Nutrition numbers changing..

freightguy

Hey all,

Been on fitness pal for about 80 days. So here's my question. I have adjusted all my macronutrients according to my new workout routine. I'm noticing though that after I enter my cardio work. My Fat goal, Carb goal and Protein goal. Go up.

Not sure why I never noticed this before. But is this the way the app is supposed to act? I do all my counting on my Galaxy S5.

Example before I put in cardio, my fat goal is 72. But when I put in my cardio it goes up to 87. My protein goes from 161 to 195 and my carbs go from 161 to 261.

IS this normal behavior?

Thanks for the replies.

thepurplejudge

I notice that MFP adjusts my calorie goal upward even when it gets just step info from my vivofit. I think that it is counterproductive to weight loss, tho' it may be appropriate for someone who wants to maintain. I'd appreciate learning what macronutrients (and or micronutrients) you are using, and how do know what to adjust?

kxbrown27

This is normal. These are your exercise calories. You can choose to eat them back or not, different people here have different opinions regarding that. Personally I don't eat them back unless I exercise particularly hard that day. Even then I'll only eat back a small percentage.

stealthq

The app calculates your macro targets based off of a % of your total calories - when you adjusted your macro goals on MFP, you were changing percentages and not grams, right?

So, yes, when your calorie target increases, the total grams for your macros go up as well. And yes, it is super annoying.

jenluvsushi

Well...if you use MFP for how it was originally intended, it gives you a calorie goal for the day based on the goal you set for yourself. That calorie number includes the deficit you need to lose weight based on your goal (say 500 calories a day deficit to lose 1 pound a week). Let's say that number is 1800 calories. If you add nothing exercise wise to your diary, it will leave you at 1800 calories for the day. If you add exercise to your diary, it will adjust your calorie goal by that much because the 1800 calories it originally gave you ALREADY has your deficit calculated into it. So if you burn an additional 200 calories in cardio, you now can eat an additional 200 calories. Those 200 calories have to come from somewhere so it will add to your macros. This is called "eating your exercise calories". If you choose to eat your exercise calories, you should still lose weight according to the MFP goal you set for yourself. If you choose NOT to eat back your exercise calories, you should lose more than the goal you set.

lemurcat12

Your calories are based on the assumption that you don't exercise. When you exercise, the calorie goal goes up. If you don't like it, you should pick a higher goal that includes the exercise already and log the exercise as 1 calorie.

Since the protein, fat, and carb numbers are based on a percentage of total calories, they go up when total calories do. Personally, I don't worry about that (or didn't when I logged exercise)--my numbers are intended to put my protein at a particular level, and there's no value for me of getting even more on days when I work out a lot. In fact, it might make sense to eat more carbs on those days if I feel like it. So other than hitting my minimum protein I don't worry much about my macros. (They tend to fall in line anyway.)