As discussed in other Knowledge Base articles, you don’t need to stress about logging your food with perfect accuracy in order to reach your goals with MacroFactor, and there are even instances where simply estimating your energy intake is perfectly fine (and even recommended). But, if you do want to maximize your food logging accuracy, these tips will help you out:
1) Get (and Use) a Good Food Scale
A digital food scale is the most accurate tool for measuring food at home – volumetric measurements simply don’t allow for the same level of precision. If possible, investing in a heavy-duty digital kitchen scale with a higher weight limit is the way to go. There’s nothing inherently wrong with cheap food scales, but many have a weight limit as low as 10 pounds, which might not seem significant until you consider the weight of a pot or glass dishes used in cooking. From personal experience, I’ve also found that cheaper scales often reach their maximum capacity sooner than advertised, and may die after less than a year of consistent use. It's worth considering a scale with at least a 22-pound capacity, but for complete peace of mind, a scale with a 40-pound limit is even better.
2) Mastering the Tare
Often, you'll find yourself measuring food directly on a plate, in a bowl, or even in the pot used for cooking. For this example, let’s say you’re making rice.
Example: Measuring Rice Using Tare Function
Place the Empty Measuring Cup on the Scale
“Zero” the Scale By Pressing The “Tare” Button: This will account for the weight of the cup but start you at “zero” to add your rice.
Pour or Scoop The Dry Uncooked Rice Into The Cup: The scale will now only show the weight of the dry rice.
Record the Weight Of The Rice: Search “Rice, Uncooked” and log the amount the scale has provided.
The tare feature can be a time saver in many instances. For example, let’s say you’re making a pot of chili. You can also combine this lesson with learning to create your first MacroFactor custom recipe.
Example: Measuring Chili In The Pot Using Tare + Total Recipe Weight
Gather ingredients.
Place the pot on the scale, and note the pot's weight for future reference.
Zero the scale with the pot on it (tare).
Add the first ingredient; log its weight.
After each ingredient, press tare to reset to zero.
Continue adding and logging all ingredients.
Cook your chili!
For the total recipe weight, weigh the pot of chili and subtract the pot's weight that you noted earlier. Enter the resulting value in the “total weight” cell for your recipe.
So, with this approach, when you’re whipping up dinner for your family and you don't want to fuss over figuring out the exact number of servings, just put your bowl on the scale, zero out the scale, scoop some chili into it, and then log the weight of your serving of chili. For more recipe tips on multiple-serving recipes, check out this article.
For one more tare tip, you can also log the weight removed from a container, rather than logging the weight added to a plate or bowl. For instance, if you use coffee creamer daily, you put the bottle or carton of coffee creamer on the scale, tare the scale to zero it out, pour some coffee creamer into your coffee, put the coffee creamer back on the scale, and then log the weight difference. For instance, if the scale reads “-30g,” that means you added 30g of creamer to your coffee. This method is also effective for items like oils, nut butters, and other similar products.
3) Dry/Raw/Uncooked Vs Cooked
When possible, weigh foods before cooking them, and search for instances of the dry, raw, or uncooked version of the food for logging purposes. Foods lose variable amounts of water when cooking, so logging the weights of the uncooked ingredients will give you slightly more accurate data.
For instance, a steak may lose 10% of its total mass if you cook it rare, but nearly 40% of its mass if you cook it well-done. If you logged a standard “steak, grilled” food entry, you’d likely underestimate the energy and protein content of a well-done steak, and overestimate the energy and protein content of a rare steak. However, if you weighed the steak before cooking it, your logging data will be accurate, regardless of the level of doneness you cook it to.
There will be times when you’ll need to log cooked foods (for instance, if you’re eating out, you probably won’t be able to ask the chef how many grams of uncooked noodles went into a pasta dish), and logging cooked foods certainly isn’t bad, but logging dry/uncooked/raw foods does tend to result in slightly greater accuracy.
4) Cups & Measuring Utensils
If you don’t have or can’t afford a scale, cups and measuring utensils are the next best thing. They are fairly accurate if you learn to utilize the correct techniques.
Lined clear measuring cups are best for liquids. Be sure to take measurements at eye level.
Opaque measuring cups and spoons are ideal for dry goods. After filling the measuring cup or spoon, be sure to level it off with a straight edge (like the dull side of a knife).
5) When You Have to Guess, You Can Work On Guessing Better
In certain situations, you have no choice but to guess. However, you can still use these tips for more accurate estimations.
1. Access Previous Experience Using Portions
Use past logging as a reference to simplify caloric decision-making or overall estimations. Think, "This amount looks similar to what I weighed before, so I'll use that as my guide."
You can then speed up this process by using AI Describe. For instance, describe a meal using your experience to get as close as possible. "6 oz of steak, 1 cup of mashed potatoes, 1/4 cup gravy, 1 1/2 cups cooked green beans, one dinner roll." This approach can make tracking quicker and more accurate by using visual approximations as guides.
2. Consider the Ingredient
To be clear, no one expects you to know every ingredient in a meal. However, over time you'll notice patterns that can aid in your food tracking. For instance, when eating a chicken sandwich, consider its components. Is there sauce? Is the chicken breaded or grilled? How big is it?
A small grilled chicken sandwich with hot sauce will differ from a large breaded fried chicken sandwich with a creamy mayo-based sauce.
3. Choose Similar Items in the Database (Even If Not Perfect)
People often feel stuck when a nutritional database doesn't have the exact item they're eating. Remember, these are all best guesses anyway. The best move is to look for something similar. For example, if you ordered Chicken Pad Thai at a restaurant, you could enter "Pad Thai, Chicken" into MacroFactor and browse through options to find the closest match. Try to pick the one that most closely resembles your meal. If your dish has more noodles than chicken, it likely contains more carbs. Your meal provides hints, from the type of sauce to the amount of protein. Do your best without expecting perfection.
4. Guess and check when you can log accurately
If you’re not confident in your ability to estimate portion sizes, you can assess your ability to estimate in situations when you can measure accurately. For example, if you’re about to eat a sandwich at home with your kitchen scale nearby, you could size up the sandwich, mentally estimate its weight, and then weigh it. How close was your estimate? If you were pretty close (within 20% or so), that’s great! If you misestimated to a significant degree, then just practice each time you weigh foods, until your estimates are closer to the actual weights of the things you eat. Once you can validate that you’re quite skilled at estimating portion sizes, you can have more confidence in your ability to estimate portion sizes in situations when you don’t have a scale handy.
6) Recognize The Unlogged Snacks
It's common for people to have bites and nibbles throughout the day without logging them. This final tip serves as a reminder that all calories count. Most foods, even in small amounts, still contribute energy. Below are some common myths or pitfalls to avoid for more accurate calorie counts.
Vegetables and fruits: Although healthy and not particularly calorically dense, they contain calories that can add up.
Condiments: Remember to count the sauce.
Casual eating or grazing: Watch yourself more closely during cooking or for snacking throughout the day.
Alcohol: Drinks can significantly contribute to daily calorie intake and are easy to forget, especially once the drinking starts.
Again, perfect tracking isn't needed for MacroFactor, but honing food logging skills can lead to faster results for some. Your eating habits need to be about finding the right tracking lifestyle balance while also hitting your goals.
Read next:
Now that you’ve learned tips for logging food more accurately, you might enjoy one of these articles next:
Tips For Creating Recipes for Dishes Comprised of Multiple Servings
Create and Add a Custom Recipe