Buzz
When tracking your food, most items are fairly straightforward: You can either search for it (e.g., four ounces of chicken breast), scan a barcode, or select the product name from the app’s search. But what if you're eating something not in the database, yet you have a nutrition label handy? Here’s a simple trick to make it easier.
Some apps (like the premium version of MyFitnessPal) allow you to quickly add calories, carbs, protein, and fat without having to create a custom food. If your app doesn’t have this feature, here’s an alternative solution.
Create three custom foods labeled 'carbs,' 'protein,' and 'fats.' While the specific steps may differ depending on the app, the process should look something like this:
Start by creating a new custom food.
Label it as “carbs.”
Set the serving size to “gram.”
Enter the details: 4 calories, 1 gram of carbs, and set everything else to zero.
Repeat for protein (4 calories) and fats (9 calories).
If you want more precision, you can also add an entry for “fiber,” setting it as 2 calories per gram (and don’t forget to add net carbs to your regular “carbs” entry and fiber to the “fiber” entry). Alcohol has 7 calories per gram if you want to include that, but note that alcoholic beverages typically don’t have compatible calorie labels for this method.
We came across this tip on the MacroFactor subreddit, since MacroFactor is a newer app without a quick-add feature yet. However, it works on any app; the screenshots above show how it appears in Cronometer. (Note that Cronometer already has “quick add carbs” as a food in its database, so you don’t even have to create the entries manually.)
Some apps offer a quick-add option but only make it available through a premium subscription (for example, MyFitnessPal allows you to quick-add calories in the free version, but you need premium to add macros). If you’re using an app without a quick-add feature, it’s worth experimenting with this method.
