Stop lying about nutritional info or supporting the lie

What's even worse is when you enter a specific food correctly, and it is edited to an incorrect calorie amount.

I think the issue isn't really how many calories is in a cup of pasta as much as how much is a cup of pasta. Let's face it, even if you are eating the most decadent pasta dish, but you stick to 1 cup, you are not taking in an ergregious amount of calories. The problem is - no one sticks to one cup. They eat 3 or 4 and log 1 cup.

^-^ You can't say "no one" unless you including yourself....Some of us out there are honest with our diaries...Just sayin'...

I think the issue isn't really how many calories is in a cup of pasta as much as how much is a cup of pasta. Let's face it, even if you are eating the most decadent pasta dish, but you stick to 1 cup, you are not taking in an ergregious amount of calories. The problem is - no one sticks to one cup. They eat 3 or 4 and log 1 cup.

I don't even know if people realize they are doing this. i think they really believe that a bowl is a cup.

I try very hard to measure everything. And I use both a scale and measuring cups.

But sometimes it is really difficult, esp when you are eating things like nuts and fruit - where it isn't premeasured and there is a lot of space/variability in size.

I wish I understood all this better and that portion sizes match up with real life. A cup of pasta? Really? What does that even look like? I just guess most of the time.

About a year ago, I decided to portion out a few thing I eat often to see if I was guessing right. To my surprise, I was overestimating by a lot. So, I was counting rice, for example, as a cup, when it was closer to 1/2 cup...things like that. I was pretty far off, but in the other direction.

I think I'm pretty good at estimating now. Once you see how a cup of rice looks on you plate, it's easy recognize how much it is. I use my hands too. Like an amount about the size of my fist is about a cup. A serving of protein is generally the size and thickness of your palm, minus the fingers. Etc.

My point exactly.

I bought lots of little glass containers, like tupperware, that are in standard sizes - 1 cup - 2, etc. So I know when I measure 1/2 cup of greek yogurt that i will fill half of the container. This has really been helping.

I am better able to visualize how much I am eating, but I still feel better measuring most stuff I eat.

If you see something where the nutritional info is not right, fix it. Otherwise aren't you kind of "supporting the lie" too?

How do you fix it? I would love to, but I have only been able to create yet another entry.

I hate pulling up the info only to find that it was entered incorrectly, makes me paranoid specially when I can't find something in writing, like at a restaurant. :-) Sometimes I go back to the basics and add in individual ingredients then add it as my own meal just to avoid inaccuracies. Sad, I know, but I want it to be right... lol

Click on any food you just searched for. There's a blue box on the right where you enter the quantity to add to your diary. Under the title of the item, there's a link that says "nutritional info". Click on it, it will bring up a new box with all the nutritional information. In that box it says "Is this data accurate?" and there are two big buttons that say Yes and No. If you click yes, you will increase the "confirmed by x members" count. If you click no, it will change to say "To correct the information for this food, click here:" and there is a big edit button. Click the edit button, and you can correct the nutritional information.

I "generally" take the info on MFP at face value, a few cals here or there are not going to change things too much in the grand scheme of things, but if it sounds WAY to good to be true.....I check. Although I am doing my best to stay under, it is not a life or death equation. There are days when I have a large margin of error and some where I push the envelope to the limit. Take the info with a grain of salt (pun intended) correct it if you can. I beleive they have posts in the technical section (I think) about how to correct itens.

Sometimes the web site is off. I found a place where the info paper at the restaurant had been update 6 months later then the website and several items had gone up in calories.
I have index cards made up with all the nutrition info on them. One binder for fast food places and one for food eaten at home. That helped me a lot when I started. I do change info that I see is wrong on this site. I use only cups info but put grams also for the people keeping track that way.

Interesting. I'm new to mfp so I didn't realize anyone could add stuff. I ran into that yesterday. I got a burger from a mom and pop place and was looking for something comparable. I saw the calorie counts for ones from 5 guys and couldn't believe it haha! I knew my burger definitely wasn't that low in calories

Five Guys isn't even that good... I bet I could make a better tasting burger and fry for less calories. If you think something is too good to be true, look it up on google or the restaurant's website. Change MFP database entries when you discover they aren't correct and move on in life.

