How accurate is the app when losing weight?

jlsjenni1992

When you finish your day after logging your food , it gives you option to complete diary and tells you how much you’d weigh in 5 weeks based on your calories or excercise , Ive been using this app for week and wonder how accurate that is ? Also does the amount of calories go down the more thinner you get or can you still eat the amount of calories the app gives you at your highest weight ? For example , I’m 5’3 175.4 pounds and I set my goal to .5 pound loss every week .The app based on being not active at all gave me calorie amount as 1620 calories,My first goal is to get to 160 but , after that eventually I want to get 135 if I continue strictly eating 1620 can i get 135 or would I have to eat less calories?

janejellyroll

I've never see anyone say the predictor was accurate for them. It's based on just a single day of data. I just ignored it when I was losing weight.

You will need to put your new weight into goals and get a new calorie goal from time to time. I did it every ten pounds. You will need to eat fewer calories as you weigh less (unless something else changes, like your activity level). Lower body weights take less energy to maintain.

Lynatea

It's not accurate for me, but it can be a nice mental boost before I go to bed when ive had a great day with food!

cwolfman13

jlsjenni1992 wrote: »

When you finish your day after logging your food , it gives you option to complete diary and tells you how much you’d weigh in 5 weeks based on your calories or excercise , Ive been using this app for week and wonder how accurate that is ? Also does the amount of calories go down the more thinner you get or can you still eat the amount of calories the app gives you at your highest weight ? For example , I’m 5’3 175.4 pounds and I set my goal to .5 pound loss every week .The app based on being not active at all gave me calorie amount as 1620 calories,My first goal is to get to 160 but , after that eventually I want to get 135 if I continue strictly eating 1620 can i get 135 or would I have to eat less calories?

The predictor thing is pretty much a gimmick. It assumes that, for one, weight loss will be a linear thing, which it isn't; and for two, it assumes everyday will be exactly the same as this one particular day, which it won't be. Even if you were bang on with calories in (which you won't be), calories out is always going to be variable.

kshama2001

Setting the predictor gimmick aside, when I weigh my food on a digital food scale, eat the calories MFP gives me, eat most (but not all) of my exercise calories, I lose as expected over the course of a month.

lgfrie

Like @kshama2001 I find MFP very accurate. Meaning: when I eat however many calories the Goals tool tells me to eat, based the goal (pounds per week) that I gave it, while using a digital gram-level scale to weigh everything, I pretty much lose exactly the amount of weight I'm supposed to. Plus or minus a few percent. If it says I will lose 1.5 lbs per week, over the next 6 weeks I can take it to the bank that I will lose 8.9 to 9.1 pounds.

That said, the 5 week prediction thing is, as others have said, a gimmick. It isn't really a prediction tool as much as an extrapolation tool. It takes whatever your net calories were today, and extrapolates out 5 weeks of eating at that exact net calorie level every single day. Hardly anyone, or perhaps no one, actually eats the same calorie level every day, so the tool is basically for grins and giggles.

However, I did have a binge day a few weeks ago that was coming up on 4,000 calories, and the tool helpfully pointed out that if I continued with that level of binging, I'd be 17 pounds heavier. That might've helped me get refocused LOL

sijomial

Over the course of a week calories were pretty much accurate for me - the c. 200 / day calorie initial divergence I calculated from my results compared to my expectations was more down to sloppy (but consistent) logging.

But as during my weight loss I ate at maintenance 5 days a week and had a big deficit 2 days a week the prediction had zero chance of being useful.

Overall this tool enabled me to lose steadily at my desired 1lb/week with only a single adjustment after a few weeks of consistent logging.

Onedaywriter

For me it is kind of sort of accurate! Hard to say because I often estimate my food calories and my exercise. But if you use it a a rough guide, it works well.
I think the five week thing is cool for motivation. It reminds me that if I have a good day and I can string not too many more of them together I will lose real weight. And when I go over... welllll thatyanother story. It helps smooth the ups and downs for me mentally.
Calories adjust as you update your weight. Also, exercise calories go down as your weight goes down as well. So I think that petty well estimates reality.
Sounds like you’re off to a great start!! Good luck.

