What micronutrients do you track and why?
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darreneatschicken
Posts: 669 Member
Unfortunately, MFP only allows you to track 5 nutrients. Right now, I have my settings set to track: carbs, fats, protein, sugar, and fiber. However, lately I've been reading about the negative effects of consuming too much sodium and saturated fat. So I've been thinking about removing sugar and fiber and tracking sodium and saturated fat instead... What are your guys' thoughts? Which micronutrients do you track and why?
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Replies
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I don't track any, I just focus on getting enough protein. But I would advocate being careful when evaluating your micronutrient intake, simply because the MFP database entries can be very 'iffy' or even just lacking micronutrient information. For example, salt and sodium are often confused in the entries. And for processed foods in my country, there are no micronutrient values on the packages anyway.
I think the choice of what to track will also vary depending on your health situation: pre-diabetes, high cholesterol etc. I just discovered - because of your post - that I eat a lot of saturated fats. But my cholesterol is fine, so I'm not worried.3 -
I don't track any. I eat a balanced diet and take a multivitamin. Good to go.
This is the latest in posts there you read something and it causes you some anxiety. You seem to have a tendency to overthink things.2 -
You can in fact track up to 13 different nutrients on the free web version.
On the FOOD page at the bottom is a green button that says "View Full Report (Printable)" click that. On that page there are these DEFAULT columns, Calories Carbs Fat Protein Cholest Sodium Sugars Fiber. None of these are editable, they are locked.
So if you change five of the columns on the regular FOOD page (you can't change Calories) then you have 13 in total. You just toggle back and forth.
I rotate my FOOD columns. Right now I'm tracking Carbs Fat Protein Sat Fat and Iron.3 -
When I track, I do at Cron, which makes it easy to track most everything. I like to see if I can get enough of all, but am especially interested in hitting or being over with potassium.
If I were to track on MFP again, I'd probably track fiber (and aim to be well over, as I usually am) and sat fat (and aim to be at or under most days). However, it's worth noting that you need to be very careful about the entries chosen if you want to use MFP to track stuff other than cals and macros.
With sodium, it might be worth watching if you eat lots of restaurant stuff (with entries) and packaged stuff, if you have no idea how much you consume. Personally, I eat mostly whole foods and am aware of the higher sodium foods I consume, and have no particular reason to worry about the amount. Also, I tend to add a bit of salt when cooking (I don't salt cooked food), and never bother to log that, so my sodium usually looks low (even too low some days) but isn't really.2 -
When I track, I do at Cron, which makes it easy to track most everything. I like to see if I can get enough of all, but am especially interested in hitting or being over with potassium.
If I were to track on MFP again, I'd probably track fiber (and aim to be well over, as I usually am) and sat fat (and aim to be at or under most days). However, it's worth noting that you need to be very careful about the entries chosen if you want to use MFP to track stuff other than cals and macros.
With sodium, it might be worth watching if you eat lots of restaurant stuff (with entries) and packaged stuff, if you have no idea how much you consume. Personally, I eat mostly whole foods and am aware of the higher sodium foods I consume, and have no particular reason to worry about the amount. Also, I tend to add a bit of salt when cooking (I don't salt cooked food), and never bother to log that, so my sodium usually looks low (even too low some days) but isn't really.
Is the Cron food database more accurate?0 -
When I track, I do at Cron, which makes it easy to track most everything. I like to see if I can get enough of all, but am especially interested in hitting or being over with potassium.
If I were to track on MFP again, I'd probably track fiber (and aim to be well over, as I usually am) and sat fat (and aim to be at or under most days). However, it's worth noting that you need to be very careful about the entries chosen if you want to use MFP to track stuff other than cals and macros.
With sodium, it might be worth watching if you eat lots of restaurant stuff (with entries) and packaged stuff, if you have no idea how much you consume. Personally, I eat mostly whole foods and am aware of the higher sodium foods I consume, and have no particular reason to worry about the amount. Also, I tend to add a bit of salt when cooking (I don't salt cooked food), and never bother to log that, so my sodium usually looks low (even too low some days) but isn't really.
Is the Cron food database more accurate?
It's much smaller and basically only consists of things like USDA and similar (Canadian version, for example). You can add food yourself, but it's typically private. It's really easy, anyway, to only use the official type entries with all kinds of nutrients included and what you add (which will be limited by what's on the label). Thus, the database is IME much more accurate and informative, but it wouldn't be useful unless you mainly are logging whole food ingredients (or more generic entries for stuff like cottage cheese, yogurt, dried pasta).2 -
When I track, I do at Cron, which makes it easy to track most everything. I like to see if I can get enough of all, but am especially interested in hitting or being over with potassium.
