Advice / Guidance
Replies
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Personally I just use the "in five weeks" thing as a vague sort of carrot/goal. If in five weeks it thinks I will be down about ten pounds, then that's a reasonable expectation for me to hold as I watch the scale bouncing around every day. (I bounce for two weeks, drop five pounds, bounce for another two, drop five pounds, etc. My weight loss isn't steady at all except in the grand scheme of things.) I would LIKE to be at 200 pounds by the winter holidays, and the math says it's possible, but I know that right now I'm under a lot of stress and that slows my weight loss. So it just becomes a vague affirmation and makes me smile a little.3
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Thanks for all the explanations...especially @speyerj I love the math side of things
I think I'm going to start ignoring the "in 5 weeks" prediction.3 -
tiffany80802017 wrote: »Thanks for setting up this group and those that posted! I definitely found myself relating a lot to your comments.
I have been obese almost 20 years, about 13 years ago I lost 100 pounds and then gained it back plus about another 50. The first time, I lost 100 lbs quickly due to exercising multiple times a day, biking everywhere and eating a vegan diet with very little fat and only a small amount of protein (not intentionally eating low protein) ... that’s not feasible for me any more and I’m trying to do it in a healthier and realistic way. My kcal now have a healthy balance 45-50% carbs, 20-25% fat, and 25-30% protein. I need to around 50% carbs most days for metabolic reasons-so keto isn’t an option for me.
I’m trying to lose the 150 lbs and am down about 35, but feel like I’m plateauing. I’ve been the same weight for about 3 weeks even though about a month ago I increased my cardio to about 60-90 minutes versus 30-45 on average, and do weight lifting 1-2x per week with a trainer, and am still logging all kcal.
I did anticipate some slowness in weight loss due to weights, since it had been 20 years since I lifted, but am surprised it’s still so slow after about 6 months.
I definitely understand the concept someone else mentioned, kcal in/kcal out. But when I calculate my BMR, kcal, and exercise kcal it does not come close to the weight I’m losing (or not losing).
Has anyone had a similar experience or any suggestions you’d be willing to share?
Thanks much!
Hi Tiffany. How did you find out what was right for you due to 'metabolic reasons'? I'm trying to figure out what is right for me. I there a way to tell what you should be on? Is it a body type, or some kind of test? The reason I ask is because of reading so many different things that I would like to talk with a professional and have them say this is it for you. I also have 100lbs to lose. Thank you.0 -
ChrissyChickie wrote: »tiffany80802017 wrote: »Thanks for setting up this group and those that posted! I definitely found myself relating a lot to your comments.
I have been obese almost 20 years, about 13 years ago I lost 100 pounds and then gained it back plus about another 50. The first time, I lost 100 lbs quickly due to exercising multiple times a day, biking everywhere and eating a vegan diet with very little fat and only a small amount of protein (not intentionally eating low protein) ... that’s not feasible for me any more and I’m trying to do it in a healthier and realistic way. My kcal now have a healthy balance 45-50% carbs, 20-25% fat, and 25-30% protein. I need to around 50% carbs most days for metabolic reasons-so keto isn’t an option for me.
I’m trying to lose the 150 lbs and am down about 35, but feel like I’m plateauing. I’ve been the same weight for about 3 weeks even though about a month ago I increased my cardio to about 60-90 minutes versus 30-45 on average, and do weight lifting 1-2x per week with a trainer, and am still logging all kcal.
I did anticipate some slowness in weight loss due to weights, since it had been 20 years since I lifted, but am surprised it’s still so slow after about 6 months.
I definitely understand the concept someone else mentioned, kcal in/kcal out. But when I calculate my BMR, kcal, and exercise kcal it does not come close to the weight I’m losing (or not losing).
Has anyone had a similar experience or any suggestions you’d be willing to share?
Thanks much!
Hi Tiffany. How did you find out what was right for you due to 'metabolic reasons'? I'm trying to figure out what is right for me. I there a way to tell what you should be on? Is it a body type, or some kind of test? The reason I ask is because of reading so many different things that I would like to talk with a professional and have them say this is it for you. I also have 100lbs to lose. Thank you.
@ChrissyChickie
The correct macro ratios have nothing to do with weight loss. Weight loss, maintenance, and weight gain are all dictated by the amount of food energy consumed. For some medical conditions, personal satiety, and muscle retention macros do play a role. Medical tests can help with medical conditions. Personal satiety is discovered through trial and error but protein often plays a role. Protein definitely plays a role in muscle retention. The only professionals, including doctors and nurses, that have proper training in nutrition are registered dietitians (not nutritionists).
