Avocado and My Fitness Pal

[RosieLKH]

Some advice needed please.

I bought avocados, because I'd read they were good on a low carb diet, but I haven't used them yet as when I put them into My Fitness Pal (MFP) they added such a lot to my carb count.

Reading this http://www.locarbdiner.com/article_avocados.html, it says they are low carb because the amount of dietry fibre offsets the carbs.

Exploring MFP I find that food items input by members vary greatly in their information. You have to take care and look at the nutritional info, as some people are only concerned with calories so put nothing else in, making some foods appear low carb when they're not. This is really confusing when you are trying to get to grips with what has high carbs and what doesn't (cheese was a big shock to me - in a good way!). I am having to double check stuff in my Carbs and Cals book while I learn what I can eat, that keeps me happy, stops cravings and gets by BS down.

Back to avocados. I can choose one entry for these which has carbs at 9g and 161 cals for half an avocado, or I can choose an entry which has 1g and similar cals for half. In my Carbs and Cals book half an avocado has 2g carbs and 153 cals.

So what do i do if I'm trying to keep my carbs as low as possible? Picking and choosing to suit what I want to see for my daily carbs seems pointless and I do want to get down to very low carbs to see how I get on in the hope that I will lose weight AND bring down my BS.

 

[cold ethyl]

I tend to use the carbs and calories book as I like its layout. Or else I google the values and a very basic looking nutritional breakdown appears. I am not sure about going by member input values as they could be any old value. You can buy an app for the book I believe which may help.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I know nothing about avocados. However, I use My Fitness Pal but always double check with either Carbs & Cals or the manufacturer's/grower's website or similar when adding a new food to my personal diary. I would take Carbs & Cals over My Fitness Pal any day. All the entries are member submitted, with members from all over the world. Different countries grow things in different ways. Also American food labelling is different from the UK with different rules regarding fibre. Here it is recorded as a separate item. In America it is included in the carb total as "of which fibre" similar to our sugar, so goodness knows how some of the American members record the carbs on MFP. I tend to add my own entries using manufacturer's or growers websites plus Carbs & Cals rather than rely on members submissions. You really do have to be careful.