Inputting Grams when weighing food, Help!
tjcalley
Posts: 163 Member
I have tried searching for this answer but I cant seem to find an answer
I have been weighing all of my food (just started) and adding them to mfp in grams as I have seen suggested on the forums.
Heres my question: If I scan peanut butter (uusing the bar code) there are no options in the drop down to change to 1 gram. Ive noticed this with other foods as well. How do I change this because I cannot for the life of me figure it out.
Again I apologize if this has been asked already!
Ps. I'm terrible at math
pps..like really really bad at math
I have been weighing all of my food (just started) and adding them to mfp in grams as I have seen suggested on the forums.
Heres my question: If I scan peanut butter (uusing the bar code) there are no options in the drop down to change to 1 gram. Ive noticed this with other foods as well. How do I change this because I cannot for the life of me figure it out.
Again I apologize if this has been asked already!
Ps. I'm terrible at math
pps..like really really bad at math
0
Replies
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For items like peanut butter, the jar should give you an idea -- something like "2Tbsp (30grams)" or whatever. When you weigh your peanut butter to 30 grams, then, you can log it as 2Tbsp. If you weigh it as less, say 15 grams, you log it as 1Tbsp or whatever percentage of the Tbsp measure that weight would be.
I eat cottage cheese at 1/2cup(114grams). If I put a little scoop on a salad and it's... oh... 40 grams, I'll log it as .3 of 1/2 cup, because 40 grams is (a little more than) 1/3 of the 114 grams that makes half a cup.
Does uh... does any of that make sense? Basically just log your foods as percentages of a serving by weight. If your peanut butter is 30 grams per 2Tbsp serving and you eat 45 grams, that would be 1.5 servings of 2Tbsp.0 -
You may have to do the math. Here's an example from Jif peanut butter. The label says that 2 tablespoons comes out to 32 grams. Let's say you weigh it and it is 35 grams. Divide 35 by 32. That comes to 1.09. You are going to eat 1.09 servings of Jif pb so that's the quantity number you enter. You should also be sure that the nutrition info on the Jif pb entry that you pick matches what's on your jar. There are a lot of bad entries in MFP so I always double check the protein, carbs, and fat against the label.
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Many foods won't be listed with 1 or even 100 gram options. It's going to be easiest in this case to take the number of grams you have and divide it by the number of grams in 1 serving. Then, when you scan, you can enter your result as number of servings.
For example, if you have 15 grams of peanut butter and 1 serving is 30 grams, you had 15 divided by 30 grams of peanut butter, or 0.5 servings. You can enter this and the correct information will populate.
Another exampe: if you have 45 grams of peanut butter and 1 servings is 30 grams, you had 45 divided 30 grams or 1.5 servings.
The calculator is your friend!0 -
I would have never thought of that! Gosh now I feel stupid!
This all makes perfect sense. Thank you so much for the quick responses!0 -
You're not stupid at all. You're trying to log accurately, you noticed a discrepancy, and you took action to find the information you needed. That's smart, not stupid.0
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Seems like most foods I log have a 100g serving size option.
10g is 0.10 servings
30g is 0.30 servings.
50g is 0.50 servings.
etc.
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Angelfire365 wrote: »
Glad I wasnt the only one! I really want to make sure especially with peanut butter. I think that's where I am going over on my calories everyday and I don't want to cut it out completely
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Math. I toggle between MFP and my calculator on my phone all the time! I've never used the calculator on my phone so much as when I started weighing my food. Now I use it almost daily! I've had someone comment that my serving sizes are so weird when I log like .86 cups or something. LOL! It's because I'm actually using the grams!0
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I have tried searching for this answer but I cant seem to find an answer
I have been weighing all of my food (just started) and adding them to mfp in grams as I have seen suggested on the forums.
Heres my question: If I scan peanut butter (uusing the bar code) there are no options in the drop down to change to 1 gram. Ive noticed this with other foods as well. How do I change this because I cannot for the life of me figure it out.
