Weighing food - not sure if this is a vent or question

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Mslmesq
Mslmesq Posts: 1,001 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So while I’m not new here, I’m trying to be better about weighing my food accurately this go around, and am trying to stick to grams for most precise weighing.

But, I’ve noticed people will input items in all kinds of odd ways. Either incorrectly all together. Or in ounces only (better than nothing). But sometimes just as a ‘serving’ or ‘cup’ or ‘half cup’. I mean what the heck is a half cup of a blueberry muffin?! 😡

What’s most frustrating is these inaccurate foods seem to come up a lot when typing in what I’m looking for.

So I guess my question is, is there a better way to search for items to make the more accurate listings come up first. Or maybe to input them correctly and save them in an area I can find more easily?

Tia.

Replies

  • moe0303
    moe0303 Posts: 934 Member
    edited February 2019
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    In a word, No. I mean there are ways, but MFP does not currently do a great job of supporting them, and to my recollection, they have been proposed by users for years. However, you can mitigate this by checking the nutrition details yourself. I often calculate the sum of calories from carbs, protein and fat and check that against what is listed for the calories. If it isn't close, I know that whoever input it was not too worried about accuracy. I also often look things up from the actual site of the food item if available. Also, once you have used the food, it will show up in "Most recent" items so you don't have to search through the database as much.

    ETA: Also, you can often change the serving size between grams and ounces etc.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    edited February 2019
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    If you're looking for something generic, like fruits, veggies, meat, etc. then searching for USDA entries is usually going to give you more accurate info. They will typically also have the appropriate units of measurement.

    You can use ounces more accurately by entering your food's weight to a couple of decimal points. If a database entry says 2 ounces and you only want to eat half an ounce, for example, then you can enter 0.25 servings of that 2 ounce portion. You can also convert your measurement from grams to ounces--again, to a couple decimal points--and enter that. An ounce is about 28 grams, so if you're entering 15 grams, I'd put it in as 0.54 ounces. (Not trying to insult your math ability here; just noting that it's possible to use the website/app this way, since it took me a while to realize I could do that.)

    For something like "blueberry muffin," I'd avoid that entry unless you got the muffin from a bakery and don't know its exact calorie count, so you have to estimate. Otherwise, I would put in the exact brand of muffin you ate if you have that information, or use the recipe builder if you made the muffin yourself.

    Edit: Foods you enter often should show up in your "frequent" tab, but you can also save food groupings as "meals" or groups of ingredients as "recipes." I don't use the meals function much, but I might use it for something like a sandwich that I eat often and has half a dozen different ingredients.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
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    Mslmesq wrote: »
    So while I’m not new here, I’m trying to be better about weighing my food accurately this go around, and am trying to stick to grams for most precise weighing.

    But, I’ve noticed people will input items in all kinds of odd ways. Either incorrectly all together. Or in ounces only (better than nothing). But sometimes just as a ‘serving’ or ‘cup’ or ‘half cup’. I mean what the heck is a half cup of a blueberry muffin?! 😡

    What’s most frustrating is these inaccurate foods seem to come up a lot when typing in what I’m looking for.

    So I guess my question is, is there a better way to search for items to make the more accurate listings come up first. Or maybe to input them correctly and save them in an area I can find more easily?

    Tia.

    When searching for whole foods (i.e. apple, chicken breast, flour, egg, etc) add the letters usda to your search terms. You are more likely to get a listing downloaded from the USDA database which will give a 100 gram option for serving size.

    Otherwise, yes, you do have to search through the listings to find one with usable serving sizes
  • VioletRojo
    VioletRojo Posts: 596 Member
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    If I can't find a whole food entry that makes sense I go to the USDA database and make my own entry. I do this a lot even if I can find a food on MFP because I'd just rather know for sure that my entry is correct. For packaged foods I keep looking for entries that match the package or make my own.
  • endermako
    endermako Posts: 785 Member
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    For fruits, veggies and most raw foods I search for usda (food in question) and it usually gives me something accurate. For other things I'll search for the name of it, and include the word grams on the end. That seems to help.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,481 Member
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    Also, be aware that some entries have other serving sizes if you click on them, and use the serving size drop-down.

    Some of the very best entries (for mostly whole-ish foods) were the ones MFP loaded at the beginning from USDA data. Often, with those, the default quantity is "cups". But when you click on the serving size, there will be many options, from volumes to sizes to grams to ounces.

    These entries do not have USDA in the title. After a while, you recognize the USDA-style bureaucratic syntax. "Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, year round average" can be nothing else. The default quantity on the search list is "1.0 cup cherry tomatoes". In the drop-down, there are 21 different options, from inch-sizes, to grams, to ml to cups, and beyond.

    In a few of these database entries, some serving sizes' calories got messed up (think of it as a typo). If it's messed up, it will be crazy wrong, like a 3000 calorie garlic clove. ;) Otherwise, these entries are great.

    I know this all seems like a super-big pain at first, but once you have your "frequent food" in MFP populated with valid entries, you'll mostly be re-using those for foods you commonly eat, and only looking up a minority of things in the bigger database.

    While green-checked entries are not necessarily correct, I think they have a better batting average; and most of the imported USDA data ones are green-checked.

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