New to program and confused

Fatkam
Fatkam Posts: 3 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Good morning! I am new to My Fitness Pal and find it's a wonderful program, however, I'm so confused at the numbers of calories, sugars, etc I see. For instance, yesterday morning I had 1/2 cup of All Bran with a cup of red grapes. I thought it was a very healthy breakfast until I saw the # of sugars in the grapes! With that simple breakfast, my sugar allotment was done for the day! I don't know if some of the calories and other statistics are correct! How could this be? I just didn't know what to eat for the rest of the day without the end of the day calculation looking like instead of "doing a great job" to "You are a PIG". Only kidding but I am confused.

Replies

  • dkabambe
    dkabambe Posts: 544 Member
    Don't get too hung up on the individual levels if you're eating healthy. It's practically impossible to eat a few portions of fruit without going over the default sugar levels that MFP gives. If you're mostly eating healthy and your overall calories are OK you will be safely losing weight, (assuming that's your aim). If you're trying to lose a lot of weight I'd suggest doing some exercise and making sure you eat plenty of protein so as not too lose muscle mass. If you have specific fitness goals in mind then you may want to track individual levels more closely, but speak to a fitness/nutrition expert for advice on that.

    As for the correctness of items, members are allowed to submit items so you will see lots of similar/duplicate items for any one product - sometimes wrong. Also, manufacturers change recipes etc which leads to some being out of date. If you're using the app, you'll see a green tick by the items MFP has verified have the correct nutritional value.

    Good luck with the program, Dz.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Do you have a medical reason that you need to watch your sugar?
  • Bianica12691
    Bianica12691 Posts: 10 Member
    Keep in mind, as you exercise, you'll burn off those sugars and earn more for the rest of the day. It's not the end of the world if you go over, just keep it in mind for future meals. Also, the sugars you're getting from fruit are way easier for your body to process than the ones from candy. So it's not a bad thing if that's where your allowance is being used.
  • fattyclatter
    fattyclatter Posts: 28 Member
    I ignore the macros and focus entirely on calories. Maybe when I'm where I want to be weight-wise I'll start tracking macros but until then, it's unimportant.

    So, don't worry about it. It's not a hard rule to stick to your macros. They're just a guide. Your breakfast was fine if it was within your calories and you enjoyed it.

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