MFP is Driving Me Nuts :)

more2adore · Oct 22, 2014

So when I go to log a food into MFP, if there was no nutrition information with it when I bought it (say, an avocado, as an example), I go in and use their database to look it up. Unfortunately, there are usually a million differing results. It's been frustrating trying to figure out which is correct. If it's a packaged product, I'll go look it up on the manufacturer's website if I can (if I no longer have access to the box or something). You should have seen the differing results for the carb & protein counts in a single avocado. It was freaking insane.

Much of MFP's user-submitted data is US-specific. Because Australia doesn't allow corn syrup in foods here, oftentimes two identical foods will have differing nutrition information. Also, sometimes two different foods have the same name in the US and Australia - "pumpkin," for example, is typically what US folks think of as butternut squash here in Aus. So if I look up nutrition info for "pumpkin," I have no way to know which food I'm seeing information for.

And don't get me started on the carbs - I never know if what I'm looking at was submitted by an Aussie (who would have been probably listing net carbs as "carbs" and dietary fibre separately), or a US person (who would be listing dietary fiber as included in carbs).

Also, much of their nutrition information is based on the weight of the product rather than the actual measurement I prefer to use (teaspoon, tablespoon, cup, whatever). I DO weigh things when necessary, but I'd much rather measure.

I guess my only solution is not to really use their database, but it's that database that is supposed to lend so much convenience. Just a little frustrated and needed to vent! Anyone have any tips that could help me?

Thanks!

PS - Oh, and if anyone wants to be friends on MFP I'd love it - just PM me.

brooklyngirl · Oct 23, 2014

@more2adore when a product pops up with lots of entries, I usually look at a bunch of them and then use one that seems to be the most common, so if 6 out of 10 have the same protein & carb counts and the other 4 have varying ones, I'll use one of the 6. It can be annoying, but once you use it for a while, you'll have all those values stored on your own database so you won't be looking everything up on theirs all day. As far as carbs, you can kind of do the same method. Just look at a bunch of the ones that pop up and see the average amount of carbs. Example- some will show 12 carbs and 6 fiber and some will show 6 carbs and 6 fiber. You can then basically figure out that the first one didn't subtract out the fiber and the second one did, so you'll choose the one that works better for your totals. If you're going to subtract fiber from your total carbs yourself, at the end of the day, then you choose the first one. But if you don't want to do that, then always choose one like the second otherwise your end total will be skewed. And again, those are things that will store over time the more you use it and you won't have to figure it out every time you eat something.

southernlady · Oct 23, 2014

LOL, or you could do what I had to do 2 decades ago...pen and paper method!

newanatomy · Oct 23, 2014

I agree with Brooklyngirl, use common sense. It gets easier after you use it for a while.

brooklyngirl · Oct 23, 2014

southernlady said:
LOL, or you could do what I had to do 2 decades ago...pen and paper method!

I know that I've done that in the past, but I Constantly lost the papers. Plus I'd still have to look up what the values of things are. Some you eventually remember, but I like to switch things up CONSTANTLY