The internet is full nonsense when it comes to weight loss. I have seen many, too many, people try to research it online and end up either more confused or, worse, convinced to follow the wrong path.
Self experimentation is really the best way unless you have a medical condition.3 -
I need advice or help understanding please.
I am 5’1 and pretty much no excercise yet
My MFP ap says to have 1470 for my weight loss goal. For kicks I checked out what my maintenance should be. It says 1370.
Shouldn’t I just eat at 1370 then?0 -
Is that the maintenance for your goal weight or for your present weight?0
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Goalconniewilkins56 wrote: »Is that the maintenance for your goal weight or for your present weight?
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i am sure someone else will give you a more detailed really great explanation but to make it simple....I started out at 350 and my calories were 1800 a day for sedentary 2 lb a wk loss, I am 5’9”.... now I weigh 259 and for 1 1/2 wk loss sedentary my calories are about 1450.... as you lose weight your body doesn’t need as many calories to function but if you eat too few calories your body won’t work the way it should...if you do not eat enough, you will burn muscle instead of fat!...you want to make your weight loss as easy as possible and you have to nourish your body properly...._inHisGrace wrote: »
Goalconniewilkins56 wrote: »Is that the maintenance for your goal weight or for your present weight?
You are 5’1” and when ( not IF ) you reach your goal weight, your body will maintain at the lower amount of calories and that amount of your calories will properly meet your body’s Nutritional needs......at 5’9” and my age, I will still need more calories to maintain my goal weight of 185...
Am I making any sense?
Also, I wanted to say I was very sedentary and I didn’t start doing any physical activity until the end of this past June...now ( before I fell last week ) I am swimming 5 days a week...water jogging ,treading water, and water exercises for about 90 minutes....I log my exercise calories and I eat back about 25% of the calories I burn....this helps bump my food up and keeps me satisfied...I have been on MFP for 15 months and I will always log my food....
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I had to sit down while preparing a meal because I was so overweight!...I was in bad shape mentally and physically2
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_inHisGrace wrote: »I need advice or help understanding please.
I am 5’1 and pretty much no excercise yet
My MFP ap says to have 1470 for my weight loss goal. For kicks I checked out what my maintenance should be. It says 1370.
Shouldn’t I just eat at 1370 then?
you could, but it may well not be a safe rate of loss for you. Eating in a deficit is very stressful on the body - the less you eat the more stressful it is. You aren't just trying to lose weight; you are trying to encourage your body to use its fat stores while at the same time keep enough fuel to maintain adequate body functionality. Your body can only burn so much of the reserves it has a day, so if you under-eat by too much, it will start going for other fuel sources such as muscle - and remember that your heart is a muscle!
And as Connie says, your required intake a day is based upon your present body weight; it takes more calories to move a larger body and to pump blood through it, maintain its core temperature, etc. As you lose weight, your body will need fewer calories to keep you alive, which is why your maintenance calories at your present rate are higher than your maintenance calories at your goal weight.
Whether or not you can just eat at 1370 really depends on what kind of loss rate you have set. Studies have pointed to the idea that the maximum safe weight loss rate is 1% of your current body weight - but that's a general statistic and may not be healthy at all for you. And also note that an obese person can get by with a larger deficit in the short term than can a smaller person because we started with more reserves to pull from; a smaller person doesn't have those reserves so their margin of error is much tighter. This is why you'll see the recommendation that if you have 50 lbs + to lose, 2 lbs/wk may be sustainable, but that is not generally a sustainable or safe goal for most people. And a very obese person can even get by with more than that for a while, but that as you lose weight, you should be reducing that deficit for the sake of your health. After all, you are wanting to lose weight to be a healthier person at the end; starving yourself isn't going to make you healthier!
2 lbs/wk is roughly a 1,000 calorie daily deficit and is a truly aggressive deficit already. So your 1470 calories is already 1,000 calories less than your body needs to power you through an average day as a sedentary person.
But with all that said, in your case, 1370 is only 100 calories less, meaning its a deficit of 1100 calories a day and your current body weight is over 100 lbs over weight. 100 extra calories is within a margin of error, especially for a 2 lb/wk loss rate, meaning right now you have enough room to manage that extra deficit and should be fine should you chose to go that route. THe only thing that I don't know that could be a big factor in your case is your height and petite status; I'm nearly 5' 9" and a tall, big-boned person; your size may make you more vulnerable to the effects of a larger deficit than it would me.