If I were to track on MFP again, I'd probably track fiber (and aim to be well over, as I usually am) and sat fat (and aim to be at or under most days). However, it's worth noting that you need to be very careful about the entries chosen if you want to use MFP to track stuff other than cals and macros.
With sodium, it might be worth watching if you eat lots of restaurant stuff (with entries) and packaged stuff, if you have no idea how much you consume. Personally, I eat mostly whole foods and am aware of the higher sodium foods I consume, and have no particular reason to worry about the amount. Also, I tend to add a bit of salt when cooking (I don't salt cooked food), and never bother to log that, so my sodium usually looks low (even too low some days) but isn't really.
Is the Cron food database more accurate?
It's much smaller and basically only consists of things like USDA and similar (Canadian version, for example). You can add food yourself, but it's typically private. It's really easy, anyway, to only use the official type entries with all kinds of nutrients included and what you add (which will be limited by what's on the label). Thus, the database is IME much more accurate and informative, but it wouldn't be useful unless you mainly are logging whole food ingredients (or more generic entries for stuff like cottage cheese, yogurt, dried pasta).
Awesome! Thank you. I am going to take a look at it. What you describe above in the part I bolded is true for me. Being a retired chef, I tend not to use many prepared foods and make most things from scratch. Sounds like it may be helpful to create some entries for complete dishes. Does it have the ability to do that?0 -
Fiber is the only micro I track now. My father died of colon cancer which is linked to low fiber diets so I see it as important for my overall health plus to attempt to offset the family history. I used to track iron because I had severe anemia a few years ago. My numbers are normal and stable so I stopped tracking a couple of years ago and my doctor hasn't ordered an RBC for 2 years.
I do bring up some of the MFP reports and check the past 30 or 90 days for things like sodium and saturated fats. I don't track them but I like to see my averages so I can make sure I am not creeping into excess.2 -
When I track, I do at Cron, which makes it easy to track most everything. I like to see if I can get enough of all, but am especially interested in hitting or being over with potassium.
If I were to track on MFP again, I'd probably track fiber (and aim to be well over, as I usually am) and sat fat (and aim to be at or under most days). However, it's worth noting that you need to be very careful about the entries chosen if you want to use MFP to track stuff other than cals and macros.
With sodium, it might be worth watching if you eat lots of restaurant stuff (with entries) and packaged stuff, if you have no idea how much you consume. Personally, I eat mostly whole foods and am aware of the higher sodium foods I consume, and have no particular reason to worry about the amount. Also, I tend to add a bit of salt when cooking (I don't salt cooked food), and never bother to log that, so my sodium usually looks low (even too low some days) but isn't really.
Is the Cron food database more accurate?
It's much smaller and basically only consists of things like USDA and similar (Canadian version, for example). You can add food yourself, but it's typically private. It's really easy, anyway, to only use the official type entries with all kinds of nutrients included and what you add (which will be limited by what's on the label). Thus, the database is IME much more accurate and informative, but it wouldn't be useful unless you mainly are logging whole food ingredients (or more generic entries for stuff like cottage cheese, yogurt, dried pasta).
Awesome! Thank you. I am going to take a look at it. What you describe above in the part I bolded is true for me. Being a retired chef, I tend not to use many prepared foods and make most things from scratch. Sounds like it may be helpful to create some entries for complete dishes. Does it have the ability to do that?
Yeah, you can create recipes.1 -
When I track, I do at Cron, which makes it easy to track most everything. I like to see if I can get enough of all, but am especially interested in hitting or being over with potassium.
If I were to track on MFP again, I'd probably track fiber (and aim to be well over, as I usually am) and sat fat (and aim to be at or under most days). However, it's worth noting that you need to be very careful about the entries chosen if you want to use MFP to track stuff other than cals and macros.
With sodium, it might be worth watching if you eat lots of restaurant stuff (with entries) and packaged stuff, if you have no idea how much you consume. Personally, I eat mostly whole foods and am aware of the higher sodium foods I consume, and have no particular reason to worry about the amount. Also, I tend to add a bit of salt when cooking (I don't salt cooked food), and never bother to log that, so my sodium usually looks low (even too low some days) but isn't really.
Is the Cron food database more accurate?
It's much smaller and basically only consists of things like USDA and similar (Canadian version, for example). You can add food yourself, but it's typically private. It's really easy, anyway, to only use the official type entries with all kinds of nutrients included and what you add (which will be limited by what's on the label). Thus, the database is IME much more accurate and informative, but it wouldn't be useful unless you mainly are logging whole food ingredients (or more generic entries for stuff like cottage cheese, yogurt, dried pasta).
Awesome! Thank you. I am going to take a look at it. What you describe above in the part I bolded is true for me. Being a retired chef, I tend not to use many prepared foods and make most things from scratch. Sounds like it may be helpful to create some entries for complete dishes. Does it have the ability to do that?
