Is there a way to input "your own" calories on the food that you eat??

NewCZNofLife
NewCZNofLife Posts: 5 Member
edited November 17 in Food and Nutrition
Can someone help me to understand if there is a way to input “your own” calories on the food that you eat?

When adding food, it seems like the system defaults to brand name foods and the calories for them. And the only adjustments that you can make are adjustments to “serving size” and “number of servings.” But sometimes the food that I eat is not listed in the drop-down list of foods.

It would be nice to be able to input and adjust “my own” calories, particularly when the food is not the brand named ones in the drop-down list. But I can’t seem to do that, or maybe I’m just not on the right screen to make calorie adjustments.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Replies

  • myfatass78
    myfatass78 Posts: 411 Member
    You can add your own foods
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    Create a new food rather than trying to change the calories of something already in the database if you want to use your own calorie amounts for an item that isn't in the database.
  • manderson27
    manderson27 Posts: 3,510 Member
    You can use the recipe builder to input your own recipes so you know how many calories are in that meal.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide?hl=Logging+accurately

    This could help
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    I am curious to know what kind of food items you are trying to log that you can not find a match. In the two years I have been logging on MFP, I only have had to create a handful of items, mostly for a couple things from small ethnic grocery stores or homemade items at farmers markets.

    Please see this article, and many other helpful articles, on the MFP Help pages...
    myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/525941-how-do-i-log-a-food-that-is-not-in-the-database-
  • whmscll
    whmscll Posts: 2,255 Member
    I compared the MFP calorie count for a brand name food with that food's actual food label yesterday. MFP had the food listed at 10 calories per serving higher. That makes a difference when you're on 1200 calories a day. I wished there was a way to "override" the MFP calories but there wasn't. Pain in the a** to have to add it as a new food when everything was already there, just wrong calorie count.
  • barryplumber
    barryplumber Posts: 401 Member
    I scan the bar code for a more accurate count and just figure out the wight i had
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    barryplumber wrote: »
    I scan the bar code for a more accurate count and just figure out the wight i had

    MFP food items associated with a barcode have for the most part been entered by MFP members and can be inaccurate. A barcode in itself is just a number assigned to a manufacturer. The nutrition information retrieved by scanning a barcode has been entered into the MFP food database, and then the barcode number is associated with the MFP food database record. I have come across a few inaccurate food items when scanning a barcode. In those cases, I generally edited the item to correct the food database record.
  • bbontheb
    bbontheb Posts: 718 Member
    ^ That would explain why the last barcode I used was off from what the package said (serving sizes, g, etc). I had a hard time figuring out what to log.
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