Again I apologize if this has been asked already!
Ps. I'm terrible at math
pps..like really really bad at math
One solution is for foods that you eat regularly, add your own foods to the data base with grams as the unit of measurement (and add all information as shown on the label). This is a bit time consuming but will be worth it for things you regularly eat0 -
I do grams because I caught myself *cheating* with ounces...I would add juuuuust enough to keep it at the number I wanted, but if breathed on it, it would bump it up to the next ounce. Grams...MUCH harder to cheat.0
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reachingforarainbow wrote: »I have tried searching for this answer but I cant seem to find an answer
I have been weighing all of my food (just started) and adding them to mfp in grams as I have seen suggested on the forums.
Heres my question: If I scan peanut butter (uusing the bar code) there are no options in the drop down to change to 1 gram. Ive noticed this with other foods as well. How do I change this because I cannot for the life of me figure it out.
Again I apologize if this has been asked already!
Ps. I'm terrible at math
pps..like really really bad at math
One solution is for foods that you eat regularly, add your own foods to the data base with grams as the unit of measurement (and add all information as shown on the label). This is a bit time consuming but will be worth it for things you regularly eat
I tried doing this the other day and got frustrated pretty quickly. I was at work while doing it so that could be why I wasn't able to figure it out. I inputted everything and then it still didnt give me the option to choose 1 gram. I might have to take some time tonight after work to really go through it0 -
I use grams because it's easier for me to zero out the scale with the dish on it then add 130g of pudding, than to use a half cup scoop to measure a half cup - and then lose at least a whole gram of pudding to the cup.
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EmmaFitzwilliam wrote: »I use grams because it's easier for me to zero out the scale with the dish on it then add 130g of pudding, than to use a half cup scoop to measure a half cup - and then lose at least a whole gram of pudding to the cup.
^^^This lol0 -
EmmaFitzwilliam wrote: »I use grams because it's easier for me to zero out the scale with the dish on it then add 130g of pudding, than to use a half cup scoop to measure a half cup - and then lose at least a whole gram of pudding to the cup.
^^^This lol
The scale I have does not have the option for grams. So right now I am weighing the dish (which I should just zero out like you mentioned) and then adding the food then subtracting the weight of the dish and then converting from ounces to grams. It's a hassle...especially at work when everyone is looking at you like your a crazy person
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Thanks for this quick lesson, I've always struggled with calculating the grams too. Makes total sense.0
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Seems like most foods I log have a 100g serving size option.
10g is 0.10 servings
30g is 0.30 servings.
50g is 0.50 servings.
etc.
Most manufactured foods (i.e. not fruits/vegetables/meats) don't come that way here in the US, thoughReady2Rock206 wrote: »Math. I toggle between MFP and my calculator on my phone all the time! I've never used the calculator on my phone so much as when I started weighing my food. Now I use it almost daily! I've had someone comment that my serving sizes are so weird when I log like .86 cups or something. LOL! It's because I'm actually using the grams!
Me too. I was going to start using gram entries for everything a few weeks back, but then I decided I was too lazy to reenter every item I eat that I couldn't find the gram entry for.0 -
Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Math. I toggle between MFP and my calculator on my phone all the time! I've never used the calculator on my phone so much as when I started weighing my food. Now I use it almost daily! I've had someone comment that my serving sizes are so weird when I log like .86 cups or something. LOL! It's because I'm actually using the grams!
That is me especially if I am building a recipe but, I also have memo open to keep track of what serving size is grams or ml wise and then how much I actually used. It is a very crowded screen at dinner time. Haha!
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Angelfire365 wrote: »
DITTO0 -
reachingforarainbow wrote: »I have tried searching for this answer but I cant seem to find an answer
I have been weighing all of my food (just started) and adding them to mfp in grams as I have seen suggested on the forums.
Heres my question: If I scan peanut butter (uusing the bar code) there are no options in the drop down to change to 1 gram. Ive noticed this with other foods as well. How do I change this because I cannot for the life of me figure it out.
