Anyone use MFP Premium?

Emily3907

My main reason for asking is because I am finding that the weekends are consistently my downfall. I always go over on the weekends and then end up thinking "screw it, I will start back on Monday". Obviously this has lead me nowhere and I have gained back about 7 pounds of my original loss. I have a long way to go (looking to lose about 105-110) so I need to figure this out.

My thought is to lower my calories to 1250-1350 through the week and then bump up the calories to 1750-1850 on the weekends to help me get better control with consistently logging without my diary looking like I am "cheating" (I hate that term) on the weekends.

So, I would like to be able to do this through my goals on MFP but it looks like to have different daily goals, I need to upgrade to Premium. So, have any of you upgraded and do you feel it was worth the price? I came here from WW, so I hate to start paying again, but I think it may help me get a better picture of my week if I can change my goals day to day. IS there a way to do this without upgrading? I try to hit around 1450 calories a day, so about 10,150 calories for the week.

Any insight or tips to accomplish this are appreciated!

mattyc772014

I came here from WW too! I upgraded about 1-2 months ago. I did it because it made it easier to adjust my calories and macros per day without adjustments. I like to eat more on training days. Especially weight training days.

I actually just changed my Saturday to the high calorie day. 1 because it is the weekend and 2 because I do a long run on that day so I need the calories. It is cheaper than WW. Do what you think is best for you to be consistent over the long haul.

middlehaitch

One way to make your weekend goal higher is to set your daily goal 1350, then go into your exercise tab and input your own exercise. Call it 'weekend' say 1 min burns 300 cals, then save it.
On Saturday and Sunday just add that as your exercise, and your calories will be bumped up for the day. It doesn't interfere with your regular exercise tracking, and it is easy to find when looking through your logs. . It will be saved under 'my exercise' or something similar.

That's the easiest work around I know, and it doesn't cost anything.

Cheers, h.

Emily3907

middlehaitch wrote: »

One way to make your weekend goal higher is to set your daily goal 1350, then go into your exercise tab and input your own exercise. Call it 'weekend' say 1 min burns 300 cals, then save it.
On Saturday and Sunday just add that as your exercise, and your calories will be bumped up for the day. It doesn't interfere with your regular exercise tracking, and it is easy to find when looking through your logs. . It will be saved under 'my exercise' or something similar.

That's the easiest work around I know, and it doesn't cost anything.

Cheers, h.

Good idea! I had not thought of doing it that way. Thanks!

Kalikel

I wanted micros before MFP offered them, so I bought software elsewhere and am not paying twice, KWIM?

I do like tracking micros. You learn a LOT about what you're getting and not getting. You may hear people say that if you hit your macros, you're hitting your micros, but it's not true.

It's harder to track micros because you have to use the USDA info and it's not always complete for processed stuff. It's also a labyrinth of confusion as far as finding what you're looking for, but that gets easier as you use it more often.

I think it's totally worth five dollars a month (or whatever they're charging) but that would depend on whether you can afford the five dollars. Most of us have been through periods where $5 blown on something unnecessary is just not possible. But if you can blow the cash and are interested in using it, it's totally worth it.

BarbieAS

I have premium, and for your exact reason. I actually had changed over to Weight Watchers for awhile from MFP so that I could take advantage of using their "weekly" points on weekends/special occasions (I used WW years ago with a lot of success), but realized that I wasn't overly enamored of the program these days (mostly because I was eating way too many less-nutrient-dense carbs and not enough protein, and I knew it, but since I didn't have my macros staring at me it made it a lot easier to not care as much), plus WW is $20/month, so I came back to MFP and signed up for a month of premium to try it out.

I figured out what I wanted my weekly deficit to be, and then divvied that up among 7 days. My goal is 1350 on Monday through Thursday, 1580 on Friday and Sunday, and 2200 on Saturday (and I see no reason I couldn't swap that 2200 day with another day of the week if something came up, though I haven't had to yet). So far so good, though I'm only a few weeks into this method so it's hard to gauge any real success yet. But, I like how it's working for me, from an ease of logging and sticking to my goal standpoint, so that's huge.

I've seen people recommend the exercise thing before. If it works for you, it's 100% wonderful. For me personally, I can't manage it because I'm too much of a data nerd and I'm a major stickler for accuracy. Plus I use a Fitbit and that would mess with my adjustments. But there's absolutely no reason NOT to use that method - it just depends on your personality.

Yi5hedr3

Yep! Totally worth it. Set up different calories and/or macros for different days!

Kaydana123

I just adjust my goal to whatever I want it to be each day. It only takes a few seconds to change it (so if you want a different goal at weekends, you'd change it Saturday morning and change it back Monday morning), definitely not worth paying extra if that's all you want it for.

RobertWilkens

Thanks for bringing this up - I had premium and didn't know i had -this-, but just found it. This sounds useful, and will definitely play with the daily numbers based on my usual "peak" days. One thing, i'm concerned with whether or not if i update my diet/fitness profile whether or not the daily goals will update (i.e. if i lose 10 pounds, will the calories go down like they should?).

PinkPixiexox

Many of us 'bank' calories from during the week for indulgences at the weekend. This has been vital for me and it's worked really well! I tend to wake up Saturday morning, wake up my 'banked' calories amount and add a little note on the bottom of Saturday's food diary saying "YOU CAN EAT X AMOUNT TODAY" and ignore the figure when it goes in the red!

Lourdesong

You could just set your MFP goal to be your maintenance calories, and eat below it the amount of deficit you want on any particular day.

I do not think this daily calorie goal feature is worth the price. They need to figure out way more math problems for me than this to lure $50 from my pocket.

Emily3907

Well I bit the bullet and went ahead and upgraded. It is a 1.00 a week basically so I figured I would do it for a year and then decide whether or not to renew once I get a better handle on everything. I have much to learn about nutrition, my triggers and myself in general and figured the extra resources with premium will help me better gauge everything and keep me more accountable. After a year (and hopefully a decent loss), I will probably go back if I feel confident that I have a grip on things.

Lots of great ideas here! Thanks everyone!

auddii

middlehaitch wrote: »

One way to make your weekend goal higher is to set your daily goal 1350, then go into your exercise tab and input your own exercise. Call it 'weekend' say 1 min burns 300 cals, then save it.
On Saturday and Sunday just add that as your exercise, and your calories will be bumped up for the day. It doesn't interfere with your regular exercise tracking, and it is easy to find when looking through your logs. . It will be saved under 'my exercise' or something similar.

That's the easiest work around I know, and it doesn't cost anything.

Cheers, h.

This is what I do. It's entertaining though because I have had a few friends message me asking what I do on the weekends to get such great burns...