Calories or carbohydrates?

tmanross

What ones do I pay attention to while on MFP?

Panini911

What is your end goal?

to lose weight, it is all about calories in calories out. Eat at a calorie deficit regularly over time and you will lose weight. it doesn't matter what you eat.

for health and satiety you look at the macros. some do better with more fat, others feel better with more carbs. I try to get around the balance recommended at the baseline by MFP (though prioritize protein).

TavistockToad

tmanross wrote: »

What ones do I pay attention to while on MFP?

calories

jgnatca

Calories.

zeejane03

For weight loss the only thing that matters is calories.

quiksylver296

Carbohydrates are 4 calories per gram. So, even if you pay attention to carbs, it's still about calories.

Protein is also 4 calories per gram, and fat is 9 calories per gram.

cmriverside

For weight, calories.

I try to hit close to my protein goal every day. Fats I'm almost always over and carbs fall where they fall. It's more about nutrition for me, now. I've lost my weight and I am maintaining on the default macros, more or less.

50C/30F/20P

Redordeadhead

Calories

missyelliott69

Its always about calories, no matter what way you diet if you eat more calorties than you burn you'll gain weight and vice versa.

If you are counting carbs however and stay low carb or keto just doing that will automatically reduce your calorie intake.

But yes....calories is the king for weight loss

cwolfman13

tmanross wrote: »

What ones do I pay attention to while on MFP?

Depends...if you are trying low carb you would want to watch both. If you're talking about losing weight, calories (energy) is what matters. Take in more calories than you expend and those excess calories are stored for later as body fat...it's like your backup generator. Consume fewer calories than you need and your backup generator kicks on and you burn body fat to compensate for the energy deficiency.

Weight management has nothing to do with carbohydrates...they're just one of the three macro-nutrients.

AnnPT77

Calories are what matter for weight management.

Some people find that watching carbs helps them with appetite or cravings. Some people need to watch carbs because of medical issues (diabetes, others).

If those latter things matter to you, plus weight management, I'd suggest watching both until you see whether watching carbs automagically helps you manage calories, or not.