New Feature: Quick Add Calories Only

Posted on 2010-06-10 by mike

We just launched a minor new feature on the site: you can now "quick add" calories only. If you already know how many calories something is, but don't want to bother with looking up all the ingredients/foods/etc., or if you just want to add a rough guess to your diary until you have time to look up the specific items, you can now quickly enter just the calories into your diary.

Just click on "Add Food" as you did before, and then just above the search box, you'll now see a link labeled "Quick add calories only" - click on it, and a box will appear where you can enter in the amount of calories you'd like to add. Click "Add Calories", and a diary entry will be created that lists those calories only.

Hopefully this will help save a few steps when you just need to quickly add calories to your diary.

We'll be rolling out this feature to the iPhone app as well, so look for it in a future update.

If you have any questions/comments/concerns, please let us know in the comments area below.

Thanks, and hope you're enjoying the site!

Mike & Al

116 votes + -

46 comments:

BrunetteWife wrote 36 months ago:

Love the site, it's helped me shed 14lbs so far!! Any more on a droid app soon? Thanks for everything!

TracyV wrote 36 months ago:

love this! I don't usually enter my condiments etc if i know the approximate calories and just leave myself 50-100 leftover calories at the end of the day depending on what i use...now i can just "quick add" however many calories to whatever meal for those so i still see the number in my total count but don't have to look up little things like a tsp of ketchup/margarine/etc Thanks!

Johnnyswife wrote 36 months ago:

Aww cool! This a great feature when I am making my own meals!! :)

nrivera83 wrote 36 months ago:

do you have an app for the Droid yet?

sharmrp wrote 36 months ago:

I'm not long started in using this, but it's really helpful to help me log everything I am doing.

I have more issues logging my exercise regime as I can't get accurate calorie burn for what I do so I am presuming similar items to try and get an idea of calorific burn....(I attend vibrogym/power plate exercise twice a week along with Zumba but I can't get an accurate calorie burn so am logging it as circuit training).

If anyone could get an indication of calories burned doing this, I would be really grateful!.

jeffk330 wrote 36 months ago:

Excellent addition guys. One request, is it possible to "clean up" the food database? I know that's easier said than done but for alot of the foods, there's alot of repetitive entries, many of which have incorrect info. As I said, i know that's a big job but it would make the program more user friendly. Still, love MFP!!!

MTGirl wrote 36 months ago:

Thanks Mike! You're awesome :)

ANewLucia wrote 36 months ago:

Yay, yay, yay!!!

mike wrote 36 months ago:

jeffk330 - cleaning up the food database is high on our priority list. We have some ideas on how to do this, and hopefully we'll be able to implement those shortly. Stay tuned!

lovelypen50 wrote 36 months ago:

Fantastic!!!!

Alita2011 wrote 36 months ago:

Thanks...This site is getting more and more **AWESOME***

bettersusan wrote 36 months ago:

Love it! Know I will use it! Thanks, Mike. You are AWESOME!!

barty wrote 36 months ago:

Thanks Guys, A Great Addition for a Great Site!!!! I am soooo nearly at my Goal Weight and have lost 36 pounds YAYYYY, I would not have done it had I not got an iphone at Christmas and found your app, so Thank You... Thank You ......Thank You

Avandel wrote 36 months ago:

Hi Mike Great site & a great additional feature but what will become of the carbs, protein, etc???

Another thought on the database cleanup. While I agree there is a lot of repetition, please don't forget that Canadians & Brits among others I'm sure, have a different system than the US. For the most part our package contents are not the same weight therefore it changes everything listed on the pkg. Maybe you could add a box on that page so that when we add a food we could add the Country. That would make it easier for anyone else from the same place to find the proper item.

MassiveDelta wrote 36 months ago:

will this feature be added to the iphone app?

mike wrote 36 months ago:

Avandel - we're aware of that issue and will definitely be taking that into consideration when we do the cleanup. Thanks for the feedback!

mcope - yes, this feature will be added to the iPhone app as well in a future update.

davonallen wrote 36 months ago:

Great feature. Also I'm really loving the update to the "My Meals" feature. It's so great to see all of the items in the meals now, especially when alterations have to be made quickly. The only thing I'm waiting on is the Blackberry App and I'll be all set!

danaluvsfries wrote 36 months ago:

THANK YOU - this is awesome!!

yellowhouse wrote 36 months ago:

Great!!!

StarryEyedGirl wrote 36 months ago:

I just recently created this feature for my own use. I just added as a new food labeled it Open calories but I did it for the same purpose... great minds think alike. I also created an "add back" calorie feature so I don't eat all my exercise calories for certain days.

xonophone wrote 36 months ago:

That's a great new feature! The cafeteria at work lists nutritional info for the food they prepare and it's time consuming - and sometimes impossible - to find similar food items that have he same number of calories. This will make things much easier, thanks!

