Food entry is a pain.

lmichaelwest
lmichaelwest Posts: 3 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I don't think anyone would disagree with me. It's necessary on some level, especially those of us with medical conditions that require watching certain macro nutrients more than others. I don't mean to suggest the MFP does this poorly, so much as I mean that the process is time consuming by its very nature.

That being said, I really like the bulk nutrient calculator built into the recipe part of the application. Entering one line of text for each food and then being able to search for better matches is great.

So... Why not change the data entry of calories from 1 food at a time to a list of foods in text for a meal, just like the recipe calculator?

I know this isn't the feature request section of the forum, but I'm asking this as a process question first. Does this make sense? Is there some combination of other applications that could make this happen without an actual code change for MFP? Or maybe I'm missing some piece of the process.

My goal I think would be...
Enter meal data in free text as it happens.
Import that data like the recipe functionality works now.

Thoughts? I'm interested in the tricks you've created to take the frustration out of data entry.

Replies

  • IsaackGMOON
    IsaackGMOON Posts: 3,358 Member
    So you want to enter a recipe in lines of text (as ingredients)?

    Or am I just reading this incorrectly?
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
    I'm trying to figure it out too... I think you want to be able to search multiple items at once?

    BTW, logging gets easier as you go, since MFP remembers all the foods you use the most often. Also, you can save common meals for easier re-entry.
  • kk_inprogress
    kk_inprogress Posts: 3,077 Member
    It's easier than being overweight, unhealthy and unfit. That's how I got into it.
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    I use my recent/frequent list to do it. The longer you use it the better it gets. I also use copy from date a lot. Breakfasts on my days off are often the same.

    My logging now takes 3-4minutes a day tops. My life is more than worth that and so is yours, you'll get used to it :)
  • abatonfan
    abatonfan Posts: 1,120 Member
    I would also love to see a multiple search tool, but logging gets a lot quicker once your frequent foods list starts getting bigger. There's also always the option to pre-log what you plan to eat that day, so all you need to do is go back into MFP right before eating to update the portion size.
  • socioseguro
    socioseguro Posts: 1,679 Member
    Also, you can enter a recipe, save it under a name you want and next time you just click the name. All ingredients show up with one click.
    Like @kkenseth already mentioned, being overweight, unhealthy and unfit is more painful. At some many levels.
    Good luck in your healthy journey
  • mwyvr
    mwyvr Posts: 1,883 Member
    Data entry on the Android smart phone app is much quicker than via the web site; I rarely use the web site for food diary data entry. On the phone, I don't find it all that time consuming.

    Bulk entry of text lines is problematic, at least at first, because there are so many choices for some foods. Some database entries are worthy, some are not. I try to seek out the better quality bits of data (confirmed or looking reasonable). That'd be harder to do with text matching although if it defaulted to using "your foods" from recent/frequent buckets first, that would work.
  • MarvelGrrl
    MarvelGrrl Posts: 622 Member
    You can save meals. The app also suggests other foods you frequently eat with a certain food. The more you use the app the more streamlined the process gets.
  • lmichaelwest
    lmichaelwest Posts: 3 Member
    Thanks for all the support. My basic issue is that as an IT project manager, I won't ever be happy with an IT process. :)
  • flippy1234
    flippy1234 Posts: 686 Member
    Stick with simple foods and simple ingredients. Makes things a whole lot easier.
  • hamptontom
    hamptontom Posts: 536 Member
    lmichaelwest wrote: »
    Thanks for all the support. My basic issue is that as an IT project manager, I won't ever be happy with an IT process. :)

    is this your way of saying "it's not you, it's me"? :)

    fellow IT malcontent here...i completely understand. sometimes it's hard to take off the goggles and see the world without that filter in place. the journalling really does become second nature after a while, though.
  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
    I love taking a meal and dissecting it into many little parts like a scientist....NOT...but really its an eye-opening task! Sometimes when I think I am eating great, then I get home and logging it I finally come to a conclusion that I could've done BETTER.
  • starbean
    starbean Posts: 30 Member
    I second that using the (iPhone) app is much quicker than using the website. You will only need to type in a few characters and it will pull from recent entries. However, when using the iPhone app, it doesn't seem to pull from entries that you made on the web in the same kind of way.
  • sympha01
    sympha01 Posts: 942 Member
    Just going off the low number of posts you have, OP, I'm concluding that you are newer on MFP. A lot of people find it more difficult to log at first, then find their rhythm. Personally I'm utterly anal about logging my food in a detailed and accurate way, but it only takes me a couple of minutes a day.

    That's not to say MFP couldn't do things to make logging easier and more intuitive especially for new users, but I'd TOTALLY disagree with you on the point about the recipe builder being easier to use than the daily food / meal entry system.

    Two things to bear in mind that newer people aren't always aware of:

    1. The database is full of duplicate entries that have contradictory nutritional information
    2. The database is frankly just full of really INACCURATE nutritional information

    This is because most of the database was entered by USERS for their own personal use. And a lot of users care only about calories so they leave the macros empty or just are careless with the macros. Some users "cheat" and enter incorrect (low) calorie information ON PURPOSE (presumably for the same reason that some people have for wearing clothes and shoes in sizes too small for them: they can't admit the truth to themselves lol!); some users are confused about how to read labels and just enter stuff crazy wrong, etc. etc. etc.

    So this site's more automated data entry features -- the recipe builder, the barcode scanner -- that will automatically pick a database entry for you? They're not very good at picking the most accurate entry out of multiple potentials. I find using those features generally takes much more time in the long run if you're knowledgeable enough to recognize bad entries and have to manually go in and correct stuff. And if you're not knowledgeable or don't have the time to do that, well, you just have to put up with having really inaccurate nutritional summaries. And what's the point of that?

    Personally I'd love it if MFP put more resources into making the database itself easier to navigate and sort through. Things like flagging entries with clearly bad macro information, making the ACTUAL USDA entries for whole foods something much easier to consistently find, offering some auto-filtering features (for instance, allowing me to limit my search to only non-member submitted entries, or only entries I have used in the last 12 months), etc. would be a better first step.

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