Nutrition Tracking: How do I change the amount of grams on MyFitnessPal?

According to tracking accuracy studies, measuring food with a digital scale can be 10-20% more accurate than using volume measurements like cups. Understanding how do I change the amount of grams on MyFitnessPal is essential for leveraging this precision, ensuring your food log is consistent and reliable for better nutritional outcomes.

Quick Summary

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on adjusting food entries to use grams in MyFitnessPal. It covers how to find 1-gram serving options in the database, create custom foods, manage recipes, and follow best practices for accurate nutrition tracking using a food scale.

Key Points

• Adjusting Existing Entries: When adding a food, tap the serving size to check for a 1 g option. Select this and then enter your measured gram amount in the number of servings field.

• Creating Custom Foods: For reliable tracking of specific items, use the My Foods feature to create a custom entry. Set the serving size to 1 g and enter the nutrition facts from the label.

• Invest in a Food Scale: Using a digital food scale for accurate gram measurements is significantly more precise than relying on volume-based metrics like cups or spoons, reducing tracking errors.

• Master Raw vs. Cooked Weight: Food weight changes during cooking due to moisture loss. For consistency, either always track food raw or use a conversion factor to log the cooked weight as its raw equivalent.

• Utilize the Recipe Builder: For homemade meals, use the recipe tool to enter all raw ingredients in grams. Set the total weight of the finished dish as the number of servings, allowing you to log exact portions by weight.

• Seek Verified Entries: Prioritize food entries with a green checkmark in the database, as these are typically more accurate than generic, user-submitted data.

Why is Tracking in Grams More Accurate?

Precision is paramount for consistent dietary tracking. Using a digital food scale and logging in grams removes the guesswork and subjectivity associated with measuring by volume (cups, tablespoons). The weight of a "cup of rice" can vary significantly depending on how densely it's packed, while 100 grams is always 100 grams. This small difference can accumulate over a day or week, throwing off your caloric and macronutrient totals. For anyone serious about their diet, whether for weight loss, muscle gain, or health management, mastering gram-based logging is a powerful skill.

Method 1: Adjusting an Existing Database Entry

For food items already in MyFitnessPal's database, the process is straightforward, provided a suitable entry exists. When you search and find a food, don't just accept the default serving size. Instead, follow these steps:

1. Search for a Food: In your food diary, tap 'Add Food' for the desired meal. Type the name of the food item.
2. Select the Best Entry: Choose an entry that most accurately reflects your food. For packaged items, look for the official brand or a verified entry (indicated by a green checkmark). Generic or user-submitted entries can be wildly inaccurate.
3. Check Serving Size Options: Tap on the serving size field to reveal a dropdown menu. Many items will have a variety of units listed, including ounces, cups, and, most importantly, grams.
4. Find the 1-Gram Serving: If available, select the 1 g or 1 gram option. This is the simplest method, as you won't need to do any conversions yourself.
5. Enter the Weighed Portion: With the serving size set to 1 g, simply enter the total number of grams you weighed on your scale into the 'Number of Servings' field. For example, if you weighed 75 grams of chicken, enter '75' as the number of servings. The app will automatically calculate the nutritional information for that exact weight.

Method 2: Creating a Custom Food for Gram Tracking

Sometimes, the database lacks a reliable gram-based entry for a specific food. In this case, creating a custom food item is the most reliable solution. This is especially useful for staple ingredients or unique branded items.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Navigate to 'My Foods': Go to the 'More' menu (three dots) in the bottom right, then select 'Meals, Recipes & Foods,' and then 'Foods'.
2. Create a New Food: Tap the 'Create a Food' button. You can also start this process by scanning a barcode that doesn't yield a result.
3. Input Nutritional Facts: Fill in the food's name. When it comes to serving size, enter the nutritional information directly from the food's packaging. For the serving size, a pro-tip is to enter 1 g with 1 serving per container. This allows for the most granular tracking later.
4. Complete the Nutritional Panel: Fill in all the relevant nutritional data, including calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Always cross-reference against the product label to ensure accuracy.
5. Save and Log: Once saved, this custom food will appear in your 'My Foods' list. When logging, simply select the food, change the serving size to 1 g (if you set it up that way), and enter your measured gram quantity.

Understanding Raw vs. Cooked Weight

A critical detail for accurate gram tracking is accounting for moisture loss during cooking. Meat, grains, and some vegetables lose water weight when cooked, which concentrates their calories and nutrients. To maintain accuracy, you must be consistent in how you weigh your food.

