Can someone explain this, please?

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saltorian
saltorian Posts: 192 Member
in Food and Nutrition
How can it be that I have 78 calories left for the day, but my Protein, Fat, and Carbs are all at 0?

I thought the numbers of grams for those were calculated as percents of your entire calories for the day, and that the calorie density of those nutrients are known. I figured that if you ate all your protein, fat, and carbs, you would have necessarily eaten all your calories, too. Someone smarter than me can probably explain what happened.

Help me out?

Replies

  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,238 Member
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    My guess is information was incorrectly entered for something. Either incorrect carbs/protein/fat or incorrect calories.
  • torregro
    torregro Posts: 307
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    I've noticed that when entering nutritional information, the .5 gets rounded up. so....If you entered something that was 3.5 grams of fat, that should be 3.5 X 9 = 31.5 calories, but because MFP rounds that up to 4 grams of fat, you might be out of fat grams and yet still technically have 4.5 calories left just from that one entry. When I enter stuff from the nutritional label, I notice that sometimes the fat, protein and carbs don't add up to the exact total of the calories because of the rounding. I guess if you have small amounts being rounded up all day long, it could happen.
  • Paulette56
    Paulette56 Posts: 66 Member
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    I've noticed that when entering nutritional information, the .5 gets rounded up. so....If you entered something that was 3.5 grams of fat, that should be 3.5 X 9 = 31.5 calories, but because MFP rounds that up to 4 grams of fat, you might be out of fat grams and yet still technically have 4.5 calories left just from that one entry. When I enter stuff from the nutritional label, I notice that sometimes the fat, protein and carbs don't add up to the exact total of the calories because of the rounding. I guess if you have small amounts being rounded up all day long, it could happen.
    I agree. I have noticed this difference when reading nutrition labels as well.
  • lalilalu
    lalilalu Posts: 102 Member
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    Plus there are 'empty calories' things like alcohol and sugar will count as calories but not main macro nutrients, (well maybe a bit of carb?)
  • epj78
    epj78 Posts: 643 Member
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    Rounding both within the MFP system and the allowable rounding on product labels.

    To be off by only 78 calories is actually pretty incredibly considering the rounding that does happen.
  • mursey
    mursey Posts: 191 Member
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    I looked at your diary and I'm not sure I understand the question. It says you have zero carbs, fats, or whatever left even though you have a few calories left . .. that can happen sometimes. It's up to us to try to eat things that stay in our categories but it's not always easy to do that at first.

    When I look at my diary and I went over something, I look at what my "problem food" could be and I look for something better to eat the next time. You won't always be perfect with it but use it as a learning tool. I was overeating and underestimating certain things before I joined MFP. Take it day by day.

    (FYI you can change these things if you are on a specific diet, for instance I made my fat allowance higher and my sugar and carb allowance lower since I'm on a low carb diet. )
  • DianaPowerUp
    DianaPowerUp Posts: 518 Member
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    Wow. I still can't figure out how you managed to exactly zero every macronutrient out!
  • torregro
    torregro Posts: 307
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    The entry you have for chicken is a good example. The fat and protein counts are listed like this:
    Generic - 4 oz. Baked Chicken Breast, Boneless & Skinless, 4 oz. with 27 grams of protein and 3 grams of fat. That should add up to 135 calories, and yet the calorie count is listed as 120 calories. You might want to double check the nutritional information on your package of chicken. :-)

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