Blasphemy! Five guys is a staple food for my rest days! Hamburger (2 patties) with onion, grilled onion, ketchup, and mustard for 700 calories, with a pretty good fat/protein/carb breakdown (for a buger)... how can you go wrong?!

Agree with OP though, went to La Madeleine yesterday and had to correct the 'confirmed' entries for EVERYTHING I ate their, as they were ~30-40% less than what the website nutrition said they should be. That "600" calorie meal? 1200 calories.

What would help is if you could see what the calories attributed to the item before you added it instead of afterwards. Then you could choose the closest to what you are trying to log. I agree many aren't lying just accepting when they use something. However if I add something into the data base I make sure I am using good information. However I don't add that much since we have alot of duplication as it is. Sometimes there is a duplicate set for misspelled items.

Omigosh. I really wanted to go to the 5 guys that just opened a few miles away from my house. So last week, I exercised extra hard everyday just to burn enough calories for a cheeseburger and fries (burned over 2000 calories and 6+ hours of cardio) . Over all it was suppose to be a ~1500 calorie lunch but I only ate half. My net calories during my cheat day was still under 1200.


I started planning my meals and logging them first. Then adjusting the actual portion I ate. So if I had a little bit too much during lunch, I will have a cucumber salad and soup for dinner.

Maybe the person wasn't educated enough...Maybe they mistakenly put the wrong info... Instead of getting on here & ranting, just change the info. I end up changing wrong info all the time...Not going to get on here and call people liars because they put some wrong info.

I have seen "two crispy chicken fingers" for 60 calories, 4 oz pot roast for like 120, stuff like that. Crazy.

I have also seen overestimates. I eat breakfast Lean Pockets sometimes, (don't judge, I know they're gross) and every entry I could find had them at 270 when they are actually 180 according to the packaging. I usually try to enter my own so I can correctly log but it's so hard to get past the "duplicate entry" thing.

New to this site...but went to add a coffee with lite milk and 1sugar, and guess what..the nutritional info said it had 0 sugar. Hmmm I will have to be careful!

I find it annoying that some items are entered with ONLY the calorie count. No Protein, Carbs, Sugars or Sodium??? REALLY? Come on... ig you're going to add something to the MFP list pleeeeeese put in ALL the info. I've gotten to where I carry the pkd or box or label with me, until I can get to the computer & CHECK the Macros b4 I enter it to my MFP Diary. I WANT TO KNOW all the other stuff too, and if you fudge on what goes into your body (& the diary) then how can you tell what is orking or what isn't working? Yeah, imho, of course... J

Problem is, if you're making things from scratch or they don't come out of a box/bag etc (bread from a local bakery, for example) a lot of this information isn't readily available. Also, for many people. the important thing is the calorie count (that is what this website is advertised as, after all) and they pay little or no attention to the macro information unless they have a specific reason to do so.

To the OP, I think it's harsh and rather unfair of you to assume that people are 'lying' deliberately about the calorific content of foods. Misinformation abounds, and people can easily misunderstand or misread labelling, especially when nutritional information is provided not per serving but per 100g or similar.. For example, I picked up a bag of dried fruit the other day in a hurry, read the calorie count on the front, and only later saw the small print that said the count provided was for half the packet, rather than the whole, as I reasonably assumed of a snack-size packet. Mistakes do get made - it's human.

Really people a bacon ,egg and cheese sandwich for 200 calories!? wake up!

LOL

I always sanity check the info - another thing that gets me is a 'cup' wtf is a cup!!! if I eat 110g of food I put down 110g. Not 100g or 1/2 a cup!

I was fat because I kidded myself on a number of levels, fast metabolism, portion sizes, types of food, what I really need to weigh.

Along the way I have had lots of realisations about just how deluded I was.

I have a slowly simmering annoyance at people who are half way along their weight loss path moaning its failed/slowing etc. People who have succeed pointing out the fails on calories counting and portion control and them getting upset at the 'bluntness' and falling back into all the denial traps that make us fat.

Bottom line - you dont need to eat THAT much!