Do you trust MFP?
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Replies
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Yes.
I lost 35 pounds in 10 months and have kept my weight +/- 3 pounds of my goal since reaching it in 2011.
I am annoyed by those who say, "Oh, you have to calculate your TDEE," or jump through all kinds of mathematical hoops to do it right.
Poppycock. I have no idea what my TDEE is, & don't want (or need) to know.
Just follow MFP's recommendations & you'll be fine.
Bottom line is that, used correctly, MFP works just fine. I like knowing my TDEE so I don't have to bother eating exercise calories, but to each their own.
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Yes.
I lost 35 pounds in 10 months and have kept my weight +/- 3 pounds of my goal since reaching it in 2011.
I am annoyed by those who say, "Oh, you have to calculate your TDEE," or jump through all kinds of mathematical hoops to do it right.
Poppycock. I have no idea what my TDEE is, & don't want (or need) to know.
Just follow MFP's recommendations & you'll be fine.
Bottom line is that, used correctly, MFP works just fine. I like knowing my TDEE so I don't have to bother eating exercise calories, but to each their own.
You don't NEED to know TDEE to use MFP properly and get results. That was the point.0 -
MFP worked for me so I would trust it.
If 1460 doesn't work for you to lose .5 a week then you can lower your calories again until you find what works for you but doesn't leave you hungry all the time.
You Tube has some seated workout videos. Jessica Smith tv has a couple. It is something you could do besides swimming while your foot heals.0 -
Yes.
I lost 35 pounds in 10 months and have kept my weight +/- 3 pounds of my goal since reaching it in 2011.
I am annoyed by those who say, "Oh, you have to calculate your TDEE," or jump through all kinds of mathematical hoops to do it right.
Poppycock. I have no idea what my TDEE is, & don't want (or need) to know.
Just follow MFP's recommendations & you'll be fine.
(Although you might need to tweak them a little depending on your body)
Hahaha thanks0 -
MFP worked for me so I would trust it.
If 1460 doesn't work for you to lose .5 a week then you can lower your calories again until you find what works for you but doesn't leave you hungry all the time.
You Tube has some seated workout videos. Jessica Smith tv has a couple. It is something you could do besides swimming while your foot heals.
Cool recommendation. I will try it!0 -
I trust MFP because I've been using for 3 months, set at 1lb/week and I've lost 1lb/week.0
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valente347 wrote: »Also, I notice people who come and announce they want to loose weight seem to disappear after a few months. Those who announce they want to lose weight seem to stick around longer and lose weight.
Lol, it's the one weird trick.
I've been on here for a few years. MFP worked for me but like I said, my amount of exercise has decreased alot due to an injury and so I am trying to adjust.0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »Has anyone found that MFP has underestimated their calories??
Yep. Even using Fitbit adjustments, I have to add 75 calories a day to my goal in order to not lose weight. Doesn't sound a huge amount out, but that's 525 a week.
Also needed to increase for both losing and gaining in the past.
MFP calorie suggestions are good for a starting point, but you may need to tweak them on an individual basis (assuming you're weighing food accurately and estimating calories burnt through activity as best you can - I use 100% of Runkeeper calories for runs and 90% of MFP for other things like swimming or again, I lose too fast/fail to maintain).1 -
I decided to see what MFP suggests if I switch to lose .5 lb a week instead of 1 lb. They gave me 1460 calories for sedentary and 1660 for lightly active!! That sounds like ALOT .
I'm 5'6, and initially wanted to lose 1 lb a week, but I was starving and couldn't hack the 1200-1300 calorie diet. I dropped my goal to .5lb a week, and MFP gave me the same numbers as you 1460-1660. When I log correctly and aim for 1460 I do lose about .5lb a week. I eat closer to 1600 on the two days a week that I lift weights.