Again I apologize if this has been asked already!
Ps. I'm terrible at math
pps..like really really bad at math
One solution is for foods that you eat regularly, add your own foods to the data base with grams as the unit of measurement (and add all information as shown on the label). This is a bit time consuming but will be worth it for things you regularly eat
I tried doing this the other day and got frustrated pretty quickly. I was at work while doing it so that could be why I wasn't able to figure it out. I inputted everything and then it still didnt give me the option to choose 1 gram. I might have to take some time tonight after work to really go through it
It would require more math than just doing the division using the information provided above. I do this only with recipes so it's easy to remember what a serving size is. In order to do it with something like peanut butter, you would probably have to convert it to 100 gram servings and then just use the 100ths of a serving as your size. I find it easier to calculate the fraction of a portion and use that amount. I've been calorie counting on and off for way longer than I care to remember (literally 1/2 my life), so I've picked up a thing or two along the way 0 -
My fitness Pal should give more options for weighing, measuring, counting foods consumed. That would make it easier for everyone.0
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cynicalhopeful wrote: »My fitness Pal should give more options for weighing, measuring, counting foods consumed. That would make it easier for everyone.
You're really only limited by the amount of effort you're willing to put in. You could log your food however you would like because MFP allows us to make our own food entries. I love it.0 -
bennettinfinity wrote: »
Hah! Sometimes I wonder... but no, I just hate seeing someone who's really trying to do this right be so hard on herself. After a million posts from people who refuse to weigh, or don't bother choosing accurate entries, I'd hate to see someone so close to success give up because she thinks she's being "stupid" when she's really just trying to get it right.
Speaking of which, @tjcalley , if your scale only does ounces, it is TOTALLY LEGIT to weigh your entire package of whatever -- peanut butter, cheese, lettuce, raw organic vegan quorn elk fritters -- in ounces and then log your servings as percentages of the total package. Dump out your PB jar into a zeroed-out bowl, find out how many ounces it is, then log that you ate .05 of an entire jar whenever you have the corresponding amount by weight! Grams are more accurate, but ounces will get you close enough until you can get a better scale.
I use http://www.percentagecalculator.net when I've got a stumper. If you weigh the contents of a new PB jar as, say, 16 ounces, and then you scoop out half an ounce for your sandwich, you can just ask it ".5 is what percent of 16," and it'll spit out your answer -- then you can log that you ate whatever% of the total jar and call it a day.
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bennettinfinity wrote: »
Hah! Sometimes I wonder... but no, I just hate seeing someone who's really trying to do this right be so hard on herself. After a million posts from people who refuse to weigh, or don't bother choosing accurate entries, I'd hate to see someone so close to success give up because she thinks she's being "stupid" when she's really just trying to get it right.
Speaking of which, @tjcalley , if your scale only does ounces, it is TOTALLY LEGIT to weigh your entire package of whatever -- peanut butter, cheese, lettuce, raw organic vegan quorn elk fritters -- in ounces and then log your servings as percentages of the total package. Dump out your PB jar into a zeroed-out bowl, find out how many ounces it is, then log that you ate .05 of an entire jar whenever you have the corresponding amount by weight! Grams are more accurate, but ounces will get you close enough until you can get a better scale.
I use http://www.percentagecalculator.net when I've got a stumper. If you weigh the contents of a new PB jar as, say, 16 ounces, and then you scoop out half an ounce for your sandwich, you can just ask it ".5 is what percent of 16," and it'll spit out your answer -- then you can log that you ate whatever% of the total jar and call it a day.
Thank you so much! I am going to try this later!
Also, I have read so many posts on here where the OP asks a question and is then crucfied! Usually it's because of what you mentioned above (not weighing food etc) so I guess I didnt' want to come off sounding dumb for asking especially since I couldnt find previous posts going over this. But yes you're right I shouldn't feel stupid for asking and thank you for being so helpful!0
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