Overview
While Figwee includes an extensive food database with thousands of items, if there is ever an item you consume regularly that is not specifically available in Figwee already, you can add it. It is easy to add a new food item, and this help section will describe the process. One nice extra is that you can optionally also choose from among the thousands of Figwee photo sets to represent the item you are adding.
How to Begin
There are two places in Figwee where you can begin the process of adding a new food to the database. In the My Foods list, there is a "Star" button at the top of the list, and in the Search dialog there is also a "Star" button. Clicking either of these will call up the Add / Edit Food Item dialog described next.
Add Food Dialog
The Add Food Dialog is where you type in the information for the new food. Enter any name you choose for the new food item. If it is a pre-packaged food, you can often get the required nutrition information directly from the Nutrition Facts labeling.
Enter Serving Before Nutrients. The values for calories, fat, sodium, etc. are relative to the serving weight, just as they are on the Nutrition Facts labeling. Be sure to enter the Serving grams first, then enter the calories and other nutrient values.
Serving Units
Figwee allows you to have as many as four different serving units. A serving unit is any meaningful measure of the food, and is food specific. Examples would include "slice", "each", "cup", "fl oz", etc. You don't have to create unit entires for ounces or grams, as these are included automatically. There are two text inputs for each unit. The first is the unit name, and takes the form of "1 slice", or "1 cup". If you don't put the one in front of the unit name, Figwee will add it for you. The second input is the weight in grams of the entered unit. Note that entering "1 slice" of "38" grams is the same as entering "2 slices" of "76" grams.
The units are displayed in the portion selection dialog, as you move the slider button when choosing a serving photo. They are also displayed on the Food Diary entries.
Selecting a Photo
Figwee will function without a photo assigned to you new food item, but you have the choice of selecting from among the existing collection of Figwee food photo sets to represent you new food database item. To add a photo set for your food, click on the square photo placeholder. The search dialog will be displayed. Search for an existing food as if you were going to enter it in the food diary. When you discover a photo you believe will work for your new item, click on it in the search results. The search dialog will close, and your selected photo will be displayed in the Add Food Dialog.
The best photo choice would be a food with a similar composition, look, and portion weight. Figwee uses three fields to determine how the photos behave. First is the name of the photo set, this is internal and cannot be changed by you, it is set when you select the photo in the search dialog. Second is the "Number of Photos" which represents the total number of photos available in the photo set. There may be as few as one or two, or as many as 20 photos in the set, depending on the nature of the food item photographed. Third is the "Grams per Photo" setting.
Grams Per Photo
The photo sets in Figwee are linear, which is to say that each photo represents the same amount of weight difference from the previous or next photo. For example, a photo increment might be 28 grams (about 1 ounce). The first photo would be 28 grams, the second 56 grams, the third 84 grams, and so on. In Figwee you will never have the first photo represent 50 grams and the second photo represent 175 grams; the photo weight increment is the same across all photos in the set.
When you select a photo set in the search dialog, Figwwee will automatically fill in the Grams per Photo setting for you with the actual weight represented in the chosen food photo set. Most of the time you can leave this default value and all will be well. However, if you choose, you can adjust the number of grams per photo so that it divides evenly into the number of grams per serving.
How about an example: Let's say that you were adding "Apple Jacks" cereal to the Figwee database. You enter the serving and nutrition information into the Add Food Dialog. You search for a photo to represent the new cereal and choose "Froot Loops" as the closest match. One cup of Froot Loops is 32 grams, and the Figwee Froot Loops photos are in 1/4 cup increments, so the Froot Loops Grams per Photo setting defaults to 8 grams (8 x 4 = 32). However, Apple Jacks weigh only 31 grams per one cup serving. So, you could adjust the Grams per Photo for Apple Jacks to be 7.75 grams instead of 8, because 31 / 4 = 7.75. This small change will make the photos match the textual serving descriptions nicely.
Using Your New Food Item
Once you click OK, the new food item will be added to your My Foods list. YOu can then use it just like any Figwee supplied food. Add it to your Food Diary, adjust the portion using the photos you selected, see the nutrition information adjust in real-time to match the selected portion, and so on. Note that when you search the food database to add a new entry to the Food Diary, your food will automatically be included in the search results as appropriate. Welcome to team Figwee; you're hired.
Deleting a Food You Created
You can delete a food you added by simply removing it from the My Foods list. Your custom food will then no longer be available for any new food diary entries, but any historical food diary entries will not be affected.
The Focused Figwee Food Database.
Figwee has a great database of foods. However, Figwee also has a philosophy of not including every variation and brand of every kind of
food. This is because sites that have 40,000 foods have tremendous redundancy, and having all of those extra items means you have to
search and choose from among them, sometimes scrolling though many pages of results to find what you are looking for. Having too many food items
in the database actually makes day to day data entry more difficult because it takes you longer to select items.
And here is the real secret...for the most part, getting things perfect doesn't matter as much as sticking with the program. So, making data entry
easier by keeping the Figwee database reasonable and focused makes it far easier to continue making entries over a lifetime. And not stopping is much
more important than 100% accuracy. So, just pick the closest Figwee match to what you ate, get the portion right, and don't worry too much about being
perfect on calories or nutrients. In the long run, you'll win.
That said, there are those of you out there who like things to be just so (you know who you are). No sweat, that's why you can edit the nutrition information
for any Figwee food item, or add a new item of your own, to get it just to your liking. More power to you.
Editing an Added Food
You can change the calorie, carbs, and other nutrition information for any My Food item at any time. Just right-click on the My Foods item and select "Edit Nutrition Info..." from the context menu.
