Apples

Jmolle723
Jmolle723 Posts: 2 Member
in Food and Nutrition
If i enter a medium apple, it's 97 calories. If I weigh an apple, in grams, (without the core) it's 171 calories? Why such a big discrepancy?

Answers

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,826 Member
    When I look for a medium apple, I see 104 calories, which equates to 200gr (same database entry).

    Medium is a vague thing, weighing is more accurate. But 171 calories sounds like a huge apple, or perhaps you used a different database entry.

    In your place, I would look at the USDA food database (legacy entries) and find the corresponding entry in MFP, and then weigh the apple. Unless the shop where you bought the apple has nutritional data - that would be my first source of info.

  • Jmolle723
    Jmolle723 Posts: 2 Member
    The bag of apples does have nutritional info and indicates 100 calories. It's definitely not a large apple, which is the confusing part. My question is, should i weigh the apples or use what mfp already has? I wasn't sure if there was some behind the scenes "math" going on with fruit. Lol. I'm pretty new to this so just trying to figure it all out.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,826 Member
    I'm confused: does the bag state 100 kcal for one apple? Or does it give a calorie amount per weight?
    I tend to not trust any nutritional info based on units (like 1 apple), since there are bound to be variations in size, and companies tend to be a bit creative with their serving sizes.
  • AmunahSki
    AmunahSki Posts: 210 Member
    edited May 3
    I read this thread and for some reason in my head I heard how Jimmie in Pulp Fiction might react to it: “But you know what’s on my mind right now? It AIN’T the calories in my apple, it’s the calories in the thousands of other things I used to eat without giving a damn.”

    Accuracy is really important, of course - just don’t get too lost in the tiny details?
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,826 Member
    I find 75 calories rather a large difference, certainly if this is a food consumed regularly.
    YMMV 🤷‍♀️
  • AmunahSki
    AmunahSki Posts: 210 Member
    Of course… 50 days of 70 extra calories is 3,500 calories and equal to one pound. A calorie is a calorie, whether it’s from fruit or a packet of crisps. If you’re eating that over your maintenance calories every day for a year, that’s 7lb. Yep.

    I’m no nutritionist, but I suspect different apple varieties contain different sugar content too… that’s probably a rabbit hole right there I could get lost down!

    I didn’t mean that it doesn’t matter, and I am sorry if it came across like that: I was observing that the cumulative effect of lots of different (bad) choices I was making probably made MORE of an impact on my total calorie consumption than just the size of apple I buy, and the same could be true for the OP as well as other people reading the thread.

    TLDR: Apples is apples, but your apples may vary! :wink:
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,092 Member
    I would call a 171-gram apple a large apple, not a medium apple. Opinions may vary.
  • MargaretYakoda
    MargaretYakoda Posts: 2,991 Member
    Jmolle723 wrote: »
    The bag of apples does have nutritional info and indicates 100 calories. It's definitely not a large apple, which is the confusing part. My question is, should i weigh the apples or use what mfp already has? I wasn't sure if there was some behind the scenes "math" going on with fruit. Lol. I'm pretty new to this so just trying to figure it all out.

    If you’re really new, I’d recommend weighing the apple if you can. At least once, to get a ballpark idea of what a large, medium, or small apple really looks like.

    If you have rocket apples where you live I think those are a good example of what a small apple looks like.
    They’re typically smaller than a tennis ball.
    That said, if you’re already weighing your apples? That’s probably the best way to be accurate about it.
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,266 Member
    I figure there's some Kentucky windage in all these numbers and just try to be consistent with my entries. The numbers I watch for effect are my bathroom scale pointer and my blood test values (chol, a1c, etc.).
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,241 Member
    The USDA Food Data Central has some entries for apples.

    For a Honeycrisp apple, raw, it says either 54 or 60 calories per 100 grams of apple. For Fuji apple it lists 63 calories. It's pretty variable.

    The BEST way is to weigh it and use the USDA value. Do you eat the whole apple or do you throw away the core? You have to subtract the part you don't eat.

    I buy very small apples - about 70 grams each. I just log them as "Medium apple" and don't worry that I will end up eating a few less calories than I log. It evens out over time.
  • kngddmbppx
    kngddmbppx Posts: 20 Member
    I like to weigh everything but I’m a little crazy too so…. 🤪
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,755 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    I would call a 171-gram apple a large apple, not a medium apple. Opinions may vary.

    When I look it up, a "medium" apple is considered to be around 180 grams for 90 calories. So I don't know, but everyone's opinion on size of an apple will vary. Which is why weighing is key.
  • perryc05
    perryc05 Posts: 226 Member
    edited May 6
    I don't think there is an interantional standard that describes or specifes what equals a medium apple. I have weighed apples from the supermarket cut from the core as large 235g and as small as 50g in the last 2 years of weighing every item for every meal. The maths of that tells me an average is 142.5g based on what I can generally purchase. Maybe a bit more with core present. Lets say up to 150g but this might vary in different countries based on what is available there.

    I always use the Apple USDA entry in MFP and weigh my apple (minus the core) and log the weight in grams. After a long time doing this I find I can eyeball it pretty close now if I test myself with scales afterwards. The data in MFP is user-generated so there is a lot of variations and inconsistent entries. You have the ability to report wrong entries and values:
    https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032274312-Food-Feedback-Report-incorrect-foods-on-MyFitnessPal

    I tend to stick the USDA items where possible as they usually have the most complete nutritional data -- at least for basic produce.

    Having said all this, there are some very sweet, sugar-rich apple varieties on the market today that must have a higher calorie per gram rating than a tarter, less sweet apple so this further complicates the accurcay of measuring their calorific content. I mainly stick to Granny Smiths myself but Pink Ladies and Fujis are defintely super sweet apples.

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