Hitting macros but under calories
bmchenry02
Posts: 233 Member
i seem to consistently hit my macros pretty darn close but can't seem to hit my calories. Sometimes it's 500 under others not as much. I'm weight training 4 days a week with cardio on other days. I was losing weight and seeing muscle definition so I didn't change anything but curious what happens when I plateau.
Anyone wanting to see my diary is welcome. I have it set to private but will accept friends
Anyone wanting to see my diary is welcome. I have it set to private but will accept friends
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Replies
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If you feel good, and are seeing results, why worry about "what about when (if) I plateau"? That's backwards thinking! Embrace what you are currently doing if you feel healthy and have been losing weight/changing your body composition.
Who knows, maybe by the time you do plateau, you'll be exactly where you want to be and just have to maintain! You should never feel that you NEED a certain amount more calories because MFP app told you that's the ideal amount to hit to lost 1 lb/week. It's far from a perfect science. Just my two cents, and congratulations on seeing progress!
Cheers,
- Jim0 -
Are you talking about hitting just your fat and protein or hitting all 3 but being low on calories?bmchenry02 wrote: »i seem to consistently hit my macros pretty darn close but can't seem to hit my calories. Sometimes it's 500 under others not as much. I'm weight training 4 days a week with cardio on other days. I was losing weight and seeing muscle definition so I didn't change anything but curious what happens when I plateau.
Anyone wanting to see my diary is welcome. I have it set to private but will accept friends
If you are talking about hitting fat, protein, and carbs but still being low on calories, then you don't have accurate database choices. You should be able to multiply each of the gram values by their respective calorie values and have that be very close to your calories.
As an example, here's what I have right now:
Protein: 80g x 4 cal/g = 320 calories
Fat: 42g x 9 cal/g = 378 calories
Carbs: 116g x 4 cal/g = 464 calories
If I add those together, I get 1162 calories. My calories column shows 1159. Those are really close, as they should be if my food choices from the database are accurate. If your calorie column is really off then some of your food items don't have accurate nutritional info entered.
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My #'s were an average from three different maconutrient calculators. I'm looking to gain muscle and lose the bit of fat to see the results...I'm 5'8" under 130. I'm just wondering if I'm on the right track or could be doing better as there's lots of opinions on iifym.
So here's an example from Wednesday (my calorie goals are 1582 and I consumed roughly 1315).
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Are you talking about hitting just your fat and protein or hitting all 3 but being low on calories?bmchenry02 wrote: »i seem to consistently hit my macros pretty darn close but can't seem to hit my calories. Sometimes it's 500 under others not as much. I'm weight training 4 days a week with cardio on other days. I was losing weight and seeing muscle definition so I didn't change anything but curious what happens when I plateau.
Anyone wanting to see my diary is welcome. I have it set to private but will accept friends
If you are talking about hitting fat, protein, and carbs but still being low on calories, then you don't have accurate database choices. You should be able to multiply each of the gram values by their respective calorie values and have that be very close to your calories.
As an example, here's what I have right now:
Protein: 80g x 4 cal/g = 320 calories
Fat: 42g x 9 cal/g = 378 calories
Carbs: 116g x 4 cal/g = 464 calories
If I add those together, I get 1162 calories. My calories column shows 1159. Those are really close, as they should be if my food choices from the database are accurate. If your calorie column is really off then some of your food items don't have accurate nutritional info entered.
Hitting all three. I realize the mfp numbers although customized are still not exact. Just feel I'm always under calories but satisfied never hungry. I don't want to jeopardize building muscle...0 -
bmchenry02 wrote: »My #'s were an average from three different maconutrient calculators. I'm looking to gain muscle and lose the bit of fat to see the results...I'm 5'8" under 130. I'm just wondering if I'm on the right track or could be doing better as there's lots of opinions on iifym.