Luke_rabbit

jlsjenni1992 wrote: »

When you finish your day after logging your food , it gives you option to complete diary and tells you how much you’d weigh in 5 weeks based on your calories or excercise , Ive been using this app for week and wonder how accurate that is ? Also does the amount of calories go down the more thinner you get or can you still eat the amount of calories the app gives you at your highest weight ? For example , I’m 5’3 175.4 pounds and I set my goal to .5 pound loss every week .The app based on being not active at all gave me calorie amount as 1620 calories,My first goal is to get to 160 but , after that eventually I want to get 135 if I continue strictly eating 1620 can i get 135 or would I have to eat less calories?

You will get a much more accurate picture from a weight trend app (Libra for Android, Happy Scale for Apple). I found Libra incredibly helpful for a .5 lb/week goal.

Not very active/ sedentary looks to be under 3500 steps per day based on my Fitbit linked to MFP. Today I was feeling lousy but still have over 3500 steps just from running loads of laundry (all on one floor). I have currently earned 50 exercise calories, but will probably hit about 200 after an evening stint on my treadmill.

If possible, I'd recommend linking a fitness tracker to get an accurate number of activity calories.

nooshi713

I didn’t notice that predictor tbh. I have realized that MFP overestimates my calorie needs. I have found my maintenance calories to be lower than predicted by MFP.

AnnPT77

The 5 week thing is just silly. No two days are alike.

In more overall terms, the goal MFF gives you is just a statistical estimate. What it spits out is the average for people like you.

Looking at the underlying data, most people are pretty close to that average. A few may be further off, either high or low. A very, very few can be quite far off, but that's very rare.

Nooshi says MFP over-estimates her calorie needs, i.e., that her maintenance calories are lower than MFP would predict. I believe her.

I find that MFP under-estimates my calorie needs, i.e., my maintenance calorie are higher than MFP would predict. This is based on nearly 5 years of logging experience.

Nooshi and I are the unusual cases. Most people - as they've said above - are the usual cases, and they find it accurate.

Start by following MFP's recommendation. Like most people who've reported above, you'll most likely to find it pretty close. It'll certainly be a better estimate to start with than asking other random people what their calorie needs are, because it's at least the average of a large number of people.

Follow the recommendation for 4-6 weeks. If your weight loss is unusual in the first two weeks, ignore those. Figure out your average actual weight loss per week. If that's the sensible goal rate you set in MFP, you're golden. If you're losing more slowly (and it would still be safe for you to lose faster), eat a little less. If you're losing faster, eat a little more. If you're a woman who has monthly cycles (not too young, not in menopause), then compare the same point in two different menstrual cycles, because we women's hormones can have odd effects on water retention.

Bottom line: It'll probably be accurate for you. After a few weeks, you'll know whether you're one of the few people for whom it isn't.

amtyrell

Regarding calories as you lose weight. Yes you will burn fewer calories as you lose weight so your calorie goal will go down. You wil have less mass to sustain and move around
I personally update my weight every Monday from my trending weight on my weight trendline app libra.

The 5 week goal is something i find discouraged by so i simply don't close my daily diary

noelkro80

Does MFP even let you set a 5lbs loss per week? Mine only goes up to 2lbs per week. Trying to lose 5lbs a week every week is pretty unrealistic in my opinion

Lietchi

noelkro80 wrote: »

Does MFP even let you set a 5lbs loss per week? Mine only goes up to 2lbs per week. Trying to lose 5lbs a week every week is pretty unrealistic in my opinion

OP has set a .5 lb weight loss rate, not 5

janejellyroll wrote: »

You will need to put your new weight into goals and get a new calorie goal from time to time. I did it every ten pounds. You will need to eat fewer calories as you weigh less (unless something else changes, like your activity level). Lower body weights take less energy to maintain.

I can confirm this: I need to manually confirm my weight loss settings in MFP regularly to update my allowed calories. I spent a few weeks almost eating at maintenance without knowing it, before I updated my settings and realised I was eating too much.

I've lost 28lbs and my calorie goal has gone from 1750 tot 1590, so yes, you will need to lower your calorie intake as your body gets smaller.