Awesome. Thanks for sharing. That's good to hear0 -
I trust MFP because I'm getting good results. I have averaged about 1.6 pounds lost per week (have it set for 1) so my activity level is probably higher than the MFP estimate (plus I am not weighing my food...) but I am actually losing weight now, whereas I hadn't for any other attempt in the last 5 or 10 years, so the method works for me. I will worry more about accurate numbers when it comes time for maintenance.0
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I trust MFP. I don't trust a lot of the people here who insist their way is the right way. The only right way for you is what works for you and that means experimenting. Going up to 1400 or 1600 calories really isn't that much. Your body may truly need more than 1200 calories a day to function properly. Try it for a few weeks and see if it works. Or try experimenting with your macros. I do better with high protein, low carbs. That may work for you, it may not. Good luck!0
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When I started here, MFP gave me 1250 cal. I stuck with that ... lost some weight ... and then MFP dropped my calories to 1200. For some reason, I found that unmanageable. Those extra 50 cal aren't much but gave me a small evening snack. So I manually upped it again to 1250 and stuck with that for the rest of my first 16 weeks. And I lost 15 kg in that time.
Took a break for a month, and when I returned, I manually set it at 1350 to slow the loss a bit and make things a little more comfortable. At that, I lost another 11 kg in the next 16 weeks.
Right now I'm at 1400 ... manually set again.
So yeah, start with what MFP gives you, and then if that's not working, make small adjustments.
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I have been using MFP to keep a food diary in addition to watching my calories. I mostly use it to track my cholesterol, sodium and vitamin levels. I find the nutrition diary the most beneficial and my heart doctor and nutritionist really appreciate a detailed printout of everything I've been ingesting. It even has allowances for the medications I'm on and the supplements I take. Being on a very restrictive diet, this helps me gauge if I'm getting the amount of nutrients I need. By far my most used app!0
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rileybreed wrote: »I have been using MFP to keep a food diary in addition to watching my calories. I mostly use it to track my cholesterol, sodium and vitamin levels. I find the nutrition diary the most beneficial and my heart doctor and nutritionist really appreciate a detailed printout of everything I've been ingesting. It even has allowances for the medications I'm on and the supplements I take. Being on a very restrictive diet, this helps me gauge if I'm getting the amount of nutrients I need. By far my most used app!
I am T2Dm, and used to be anemic, and I would print out the carbs eaten and daily iron report each time I went to my doctor at the beginning of treatment. She LOVED seeing the reports and it really helped me see the correlation between my carb consumption and blood glucose (I kept a separate Excel spreadsheet of my daily fasting readings). I don't do it any more because I am totally managed by diet and exercise so I only see her 2X a year.0 -
I've been having alot of trouble eating 1200-1300 calories a day, with low impact exercise. I used to do intense workouts and was fine cause I could always eat back my calories and still lose! However, I have a foot injury and had to switch to swimming. I only burn about 250 calories for 30 min and it's super hard for me to get through that! So I'm always still hungry and don't feel like I can eat my calories back cause I didn't burn much. (Still learning)
I decided to see what MFP suggests if I switch to lose .5 lb a week instead of 1 lb. They gave me 1460 calories for sedentary and 1660 for lightly active!! That sounds like ALOT .
Any suggestions here on your experience with this? Can I trust these numbers and still lose weight? I'm willing to lose it slower if I could eat more...
Please help! And yes I know about BMI and TDEE numbers and all that, but I'm asking about MFP system here.
Thanks for any help, Nicole
The beauty of MFP and calorie counting in general is you don't have to trust the numbers, just trust the process.
If you eat how much MFP says you should eat over a meaningful period of time (say 4-6 weeks) and you are losing at a rate less than what MFP predicted, then you know their estimate was a little high and you adjust down manually. And vice versa if the estimate is high.
And if you are losing at the rate predicted then keep doing what you are doing.
ETA: As far as my personal experience. The base sedentary calculation is pretty darn close for me. It's a little low on weekends where I'm out and about a lot. For calorie burns, it depends on the excercise but my main gripe is the methodology is flawed.0 -
I trust MFP (and have lost weight while doing so).