So here's an example from Wednesday (my calorie goals are 1582 and I consumed roughly 1315). <image snipped>
Are you eating at a deficit? If so, you won't be able to add muscle, especially if you are eating 500 less than your goal. And the pie chart in your photo is just the percentage of those macros based on the calories that you actually ate, not your calorie goal.0 -
I would agree that you are hitting the percentages. However I am not going to agree you are completely hitting your macros. I can guarantee on days that you are lower than this one you are not coming close to hitting the grams you need.
As per the example 1388 = (124*4) + (48*9)+ (115*4) where you should have had
158.2 =(1582 *.4)/4 carbs
118.6 =(1582 *.3)/4 protein
52.7 =(1582 *.3)/9 fat
I would be somewhat worried that you are not getting adequate calories for maintaining the amount of exercise you are doing.0 -
Yes I'm eating at a deficit. If I'm not mistaken you can build muscle and lose fat at the same time although the results will be slower. I've seen muscle definition occur and weight drop on myself. Maybe I'm just all confused. Lol0 -
bmchenry02 wrote: »
Yes I'm eating at a deficit. If I'm not mistaken you can build muscle and lose fat at the same time although the results will be slower. I've seen muscle definition occur and weight drop on myself. Maybe I'm just all confused. Lol
Muscle definition does not mean you're building muscle. It likely means you're losing fat so the muscle is more visible.
If you're hitting your macros but not calories then your entries are wrong somewhere. If they're accurate, the numbers will work out...0 -
Are you hitting your macro percentages but not your calorie goal? Then eat more food in your desired macro ratio. Or are you hitting your macro grams but not your calorie goal? Then there are errors in the nutrition information in the items you've added to your diary.0
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livingleanlivingclean wrote: »bmchenry02 wrote: »
Yes I'm eating at a deficit. If I'm not mistaken you can build muscle and lose fat at the same time although the results will be slower. I've seen muscle definition occur and weight drop on myself. Maybe I'm just all confused. Lol
Muscle definition does not mean you're building muscle. It likely means you're losing fat so the muscle is more visible.
If you're hitting your macros but not calories then your entries are wrong somewhere. If they're accurate, the numbers will work out...
Thanks for clearing that up. I never use the right words. Muscle definition,yes. Not ready to hit the building phase yet.
It just occurred to me that my calories are probably closer than I think given that I don't weigh my food and sometimes don't enter everything to a T. Like when I enter salads I just include 2 cups of mixed greens with my salad dressing and don't include the cucumbers, olives, tomatoes.
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Are you hitting your macro percentages but not your calorie goal? Then eat more food in your desired macro ratio. Or are you hitting your macro grams but not your calorie goal? Then there are errors in the nutrition information in the items you've added to your diary.
Hitting macro percentages but not calorie goal. See my reply above. I think I found my answer which should have been obvious from the start. I have chosen not to weigh food because of personal reasons. However I can see where that would play a significant role later on...0 -
bmchenry02 wrote: »Are you hitting your macro percentages but not your calorie goal? Then eat more food in your desired macro ratio. Or are you hitting your macro grams but not your calorie goal? Then there are errors in the nutrition information in the items you've added to your diary.
Hitting macro percentages but not calorie goal. See my reply above. I think I found my answer which should have been obvious from the start. I have chosen not to weigh food because of personal reasons. However I can see where that would play a significant role later on...
Go by grams.... Percentages are somewhat meaningless. You can eat to a % but be way over or under your calorie goal.0 -
livingleanlivingclean wrote: »bmchenry02 wrote: »Are you hitting your macro percentages but not your calorie goal? Then eat more food in your desired macro ratio. Or are you hitting your macro grams but not your calorie goal? Then there are errors in the nutrition information in the items you've added to your diary.
Hitting macro percentages but not calorie goal. See my reply above. I think I found my answer which should have been obvious from the start. I have chosen not to weigh food because of personal reasons. However I can see where that would play a significant role later on...
