Predictive weight loss on my fitnesspal

Davinak84

I'm tracking my calories, and I noticed that on Tuesday I ate over 1,900 calories and myfitnesspal said if I continue like this I'll weigh 88kg in five weeks. I ate 1,400 calories on Thursday, and it said I'll weigh 93.3kg in five weeks. I was wondering if someone could explain how I could gain weight by eating less?

witchaywoman81

Are those numbers both your net calories or total calories?

AnvilHead

How many extra exercise calories did you have on those days?

MFP's 'prediction' is worthless. It just runs a simple equation using your net calorie intake for that day and spits out a number which assumes that the next 5 weeks' net calorie intake would be identical every single day - which isn't going to happen for most people.

CarvedTones

I think it also takes into account weigh ins so that if you posted a little spike it assumes you are above maintenance. I agree it is worthless. For that matter, so is completing a day. You can just move on without doing that and still get normal reports.

apullum

I wouldn’t worry much about MFP’s predictions. The algorithm can’t take into account things like routine water weight fluctuation, or the fact that nobody’s eating and exercise are exactly the same every day. I would recommend using a weight trend app like Happy Scale or Libra to get a better sense of how your weight is changing.

MelanieCN77

It's what those daily calories would do to your current weight over five weeks, so you are reading your calories wrong somehow. That said, that "feature" is kind stupid anyway, some days I would cover it with my fingers as I closed out the day.