The biggest thing with losing weight is shooting for sustainable, especially starting out at high weights with a lot to lose because this effort is going to take a lot of time; this is a marathon not a sprint and you need to make sure you have the reserves to see it all the way through. You need to put practices in place that you can live with easily so that when hard times comes and the will power falters, you can keep going. Trying to will power and white knuckle your way through months of dieting is going to statistically end in failure.
So my advice? 1370 shouldn't be a bad deficit for you based upon what limited information I have concerning your current statistics. It shouldn't hurt to try it if you want, but don't be afraid to back off if it gets too hard. If you find that you are hungry and having difficulty staying within deficit, by all means back it off to a limit you can sustain. If you just can't function on 1,000 calories less a day - you find yourself sluggish, irritable, and just plain hungry, than its actually advisable and wise to reduce that deficit down. Its not a failure to slow it down if that's what you can sustain. Whether you lose 2 lbs/wk or 1 lb/wk, you'll still reach your goal.
Now that I've said that, I'll leave it up to the truly knowledge pros and not this armchair quarterback who likes to sound all knowledgeable to give you really good, sage advice
@Novusdies and @PAV8888 will have much better advice I'm sure lol6 -
_inHisGrace wrote: »I need advice or help understanding please.
I am 5’1 and pretty much no excercise yet
My MFP ap says to have 1470 for my weight loss goal. For kicks I checked out what my maintenance should be. It says 1370.
Shouldn’t I just eat at 1370 then?
I think @conniewilkins56 & @bmeadows380 covered it.
The one variable most of us do not get is the number of calories we were eating before we began losing. If we had that variable we might do better at picking our initial deficit. If we were in a gaining period and eating in a healthy surplus, for instance, it might be more of a shock to swing the maximum distance in the other direction.
The number you are getting is an estimate of where to begin. It is likely to be close enough for you to use. If you begin to get unexpected results (losing too fast or too slow) it may require some adjusting. You won't really know for sure for about 2 months. That gives you a couple of weeks to lose any water weight you might lose and about 6 weeks of scale results to get your trend. If your goal is to lose 2 pounds per week the scale results may be .5lb one week and 3.5lbs the next (it will seldom be that clean unfortunately) so it takes several weeks of results to work out a usable average.4 -
bmeadows380 wrote: »_inHisGrace wrote: »I need advice or help understanding please.
I am 5’1 and pretty much no excercise yet
My MFP ap says to have 1470 for my weight loss goal. For kicks I checked out what my maintenance should be. It says 1370.
Shouldn’t I just eat at 1370 then?
you could, but it may well not be a safe rate of loss for you. Eating in a deficit is very stressful on the body - the less you eat the more stressful it is. You aren't just trying to lose weight; you are trying to encourage your body to use its fat stores while at the same time keep enough fuel to maintain adequate body functionality. Your body can only burn so much of the reserves it has a day, so if you under-eat by too much, it will start going for other fuel sources such as muscle - and remember that your heart is a muscle!
And as Connie says, your required intake a day is based upon your present body weight; it takes more calories to move a larger body and to pump blood through it, maintain its core temperature, etc. As you lose weight, your body will need fewer calories to keep you alive, which is why your maintenance calories at your present rate are higher than your maintenance calories at your goal weight.
Whether or not you can just eat at 1370 really depends on what kind of loss rate you have set. Studies have pointed to the idea that the maximum safe weight loss rate is 1% of your current body weight - but that's a general statistic and may not be healthy at all for you. And also note that an obese person can get by with a larger deficit in the short term than can a smaller person because we started with more reserves to pull from; a smaller person doesn't have those reserves so their margin of error is much tighter. This is why you'll see the recommendation that if you have 50 lbs + to lose, 2 lbs/wk may be sustainable, but that is not generally a sustainable or safe goal for most people. And a very obese person can even get by with more than that for a while, but that as you lose weight, you should be reducing that deficit for the sake of your health. After all, you are wanting to lose weight to be a healthier person at the end; starving yourself isn't going to make you healthier!
2 lbs/wk is roughly a 1,000 calorie daily deficit and is a truly aggressive deficit already. So your 1470 calories is already 1,000 calories less than your body needs to power you through an average day as a sedentary person.
