How to choose a food from the database

foodmonkey
foodmonkey Posts: 1
in Food and Nutrition
I've been using the tool for almost a year and it's been very helpful. There are currently several (or many) versions of the same food (even the same brand of the same food) with quite different calorie contents. How to decide which to pick? For example, if you search for ribeye steak, the first entry says 9 oz are 585 calories (65 cal/oz) whilst the next entry says that 6 oz of an 8oz steak are 600 cal (100 cal/oz). Further down there is an entry that says 4oz are 180 cal and another that says 4 oz are 290 cal.

I tend to review all of the entries, figure out what the average would be if you added them all up and then select one of the entries which is close to that average. But that may or may not be accurate.

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has a strategy for dealing with the selections. By the way, I don't usually eat "branded" foods; my foods mostly come from markets (veggies selected from open bins, meats from the grocer, bread from the bakery, etc). These foods don't have labels or bar codes.

Sincerely,
FoodMonkey

Replies

  • cmccorma
    cmccorma Posts: 203 Member
    This drives me nuts! It happened last night with top sirloin. I go with the higher one so I'm not underestimating, but I don't know if that's the right thing to do!
  • RedefiningMe
    RedefiningMe Posts: 44 Member
    Excellent post....I have been wondering the same thing. I have figured out that the variances are probably because of cooking style and seasonings/flavorings, etc, but since those items aren't always listed, iti s hard to know which one best matches the food you are trying to log.

    Am very interested in what others have to say!
  • ChasityLindsey
    ChasityLindsey Posts: 36 Member
    bump
  • EchoOfYourPast
    EchoOfYourPast Posts: 459 Member
    I try to find the information online if I cannot scan it....but even scanning....ive had a box say 8 crackers per serving...then scan the barcode ...and it shows 6 crackers per serving!

    San :)
  • mfpcopine
    mfpcopine Posts: 3,093 Member
    It's always a challenge, and is why I'm always sure that I'm underestimating my calorie consumption. Not only do I not know how the database food was prepared, I sometimes have questions about my own food.

    I pick the item that seems closest. Sometimes I'll increase the portion size so more calories will be reflected.

    I hate it when people will put in serving sizes like "half of recipe." That's useless. At least if the ounces or grams are listed I have some point of comparison.

    The likelihood of underestimating is why I don't pay attention to my exercise calories and I certainly don't think I have license to eat them back. Maybe if I were exercising like a demon every day, my weight was dropping precipitously, and I looked like a wraith...
  • cheeryel
    cheeryel Posts: 20
    Bump!

    I have the same problem as well.. And I'm always stumped to chose between all of the choices..
    So in order not to underestimate, I usually chose the higher one.
  • georgina9220
    georgina9220 Posts: 1 Member
    Bump
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,985 Member
    Hi @georgina9220
    welcome here. If you have a very specific question then please ask. Also, use a food scale and try to find database entries in grams. So if your food item is 253gr uncooked, you search for an uncooked database entry and lot 2.53 if it's per 100gr or 253 if it's per 1g. Also if it's packaged food with nutritional info then compare the label with the entry you chose.
  • SweatLikeDog
    SweatLikeDog Posts: 320 Member
    Calories for meat depend upon the leanness of the cut and whether it's raw or cooked. Raw is most accurate. Search google and then find the closest match in MFP.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,600 Member
    If your food has a label, choose the MFP database entry that matches the label. If there isn't one that matches, you can create your own food entry so it will match.

    If your food doesn't have a label, use an authoritative source to find the details for the food you've chosen, and find (or create) a food in the database that matches that. Here is one possible source, from the US Department of Agriculture.

    https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/

    Usually, the SR Legacy section works well for me.

    When MFP started up, they initialed the database with foods from that source. They're mostly still there. After a while, I found them easily. They often have names only a bureaucrat can love (e.g., "Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, year round average"). In the serving size drop-down, they will usually have multiple types of measures, such as both weight and volume, maybe even diameters for things like apples.

    Once you log a food, it will stay in your MFP recent/frequent foods, and come up first when you search, as long as you eat that thing semi-frequently. You don't need to do the verifying every time.

    Best wishes!

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