MFP is ignoring my stated goals
norman_cates
Posts: 95 Member
In the guided goals section, I tell it I want to lose 1kg a week.
I click continue, and it tells me instead that I will lose 0.6kg a week.
It also gives me calorie numbers for exercises. But this is an unknown number.
Until I do the exercises, how can it put a number in there?
It's making stuff up.
I click continue, and it tells me instead that I will lose 0.6kg a week.
It also gives me calorie numbers for exercises. But this is an unknown number.
Until I do the exercises, how can it put a number in there?
It's making stuff up.
0
Replies
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I set my calories per day to 1200. But then when I go back through the Guided Goals, it sets my calories to 1500.
How do I stop it doing that? For what ever reason, I appear to need to be able to set VERY low calories for myself.
Just let me do it!-2 -
It does that to prevent people from creating health complications due to malnourishment. The body requires a minimum calorie intake to remain healthy. Pushing it to extremes will not yield good weight loss results in the long-term.10
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MFP has a minimum number of calories to ensure adequate nutrition:
- 1200 for women
- 1500 for men
Not sure about the exercise calories in the setup, I think MFP just used them for an estimated weight loss rate. You can put it at zero, I don't think it influences your calorie goal. Exercise only influences your calorie goal when you add it to your daily log.5 -
If you are TOO CLOSE TO GOAL to lose 1KG per week safely, you will be set to the default lowest calorie setting - 1200 for women and 1500 for men.9
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You should not be eating less than 1500 calories per day. and even that is very low for a man. If you want to lose weight and you already are at a low weight it will be very slow. hey, you don't want to lose muscles but fat I assume, right? You want to remain healthy? you want to keep my energy.7
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norman_cates wrote: »I set my calories per day to 1200. But then when I go back through the Guided Goals, it sets my calories to 1500.
How do I stop it doing that? For what ever reason, I appear to need to be able to set VERY low calories for myself.
Just let me do it!
Because you're a male and the minimum for a sedentary male is 1500 calories. A male has no business eating like a toddler or small, sedentary and old female.14 -
And yet, that APPEARS to be the only way I can lose weight.cwolfman13 wrote: »
Because you're a male and the minimum for a sedentary male is 1500 calories. A male has no business eating like a toddler or small, sedentary and old female.
1 -
autumnblade75 wrote: »If you are TOO CLOSE TO GOAL to lose 1KG per week safely, you will be set to the default lowest calorie setting - 1200 for women and 1500 for men.
How can I be too close to the goal? I'm 10kg (or more) away1 -
The obvious solution is to stop using the Goal Wizard. It wants you to do this in a healthy way and you don't want to do that.
Set your calories, and save. We (and Myfitnesspal) can't force you to do the right thing.
Good luck sticking to your low calories and not getting sick.7 -
It's worked so far.
I don't ****** know. Neither does anyone else. Look, I am going to do my level best to log EVERYTHING that goes in my mouth for the next month of isolation. EVERYTHING. And see what happens.
But I guarantee that if I don't lose weight or god forbid gain weight that there will be a bunch of people jumping upo and down saying that I lied. Because they can't believe any paradigm that goes against the holy book of calories in, calories out.
I HOPE TO GOD I'm WRONG and that it is that simple. But when an entire industry can't agree and goes in so many different directions, then ulitmately we are on our own, and have to experiment our selves.2 -
Look, I wish I was stupid and could just believe everything anyone says. It would make life so much easier.2
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norman_cates wrote: »
And yet, that APPEARS to be the only way I can lose weight.cwolfman13 wrote: »
Because you're a male and the minimum for a sedentary male is 1500 calories. A male has no business eating like a toddler or small, sedentary and old female.
Have you actually tried going off of MFP's recommendations consistently for any period of time. Losing weight is hard...restricting calories is hard...the process is slow and there are weeks with little to no results...but when you do this consistently over time it works...but it requires patience. Losing weight isn't an overnight, snap your fingers kind of thing.
There are numerous people here, including myself who've had great success with this. I lost around 40 Lbs almost 7 years ago...the process was no picnic, and it took me about 8 months...but it worked as long as I committed. I've maintained that loss for going on 7 years in April...also not easy as it is much easier to just let things go back to the way they were.12 -
norman_cates wrote: »But I guarantee that if I don't lose weight or god forbid gain weight that there will be a bunch of people jumping upo and down saying that I lied. Because they can't believe any paradigm that goes against the holy book of calories in, calories out.
No-one will say that you 'lied', just that you were making errors in tracking the calories that you consumed. Because calories in/calories out isn't a holy book - it's science...
13 -
-do you WEIGH everything that crosses your lips?
-no taste-no sample-WEIGH IT AND LOG IT BEFORE it crosses your lips?