Go by grams.... Percentages are somewhat meaningless. You can eat to a % but be way over or under your calorie goal.
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So, yes it is exactly as I said. If you take your left over values and multiply them by calories per gram you will find the missing calories. Which means you aren't really hitting them like you said. Which is why I was saying on the days you are 500 under you are missing the grams by about 1/3 even if you are correct on the percentages. You should strive to hit both the grams and percentages (which can be hard).
There are a few cases where you can build muscle in a deficit.
1) A high body fat percentage (greater than 25% is kicked around often)
2) New lifter (newbie gains)
3) People that used to lift before
These gains tend to smaller in women as well.
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bmchenry02 wrote: »Are you hitting your macro percentages but not your calorie goal? Then eat more food in your desired macro ratio. Or are you hitting your macro grams but not your calorie goal? Then there are errors in the nutrition information in the items you've added to your diary.
Hitting macro percentages but not calorie goal. See my reply above. I think I found my answer which should have been obvious from the start. I have chosen not to weigh food because of personal reasons. However I can see where that would play a significant role later on...
Then your not really meeting your macro goal. The percentages just say that out of the calories you have consumed, 30 % or whatever are from protein. Your second page shows that you are:
under 4 g on protein
under 33 g on carbs
under 4 g on fat
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shadow2soul wrote: »bmchenry02 wrote: »Are you hitting your macro percentages but not your calorie goal? Then eat more food in your desired macro ratio. Or are you hitting your macro grams but not your calorie goal? Then there are errors in the nutrition information in the items you've added to your diary.
Hitting macro percentages but not calorie goal. See my reply above. I think I found my answer which should have been obvious from the start. I have chosen not to weigh food because of personal reasons. However I can see where that would play a significant role later on...
Then your not really meeting your macro goal. The percentages just say that out of the calories you have consumed, 30 % or whatever are from protein. Your second page shows that you are:
under 4 g on protein
under 33 g on carbs
under 4 g on fat
Ok. Darn. Just when I thought I was starting to get it! So I can up my carbs quite a bit in this example and if you look at my food diary I felt like I had a lot!
I just had surgery today so I won't be back to tracking for a few days but thanks for all the help.0 -
I could conceivably eat one 50 calorie item that breaks down into the correct macro percentages for my day and "hit my macros." I would, in no way, be meeting my nutritional needs.0
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True you could! I had for example this day 1/2 cup roasted sweet potatoes with breakfast. Upping this to one cup and adding more veggies with dinner and perhaps something else in there somewhere would have hit my gram and percentage goals.
I don't have the answer yet but next week I'm going to try and hit both my grams and percentages!0 -
bmchenry02 wrote: »True you could! I had for example this day 1/2 cup roasted sweet potatoes with breakfast. Upping this to one cup and adding more veggies with dinner and perhaps something else in there somewhere would have hit my gram and percentage goals.
I don't have the answer yet but next week I'm going to try and hit both my grams and percentages!
Don't worry about percentages. Just hit your grams but make sure all your entries have accurate info!0 -
bmchenry02 wrote: »...I have chosen not to weigh food because of personal reasons...
I wont ask for your personal reasons, but, in my opinion, you're sabotaging your own progress as an eyeballed 4 oz steak is actually a lot bigger than the one you weight on a scale.
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bmchenry02 wrote: »...I have chosen not to weigh food because of personal reasons...
I wont ask for your personal reasons, but, in my opinion, you're sabotaging your own progress as an eyeballed 4 oz steak is actually a lot bigger than the one you weight on a scale.
Very true. Although I got eggs mastered0 -
What the heck...I typed out a long response to weighing food and it didn't show up? Urg. Ah well...0
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Macros hit = gelato time.0
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bmchenry02 wrote: »What the heck...I typed out a long response to weighing food and it didn't show up? Urg. Ah well...
that was good enough 
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This discussion has been closed.
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