Hi Everyone

A word of warning. Like many people, I have been using myfitnesspal to plan and log my food and find it invaluable. Can’t imagine having to calculate it all myself. I had used it off and on for a few years before starting the BSD plan so I’m used to there being quite a variety of nutritional values for the same food as most are entered by users who do not always values accurately and, to be fair, values can vary from brand to brand.

One way I had found to suit me previously was to use the Sainsburys entries. They had always been useful and in serving sizes that were helpful. However, yesterday I realised that a food I had used in my breakfast had no carb values in it. Unfortunately, after getting my breakfast set up on Day One on myfitnesspal, I just used the copy feature to enter it quickly every day after that so the incorrect entry had been used every day. So I had been under calculating my carbs every day for the first week. So frustrating when I have been trying really hard to get it right and I am kicking myself for not checking it like I would normally do. I was very happy with my weight loss anyway so that’s ok but just glad I spotted it in time or I could have been eating too many carbs for ages………

I guess what had happened was that the person who made the entry on myfitnesspal was only bothered about calories and didn’t bother to add anything else.

Maybe this applies to other similar sites but I have no experience of them.

Hi happyvegan I totally agree with you and have found some MFP entries for some foods to be a bit unreliable so I tend to check against the packaging values or Tesco/Sainsburys online to validate them.
However sounds like despite this you’ve had a very successful week so well done!

I’ve noticed errors like that before in MFP entries. I edit them to correct the mistake.

Hi ShelboBaggins
Yes very happy with week one. Really spurs you on doesn’t it ?

I try to check entries or use verified ones and if not I opt for Sainsburys and Tesco too but occasionally I just don’t have the time. Have learned from this though and will be extra careful from now on.

I plan on going through my list of regular foods on MFP and checking them which will make life easier. Also looking for a good list/chart online of the cals, carbs, fat, protein and fibre in foods. There’s plenty of good sites with the info but I want one I can copy and edit for the foods I eat. There must be one out there.

Problem is that the US measures carbs including fibre, and UK standard measurement is carbs net of fibre.
I started off using MFP, then switched to FatSecret, because they have a UK site – still not perfect, but I prefer it despite the ghastly name.

Hi Frog
Didn’t know that ! So what are we supposed to use on the BSD plan ? I’ve not been deducting fibre values – should I be ?

Thanks for the tip.

Net carbs, are what most people use, I am not sure if the book was explicit. I always used net carbs, as that was the only way to make sure I got enough fibre.

Hi Frog/happyvegan,

I’ve only ever used MFP for tracking as have found their database quite extensive in terms of things we buy in our everyday UK shop, and apart from other MFP members perhaps incorrectly logging the wrong nutritional values for some items most things are pretty spot on. I’m guessing where this might differ is generic non-branded items such as broccoli, where if you select the generic product that shows in your list, 100g are stated 6.6g of Carbs whereas if you select the Sainsbury’s Basics this is listed as 1.8g Carbs (net) as I believe the generic items have been input using the USDA nutritional values, i.e. Total Carbs as Frog suggests. So whenever I input fresh fruit/veg and any other non-processed items I tend to go with the UK supermarket equivalent to ensure I get the correct UK values….bit of a faff as it would be nice if MFP had a UK option to convert US values. But I suppose the good thing is that if you have been inadvertently using the US values, then you will have overstated whatever carb amounts you have logged than the other way around….I realise I may well have done this myself with some of my fruit/veg logging now!

I’ve never heard of FatSecret, might take a look at it to see how it compares.