Fractions vs Decimals

trigoalie79
trigoalie79 Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
How do I make fractions the default for inputing number of servings? It’s beyond annoying to have to switch for every single item I input?

Replies

  • KevinWH87
    KevinWH87 Posts: 74 Member
    I don’t know why the default suddenly became decimals. I would like to know the answer to this as well - I couldn’t figure it out.
  • ljoynich21
    ljoynich21 Posts: 3 Member
    And this has just changed too. I logged out then back in and now am stuck with decimals.

  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    at least on the app - there used to be a fraction/decimal button you could select - is that not there anymore?
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    If this is something that just changed, then you should report it as a bug to the help desk. It's doubtful mfp staff will see this in the public forums
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    kathyjantz476 wrote: »
    I submitted a request to have this fixed. The response from the support team was this: "We are aware some of our users may be experiencing being unable to change their default serving size from decimals to fractions and are working on a fix. Our team is investigating the issue and hope to have this resolved as soon as possible."

    Basically, they want it to stay this way and will do nothing but promise until people get used to the new thing and will quit asking. We old timers remember the same thing happening when they removed weight loss tickers from posts a few years ago.
  • noelkro80
    noelkro80 Posts: 248 Member
    The app version you can switch between the 2. I take it you’re on about the desktop version?
  • greenolivetree
    greenolivetree Posts: 1,282 Member
    Never knew you could use fractions on MFP and I've been on here since like 2011 I think.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    greenolivetree wrote: »
    Never knew you could use fractions on MFP and I've been on here since like 2011 I think.

    Yes, I never saw fractions on the desktop version and have been here for years.

    My old digital food scale used fractions so I taped a cheat sheet like what people posted above to the right of my monitor.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    chronodm wrote: »
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    Do you not use a food scale to weigh your food?

    Most American recipes are by volume, not weight. Also, I suspect I'm not alone in that I eat a significant proportion of my meals out of the house and don't carry a food scale around with me during the day. Not to mention that a lot of the prepopulated data in MFP is in terms of plates / servings / units rather than strict physical quantities.
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    Some conversions for you

    I don't think anyone is complaining about the new default because they can't do math. It's a fine option for people who want it, but I've been using MFP for years, I'm used to the fractional UI, and I'd like my new entries to be consistent with my old ones. The app ought to be smart enough to default to the last style you used.

    I'm an American and I've been able to find just about anything I eat in the database in grams or ounces. If you're logging some recipe in the database, it's likely not going to be very accurate because you're just logging some rando's recipe and you have no idea what's in it.

    I also prepare most of the food I eat.

    Yes to all of the above.

    To expand on the last point, when you create a recipe, you can use the weight of the finished recipe in grams as Number of Servings. When you eat that food, you use the grams of food you ate as Servings.

    This is so much easier than calculating fractions of servings :)

    The only thing I use traditional servings for foods I put into the recipe builder now is single item foods like cookies.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    chronodm wrote: »
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    Do you not use a food scale to weigh your food?

    Most American recipes are by volume, not weight. Also, I suspect I'm not alone in that I eat a significant proportion of my meals out of the house and don't carry a food scale around with me during the day. Not to mention that a lot of the prepopulated data in MFP is in terms of plates / servings / units rather than strict physical quantities.
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    Some conversions for you

    I don't think anyone is complaining about the new default because they can't do math. It's a fine option for people who want it, but I've been using MFP for years, I'm used to the fractional UI, and I'd like my new entries to be consistent with my old ones. The app ought to be smart enough to default to the last style you used.

    I'm an American and I've been able to find just about anything I eat in the database in grams or ounces. If you're logging some recipe in the database, it's likely not going to be very accurate because you're just logging some rando's recipe and you have no idea what's in it.

    I also prepare most of the food I eat.

    Yes to all of the above.

    To expand on the last point, when you create a recipe, you can use the weight of the finished recipe in grams as Number of Servings. When you eat that food, you use the grams of food you ate as Servings.

    This is so much easier than calculating fractions of servings :)

    The only thing I use traditional servings for foods I put into the recipe builder now is single item foods like cookies.

    This is what I do except for relatively low calorie soup/stew/chili. In those instances I use pint servings.

    On the single serving food item I measure it raw. For instance my meatballs are always 37 grams each. Do not ask me how it ended up at 37. I really do not remember.

    I am more comfortable with the decimal system even when using the serving sizes off of packages. What makes it easier is having an Echo in the kitchen. I weigh an item like cheese and if I get 100 grams of it I ask "Alexa, what is 100 divided by 28?" Then I just scan it, verify the calories match, and enter 3.6 servings.
  • scarlett_k
    scarlett_k Posts: 812 Member
    Fractions directly link to decimal values anyway given e.g. 1/4 just means "one divided by four". Using decimal values allows more precision as sometimes you won't be eating an exact fraction of something (or at least not one you could easily work out in your head)
  • mike92076
    mike92076 Posts: 1 Member
    Seriously annoying! Glad I'm not the only one tired of having to flip it to fractions every stinking time. Fix it MFP!
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,981 Member
    I prefer the decimals myself. Some of these entries are off a little, so I can adjust to get the right amount just by moving up or down a few 10ths of a decimal. And in my recipes I weigh out my onions, etc, and need the decimal values to match.

    In fact, I gave the Lose It app a try and that's the main reason I left it and will stick to MFP - it has no option for decimals, only fractions.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,260 Member
    edited February 2020
    NovusDies wrote: »
    On the single serving food item I measure it raw. For instance my meatballs are always 37 grams each. Do not ask me how it ended up at 37. I really do not remember.

    1 and 305/1000 of an oz? :wink: :innocent:
  • Knavola
    Knavola Posts: 1 Member
    I wished I looked at this forum and saved myself the aggravation and disappointment. I thought it was just me that my fraction default went away! The main issue with decimal is that the serving size defaults to 1 and you have do a few more clicks to get the size you want. Fraction-just scroll. Decimal-back space, hit dot, hit 3 numbers then enter. Yes it’s only a few seconds longer but a complete waste of my time. Fraction default is a must have feature. The decimal option is nice to have when I need to be precise.

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