MFP has been undercalculating my calories!!!!

Judes525
Judes525 Posts: 3 Member
edited February 2021 in Food and Nutrition
I pay for premium but there’s a bug in MyFitnessPal where it UNDERCALCULATES my calories for the day and tells me I have more calories to eat. Look at the screenshots: I went over on my protein goal, met my fat goal exactly, and have 1 gram of carb left to eat. And yet it says I have 126 calories left??? 1 gram of carbohydrate is 4 calories. What exactly are those 126 calories supposed to be made of if not carb, protein, or fat?!

If you do out the math, I’ve actually eaten 2,000 calories, but it says I’ve only eaten 1,826??? I’ve eaten OVER my goal already.

Look at my math: I’ve eaten (123g protein x 4calories) + (242g carb x 4calories) + (60g fat x 9calories) = 2,000 calories!!! not 1,826 like MFP claims!!! What’s the point of paying MFP as a premium member if they can’t even do simple math right?!

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For reference my macro and calorie goals are: 110g protein, 243g carb, 60g fat and it amounts to 1952 calories. MFP consistently tells me I have more calories left to eat than in reality. I have to do the math BY HAND and disregard what MFP tells me, SO WHAT IS THE POINT OF PAYING $49.99 a year?! And how long have I been unwittingly overeating due to their algorithm? I can’t trust MFP’s math for my daily calories so it is literally useless now.

Replies

  • Judes525
    Judes525 Posts: 3 Member
    edited February 2021
    My fitness friend actually is experiencing the same thing, so it’s not just my app.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,404 Member
    I answered your other thread:
    The problem is you are going on macros.

    Macros and calories are not going to match.

    Yes, they should - but they won't.




    1. Foods are entered by users. They make mistakes and that will affect calculation
    2. There are going to be rounding up and rounding down errors on labeling




    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10824873/calorie-math-incorrect-for-daily-allowance-mfp-undercalculating#latest
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    In order for MFP to work, you have to choose accurate database entries. This is true even for premium users, everyone on MFP is using the exact same database.
  • Neil_1
    Neil_1 Posts: 2 Member
    It happens with me as well. I was calculating my calories on the basis of MACROS was 1761 but the app was showing it 1700. So I am damn confused how and where those 61 cals go !!
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Aside from what others have mentioned, another issue might be the carb counts. EU labels don't include fiber in the carb count, but US labels do. And fiber has no calories or less calories than other carbs (depending on the type of fiber).

    I'm not sure what you mean by fiber having "less calories" -- this is already taken into account when determining the total calorie count of foods, no?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Depends if the manufacturer actually had their food tested in a lab for calorie count (rare), or used the allowed process of just adding up known foods in their product to arrive at the figures.

    Calorie count in US doesn't remove the calories from fiber the body really isn't absorbing - unless they pay for that lab testing.

    Even with the upwards of 20% discrepancies allowed on food label, you can usually do the macro add-up and discern what the calories are based on if its a high fiber food.

    I'm sure most are taking advantage of making the calorie count look smaller by whatever means they can, round down, excluding fiber, ect. But I can tell on many of my products plenty don't.
    Ok, not many, some - because I don't eat that many high fiber individual products to see it.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Judes525 wrote: »
    My fitness friend actually is experiencing the same thing, so it’s not just my app.

    MFP isn't calculating anything...there is no "algorithm"...MFP is just presenting the information from the entries you selected. You are selecting erroneous entries from the database...All users of MFP access the same database, and entries are for the most part crowdsourced so many of them are bad due to human error.
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,464 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Judes525 wrote: »
    My fitness friend actually is experiencing the same thing, so it’s not just my app.

    MFP isn't calculating anything...there is no "algorithm"...MFP is just presenting the information from the entries you selected. You are selecting erroneous entries from the database...All users of MFP access the same database, and entries are for the most part crowdsourced so many of them are bad due to human error.

    This
    Plus labels may not be correct
    Rounding.
    In the US, companies are allowed to be off on their estimates. Don’t know about other countries.
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,464 Member
    Label on Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup
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    Fat=7 grams x 9 calories = 63 calories
    Carb = 8 grams x 4 calories = 32 calories
    Protein = 2 grams x 4 calories = 8 calories
    63 + 32 + 8 = 103 calories
    Not the Same as the 100 listed for calories.
    MFP just repeats what it’s given.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,782 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Aside from what others have mentioned, another issue might be the carb counts. EU labels don't include fiber in the carb count, but US labels do. And fiber has no calories or less calories than other carbs (depending on the type of fiber).

    I'm not sure what you mean by fiber having "less calories" -- this is already taken into account when determining the total calorie count of foods, no?

    But when someone uses the amount of carbs from a US label (or other country that includes fiber under carbs) and they then multiply that by 4 to calculate themselves the number of calories of that food, they would end up with a different (higher) number of calories than stated on the nutritional label.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Aside from what others have mentioned, another issue might be the carb counts. EU labels don't include fiber in the carb count, but US labels do. And fiber has no calories or less calories than other carbs (depending on the type of fiber).

    I'm not sure what you mean by fiber having "less calories" -- this is already taken into account when determining the total calorie count of foods, no?

    But when someone uses the amount of carbs from a US label (or other country that includes fiber under carbs) and they then multiply that by 4 to calculate themselves the number of calories of that food, they would end up with a different (higher) number of calories than stated on the nutritional label.

    Got it - sorry for my confusion and thanks for explaining. :)
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited February 2021
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Aside from what others have mentioned, another issue might be the carb counts. EU labels don't include fiber in the carb count, but US labels do. And fiber has no calories or less calories than other carbs (depending on the type of fiber).

    I'm not sure what you mean by fiber having "less calories" -- this is already taken into account when determining the total calorie count of foods, no?

    Yes, but I do think it's one reason (along with rounding) that the macros and cals never match up perfectly, even without bad entries.

    For example, I looked on the USDA site at 100 g of lentils, cooked, boiled, and it has 114 calories. If you do the math for each of the macros, even taken out to two decimal places, you get 118 cals (or 117.66, really). Why? I think they are adding a discount for the 7.9 g of carbs that are classified as fiber. I don't recall exactly what rules they follow, but there is some discount.

    Bigger point for OP -- the calories are right, and should be focused on instead of macros when deciding how much to eat. But also, the differences should not be so big that it really matters. If they are, you probably have bad entries.
  • w1ndyk
    w1ndyk Posts: 9 Member
    I haven't read through everyone else's responses (sorry) but my thought is that you are using at least 1 database entry that is wrong. Remember that things in the database are added by other users - and from my experience a hell of a ton of them are just plain wrong.

    If someone enters something ridiculous into the database such as a food contains 10g of fat, 4g of carbs, 20g of protein but then label it as only containing 100 calories, it's going to screw up your day's calories eaten vs. your macros.

    The only way to find the issue would be to go through the database entries you chose for every item eaten that day and manually calculate the calories per the macros and check if the database record is correct or not/if the math adds up. That seems like a lot of work.

    What is your primary focus? To eat at a specific calorie level? Or to meet a specific macro goal? That will determine what you should pay more attention to at the end of the day, and then just stick to that, knowing that things won't always add up because the database is not moderated for 'correctness'.