Calories and Macro Discrepancies: When it Matters & When it Doesn’t

You might think to yourself, “I don’t stress overeating pizza and ice cream… maybe I should just go back to that.” Should you worry about the discrepancies in macros and calories? Are you just playing a big calorie/macro guessing game? Does this even work? Is it worth the stress of figuring it out?

So many of my clients ask me about the discrepancies and inconsistencies they see when tracking their food intake. “What do you do when MyFitnessPal shows a variety of calories and macros for the same exact food? What do you do when your macros or calories is greater than the other at the end of the day?” So, let's talk about what you can do about discrepancies in your macro counting.

Picking the Right Food Item

MyFitness Pal sometimes has tons of options for the same type of food. This is because users create their own version of the food which then is available for all users. The annoying part is that some people are inaccurate when their input and calculation which causes inconsistency within MyFitness Pal.

What do you do when MyFitnessPal shows you a variety of calories and macros for the same exact food?

1. When you search for food to log, make sure you specify whether the meat is raw or cooked. It is always best to track the meat as raw.

2. If you are logging a cooked food, then add HOW the food is cooked (grilled, poached, baked, pan fried, deep fried, etc.) since each method has different nutritional values.

3. Add USDA to your food search if it is “whole” food like meat, fruit, veggies, etc.

4. Look for the green check marks that signify that an item is verified; however, do not trust them blindly. They are not always accurate, but rather just popular.

5. Do not blindly trust the bar code scanner - double check your nutrition labels with the item that comes up as you scan.

6. Add foods you regularly consume to your own recipes. It will then show up in your “My Foods” tab in MyFitness Pal and you can log it with confidence the next time you eat it. To do this hit the "+" sign in the top right of MyFitness Pal when you search for a food, then click "Create a Food".

7. When in absolute doubt about a food, then do some quick math.

o 1 gram of carbohydrate = 4 calories

o 1 gram of protein = 4 calories

o 1 gram of fat = 9 calories

Troubleshooting Mismatched Calories and Macros

If you’re like me, I can become frustrated when my calories and macros do not match up at the end of the day. What do you do when your macros or calories is greater than the other at the end of the day?

This happens very often. This is where you can likely apply Occam's Razor - the simplest explanation is most likely the one causing the issue. Here are a few troubleshooting steps:

1) Check to see if the food input was correctly added and logged.

2) Check if your logged food had the macros and calories rounded up.

3) Make sure that your fiber numbers count towards both carbohydrates and calorie numbers. Fiber does not get digested like a normal carbohydrate and likely does not contribute to the 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate.

4) Analyze the nutritional label to see if your food item has sugar alcohols such as sorbitol, xylitol, and erythritol in them. These are sweeteners that can vary from 2.6 calories per gram to nothing, but they are listed as a carbohydrate and will be counted as a full gram of carbohydrate.

5) Alcohol = BAD for nutrition. Each gram of alcohol equals 7 grams of calories which comes from alcohol itself and some carbohydrates.

Keep in mind that macro counting will never be perfectly accurate, but realistically, slight variances will not impact your overall nutrition. Accepting an imperfect macro counting world will help you give up some control and settle for good enough.

Macro tracking is worth the trouble since you will see incredible success even if your numbers are not spot on. The more you track your food and have to troubleshoot your logging, you will start to see more consistent and accurate numbers. As you see results, your confidence will increase and you will enjoy tracking your nutrition.

Whether you jump into a Challenge with me or learn the process on your own, know that there will be a learning curve and things might be difficult to start with. Don’t freak out and give up if things aren't perfect. You’ll hear me say it a million times: trust the process! You'll learn, and it will get easier with time. You got this!