If I don't have a label , I check on the database and other sources in the internet.
  • mitchiemo
    mitchiemo Posts: 61 Member
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    That's an awesome website, thanks ron2e!
  • jaeein
    jaeein Posts: 5 Member
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    I would like an option or preference to only search for the seeded values (values entered directly by MyFitnessPal and not the user submitted foods). I do not trust the user-submitted foods (unless verified by numerous users). Many results are missing sodium or other nutritional values.

    For example, can we either set in our preference, to search only for food entered directly by MFP or manufacturer's (foods without an asterisk)

    or

    have all seeded values at the top of the search results

    related to this article http://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1027154-where-does-myfitnesspal-get-its-food-data-
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    I think an option to only search the MFP entered ones on the database would be good, especially for the phone app where you can't even see if they have an * or not. I prefer to only use these or enter my own (which are in "my foods" and I don't share with the whole database so as not to clog it up with multiple entries)
  • lacroyx
    lacroyx Posts: 5,754 Member
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    I use this: http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list
    to cross check MFP entries.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    the foods put in by myfitnesspal dont have an asterix next to it... so if youre looking for onion for example.... type "onion raw" in the search bar and you will see asterix options by members or the real thing by myfitnesspal :)
    ^This
    That's an awesome website, thanks ron2e!
    The above method should get you the same results as from this website, but if I can't find a staff-added entry in the MFP database (sometimes the wording isn't what you'd expect) then the website really helps. Once you have the accurate entries added to your diary, you can use the "recent items" feature.

    Search for things like "chicken breast meat cooked", "chicken thighs raw", "raspberries raw", "peppers sweet yellow raw" "nuts almonds", "salmon atlantic raw" etc. It takes a while to get the hang of it, but if you get the wording right (and again, use that website to help with this) then you cut out a lot of the extraneous entries in your search.

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