Tracking accuracy

[jadah]

Hi everyone! Background- I’ve been a member for a while, mostly lurking in the background. I lost 45 lbs w weight watchers, hit goal, and then slowly gained back 12 lbs in about.. 9 months by doing whatever I wanted lol. I’ve been back on track for about a month, and I’m having a hard time, so I am double tracking with WW and MyFitnessPal.

My question is- how on earth do you track accurately?! WW is easy because points are kinda like rounding numbers lol, but I’m trying to weigh everything, and I feel like it’s impossible. “2 slices” of bread isn’t even close to the serving size on the package, but “grams” isn’t even an option! The Happy Belly oats I use is 40 g = 1 cup but nope, no option to go by weight.

Ht: 5’1 3/4”
HW: 165.5 lbs
SW: 132 lbs
CW: 129.4 lbs
GW: 115ish maybe

 

[jay_the_meek]

@jadah I’m a bit confused. Generally speaking, you can change the way that the food item is measured in the app. Sometimes the data isn’t already in MFP, but that’s pretty rare. I just looked up Happy Belly oats and found a listing that included grams; it has one serving at 41g and 160 calories. You can change the serving size to a single gram and then change the number of servings to however many grams you’re making.

 

[jadah]

@jay_the_meek “Happy belly toasted oats” is not the correct food choice tho. It is “happy belly old fashioned oats” which has different nutritional information and only has measurements for 1 serving = 0.5 cup. It seems to be this way for most foods. I guess I could just enter everything in manually but it just seems silly!

 

[jay_the_meek]

@jadah Huh. Maybe it’s because happy belly is a relatively new brand? I generally don’t have much of a problem finding most items, but I’m sure it’s frustrating when it’s not listed! My advice would be to keep giving it a try for awhile to see if you find that it gets easier, but there are also other services. It might be worth trying another one.

 

[jadah]

@jay_the_meek Thank you!

 

[pameyla]

@jadah If there's no grams available do that one by volume but everything else you can go by weight

 

[andrewe]

@jadah Honestly, I used to do that too and it’s a nightmare. Don’t double track. Just go by your calories in an out and weigh your food.
I’ve done every diet, every way of eating, every plan and every scheme. Just eat well and exercise and try and stick to a consistent calorie intake, whilst still enjoying life.
I use my Fitbit to track calories in vs calories out. There’s lots of different units of measurement for the foods and drinks and you can scan/create own food etc
It’s the only thing that’s worked long term for me. Hope that helps!! Good luck!

 

[jadah]

@andrewe Thank you!

 

[tavares]

@jadah With something like the bread, I don’t worry about it if I know I’ll end up eating the whole package eventually. While the two slices may not be the same weight as the suggested serving, the food is packaged by weight and you’ll end up balancing out by the time you finish the whole package.

As for MFP, I don’t normally have difficulty finding what I eat already in the app, but for foods that I eat regularly, it can sometimes be easier to take the time to input the information yourself. This way, it’s all ready to go for the next time you eat it.

 

[jadah]

@tavares Fair enough, I didn’t think of it that way. Thank you!

 

[jadah]

I’m not sure why I’m getting down voted so badly, and on all my comments. Thought I had a legitimate question for my fellow shorties.

Thank you for everyone who took time out to help me!

 

[dykema17]

@jadah If I understand correctly, many entries in MFP don't have log-by-weight options? I totally find that annoying as well but I use LoseIt which has an easy fix! In that app there is an "Edit nutritional info" button where you can change everything, including serving options. So if something like those oats is accurate but only allows volume entry, you can edit the serving from 1c to 40g.

Downside, I can't tell if it's permanent so might have to repeat? But LoseIt usually has by weight options for things I try to log and editing the serving is really easy if it's missing. For things like slices of bread, I don't weigh them and just trust the label is accurate enough because I need to for my sanity lol.

Anyway, looks like MFP has an edit nutrition feature but only on the website: https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc...-in-the-database-is-inaccurate-Can-I-edit-it-
Hope any of this was helpful!

 

[jadah]

@dykema17 Thank you SO MUCH this was the type of answer I was hoping for!! Appreciate it