How much is a "slice"

jasonshepherd646
jasonshepherd646 Posts: 14 Member
edited December 1 in Food and Nutrition
Thanks to everyone that uploads home made foods and recipes to MFP. Seriously it wouldn't be what it is with you.

But...

.....please please take a moment to think about others using your units of measurement.

A "slice" or a "portion" or "1/2 a pie" is like saying "how long is a peace of string" or as useful as a chocolate teapot.

I'm quite new so I guess this subject has been done before but thought is was worth mentioning.

Replies

  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    You shouldn't use someone else's homemade entry anyway because you don't know what they put in it.
    I don't share my recipe entry with the database... at least I don't think I am.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I don't share my recipes either.

    I do occasionally use homemade entries if I'm not the one cooking and need to find an entry for what I'm eating though (but typically I have an idea of how many calories are in what I'm eating by now so I find something similar).
  • vikinglander
    vikinglander Posts: 1,547 Member
    IMHO, the only way to truly be accurate here is to weigh everything myself in GRAMS. This way, I know...

    Also, I have brought home some of the take-out dishes I like to use during my work week and deconstructed them and weighed each item and came up with a fairly accurate calorie count for things like grilled chicken salads, Chipotle Barbacoa salad, Chinese food, etc.

    Grams are the way to go. Digital scales that measure in ounces are rounding to the nearest tenth, usually.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    I see a lot of complaining about people "sharing" with the world/database. It was only in the last few years (like maybe 3-4 years?) that the default did NOT share to the database. There used to no prompt nor choice - it automatically shared to the database unless you made a concerted effort not to do so.

    So the database was built mostly on random entries before this choice became a prompt or even something that was easily chosen. Let it go, ya'll. :wink:
  • jodidari
    jodidari Posts: 95 Member
    Right! I hate posts like this. I remember typing in curried chicken and got 1 portion =334 calories. What is a portion? 1 cup/0.5cup. Who says our portion was the same? Even with packaged goods such as snacks I strongly dislike seeing "one bag".
    I feel MFP needs to allow us to at least see the details of the recipe so lately I've just been taking the time to add my own or I make a guestimation, might as well if I'm going to use that portion crap. The database definitely needs a clean up, allow us to give feedback on why we think something should be taken from the public database.
  • jasonshepherd646
    jasonshepherd646 Posts: 14 Member
    Like a lot of people I use MFP for convenience. It's a tool that with little effort gives me more information than I would have had without it.
    I don't need a level of accuracy that requires me to measure everything. Deconstructing and weighing individual elements of takeaway meals is just not my bag.

    I'm very lucky my wife cooks mainly and often not from recipes and without weighing individual ingredients. I don't want to burden her with my new hobby by asking her how much of each ingredient did she use then work out how much of the whole thing did I eat.

    So if for example if I type "tuna pasta bake" into MFP I want to have options that look realistic. I already have an idea what 3-400 grams looks like, so it would just be nice to select something that appears right. I always ignore pre packaged meals so I do rely on the home made stuff. All I'm asking is if you generously contribute to the database use units of measurement that others can recognise.

    "Slice" "portion" "pie" etc are useless.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    edited April 2016
    jasonshepherd646 wrote: »
    Like a lot of people I use MFP for convenience. It's a tool that with little effort gives me more information than I would have had without it.
    I don't need a level of accuracy that requires me to measure everything. Deconstructing and weighing individual elements of takeaway meals is just not my bag.

    I'm very lucky my wife cooks mainly and often not from recipes and without weighing individual ingredients. I don't want to burden her with my new hobby by asking her how much of each ingredient did she use then work out how much of the whole thing did I eat.

    So if for example if I type "tuna pasta bake" into MFP I want to have options that look realistic. I already have an idea what 3-400 grams looks like, so it would just be nice to select something that appears right. I always ignore pre packaged meals so I do rely on the home made stuff. All I'm asking is if you generously contribute to the database use units of measurement that others can recognise.

    "Slice" "portion" "pie" etc are useless.

    I think something like Tuna Pasta Bake -- even with a weight -- would be almost as useless. I know people who make it with lots of vegetables, people who add a lot more fat, etc. Even if you knew it was, say, exactly 300 grams worth, if the person who built the database used a very different recipe, it's as much of a guess for calories/macros as "1 portion."

    (I agree that "1 slice/portion" isn't helpful at all).
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited April 2016
    jodidari wrote: »
    Right! I hate posts like this. I remember typing in curried chicken and got 1 portion =334 calories. What is a portion? 1 cup/0.5cup. Who says our portion was the same? Even with packaged goods such as snacks I strongly dislike seeing "one bag".
    I feel MFP needs to allow us to at least see the details of the recipe so lately I've just been taking the time to add my own or I make a guestimation, might as well if I'm going to use that portion crap. The database definitely needs a clean up, allow us to give feedback on why we think something should be taken from the public database.

    @Jodidari - Some lunch size chip bags come like that. They literally say "serving size - 1 bag" or 1 package with no reference to the grams it should weigh (I usually have to look else where on the package to see what the net weight should be). However for people not using a scale they would be looking for an entry with the serving size of 1 bag/package since that is what the label states a serving size is.

    Example:
    Nutrition label for snack size funyuns bag
    77ek26ztad1m.jpg

    12.jpg 272.8K
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I would never use someone else's entry for homemade anything...you have no idea what that recipe actually consists of...how much oil or how much of X, Y, and Z. You're better off entering your own recipe into the recipe builder or entering things individually in your diary.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    jasonshepherd646 wrote: »
    Thanks to everyone that uploads home made foods and recipes to MFP. Seriously it wouldn't be what it is with you.

    But...

    .....please please take a moment to think about others using your units of measurement.

    A "slice" or a "portion" or "1/2 a pie" is like saying "how long is a peace of string" or as useful as a chocolate teapot.

    I'm quite new so I guess this subject has been done before but thought is was worth mentioning.
    Hey hey, pass me that chocolate teapot and I'll gladly dispose of it for you. ;)

    Yeah, I ignore all home made and generic entries. Anything that states '1 slice' etc, gets ignored. Everything gets weighed. If I make a meal at home, I will add it into my database and it will show as '1 portion', but I always weigh the entire meal, divide and weigh individual servings.

  • MommyL2015
    MommyL2015 Posts: 1,411 Member
    shadow2soul wrote: »

    Example:
    Nutrition label for snack size funyuns bag
    77ek26ztad1m.jpg

    There should be a net weight on the little bag somewhere. I would go by that if there was no serving weight on the nutritional label.
  • brb_2013
    brb_2013 Posts: 1,197 Member
    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    I have no issue with people putting whatever serving size they like when they make their own entry, but FFS, puhleeze don't click the 'share with the database' option. I don't know why people make those entries public, when it isn't even the default.

    Right? That's really the problem. If a food isn't entered by all meals enter it proper and share it, but every single homemade thing doesn't need to be shared.

    This is also on you sir, to find proper entries to use. I now search with "grams" in every search to bring up entries using weight as the serving size.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    MommyL2015 wrote: »
    shadow2soul wrote: »

    Example:
    Nutrition label for snack size funyuns bag
    77ek26ztad1m.jpg

    There should be a net weight on the little bag somewhere. I would go by that if there was no serving weight on the nutritional label.

    There is (usually on the front at the bottom of the bag) and that's what I go by. Someone without a scale though is probably going to be looking in the database for an entry that is labeled 1 bag or package and that's all I was trying to point out (since I'm not sure if the poster I quoted dislikes the option of that being a serving size in the database or just that companies are allowed to label it that way).
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