Is fitday accurate? Also, a request for general nutrition info

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I signed up there today to get an idea of the amount of calories, vitamins etc. that I’m eating. The numbers seemed off to me, though. I don’t have all the packages for the foods, or I’d check things myself. For people who use it, do you generally have to customize the food information for the site?

I looked at my percentages for carbs, protein and fats on fitday, but have no idea what ratio the average person should be aiming for. Well, I do have some idea, but I’ve seen a wide range of different percentages. It seems like no two nutritionists agree on anything.

2

I think Fitday (like pretty much all the online calorie trackers) gets its info directly from the USDA Nutrient Data Labortory so it’s pretty accurate. The problem is the servig sizes are kind of tricky. I’ve occasionally resorted to checking the USDA NDL directly so I could figure out what it was looking for. I did wind up customizing food entries for the stuff I eat frequently for more accuracy but I think Fitday is generally on.

3

I can’t speak to Fitday, sorry. But I do use Calorie-Count. You can look up loads of food and also enter your own recipes for nutritional break-downs. Calorie-Count will also “grade” your daily food intake using the gov guidelines.

4

Fitday is fairly accurate, albeit by averages. If possible, I always enter specific brands into the system, to be sure it’s as accurate as possible. It’s sometimes hard to do the serving sizes accurately, though – I end up having to remember the digital equivalent for 1/8 due to things being listed as cups when I am literally only eating ounces of it.
On the calories burned, I don’t think it’s quite as accurate – at least based on what the treadmill tells me.

5

Thanks, maybe my problem is with entering the correct serving sizes. I started entering in some information and hit a snag because FD says the number of calories on the label doesn’t match the amount of carbohydrates, fat and protein. Fitday also breaks things down further than the label does, so it won’t be possible to customize the vitamin percentages.