-yes, in the beginning and until your get organized your food will grow cold and you will be salivating and wanting to skip a step. eat an apple (or carrot or cucumber or what have you) if you've waited too long to eat and are too hungry to function.
--Weigh YOURSELF, on a scale, at a consistent time, after consistent bathroom usage, before eating or drinking, and USE A WEIGHT TREND APP OR WEB SITE to determine your weight trend over time.
--be cognizant of sodium levels -- they affect water weight.
--be cognizant of exercise -- it can affect water weight for muscle retention
--if you are female be aware of hormonal water weight fluctuations
--if you are a low carber, be aware of water weight fluctuations when reducing or increasing carbs
LOOK AT YOUR TREND with 3+ weeks of data.
ADJUST YOUR EXPECTATIONS. If you are a sedentary person with a TDEE of less than 2500, then yes, it is unreasonable that you're trying to create a deficit of more than 500 Cal. 500 Cal is already AT LEAST 25% of your total energy expenditure for the day.
You don't have to, but if you want to both eat more and lose faster... MOVE MORE. It is entirely optional and not a necessity.
What IS necessary is to set realistic AND REASONABLE expectations.
IF you're 200kg, losing a kg or more a week is reasonable. If you're 80kg and sedentary, it isn't.
Logging has to be 110% before you can claim special snowflake status where reasonable rules no longer apply to you.
Could you be an outlier? Of course you could be. There are 7.5+ billion people on this planet. The whole of MFP could be outliers if every single outlier signed up!
On the other hand if someone told you that you had a 95% chance to succeed in something, you would take it as a given that you would succeed. So chances are pretty good you're not an egregiously outlying outlier.12 -
I will add that there is a really good chance you do not understand weight fluctuations on the bathroom scale. You may expect linear results and it is unlikely to happen that way for you. Many people make assessments on their capacity to lose based on insufficient data. I have done this myself many times in my past attempts to lose weight. As @PAV8888 mentioned 3 weeks is the minimum amount of time for a male to see a trend. I have found that 3 weeks is what I would call a rough draft where 6+ weeks tells a better story.
Read this:
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/9 -
norman_cates wrote: »But I guarantee that if I don't lose weight or god forbid gain weight that there will be a bunch of people jumping upo and down saying that I lied. Because they can't believe any paradigm that goes against the holy book of calories in, calories out.
No-one will say that you 'lied', just that you were making errors in tracking the calories that you consumed. Because calories in/calories out isn't a holy book - it's science...
Apparently it's not, because many fitness people disagree with it. Just like they all have different things they think work. If this was a science, there would be broad agreement. There isn't.
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cwolfman13 wrote: »norman_cates wrote: »
And yet, that APPEARS to be the only way I can lose weight.cwolfman13 wrote: »
Because you're a male and the minimum for a sedentary male is 1500 calories. A male has no business eating like a toddler or small, sedentary and old female.
Have you actually tried going off of MFP's recommendations consistently for any period of time. Losing weight is hard...restricting calories is hard...the process is slow and there are weeks with little to no results...but when you do this consistently over time it works...but it requires patience. Losing weight isn't an overnight, snap your fingers kind of thing.
There are numerous people here, including myself who've had great success with this. I lost around 40 Lbs almost 7 years ago...the process was no picnic, and it took me about 8 months...but it worked as long as I committed. I've maintained that loss for going on 7 years in April...also not easy as it is much easier to just let things go back to the way they were.
Yes 4 years ago I did try what MFP recommended, along with a strenuous gym routine.
4 years ago I tracked (using scales) what I was eating and my exercise using Fitbit, over at least 4-5 months. And other times more sporadically.
NOTHING. No change. And MFP have lost my data off the website so I can't even point anyone at it to show what I was trying to do.
1 -
-do you WEIGH everything that crosses your lips?
-no taste-no sample-WEIGH IT AND LOG IT BEFORE it crosses your lips?
-yes, in the beginning and until your get organized your food will grow cold and you will be salivating and wanting to skip a step. eat an apple (or carrot or cucumber or what have you) if you've waited too long to eat and are too hungry to function.
--Weigh YOURSELF, on a scale, at a consistent time, after consistent bathroom usage, before eating or drinking, and USE A WEIGHT TREND APP OR WEB SITE to determine your weight trend over time.
--be cognizant of sodium levels -- they affect water weight.
--be cognizant of exercise -- it can affect water weight for muscle retention
--if you are female be aware of hormonal water weight fluctuations
--if you are a low carber, be aware of water weight fluctuations when reducing or increasing carbs
LOOK AT YOUR TREND with 3+ weeks of data.
ADJUST YOUR EXPECTATIONS. If you are a sedentary person with a TDEE of less than 2500, then yes, it is unreasonable that you're trying to create a deficit of more than 500 Cal. 500 Cal is already AT LEAST 25% of your total energy expenditure for the day.
