Servings of custom meals

[Cynthia6698]

I entered the ingredients for chili into the custom meals, but that was for the whole pot. How can I create serving sizes (ex: 1 cup)?

[KJoanne403]

I would very much like to know that as well!

[gtg947h]

Your best bets are to either

1: measure how much food you made in total (either volume or mass) and enter the info in the custom food, with your serving size being "X cups" or "30oz" or however much you made.  Then measure what you ate.  For example, I have a recipe that makes 10 cups of stew (I know this because I measured it after cooking).  I entered the custom food for the stew with the total calories and macros for the entire recipe, and serving size was "10 cups".  Then when I eat it, I ladle it out in half-cup increments and enter how much I ate.

2: enter as "1 recipe" and then estimate/guess how much of the entire thing you ate.  Easier to do with solid foods that you can cut up or portion out, like pizza, lasagna, etc.  If you make a pizza, enter the food as "1 recipe" or "1 pizza" then when you eat it, choose "1/4 pizza" or something.

[KJoanne403]

How do you figure out the calories in the recipe? I was putting it in as a custom meal so I could enter all the ingredients, but you can't do that when creating a new food.

[gtg947h]

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@KJoanne403 wrote:

How do you figure out the calories in the recipe? I was putting it in as a custom meal so I could enter all the ingredients, but you can't do that when creating a new food.

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I first enter the recipe as a meal.  Then I get the macros for the meal (either write them down or open another window) and input the entire thing as a single custom food, with the "serving size" as I described.  It's easier to do this through the website/dashboard, IMO.

If I have a recipe that can change next time I make it--for example, I don't weigh out a specific amount of meat for most recipes; I just use whatever I've thawed and just weigh it--I update the meal with the new quantity and then create another custom food.  I put the date in the name so I know which one to use when logging it. 

Example:  I don't make my chili the same way every time.  Thus, I have one "chili" meal that I use to calculate the macros, and multiple custom foods for chili:

Chili 1-22-19

Chili 12-14-18

Chili 11-29-18

and so on...

Yes, it's a kludge and a workaround but it's the best solution I have that doesn't involve yet another database and another app.

[jchesebrough]

Surely there has to be a way - I've done the same thing as you, created a series of custom meals based on recipes and the like, now when I go to enter them, I'd like to state "X cup" or "Y ozs" - instead it's only letting me log a meal for 8 for dinner.

Disregarding the confusing hack-workarounds, does FitBit not have this figured out?

[gtg947h]

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@jchesebrough wrote:

Disregarding the confusing hack-workarounds, does FitBit not have this figured out?

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No, and apparently they have no intent to ever do so.  Their suggested "solution" is "go use MFP!" which itself is a kludge/workaround.

I like Fitbit's hardware but their software folks just never seem to finish the last 5% of anything.  The one function you really need to make it complete, the handful of remaining bugs, they're just going to leave undone because they're too busy moving on to the next new shiny pretty-looking thing. 

[WendyB]

When you enter a custom meal you do have the option to add serving sizes. If the recipes says 500 calories total but 6 servings I then divide 500 by 6 and enter i that way

[gtg947h]

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@WendyB wrote:

When you enter a custom meal you do have the option to add serving sizes. If the recipes says 500 calories total but 6 servings I then divide 500 by 6 and enter i that way

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No,  that’s for custom foods.  Meals have no serving sizes; they’re just a convenient way to log set amounts of multiple given foods at one time.

If I’m kludging a recipe via custom food, I enter the total calories and the total size (6 servings, if it’s a discrete serving, or just 1 recipe).  That way I don’t have to do a bunch of math every time I need to update the recipe (I don’t use exactly X amount of meat every time I make something, for example).  And by using “1 recipe” it gets me around having to remember what exactly a “serving” is, anyway.  What’s a “serving” of  lasagna—1/6th  of the recipe?  1/8?  If I divide the recipe out and just enter the info for one serving, I won’t remember.

[jchesebrough]

So to get the full nutritional details, you need to enter more than a total calorie number. Ingredients are key.

Say a recipe that serves 6 has 8-12 components... things like 2/3 a cup of this, and 1.25 a cup of that. A tablespoon here, 1 3/4 tablespoon there - do you really think it's appropriate to expect the user to sit down and start fractionally dividing each and every ingredient because the site/app isn't capable of handling this standard function? 

Fitbit needs to get their dev team together and apply a simply "number of servings" to the total function - what's a simple mathematical equation in code on the developers end is way too time intensive and a poor experiential ask for the user. 

Sort it out guys.

[gtg947h]

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@jchesebrough wrote:

So to get the full nutritional details, you need to enter more than a total calorie number. Ingredients are key.

Say a recipe that serves 6 has 8-12 components... things like 2/3 a cup of this, and 1.25 a cup of that. A tablespoon here, 1 3/4 tablespoon there - do you really think it's appropriate to expect the user to sit down and start fractionally dividing each and every ingredient because the site/app isn't capable of handling this standard function? 

Fitbit needs to get their dev team together and apply a simply "number of servings" to the total function - what's a simple mathematical equation in code on the developers end is way too time intensive and a poor experiential ask for the user. 

Sort it out guys.

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I too am irritated by Fitbit's refusal to do anything about this ("just go use MFP!"  <eyeroll>)

But here's a better explanantion of my kludge that gets me the details (at least the macros, if not the vitamin data I never look at) without having to fractionally divide it all out.

First, using the meal editor:

Then, in the "create custom food" section, do this:

Yes, it's still a kludge.  But it's a better workaround than dividing each entry all the time and I don't need to bother with MFP.

This method is useful because it makes adjusting how much I ate rather easy.  I tend to pre-plan how much I eat and enter food in advance (I had all of the planned foods for today entered at 0530 today and I hadn't eaten any of it yet) so that I can see "here's my plan for the day and here's how much 'room' I have left for other foods".  Often I have enough room to eat more of something, and I'll finish my wife's portion or something like that.  In that case I only have to change something once, and not go change the amount of each and every ingredient.

If you make a recipe where amounts can change (e.g. I don't always use exactly the same amount of meat and beans when I make chili) go back and edit the meal (step 1) and then edit the numbers in the custom food (step 2).  Then add to your log. 

[Tanya_C]

Thanks so much for the suggestion. 
Kinda sucks, as not all the nutritional values are entered, and it's a waste of time as FitBit should have this as an option - for people to eat better, you need to use recipes and make your own meals!

BUT, I so appreciate the work-around, and the pics for clarity. 

Thanks @gtg947h 

[aj907]

Thank you for the detailed explanation of how to do this! I started using the Food Tracker a couple years ago, but quickly quit because all of my dinners are a custom meal that I make for the entire family. It was frustrating not to be able to just go into the app and log a portion of that. I just recently started trying the Food Tracker again and am happy to have the work around. Thank you! Now if only Fitbit would listen to their members and add a way to choose a serving for a custom meal. Should be an easy thing to do for any coder/developer.