I don't 100% trust the database. I base my mealtime insulin dose based off how many carbohydrates I consume, and I calculate the carbohydrate information using MFP's database. Many of MFP's entries are user-inputted, which means that there's always the potential for something to be inaccurate (whether unintentional, like if there's changes in a food's formula that causes a change in the nutrition information and causes the entry to become outdated, or intentional like somebody being too lazy to input the macros for a food). When as little as one unit too much of insulin (roughly 20g of carbs for me) can kill me very quickly, and too little insulin increases my risks of developing diabetes-related complications in the future, it's my responsibility to make sure that the entries I am using are 100% accurate. This typically means that I double check MFP's entries with the food label's info, or I use something like the USDA database or CalorieKing to get an estimation for something that doesn't have a label (fruits, vegetables, foods from restaurants that don't post nutrition info). Not having these verifications in place could kill me, especially if I trust every single entry in MFP as being the carb counts for that food component (even the so-called "verified" entries are often inaccurate).0 -
Yes.
I lost 35 pounds in 10 months and have kept my weight +/- 3 pounds of my goal since reaching it in 2011.
I am annoyed by those who say, "Oh, you have to calculate your TDEE," or jump through all kinds of mathematical hoops to do it right.
Poppycock. I have no idea what my TDEE is, & don't want (or need) to know.
Just follow MFP's recommendations & you'll be fine.
Bottom line is that, used correctly, MFP works just fine. I like knowing my TDEE so I don't have to bother eating exercise calories, but to each their own.
You don't NEED to know TDEE to use MFP properly and get results. That was the point.
I know. It's just actually much easier and less math to use TDEE, lol.0 -
Yes.
I lost 35 pounds in 10 months and have kept my weight +/- 3 pounds of my goal since reaching it in 2011.
I am annoyed by those who say, "Oh, you have to calculate your TDEE," or jump through all kinds of mathematical hoops to do it right.
Poppycock. I have no idea what my TDEE is, & don't want (or need) to know.
Just follow MFP's recommendations & you'll be fine.
Bottom line is that, used correctly, MFP works just fine. I like knowing my TDEE so I don't have to bother eating exercise calories, but to each their own.
You don't NEED to know TDEE to use MFP properly and get results. That was the point.
I know. It's just actually much easier and less math to use TDEE, lol.
If you trust MFP, there is no math involved so it is even easier.0 -
I'm 5'6, and initially wanted to lose 1 lb a week, but I was starving and couldn't hack the 1200-1300 calorie diet. I dropped my goal to .5lb a week, and MFP gave me the same numbers as you 1460-1660. When I log correctly and aim for 1460 I do lose about .5lb a week. I eat closer to 1600 on the two days a week that I lift weights.
Similar. I'm down 12lbs over 14 weeks. I dropped off MFP for a while, but back on since the start of the year and it's going well.
MFP gives me 1520 which I usually stay under.
I tend to not eat back more than 50% of my exercise calories - depends on my hunger.
I've also been off the cigarettes for over 100 days, so I'm pretty satisfied with a slow and steady weight loss at the same time.
I'm never going to be an obsessive, and that's fine. If I keep following MFP's guidelines generally, and acknowledge good days and bad days, keep a balanced enough diet, keep active and moving, then I'll get there.
You will too if you keep doing your thing.
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I've been here for 3 years. I lost the weight I set out to lose and am currently maintaining. I trust MFP and had that trust validated when I got my FitBit about 6 months into the process. I did have to adjust my activity level in the system from sedentary - lightly active - active as I worked up to a much higher step count now than when I first started. I've also played with custom goals in MFP and spent WAY too much time in trying to analyze why the numbers were always slightly different between the two systems. What I eventually figured out was what everyone here is saying - trust the systems, but also validate them for yourself as I initially fell victim to the "you are a petite female therefore you must set yourself at 1200 in order to lose weight". I lost most of my weight eating between 1600-1900 cals.
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