But with all that said, in your case, 1370 is only 100 calories less, meaning its a deficit of 1100 calories a day and your current body weight is over 100 lbs over weight. 100 extra calories is within a margin of error, especially for a 2 lb/wk loss rate, meaning right now you have enough room to manage that extra deficit and should be fine should you chose to go that route. THe only thing that I don't know that could be a big factor in your case is your height and petite status; I'm nearly 5' 9" and a tall, big-boned person; your size may make you more vulnerable to the effects of a larger deficit than it would me.
The biggest thing with losing weight is shooting for sustainable, especially starting out at high weights with a lot to lose because this effort is going to take a lot of time; this is a marathon not a sprint and you need to make sure you have the reserves to see it all the way through. You need to put practices in place that you can live with easily so that when hard times comes and the will power falters, you can keep going. Trying to will power and white knuckle your way through months of dieting is going to statistically end in failure.
So my advice? 1370 shouldn't be a bad deficit for you based upon what limited information I have concerning your current statistics. It shouldn't hurt to try it if you want, but don't be afraid to back off if it gets too hard. If you find that you are hungry and having difficulty staying within deficit, by all means back it off to a limit you can sustain. If you just can't function on 1,000 calories less a day - you find yourself sluggish, irritable, and just plain hungry, than its actually advisable and wise to reduce that deficit down. Its not a failure to slow it down if that's what you can sustain. Whether you lose 2 lbs/wk or 1 lb/wk, you'll still reach your goal.
Now that I've said that, I'll leave it up to the truly knowledge pros and not this armchair quarterback who likes to sound all knowledgeable to give you really good, sage advice
@Novusdies and @PAV8888 will have much better advice I'm sure lol
This point is so key!! I started off at 257, and would have had a very hard time losing 2 lbs a week. This definitely led me to give up in the past (it was just too hard). This time I started slowly, eating at maintenance, then dropping to a 250 calorie deficit (0.5 lb per week) and finally to 500 a day deficit (1 lb per week). I've sustained this for the last year now.
On the other hand there are plenty of people who managed the 1% or 2 lbs a week without issue! Give it a try! If it seems to hard, back off a bit. You'll still lose the weight, it might take a little longer, but you won't be miserable the whole time. This is all about finding what is sustainable for you, and it is definitely a process of trial and error.
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Thank you all so much. This is now broken down for me to understand thank you!!!2
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_inHisGrace wrote: »Thank you all so much. This is now broken down for me to understand thank you!!!
We are a helpful bunch lol....you can do this!...btw I am in Florida, too....1 -
conniewilkins56 wrote: »_inHisGrace wrote: »Thank you all so much. This is now broken down for me to understand thank you!!!
We are a helpful bunch lol....you can do this!...btw I am in Florida, too....
I think I read you’re I. West? I’m in the Notheast. So tired of the heat girr!!2 -
Someone please help me understand eating at a deficit.
My MFP ap tells me if I eat 1470 per day I will lose 2lb per week. Is this eating at a deficit or and I supposed to eat less than 1470 to eat at a deficit?1 -
_inHisGrace wrote: »Someone please help me understand eating at a deficit.
My MFP ap tells me if I eat 1470 per day I will lose 2lb per week. Is this eating at a deficit or and I supposed to eat less than 1470 to eat at a deficit?
You eat the amount MFP gives you plus what is added for exercise. However some people only eat half of their exercise calories back since MFP tends to overestimate those. As long as you have your profile set up with your correct data then this will work for you. It may not be exactly 2 lbs every week as weight fluctuates but in the long run it will even out. If after you weigh EVERYTHING and input it in accurately and you are not loosing for at least a month then you should re-evaluate your calories. It’s a marathon not a sprint. Sometimes it take a while to figure out what works for you.1 -
_inHisGrace wrote: »Someone please help me understand eating at a deficit.
My MFP ap tells me if I eat 1470 per day I will lose 2lb per week. Is this eating at a deficit or and I supposed to eat less than 1470 to eat at a deficit?
You eat the amount MFP gives you plus what is added for exercise. However some people only eat half of their exercise calories back since MFP tends to overestimate those. As long as you have your profile set up with your correct data then this will work for you. It may not be exactly 2 lbs every week as weight fluctuates but in the long run it will even out. If after you weigh EVERYTHING and input it in accurately and you are not loosing for at least a month then you should re-evaluate your calories. It’s a marathon not a sprint. Sometimes it take a while to figure out what works for you.