You don't have to, but if you want to both eat more and lose faster... MOVE MORE. It is entirely optional and not a necessity.
What IS necessary is to set realistic AND REASONABLE expectations.
IF you're 200kg, losing a kg or more a week is reasonable. If you're 80kg and sedentary, it isn't.
Logging has to be 110% before you can claim special snowflake status where reasonable rules no longer apply to you.
Could you be an outlier? Of course you could be. There are 7.5+ billion people on this planet. The whole of MFP could be outliers if every single outlier signed up!
On the other hand if someone told you that you had a 95% chance to succeed in something, you would take it as a given that you would succeed. So chances are pretty good you're not an egregiously outlying outlier.
4 years ago, I did that for 4-5 months. With a strenuous gym routine.
Nothing. I got medical checks. Nothing.
I realize you don't have that information above. I have put it in other threads, and I forget I haven't put it in here.
I had that data in MFP. They have lost the data from the website. It appears to still be in my phone. They seem to be incompetent to get the data across.1 -
I will add that there is a really good chance you do not understand weight fluctuations on the bathroom scale. You may expect linear results and it is unlikely to happen that way for you. Many people make assessments on their capacity to lose based on insufficient data. I have done this myself many times in my past attempts to lose weight. As @PAV8888 mentioned 3 weeks is the minimum amount of time for a male to see a trend. I have found that 3 weeks is what I would call a rough draft where 6+ weeks tells a better story.
Read this:
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/
Yes I do. I know about weighing at the same time
I know it fluctuates.
I have years of data on my phone.1 -
norman_cates wrote: »4 years ago, I did that for 4-5 months. With a strenuous gym routine.
When you did that, did you GAIN weight?
Did you lose SOME weight; but, didn't feel that the "reward" was sufficient for the "effort"?
Did you feel good and strong... but again didn't see the *numbers* you thought you should be seeing based on effort?
I have a hard time imagining that you both controlled your caloric intake AND had a strenuous gym routine and didn't see any results.
I have NO PROBLEM AT ALL imagining that between under-eating and water retention due to exercise you were involve in something that was not long term sustainable and that the results you did see (or thought you saw based on perhaps incomplete analysis) did not feel sufficient for the amount of suffering you were undergoing.
The systemic issue is that you're trying to get quick results with maximum suffering.
I am lazy. Real lazy. And I like to avoid suffering. I also believe in compound interest.
Which means that I am looking for the least amount of suffering and a large number of small, incremental changes, that all together will move me to the direction I want to end up in.
There is no point in making things so difficult you guarantee that you can't continue doing them indefinitely.
If I eat 1500 Cal a day, I better be seeing results yesterday. If I am eating 2500 Cal a day, which is closer to maintenance within a few hundred, hey I can see some results or maybe not, BUT IN ANY CASE I AM DOING WHAT I WOULD HAVE BEEN DOING ANYWAY IF I WERE TO CONTINUE TO MAINTAIN.
And guess what? You will have to continue to maintain for the rest of your life in order to avoid regain!
Anyway. I think you get where I'm coming from! Change your expectations. If you're sedentary you have no business trying to lose at more than lb a week. If you achieve a half lb a week, that's still good. So maybe over the next 6 months you will get to goal! Maybe you will do so in 8. Or 12. It is still a drop of the hat in terms of your complete life!
How long will it take you to figure out how to eat and move at maintenance? When are you going to practice that?
How long are you planning to continue tracking and making sure you're keeping within maintenance parameters when you get to goal? Hint: at LEAST as long as it will take you to get there. In fact I would suggest more than twice as long if you want to ensure you don't regain.
I feel your pain in terms of MFP losing your data. In any case you now have the option of collecting a new data set. It might even be a good idea to do it with a new account if your previous account had a database corruption that nobody can figure out.
Peace out
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What did you eat when you were gaining weight? How much and what? How fast were you gaining?1
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Could you be an outlier? Of course you could be. There are 7.5+ billion people on this planet. The whole of MFP could be outliers if every single outlier signed up!
On the other hand if someone told you that you had a 95% chance to succeed in something, you would take it as a given that you would succeed. So chances are pretty good you're not an egregiously outlying outlier.
And being an outlier doesn't change the principles of calories in calories out, it just changes the numbers. If you really think you're an outlier, and you can afford it, you could get your metabolism tested. If you haven't already had that done.
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norman_cates wrote: »autumnblade75 wrote: »If you are TOO CLOSE TO GOAL to lose 1KG per week safely, you will be set to the default lowest calorie setting - 1200 for women and 1500 for men.
How can I be too close to the goal? I'm 10kg (or more) away
Believe it or not, that's a TINY amount of weight to need to lose. Many of us would consider those Vanity Pounds.