Yeah, you can create recipes.
Very cool! I just logged my whole day there. I love it and love knowing that items I select have a high degree of accuracy. Didn't have much issue with finding items at all.
You mentioned this for a long time but I wan't tracking for the longest time and just in maintenance mode, using body measurements and the gym scale to track. About 2 weeks ago I realized that I had gained 3/8 inch on my waist and my belt was a little tight on the notch I normally used. So, I starting logging and tracking during this period when I can't walk all around Oaxaca and go to the gym like I was. The timing was perfect! Thank you.1 -
I keep track of fiber, iron, and calcium.1
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When I track, I do at Cron, which makes it easy to track most everything. I like to see if I can get enough of all, but am especially interested in hitting or being over with potassium.
If I were to track on MFP again, I'd probably track fiber (and aim to be well over, as I usually am) and sat fat (and aim to be at or under most days). However, it's worth noting that you need to be very careful about the entries chosen if you want to use MFP to track stuff other than cals and macros.
With sodium, it might be worth watching if you eat lots of restaurant stuff (with entries) and packaged stuff, if you have no idea how much you consume. Personally, I eat mostly whole foods and am aware of the higher sodium foods I consume, and have no particular reason to worry about the amount. Also, I tend to add a bit of salt when cooking (I don't salt cooked food), and never bother to log that, so my sodium usually looks low (even too low some days) but isn't really.
Yeah. I've been doing some reading, and the American Heart Association says that you shouldn't exceed 2300 mg a day, which is about a teaspoon of salt.
This is super disturbing, because there are days where I consume over 7000 mg of sodium; I'm currently bulking, so I tend to eat out a lot and even though I cook almost daily, every recipe I follow says to add salt and pepper.0 -
asianambition wrote: »When I track, I do at Cron, which makes it easy to track most everything. I like to see if I can get enough of all, but am especially interested in hitting or being over with potassium.
If I were to track on MFP again, I'd probably track fiber (and aim to be well over, as I usually am) and sat fat (and aim to be at or under most days). However, it's worth noting that you need to be very careful about the entries chosen if you want to use MFP to track stuff other than cals and macros.
With sodium, it might be worth watching if you eat lots of restaurant stuff (with entries) and packaged stuff, if you have no idea how much you consume. Personally, I eat mostly whole foods and am aware of the higher sodium foods I consume, and have no particular reason to worry about the amount. Also, I tend to add a bit of salt when cooking (I don't salt cooked food), and never bother to log that, so my sodium usually looks low (even too low some days) but isn't really.
Yeah. I've been doing some reading, and the American Heart Association says that you shouldn't exceed 2300 mg a day, which is about a teaspoon of salt.
This is super disturbing, because there are days where I consume over 7000 mg of sodium; I'm currently bulking, so I tend to eat out a lot and even though I cook almost daily, every recipe I follow says to add salt and pepper.
I never add salt when I am cooking. If the finished dish needs it, I will salt at the table.1 -
asianambition wrote: »When I track, I do at Cron, which makes it easy to track most everything. I like to see if I can get enough of all, but am especially interested in hitting or being over with potassium.
If I were to track on MFP again, I'd probably track fiber (and aim to be well over, as I usually am) and sat fat (and aim to be at or under most days). However, it's worth noting that you need to be very careful about the entries chosen if you want to use MFP to track stuff other than cals and macros.
With sodium, it might be worth watching if you eat lots of restaurant stuff (with entries) and packaged stuff, if you have no idea how much you consume. Personally, I eat mostly whole foods and am aware of the higher sodium foods I consume, and have no particular reason to worry about the amount. Also, I tend to add a bit of salt when cooking (I don't salt cooked food), and never bother to log that, so my sodium usually looks low (even too low some days) but isn't really.
Yeah. I've been doing some reading, and the American Heart Association says that you shouldn't exceed 2300 mg a day, which is about a teaspoon of salt.
This is super disturbing, because there are days where I consume over 7000 mg of sodium; I'm currently bulking, so I tend to eat out a lot and even though I cook almost daily, every recipe I follow says to add salt and pepper.
That's a choice not a rule!
Adjust for your personal tastes and dietary goals.
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Iron because I get low sometimes.
Calcium because I'm intolerant to dairy so I keep an eye on it (especially if breastfeeding).
Thats really it.1 -
I track on another app, but when I used to track on MFP I had protein, carbs, fat, fiber, and iron. Protein because I tend to undereat it even when I'm not dieting, fats because I tend to undereat it sometimes when dieting, carbs and fiber out of curiosity (sugar doesn't interest me), and iron because I get low if I'm not careful to the point where I need to supplement. I hate supplements.1
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