• Weighing Raw: The most accurate method is to weigh the food in its raw, uncooked state. This aligns with most nutritional labels and avoids the variability caused by different cooking methods. Log the raw weight in MyFitnessPal.
• Converting Cooked to Raw: If you must weigh cooked food, you can convert it back to its raw equivalent. For meat, a good estimate is to multiply the cooked weight by 1.33 to get the raw weight (assuming a 25% moisture loss). For example, 150 grams of cooked chicken would be logged as 200 grams of raw chicken.

Example Tracking Method Comparison

Feature	Manual Database Entry (Best-Case)	Creating a Custom Food (Ideal)
Search and Setup	Quick search, but requires checking for 1g option.	Requires initial setup time to input nutritional data.
Accuracy	High, if using a verified entry.	Highest, as it's based on your specific food item's label.
Flexibility	Good, if the database entry has multiple units.	Excellent, always allows for 1g portion entry.
Database Reliability	Inconsistent, can find inaccurate user-submitted entries.	Consistent, as you control the data for your My Foods entries.
Time Savings	Fast for common foods.	Saves time long-term for frequently eaten items.

Best Practices for Consistent and Accurate Tracking

Following these tips will help you make the most of gram-based tracking in MyFitnessPal:

• Get a Digital Food Scale: This is non-negotiable for accurate gram measurement. They are inexpensive and dramatically improve tracking precision.
• Prioritize Verified Entries: When using the general database, look for entries with a green checkmark, which indicates verification by the MyFitnessPal team.
• Don't Fear Custom Entries: If a food is not in the database or appears inaccurate, take a few minutes to create a custom entry. It's a one-time effort that pays off in long-term accuracy and confidence.
• Log Before You Eat: Get into the habit of weighing and logging your food before you start eating. This prevents you from forgetting details and reinforces mindful eating.
• Learn to Eyeball for Emergencies: After consistent gram tracking, you'll develop a better sense of portion sizes. This is a valuable skill for when you eat out and cannot use a scale.

Handling Complex Recipes

For multi-ingredient dishes, use MyFitnessPal's recipe builder feature. This is far more accurate than trying to estimate calories for a mixed meal.

1. Use the Recipe Tool: Navigate to 'More' > 'Meals, Recipes & Foods' > 'Recipes'.
2. Add Raw Ingredients: Weigh all raw ingredients and add them to the recipe builder with their precise gram amounts.
3. Specify Total Servings: After cooking, weigh the final, complete dish. Set the number of servings for the recipe to equal the total weight in grams. For instance, if your finished casserole weighs 1500g, set the number of servings to 1500.
4. Log by Grams: When you eat a portion, weigh it in grams and log that amount as your serving size. If your plate holds 300g of the casserole, log '300' servings of the 1-gram unit. This ensures every bite is tracked accurately based on the original ingredients. This process is detailed further by resources like M2 Performance Nutrition.

Conclusion

Accurate nutritional tracking is a cornerstone of effective diet management. Knowing how do I change the amount of grams on MyFitnessPal moves you from approximate to precise logging, providing a clearer picture of your intake. While it may require a little extra effort initially—especially when creating custom foods or building recipes—the improved data quality is invaluable for achieving your health goals. By consistently using a food scale and the app's features as outlined, you can build a reliable system for tracking your macros and calories with confidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find a 1-gram serving size option for a food?

When searching for a food, tap on the serving size field to see a dropdown menu. If a 1 g option is available, select it. If not, you may need to search for a more specific entry or create a custom food item.

Why is tracking in grams considered more accurate?

Tracking in grams is more accurate because it uses a precise, consistent unit of mass, unlike volume measurements (e.g., cups or tablespoons), which can vary significantly depending on how the food is packed or measured.

Can I edit a recipe to be based on grams in MyFitnessPal?

Yes, using the recipe builder. Enter all ingredients by their raw gram weight, then set the total weight of the finished recipe as the total number of servings. When you eat a portion, you can then log it by its exact gram weight.

Is it possible to log grams without a premium account?

Yes, you can log food in grams with the free version of MyFitnessPal. You can still adjust serving sizes for existing database entries or create custom foods with 1-gram serving sizes.

What if the food I'm tracking isn't in the database or seems inaccurate?

In this case, the most reliable method is to create a custom food item under My Foods. Enter the nutritional information from the product label yourself, using a 1-gram serving size for maximum accuracy.

Why does my cooked food weigh less than its raw weight equivalent?

Food weight decreases during cooking primarily due to moisture loss. The caloric and macronutrient content remains, but it's concentrated in the remaining mass. For consistent tracking, you can either always weigh food raw or convert cooked weight back to its raw equivalent.

How can I check if a food entry is reliable?

Look for a green checkmark next to the food entry. This indicates that the MyFitnessPal team has verified its accuracy. For single-ingredient foods, searching for USDA or NUTTAB entries is also a good strategy.