Hi! I get what you are saying but when people use the term eating at a deficit am I already doing that by sticking to the amount that MFP gave me?1 -
Yes, if you have it set up to lose 2 pounds a week, then the calories MFP gives you would be your deficit2
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Yep you are eating at a deficit...you have to put in the right height, your weight now,sedentary or active etc and the amount you want to lose. Goal weight, gender and age, etc... MFP tells you how many calories you need to lose weight...as you lose, you will get less calories to eat because your body doesn’t need as much fuel ( food ) to work!...I update my goals every ten pounds and it tells you how many Less calories you can have....I have stayed at sedentary lifestyle but went from wanting to lose 2 lbs a week to 1 1/2.... I couldn’t get by on 1200 calories!..( I think I started out at 1800 calories )...so I am good with losing a little slower and getting more to eat...I only eat back 25% of my exercise calories and sometimes less if I am not hungry but I know you should be eating some exercise calories back...you will still be at a deficit...1
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I thought I was but I keep reading people use the lingo eating in a deficit and it got me questioning myself lol
Thanks!!0 -
@_inHisGrace
I started out by weighing and logging what I was eating then stepping down from there.
Here is online TDEE calculator
https://tdeecalculator.net/result.php?s=imperial&g=female&age=42&lbs=305&in=61&act=1.2&f=2
I did it off similar stats you previously provided, but remember it is a sliding scale based on the inputs and TDEE calculators carry their formulas though most are close. These do include your activity level so more / less active than indicate will have impact.
Your current TDEE to maintain is estimated at
2377 cal / day
Deficit is anything less than that.
Many ppl do 15-20-25% deficit, so 1470 is pretty aggressive to me (38% deficit). I would not eat below this & potential eat more (food scale, weigh in grams, eat it log it). I fall into 20-25% camp, but this means potentially slower loss, but more sustainable day in day out to me.
7days * 1470 = 10,290
Current TDEE
7days * 2377 = 16,639
16,639-10,290=6349
3500 = 1 lb lost
6349/3500= 1.81 lbs average loss / wk*
* No guarantees, sleep, salt, stress, shark wk, activity etc impact this
I chose to spend my calories like money & not leave any on the table generally. It is a marathon not a sprint & you do not want to mess up your metabolism down the line.
Your body will learn to adapt with less over time, especially as you start weighing less as well so my thought process is you want to give yourself some room to reduce down the line. You go too far, your body tends to pick and choose where it puts calories = energy to use, picking most critical life functions.
I know throwing a lot at you, please try not to get overwhelmed, just trying to give you a baseline where MFP is coming up with the numbers from so you can decide what is best for your journey.2 -
@dcshima Thank you so much. I’m in a groove now and very happy with what I’m eating. I’m not feeling deprived and I’m actually full all day.
Something in me clicked and it’s just working for now. When it doesn’t I’ll switch thing up!4 -
So folks, here I am again lol
My husband's birthday is Saturday. How do I calculate calories in cake? I’m planning to make it but don’t know how to log.
I’m pretty sure I cannot go without a slice. He wants a vanilla almond cake.
It will be a double decker round vanilla cake with butter cream frosting.
Do I say cest la vie and just have a small slice and log a random high number or what?
I’ve been trying to stay around 1200 cals per day this week so I don’t go over 1470 for the daily limit when calculating for the week.
In my mind I’m saving 200 per day to add to my Saturday but I don’t know if it really works that way.
Thanks in advance for your help. I’m starting to obsess about this stupid cake. It’s making want to go crazy.1 -
_inHisGrace wrote: »So folks, here I am again lol
My husband's birthday is Saturday. How do I calculate calories in cake? I’m planning to make it but don’t know how to log.
I’m pretty sure I cannot go without a slice. He wants a vanilla almond cake.
It will be a double decker round vanilla cake with butter cream frosting.
Do I say cest la vie and just have a small slice and log a random high number or what?
I’ve been trying to stay around 1200 cals per day this week so I don’t go over 1470 for the daily limit when calculating for the week.
In my mind I’m saving 200 per day to add to my Saturday but I don’t know if it really works that way.
Thanks in advance for your help. I’m starting to obsess about this stupid cake. It’s making want to go crazy.
What I do is to enter the recipe in and calculate how many slices I will get from the cake. If you say that you will get 12 slices from that cake, then it's calories in ingredients divided by number of portions to get the calories per portion.
I don't think you will be too far out if you mentally allocate 350-400 calories for it, and work your day so that you can have that without going over budget too much.
For the record, I have fructose intolerances, and I would tend to eat half a slice, and leave the frosting on the plate, so my calorie burden tends less. If you eat the entirety of a piece and leave nothing but crumbs, that's a different matter. (grin)2 -
_inHisGrace wrote: »So folks, here I am again lol
My husband's birthday is Saturday. How do I calculate calories in cake? I’m planning to make it but don’t know how to log.
