Most of the data is input by users, and when it comes to restaurants and such, it's also entirely possible that the "Greek Salad" that you got isn't the same as the one that person entered, just by virtue of changing recipes. Throw in formula differences between US and non-US foods -- even of the same brands -- and you've got a pretty wide margin of error for some types of things.

There are a few ways to ensure accurate data:

1. Double-check all entries and make use of the "Is this data accurate? Yes/No" thing.
2. Use the ones without an asterisk next to them whenever possible. These are entries verified by MFP and should be accurate.
3. Reuse entries from your "Recent" and "Favorite" tabs as much as possible, since you've already personally vetted them. This saves having to find them over and over again.
4. Enter your own data. This is especially for home made stuff and any restaurant stuff that you've customized. The "Recipes" and "My Meals" tabs are designed for this.
5. Enter items from the restaurant meal individually. This can go as far as the components of the salad (I usually do this if I've heavily modified it), or it can be more along the line of salad sans dressing, then the dressing as a separate entry. This provides more control than the "Big Mac with Medium fry and Large Coke, no mayo, add pickles, extra ketchup" type of entries.

Yes, remember that people are entering this data themselves, so error is common. I try to check several entries. Also I notice sometimes people don't care to put in things like sodium. so be mindful of this and last, check the carbs because If it's from Europe for example, their fiber is already subtracted from the carb count....

tlmeyn wrote: »

Yes, remember that people are entering this data themselves, so error is common. I try to check several entries. Also I notice sometimes people don't care to put in things like sodium. so be mindful of this and last, check the carbs because If it's from Europe for example, their fiber is already subtracted from the carb count....

@tlmeyn - are you from Europe? Im English, and i wasnt aware that our food labels stated net carbs, not total, until someone told me the other day on this forum. That sucks - I count total carbs, not net.

So i was wondering, to work out Total Carbs (inc fiber) from UK nutritional details, do i just add carbohydrate grams with the fiber grams indicated on the packet?

Looks like the entry you used from MFP is generic? It's bound to be significantly different, it's like taking a guess. If it's not in there named by brand or doesn't match the info on the package I have (or the website) I put it in manually. Or don't eat it at all. Either way it's a at best a pretty close estimate, you can never been completely accurate unless you have a lab at home.

Sorry for the slow answer. Yes, I am in Norway. It took me until after I added the auto net carb script (only works on a computer, not ios or android) and I had bad values. so yeah, just add the fiber and carb grams together. It's kind of easy to tell where the info comes from, because the US stuff is mostly in ounces and cups, etc, while the Euro stuff is in grams.