What is the best way to search for food items?

[Granny1colleen]

I spend way too much time trying to find a food item the the database.  Is there a certain way or order that words should be typed into the search?

[KatieB]

If it is a name brand I might type the base word of the item and then the brand name and see what comes up.

If it is a fruit or vegetable. I might also add the word "raw" or "organic".

For example if I am looking up a salad dressing. I will type "dressing" then "Kraft" and take a quick look at the list and compare calories counts. If it pulls up too many items. I might add another key word like "balsamic".

Once you find an item you can make it a favorite if you eat it all the time. Then you can choose the "favorite" from your list.

I hope this helps.

P.S. If I cannot find the item. I go to Google and type the item there with brand name or restaurant name and add the word "nutrition". Once I find the nutritional label I will add the item to Fitbit. After you add the item to your meal you can also mark that as favorite to re use easily again.

[ADaringer]

Very helpful.  Thanks.

[damurray · Accepted solution]

I always start with the base food (i.e. Tomato, chicken, beef) and then add the mean type (i.e. Salad, soup, roasted, etc..) I generally can find what I am look for from a short list.  If you are like me and do a lot of home cooking you may have to do a little homework and google the nutritional fact for the food you are preparing.  It doesn't take long and once in your list mark it as a favorite and you won't need to search much to get what you need.

I find the most of the food items list are for popular restaurants or stores and generally the nutritional facts are pretty close.  Unless your mind set is that of someone that need to know exactly how many calories you are consuming I wouldn't get too hung up on find the exact food.  After a while you will get a feel for how many calories are in the food you are consuming.  If you have a specific dietary need it may take a bit more research.  The bottom line is the more you search, and add to your common list the easier it will get.

[Granny1colleen · Accepted solution]

KatieB,

Thanks for the tips!

[Granny1colleen · Accepted solution]

I cook everything from scratch.  So a lot of what I make doesn't have any nutritional information.  Thanks for the info, I'll give your tips a try.

[KatieB]

You can use Myfitnesspal.com to calculate calories per serving for your recipes. 

I don't cook that often but at Christmas time I made a healthier Cheesy Potatoe recipe. I went to MFP and logged each ingredient there and told it the number of servings and it gave me the nutritionals for each serving. I then took that information and manually entered into my Fitbit food database. 

Some people here on Fitbit log all their food on Myfitnesspal and have it sync with Fitbit. I have been logging my food for over a year before I found out about MFP. So I just continue to use Fitbit to track my food intake. 

Others may be able to help you sign up with MFP to sync with Fitbit. There is no cost for MFP.

[burgercj]

I am having issues figuring out the "right" calorie count.  If I type in "grilled salmon" it comes up with several options.  What is right?  1 serving of "Grilled Salmon" (indicating cooked at home???) at 678 calories or 1 serving from Ruby Tuesday at 330 calories?  Logic would say my home cooked salmon is less calories than Ruby Tuesday but I am not sure.  If you google how many calories in grilled salmon the first link says it is 270 calories.  So what do I do?  678?  330?  270?  My choice has a dramatic impact on what my caloric intake is.

Plus do you need to manually account for every ingrident?  I brushed it with olive oil prior to cooking - therefore do I log salmon + 1 TBS of olive oil?