Super confused about how to track fat macros

soulteacher01

So, if you look at my two screens, it appears that on my nutrient screen, I am meeting my daily goals and even have some room for fat grams at dinner. However, when I then switch to my macro screen, I am considerably over and have no room for fat grams for dinner. I am assuming the macro screen is including saturated fat in that percentage, but I am not sure and am confused as to how the fat macro percentage is broken down and what screen I should actually pay attention to-the nutrient screen or the macro screen. Can somebody please tell me why these two screens look different and what they mean and how I can use this information to see how to break my weight loss plateau? FYI: I had homeade chocolate oatmeal and one egg for breakfast, white chicken chili with 1/8 cup of sour cream for lunch and a serving of greek yogurt with some granola for a snack. That is it! How can I be over my fat goals with just that? The menu for today seemed pretty healthy to me!

cmriverside

Hm. I'm not on the app, I use the website so I don't understand what I'm looking at on the first image.

The second one is a pie graph telling you what you've eaten so far today. The numbers in the actual pie graph are macro percentages of 100% of the food you have eaten. I agree that it isn't explained very well.


Just eat the food you like and worry about it at the end of the day or don't, it really doesn't make a lot of difference for weight management. Calories are the thing to watch.

MaltedTea

Your macros, like your calorie, are getting tracked in real time (well, as you log them).

No need to hit your macros on a daily basis but, for the sake of your question and based on the photos for the scenario provided, you'd have a higher protein dinner. Using the power of prelogging, you'd want to fool around with carbs and fats to ensure you're getting as close to your desired end goal.

As for me, I look at the weekly view to gauge my macro intake.

NovusDies

soulteacher01 wrote: »

So, if you look at my two screens, it appears that on my nutrient screen, I am meeting my daily goals and even have some room for fat grams at dinner. However, when I then switch to my macro screen, I am considerably over and have no room for fat grams for dinner. I am assuming the macro screen is including saturated fat in that percentage, but I am not sure and am confused as to how the fat macro percentage is broken down and what screen I should actually pay attention to-the nutrient screen or the macro screen. Can somebody please tell me why these two screens look different and what they mean and how I can use this information to see how to break my weight loss plateau? FYI: I had homeade chocolate oatmeal and one egg for breakfast, white chicken chili with 1/8 cup of sour cream for lunch and a serving of greek yogurt with some granola for a snack. That is it! How can I be over my fat goals with just that? The menu for today seemed pretty healthy to me!

Macros will not decide fat weight loss. Neither will "healthy" eating. Fat weight loss is decided only on calories.

Many people think they are in a plateau without realizing that your weight will need to stall for no less than 3 weeks and even then it may not be a plateau.

If you are in a calorie deficit you will lose fat weight but the bathroom scale will often not show it in a linear fashion. Read this:

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

If you are not in a calorie deficit your weight will stay the same. This is usually caused by not logging calories correctly and eating more food than you realize. A food scale is highly recommended to cut down on this happening as well as personally verifying the calories of the food entries you pick from the database against a label or the USDA site. Green check entries and bar code items should not be trusted either.

The reason why a food scale is important:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1


Here is a flowchart that many have found helpful:

VeryKatie

So the explanation has to do with the graph.

Your numbers on your diary (or that bar graph) show the total amount you are aiming to eat for the whole day in grams or calories.

The pie chart is showing the breakdown of the foods you have eaten SO FAR and does not account for food you still have to eat. So if you still have calories left, those percentages will change after you eat dinner. The pie chart is just showing how much your previous eaten food fits in your plan for the day.

An example:

Say you ate 1000 calories out of your 1500 calorie goal for the day. You haven't had dinner yet.

For breakfast you ate 500 calories. 333 of them were from fat. 167 of them were from carbs.

For lunch you had 167 calories from carbs and 333 calories of protein.

So before dinner, you had 333 calories each of fat, protein and carbs. You've had 1000 calories so far in the day.

Your macro pie chart before dinner will show you had 33% carbs (333 calories of carbs/1000 total so far). 33% fat, and 33% protein (same calc).

However the bar graph/dairy will show how many grams of each you ate, not percent of total calories.

BUT you still have 500 calories left for dinner to be divided between carbs, fat and protein. Say you eat only protein. 500 calories. Which by the way is 500calories/4calories per gram = 125 g (I didn't say my example would be realistic)

Now your pie will show 22% fat (333/1500), 22% carbs and 56% ([333+500]/1500 protein.

Basically, on the diary page, MFP calculates the number grams you need of each macro to get your desired split of the pie by the end of the day. If you still have grams of one (say fat) but not the other (say carbs), and if you want to meet your split, you need to eat something high fat and low carb to try to get the percentage you want.

I hope that makes sense...

For reference
Protein 4 calories per gram
Carbs 4 calories per gram
Fat 9 calories per gram

lemurcat2

soulteacher01 wrote: »

So, if you look at my two screens, it appears that on my nutrient screen, I am meeting my daily goals and even have some room for fat grams at dinner. However, when I then switch to my macro screen, I am considerably over and have no room for fat grams for dinner. I am assuming the macro screen is including saturated fat in that percentage, but I am not sure and am confused as to how the fat macro percentage is broken down and what screen I should actually pay attention to-the nutrient screen or the macro screen. Can somebody please tell me why these two screens look different and what they mean and how I can use this information to see how to break my weight loss plateau? FYI: I had homeade chocolate oatmeal and one egg for breakfast, white chicken chili with 1/8 cup of sour cream for lunch and a serving of greek yogurt with some granola for a snack. That is it! How can I be over my fat goals with just that? The menu for today seemed pretty healthy to me!

This just shows why the pie chart is stupid and confusing and should be ignored. The first screen shows what you have left to eat. The second screen shows percentages in your meals so far. To hit the goals in the first screen you should eat less fat as a percentage of your remaining cals than you have earlier in the day, but you have plenty of fat left, and can eat more fat and end up with a lower percentage, since the percentage is of total cals.

Percentages are pretty irrelevant. I'd focus on getting enough protein (aim for 0.8 g per lb of a healthy goal weight), enough fiber (at or ideally more than the MFP goal), and not worry about fat unless you are someone who eats low fat if you don't pay attention. (For some, focusing on limiting sat fat can be useful.) Thinking about including in your diet healthy fats like nuts and seeds, olives or olive oil, and fatty fish can be a good idea. Beyond all that, carbs vs. fat doesn't matter.

For weight loss, what matters is cals. For muscle maintenance when losing, protein (as noted above) is one component.