Inaccurate calorie info

scj6
scj6 Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi. Just wanted to post on here that I am finding that a lot of the calorie info on products is incorrect. I have used this app for a long time and found it difficult to lose weight, even though logging food etc. I’ve only just discovered by checking food packaging that a lot of the calories info is way off. Just a warning to others to check packets and don’t trust info on here. Thanks

Replies

  • nancydrew1964
    nancydrew1964 Posts: 4 Member
    I think I read that it’s better to use the green checked marked entries as they have been verified. But I could be wrong about that and there still may be some errors here and there with those. Anyone else have any insight?
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,349 Member
    You should absolutely check every single entry the first time you use it or after you haven't used it for a while. MFP does NOT curate the database, it is almost entirely crowd-sourced beyond an initial USDA database dump when the site was created. People can enter whatever they want, fill out only the parts they want, get their nutrition info from anywhere they want. I don't know if it's still around, but at one point an entry for 3,000 calorie garlic cloves was legend on the boards.

    Unfortunately, the green checked entries only mean that at some point they were upvoted by enough people to get the check mark. There's no telling if it's still correct. Recipes and formulas get changed by manufacturers all the time, there might be only the information the original creator thought was relevant, numbers can get transposed....there's an endless list of human error and passage of time possibilities as to why even green checked entries may not be correct.

    With MFP it's best to verify and then trust when it comes to food entries.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,208 Member
    Many people will just choose the entry with the fewest calories then wonder why they can’t lose.
  • jess2023mac
    jess2023mac Posts: 41 Member
    edited August 14
    I noticed that the other day when I was adding sugar to my meals, in my coffee. Breakfast sugar was 4 g. of sugar, then the sugar I added for my mid day coffee was 100 g.
  • ehju0901
    ehju0901 Posts: 394 Member
    I typically create a new food in the database for things I regularly eat. You can also submit corrections to items, but I'm not sure how far that goes.

    Nutritional values change quite often, so I wish MFP would have some type of "verify this entry" over time. Like once a year, have X amount of people verify the nutritional values.
  • mp_2022
    mp_2022 Posts: 10 Member
    Yep, as a newbie I am finding the same thing. Also doing WW and what I enter here has been 1200 calories and under or at in macros where I should be. However the same data on WW has me over in points.🤷🏼‍♀️
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,805 Member
    mp_2022 wrote: »
    Yep, as a newbie I am finding the same thing. Also doing WW and what I enter here has been 1200 calories and under or at in macros where I should be. However the same data on WW has me over in points.🤷🏼‍♀️

    That doesn't necessarily mean the nutritional info in MFP is incorrect. WW points are simply different from calories - from what I've read 'unhealthy' foods get attributed (disproportionately) more points and healthy foods have lower points (or even zero points) regardless of calorie content.
    I once looked at the list of 'zero point foods' - if I used their method I would be gaining weight from all the zero point but not zero calorie foods :# And others might be undereating severely because they are consuming high point foods that aren't that high calorie.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,805 Member
    ehju0901 wrote: »
    I typically create a new food in the database for things I regularly eat. You can also submit corrections to items, but I'm not sure how far that goes.

    Nutritional values change quite often, so I wish MFP would have some type of "verify this entry" over time. Like once a year, have X amount of people verify the nutritional values.

    Corrections are useless with regards to the collective database, but if you check the box 'add to My Foods' it gets saved to you own list of foods and you can use the corrected version for later meals.

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