Yesterday, the offical restart of my weight loss journey, I went on and entered everything in FitDay. Part of my dinner was frozen asparagus, that I microwaved and topped with Molly McButter.
I had 13 stalks, which according to the bag, is right around 25 calories. I chose asparagus, cooked from frozen, no fat added on FitDay. Imagine my utter horror when FitDay pops up with over 100 calories.
So I thought to myself, that can't be right, and checked a few other websites for the calorie count of said asparagus. Every site I went to had a different count, although FitDay's was by far the highest.
So that leads me to wonder how I can trust what it tells me. Do you take the bag or boxes totals, do you rely on what FitDay has stored? While 75 calories in this case isn't going to make or break the day, incorrect counts on many things could make a big difference.
I always enter the info from the box or bag as a "custom food"--I figure the people who made whatever it is have a good idea of the nutritional value! Otherwise they'd be dealing with lawsuits...
Honestly, I gave up on FitDay after about a week of using it. The foods were weird, totally off of calorie counts or just not there. I use Sparkpeople.
I gave up on FitDay and switched to SparkPeople when I got tired of having to enter everything I eat as a custom food because it just wasn't in their database. I don't eat a lot of prepackaged foods, sure, but it was a little ridiculous. SparkPeople hasn't got everything, but they let you search other users' custom foods as well now, so chances are good it's in there somewhere.
I haven't tried Fitday, so I can't really chime in about that. I have found that I really love sparkpeople though. When a food comes up different than the nutritional info on the container, I just make a custom food item and enter the information because 75 calories is a big difference.
Did you choose asparagus cooked, or asparagus cooked, fat not added in cooking? The calorie counts will be different for those two options. I had 15 spears of asparagus for dinner yesterday and Fitday gave me a calorie count of 49 calories. I admit, though, Fitday's database leaves much to be desired. I've just grown accustomed to using it, so I don't plan to change any time soon.
I don't count calories at all, but there was a time when I was interested in the general breakdown of carbs/protein/fat I was consuming. I tried one site - I honestly cannot remember which one it was, I think FitDay, and I got very frustrated with it.
It happened to me more than once that I dilligently copied all the info from the box (e.g. from the cereal) because it was one they did not have in the database - for example, 1/2 cup has X calories, xx carbs, xxx protein, y fibre, yy fat etc. and then FitDay would refuse to add it complaining about the information being incorrect!!! I figured the manufacturer is in a better position to know what's in the product. This happened to me with several items that I buy on a regular basis, I found it very annoying and I never used FitDay (or any other similar site) again.
I use the downloaded FitDay. When I choose "asparagus, cooked," which is what I eat (from fresh) it allows me to enter the number of spears eaten. I also tried "asparagus, cooked, from frozen, fat not added in cooking" and it also allowed me to enter the number of spears. I got around 40 calories for both of them, using 13 spears.
So I don't know why you don't get the same numbers. Maybe you are not setting the units right?
Frustrated with FitDay!!
