Discrepancy in food labels for calories
 

I was wondering how Fitday figures out the calories on certain foods. For instance one large baked egg on fitday is worth 125 calories, yet on the box it says 70 calories. Thats a 55 calorie difference and definitely enough to take notice if you are counting calories. I looked around and found out that the FDA only legally allows a 20% difference on the calorie value of food from what's on the label. So who is wrong here? Granted 1 large egg is a subjective term but even the medium was way over too. Also 1 cup of raw pineapple here is 74 calories. But I've seen estimates as low as 50 calories. So I guess the question is, how do I know this information is accurate?

Hey Dude,
FitDay uses an "average value" for calorie and nutrient loads. The closer the food is to a raw, unprepared, non-processed state, the closer the calories are likely to be to other published values.

I'm not sure what kind of box you are getting a baked egg from, but in general where there is a discrepency between the caloreis in fitday and the calories on the label of the food you are about to eat, always go with the label values.

The calories in any food can vary naturally. For example the calories in "beef" depend on the fat. A well marbled steak will have significantly more calories per oz than a very lean steak. Therefore entering "steak" in your foods journal may not reflect what you actually ate. The biggest variation in calories comes in processed foods, like frozen or canned foods. A generic value for "chicken soup" is hard to establish because cheaper soups typically contain more water and less chicken thus making them lower in calorie than premium chicken soups, which may taste better but are more calorie dense.

Although the foods library in Fitday can be pretty handy, creating your own custom foods is by far more accurate.

I hope that helps a little.

Pam

Yes that makes sense. Also I figured out that I was browsing foods instead of searching for what I wanted and the latter works much better. Thanks Pam

FitDay assumes a lot more fat in cooking than I actually use. Maybe it assumes the egg was baked with butter or something.

FitDay calorie count discrepencies
 

I have also found it frustrating that the calorie count is way off...for example I went to add "corn white" to my food for the day. (This was frozen organic so I have the food lable.) However to do it quickly I tried the food search and found that fitday wanted to alot over 600 :eek:calories for 1 cup. When in fact the food lable says that is worth only 90 calories. OK, I understand a little wiggle room, but a 510 calorie difference???? (additionally, the calorie count that fitday has for "corn sweet white raw" is about 132 per cup:confused:)

I find using the food lables and creating custom foods, for the things I eat most, is the best way to get an accurate count. I don't know where fitday comes up with some of these amounts. I have even resorted to other sites to get better idea of raw foods so that I know what I'm actually consuming.

Does anyone have other sites that they use to find calorie counts?

McDifference
 

I also found some differences when looking at the food from McDonalds. For Some reason FitDay information was lowe, in calories than what is stated on the McDonlad Website and they seem to have information about nutrients that aren't reported on the Mcdonalds website either.

Seems a bit odd to me. Perhaps they are sending thing s to the lab to get tested? If so, awesome...

otherwise, I wonder how I can help make the official numbers match between FitDay and mcdonalds website.

:)

I use fitday more for the charts than anything.
I use a calorie check book ( which also lists amount of carbs protein fat and some vitamins) to find out the calories in the foods i eat. I write everything down on paper during the day, and when i get home i put it in fitday. having the book with me, i can look something up and decide if i want to eat it. After 2-3 weeks, you learn to memorize the calorie and fat content of things you eat often, which is more helpful than anything in your decision making. you should know how big 3 or 4 ounces of meat is, and how big a cup of vegetables is for portion control too.

i've noticed corn is wrong ( 1 cup can be anywhere from 90-130 calories depending on it process)
Chicken breast (boneless skinless) is also wrong ( fitday says 2 oz is 222 calories, when three ounces is usually around 90-110 depending on fat content)

sometimes i find things that are similar, and change the amount eaten so that it represents the correct calorie content. usually it affects my carb/fat balance a bit though.

Iam totally frustrated with the calorie counts of the FitDay program. All the vegetables are off and I have searched 4 other web sites. How can an ounce of cauliflower have half of it's calories from fat?? Same with squash, cabbage, broccolli, etc.

Some one help This is way way off.

I noticed the same thing with the veggies. Instead of using the Search box, go to the Browse section and find your vegetable. For most, it gives you many options, including "cooked [from fresh, frozen, etc.] with fat not added in cooking" (or added in cooking, if you do that). It's more of a pain but more accurate.