Calories/Marcos

Heart_Fit

Female/ 5'3"/ cw 151/ gw 135 Im having trouble lately trying to lining up within my Calories and Micros. Everyday when has been a struggle.. When i start logging my foods, then i will go back and "Adjust" my macros to be within my calories.

As im adjusting i may have to add or subtract an item on my food log. The problem arises when im perfert in Macros, but have 400-600 Calories lefted over. Knowing this is not enough food, i try to add other healthier foods, yet again it throws off my macros.
I only eat 1,340 daily, but i need to keep my Sugar and Sodium down as its my preference.
How important is it to possible not balance your macros/micros and still lose fat.

Any advice?? and is anyone else having concerns about balancing calories/macros/micros???

cmriverside

Well if calories and macros don't balance, then you're using bad database entries. You could enter your own food entries or edit ones already in there to make them accurate.

This may help: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10621050/how-to-use-the-usda-food-database-mfp-food-database-for-accurate-logging/p1

Also, your calories are what matter. I have all my food entries vetted, so usually I can tell if I'm getting enough protein - which is the only one I really pay a lot of attention to. I tend to be way over on fats every day without trying.

kimny72

Macros are just a guideline, you don't have to hit them perfectly and they don't directly affect weight loss. They are often helpful for satiety, and some health and fitness goals. People have lost weight and maintained a healthy weight on all sorts of different macro distributions.

It's also possible you are using some wonky entries in the food database. Most entries are user entered, and lots of people don't care about macros, so if you do you need to check that the numbers in an entry are accurate before you use it. There is some rounding allowed on food labels, so even good entries can leave you off a little at the end of the day, but not 500calories worth.

deannalfisher

Third the vote for bad entries unless you are logging alcohol which could throw off your counts

Could you open your diary for someone to take a look?

diannethegeek

It's not at all important to balance your macros to lose fat unless you're trying to lose the very last few pounds to get into a very low body fat %. But when you say you've gone over your macros but still have calories leftover are you looking at the goals by gram or the percentage pie chart?

Heart_Fit

Dianneethegreek, I am going by grams.

Seffell

Calories are made of macros.
Carbs - 4cal per gram
Fats - 9cal per gram
Proteins - 4cal per gram

If you're adjusting your macros in grams then they should account for all your calories. So you've used bad database entries (most database entries are input by random users like me and you and are wrong).

If you're adjusting them in percentages then you I don't see a problem to eat more and keep the same percentages.

In all cases, if you eat a varied diet your macros should be close to the suggested naturally (that's why these are the suggested). Getting your macros spot on is never necessary.