I’m pretty sure I cannot go without a slice. He wants a vanilla almond cake.
It will be a double decker round vanilla cake with butter cream frosting.
Do I say cest la vie and just have a small slice and log a random high number or what?
I’ve been trying to stay around 1200 cals per day this week so I don’t go over 1470 for the daily limit when calculating for the week.
In my mind I’m saving 200 per day to add to my Saturday but I don’t know if it really works that way.
Thanks in advance for your help. I’m starting to obsess about this stupid cake. It’s making want to go crazy.
@_inHisGrace
First, what you are doing is exactly how it works. The deficit is really a weekly average - 2 lb/week is 7,000 calories a week; you can divide that 7,000 however you like, and many, many people do as you are doing when they know a big calorie even is coming up. We call it banking calories.
Have you found the recipe builder on here? If you are baking the cake yourself, you can enter every ingredient you use and get an exact calorie count. If you are purchasing the cake, you make be able to ask the bakery if they have nutritional information; otherwise, just estimate by using an entry for a similar cake coming from a bakery, like Walmart or so.
But first and foremost, enjoy the day celebrating your husband and don't worry if you go over your deficit. Its one day, a special occasion, and one day in the grand scheme of things matters very little as long as you keep it to once in a while. With banking the extra calories and if you allow yourself to eat at maintenance on that day, you could easily be able to eat 2,000 calorie over your typical deficit and be fine.
Just note that you might see a water weight spike in the following days. Changing your eating routine can sometimes cause water retention, especially if you've been eating lower carb, not to mention having extra food waste in your system. If the scale spikes remind yourself firmly that one does NOT gain 2 or 3 or even 5 lbs overnight; that it's water NOT fat and will come back off. Don't let yourself panic!6 -
@AlexandraFindsHerself1971 & @bmeadows380 thanks a bunch!!1
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The recipe builder on here is really useful. I have lots of dinner/baked goods/smoothie/popsicles done up. You can get pretty accurate if you make the serving 1 gram and it's easy to do.
Put in all your ingredients for the cake and the frosting. Normally I do this ahead of time and put in for servings a guess like 12 and make sure MFP isn't out to lunch with the calorie counts it picks for each ingredient. Then I save it. I weigh the plate/cake stand before anything is on it, then make the cake. Once the cake is finished, weigh the whole thing in grams then subtract the weight of the plate. Enter that number as number of servings for example the apple pie I made last night was 1050 grams. Then serve yourself desired slice of cake, weighed in grams and boom pretty accurate count. Of the pie I had a slice that was 137 grams and 304 calories.
I have a list of my most used pots and pans and their weights.
If you make the same thing again, like stir fry, then just go back in and edit weights in the recipe and reweigh at the end.4 -
Can someone help me out with a little question?
When I'm looking through my macros, my iron is usually between 50-110% daily. I had my blood work checked at the beginning of June, and my iron levels were on the low end of the normal range, but still normal.
I know I've been getting more iron lately with eating oatmeal for breakfast some days and just better eating.
This morning, though, I was super hungry at breakfast, so I decided to have a bowl of plain cheerios with a sliced banana. I wasn't really thinking as I measured it out or anything, just measured the cereal, milk and weighed the banana.
But I was inputting it just now while preparing for lunch, and inputting my dinner I'm going to make, and I realized my iron will be up to 160%. I know you can have too much iron in a day, and it could be bad, but I can't figure out how much is too much
I can't figure out how to see how many mg 160% is.
Should I be concerned about this number for the day? Should I just not eat the rest of the day? :P1 -
@rieraclaelin
Customary not a doctor/dietician disclaimer here!
I had some chats with my doc about this since I'm iron deficient and didn't do all that well on supplements. A person can safely consume ~40-45mg of iron each day. The average adult woman needs 17-19mg a day. For the sake of easy math, let's assume that MFP has you on the high end of that and the goal at 100% is 20mg. 20 x 1.6 is 32mg which still puts you well within the amount of iron a normal, healthy person can process each day.
Unless you're purposefully eating to consume a specific nutrient all day, it's a pretty big feat to overdo it to the point of sickness through diet alone. The bigger issues usually stem from not getting enough of a specific nutrient or over-supplementing for a long period of time.
Your body also has no clue when one day ends and another begins. Those 50% days balance out your 160% days on the macro level.2