HealthyChanges2010 wrote 36 months ago:

Thanks to you both Mike another great feature to an already terrific site :D

johnmcfarm wrote 36 months ago:

I was just thinking today that it is awfully tedious to repeatedly enter foods that are not on the first page but that you use often...this is much faster and easier...thanks!

balfonso wrote 36 months ago:

This is great but I tried adding the "only calories" for another day (ie. yesterday) today, and it seems to only add them for today when I want to add them for yesterday's meal.

Please get this fixed! Many thanks! :)

tomtomsf wrote 36 months ago:

Hey There! Nice addition! It really helps for those "off days" or when you are winging it with a guess. Can you please allow the iPhone app to ADD CALORIES as well?

I second the recommendation to let us ADD CALORIES for a previous day as well. That is perfect for those weekend or vacation splurges when you can't track at the moment. Keep up the great work & site! Thanks!

MouthyMatthew wrote 36 months ago:

Hi there,

I really like the "Quick Add" function - but it seems to always default to the current day - is that right?

For example I'm trying to key something in for Thursday as Quick Add Calories, but every time I do it puts it into today's diary, not Thursday's.

Is that a bug?

sorellabella wrote 36 months ago:

Great!! Thank you Mike

mike wrote 36 months ago:

zodyack, balfonso, and tomtomsf - that is a bug that we just fixed. You should now be able to "Quick Add" calories to days other than the current day. Sorry about that, and hope the fix helps!

AngelDeLaNoche wrote 36 months ago:

Great feature, I will definitely use it. Can you add a text box so I can enter a note reminding me where the calories came from?

mike wrote 36 months ago:

AngelDeLaNoche - for technical reasons, we decided not to offer the ability to add a custom description to Quick Add calories. However, you definitely can use the Notes section at the bottom of your food diary to remind yourself of what you quick added. Hope that helps!

cmriverside wrote 36 months ago:

Lots of fantastic changes lately, Mike and Al. Thanks!

leppad wrote 36 months ago:

I would call this an essential major feature which saves me a whole lot of time and effort, plus it is more accurate. Thanks!

jinabella wrote 36 months ago:

I cant figure out how to do a new post. I was just wondering if you could look at the calories consumed and exercise all together over 7 days. THanks.

vox779 wrote 36 months ago:

Amazing site, amazing features, amazing work! Thanks for creating something that's helping so many people (like me, for example!).

Marla64 wrote 36 months ago:

TOTALLY love this feature, Mike. Such a time saver. Thanks so much!

ckmama wrote 36 months ago:

LOVE LOVE LOVE This feature.

callie365 wrote 36 months ago:

WONDERFUL IDEA!! Thank you =)

susiewusie wrote 35 months ago:

BRILLIANT SECOND DAY AND I LOVE THIS SITE ,THANK YOU :)

rghays wrote 35 months ago:

Love this site...but is there a way to add a recipe builder within the site?!

acolley wrote 35 months ago:

Great option. Thanks. One thing my husband and would like to see is the option to view weight loss progress in a list (date/weight) and not just a graph. Sometimes's it's hard to see a date on the graph or want to know a weight on a specific date. A list of dates & weigh-ins would be great to have. thanks for all.

Mollie1037 wrote 35 months ago:

Thanks! I will try it and see how it works. I will not do often because I do like to know the name of items. But I am sure it will be useful. MFP rocks!!

MacMadame wrote 35 months ago:

For those of us who obsess over more than calories, it would be great to also be able to enter rough estimates of the protein, carbs and fats of the item.

Kwipke wrote 35 months ago:

Less obsession on calorie count, just wanting to remember the stuff I ate - would it be possible to allow us to enter a quick desc as well as the calorie estimate? Not stored as a database option anywhere, just shows in the entry for that day.

mike wrote 35 months ago:

We've actually deliberately decided not to allow a description for quick add calories for technical reasons. But if you just want to remember the stuff you ate, you can use the Notes area to record anything you'd like.

exermom wrote 35 months ago:

Thanks for everything you do.

One thing -- would it be possible to have some sort of (say) pie chart of the total carbs/fats/protein that you consumed that day? It doesn't have to be a pie chart, but somehow let you know the what percentage of the day's calories were from carbs, from fats, from proteins. I realize that it's almost impossible, if not totally impossible, to distinguish good carbs from bad carbs.

So many good features!!!!

Anonymous wrote 34 months ago:

Can we also do a quick add calories for exercises? Some of the exercises aren't on the drop down list and I do fit tv, I know how many calories I burn but it won't allow me to quick add without adding all the reps, weights etc.
Thanks
Carla

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New Feature: Quick Add Calories Only

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