Calorie Counting

patcasullo1

Hi everyone, I've been using the app for about a week now and wanted to get some feedback from users. How accurate do you find the calorie counting. I'm just looking to maintain my weight, and it just seems like I'm eating so much more although I'm always slightly under my target calories. Feedback would be great please.

AJ_G

It's all about how accurate YOU can be. If you want to maximize accuracy, log EVERYTHING, weigh everything you eat with a food scale before you eat it, or if it's a liquid, measure it. Accuracy is up to you.

kommodevaran

Garbage in, garbage out - tracking is just a tool that adds up the calories in what you eat, so if YOU want to be accurate, you have to log the exact amounts of the exact item you eat, and never "forget", "guess", "estimate", "cheat" or leave anything out. This means using a food scale, each time, and using it correctly.

There are lots of genuinely bad entries in the database. There are also a lot of ambiguous ones. It's easy to pick one that "looks right", but in reality it's just you deluding yourself. So it could be that you are eating more than you think.

It could be that you have set your calorie goal slightly off. All calculations you do beforehand are estimates, and must be assessed using real life data. You have to account for exercise. Weigh yourself regularly and monitor your weight trend. You will want a weight range, not a weight point, as your weight will naturally fluctuate a few pounds from day to day.

It could be that you are in "the honeymoon phase", which is usually more of a situation for dieters, when everything is new and fresh and exciting, and you don't really feel the effect of undereating, restricting food choices, or otherwise depriving yourself.

Or the exact opposite - it may be that counting calories makes you more aware of what you eat and helps you make better choices, which makes you overall more satisfied eating the appropriate amount of calories.

One week is too early to draw any conclusions, but gathering data from the start, is valuable.

patcasullo1

Thanks everyone

Old_Cat_Lady

I had to reduce my level to sedentary. MFP seemed to be too generous with calories for me

kwtilbury

There are two potential sources of inaccuracy: logging and TDEE (total daily calories). Both are really just estimates.

Track your weight and diary over time and then calibrate as necessary. Slowly gaining weight? Reduce the number of calories. Losing weight? Eat a little more.