Stop trying to lose a kg per week. So near goal, you should be losing no more than 1/2 percent of your current weight per week. If you weigh 75kg, that means you should be expecting to lose no more than 375 Grams per week.8 -
norman_cates wrote: »norman_cates wrote: »But I guarantee that if I don't lose weight or god forbid gain weight that there will be a bunch of people jumping upo and down saying that I lied. Because they can't believe any paradigm that goes against the holy book of calories in, calories out.
No-one will say that you 'lied', just that you were making errors in tracking the calories that you consumed. Because calories in/calories out isn't a holy book - it's science...
Apparently it's not, because many fitness people disagree with it. Just like they all have different things they think work. If this was a science, there would be broad agreement. There isn't.
It is science - the way to lose excess fat is to consume fewer calories than you expend. There IS a broad agreement on this - however, how one goes about doing it is where people offer different methods. Anyone claiming to provide advice on fitness whilst disagreeing with the fundamental principle should probably be avoided.
10 -
norman_cates wrote: »norman_cates wrote: »But I guarantee that if I don't lose weight or god forbid gain weight that there will be a bunch of people jumping upo and down saying that I lied. Because they can't believe any paradigm that goes against the holy book of calories in, calories out.
No-one will say that you 'lied', just that you were making errors in tracking the calories that you consumed. Because calories in/calories out isn't a holy book - it's science...
Apparently it's not, because many fitness people disagree with it. Just like they all have different things they think work. If this was a science, there would be broad agreement. There isn't.
What credible person denies that calorie balance is what determines whether one loses, maintains, or gains?
Plenty of people think counting cals is not a sustainable strategy on average and that there are better ways to approach weight loss, but that's different from denying that calories are what actually determine what happens on the scale.11 -
autumnblade75 wrote: »norman_cates wrote: »autumnblade75 wrote: »If you are TOO CLOSE TO GOAL to lose 1KG per week safely, you will be set to the default lowest calorie setting - 1200 for women and 1500 for men.
How can I be too close to the goal? I'm 10kg (or more) away
Believe it or not, that's a TINY amount of weight to need to lose. Many of us would consider those Vanity Pounds.
Stop trying to lose a kg per week. So near goal, you should be losing no more than 1/2 percent of your current weight per week. If you weigh 75kg, that means you should be expecting to lose no more than 375 Grams per week.
I'm basically 90kg. Aiming at 80 (or 75 if the BMI is to be believed. Which is isn't.)1 -
What credible person denies that calorie balance is what determines whether one loses, maintains, or gains?
Plenty of people think counting cals is not a sustainable strategy on average and that there are better ways to approach weight loss, but that's different from denying that calories are what actually determine what happens on the scale.
I can only go on my experience that I could show you all IF MFP hadn't lost my data off the website.
Of course, then you will all go "he must have eaten that 3500-4000 calories a week extra without noticing."
Which is possible... But am I really so self deceiving not to have noticed?1 -
It is science - the way to lose excess fat is to consume fewer calories than you expend. There IS a broad agreement on this - however, how one goes about doing it is where people offer different methods. Anyone claiming to provide advice on fitness whilst disagreeing with the fundamental principle should probably be avoided.
Also, it's not just fat, you can lose muscle mass as well. Which is my fear. Because then metabolism drops even further.
Calories in, calories out is only about weight as we know. It does not have to be fat, it could be ANY part that can be metabolised.
Same with a calorie excess for gaining muscle. Making that aim at muscles, and not turn into fat is the problem. At least for some of us.
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What did you eat when you were gaining weight? How much and what? How fast were you gaining?
I didn't say I gained weight. I said I stayed the same.
And I wish I could show you in my diary. But MFP have lost that data. It's on my phone, but they are incompetent to get it off and sync it back into their system.
But also, why does it matter? There are people in this thread insisting that it's ONLY calories in, calories out that matters. So it makes no difference if I eat those calories in ice cream and skittles or meats and vegetables for weight changes.
I'm SURE it makes a difference for the kinds of weight I gain. Fat or muscle.1 -
autumnblade75 wrote: »norman_cates wrote: »autumnblade75 wrote: »If you are TOO CLOSE TO GOAL to lose 1KG per week safely, you will be set to the default lowest calorie setting - 1200 for women and 1500 for men.
How can I be too close to the goal? I'm 10kg (or more) away
Believe it or not, that's a TINY amount of weight to need to lose. Many of us would consider those Vanity Pounds.
Stop trying to lose a kg per week. So near goal, you should be losing no more than 1/2 percent of your current weight per week. If you weigh 75kg, that means you should be expecting to lose no more than 375 Grams per week.
How is 10kg tiny? It's over 10% of my body weight. Currently 90kg.
Sorry but I can see the unsightly spare tire. The flabby belly. Of course, my body loses fat off the extremities first so my belly is the one to gain fat first, or lose it last. Surgery maybe? Who knows.
1
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