Search result count not matching actual result

Question

I have a custom search in place where I've excluded posts that have a custom field with a specific value, but the search count is including those with the custom field value. How can I get the search count to match the actual number of results?

global $wp_query;

$total_results = $wp_query->found_posts;
if ($total_results > 1) :
    echo '<h5>Search Results for "'. get_search_query( false )  . '": ' .'<span class="results">'.$    total_results.'</span>';

if( have_posts() ) :
    while( have_posts() ) : the_post();   
        $value = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'value', true);
        if ($value != '' &&  get_post_meta($post->ID, 'value', true) == 'value_to_exclude') :        
            the_title();       
        endif;
    endwhile;
endif;

EDIT: I tried since to get the count with a sql statement. The results are always the same number of posts no matter what search keyword I use. How can I get the count to be accurate and exclude the custom field that has a certain value?

$total_results = 

"SELECT count(DISTINCT pm.post_id)
FROM $wpdb->postmeta pm
JOIN $wpdb->posts p ON (p.ID = pm.post_id)
WHERE pm.meta_key = 'approval'
AND pm.meta_value = '1'
AND p.post_type = 'myposttype'
AND p.post_status = 'publish'
";

$count = $wpdb->get_var($total_results);
echo "<p>Count is: $count</p>";

Answer 1

If you want to exclude certain posts, wouldn't the conditional be:

 if ($value != '' &&  get_post_meta($post->ID, 'value', true) != 'value_to_exclude')

Anyhow, you're excluding AFTER you run the query. So $total_results will always be 'wrong'. The better approach is to write sql for WP_Query that does the excluding for you. But you didn't include the query, so that cannot be addressed.