Gained 2 pounds the first week - please help!

[Queenv]

Thank you so much for your detailed replies! I’m sorry, I misspoke. I understand the difference between net and total carbs. My frustration arises from trying to make accurate descisions with faulty information. If the tracker says “carbs” how do I know which is correct? For example: how many net carbs are in the peanut butter choc thing you eat (I’m going to start doing that, dark choc and peanut butter are two of my fave things in life)? I feel.like starting there will help.me eliminate bad information.

[sypherlev]

If you’ve got Cronometer, then what you’ll want to do is go find the setting for only counting net carbs. (It’s also got a setting for not counting sugar alcohols, if you want to use that too.) Once you have that, then all your values in Cronometer should be net carbs only, and you just have to keep it under 20-25g per day.

Otherwise - just relax this is a process. You will not have to be exact about it, and you shouldn’t really obsess about it too much. Just try your best to hit your targets and don’t beat yourself up if something goes wrong and you don’t. Remember, just by cutting out sugar and refined carbs like bread and pasta, you’re doing something good for your health even if you don’t lose any weight.

[Queenv]

I am so grateful I found this forum. Thank you so much. I will try. you reminded me of another question however. Sugar alcohols, I saw that switch. Do I flip it on or off?

[lfod14]

2lbs is beyond ignorable, most of us drink 4x that much in water every day, could be nothing more than fluctuation or maybe a past due bathroom visit, nothing to worry about as long as your eating correctly. Choice is yours but over all going from Cronometer to MFP is a pretty large downgrade, you won’t be able to track as accurately and will loose a lot of functionality and customization. If you’re not sure if your eating is right or not post a sample menu for a day or two and we’ll take a look.

One site says that an avocado only has 5 grams of carbs, another says 17 grams of carbs. One says cheese is 0 carbs, the next says 1 an oz.

I just googled up two different places one said 4g, on said 17g, but one was for 50g worth of avacado, the other was for 201g! Gotta look real close! People play games with nutritional labels.

[Anniegirl9]

If you are scanning from the package barcode, it’s as ample as reading the nutritional label. If you have the time, you can create your own entry so that it represents the net carbs. This would be especially helpful if it’s something you eat repeatedly. I keep meaning to do it with the chocolate and peanut butter, but I’ve been lazy lately.

But for entering something like an avacado, if your unsure of the accuracy of an entry, it’s best to do a google search. Then you can select the option that most closely matches what you want.

When multiple options come up for the same food, I’ll often check a few of them and if they are all in line with each other, I just pick one. If 2 or 3 are similar and 1 is way off, I ignore it.

It’s a balance between being accurate and realizing you don’t want to spend your entire lunch break logging your food.

[Queenv]

Cronometer scans bar codes?

[Genewich]

Cronometer generally pulls from USDA and similar vetted sources. For community supplied food info they require photos of the nutrition label. In MFP anyone can add whatever they want, so you have even less idea how reliable the info is.

[Anniegirl9]

Don’t know about Cronometer, but MFP does.

[Anniegirl9]

In MFP anyone can add whatever they want, so you have even less idea how reliable the info is.

Yes, but you can also enter your own recipies and save. And scanning the bar codes takes directly from the manufacturer info.

And you can access restaurant menus which have pretty accurate info as it’s taken from their nutritional information.

The only time I really have an issue is when it’s an item that doesn’t have a bar code. Then I google and find the correct info for weight. There’s almost always a good choice out there, you just have to be able to find it among the junk. Which you can do if you know how.

[DiMo]

Yep. When you go to add a food, next to the window where you can type in the name of the food is a bar code icon. Click on it and it opens a new window where you can scan in the barcode.

You can also add custom foods and recipes in Cronometer.

[Queenv]

Ok! Im back to cronometer. I even added my first custom food - scanned the barcode and typed in all the data and everything! Last question: why does it consistently attribute 1 carb to cheese? This is the major reason that I don’t didn’t trust it. Most of the cheeses are listed as zero net carbs on the actual package and google, but cronometer consistently attributes one carb to them. This is a concern for me because I eat a lot of cheese and as we know I’m a little wigged out already about my ability to collect accurate information lol!

Is cronometer correct here? If not, what else is it consistently wrong about?

[mtncntrykid]

Since cheese is dairy it will have a carb value. One oz of heavy (or double) cream is-
Total Carbohydrate 0.4g
Dietary Fiber 0.0g
Sugars 0.0g
I use Cronometer and have found very little incorrect information.

[DiMo]

Even though the package of cheese may say 0 carbs per serving, it can have some carbs, just less than 0.5 grams per serving. If your actual serving is more than the package’s serving size, say 3 or 4 servings, those will add up.