Calorie Counting With MFP & Actual Real Calorie Intake

tommb801

Hi, can anyone reassure me/put me right? I have been using MFP for a few years however, for the last five weeks it's now become part of my overall weight loss/fitness plan. As at 1st January my weight was 17 stone, height five foot eleven inches. I've weight trained for decades so I'm quite a broad/built lad however, my ideal weight should be around 12 stone but the last ten years, excuses, excuses and more excuses. Since the 1st of January I've started taking my personal fitness serious again. My problem - I obsessively use MFP to record my calorie intake. I aim for a total calorie intake per day at 2,110. For the last three weeks every single day my actual calorie intake as recorded by MFP has been hovering around the 2,000 calorie mark and hasn't once gone over 2,110. I also exercise everyday on a running machine, seven days of the week, between two or three times a day, 20 to 30 minutes a time, break out into a sweat. I use a Garmin watch to monitor my heartbeat/calorie burning and the average every day is between 800 and a 1,000 calories burnt. I don't cheat with my calorie intake. If I eat a chocolate bar/crisps/kack it goes in MFP. Today I put on a pair of jeans not worn since December. They fitted around the waist, top button done up. Today, after almost eight weeks of cardio and weights plus counting calories, the top button of my jeans was an effort to close! My question is, how accurate is all this calorie counting in MFP? I'm being very honest with counting the calories and keeping my intake to under 2,110 a day but so far my weight has stuck at 17 stone on the dot since the 1st of January to today!

L1zardQueen

Do you use a food scale to weigh everything you eat? Do you pick the right entries in the database?

cmriverside

janejellyroll

It's hard to tell without seeing your diary, but basically when we're counting calories we're all -- to some degree -- estimating. There are more and less accurate ways to estimate. For example, some people use food scales, which are much more accurate than measuring cups. Measuring cups are more accurate than eyeballing. Some people go by the weight listed on the package when eating a pre-portioned single serving food, while others will verify this weight (knowing that packages are legally allowed to be over or under by a certain amount). Some people will minimize the times they're eating foods prepared by others, while others eat food prepared by others frequently. Some people double-check the entries they're using in MFP, while others don't. Some people log lower calorie foods like low calorie condiments or lower calorie beverages, while others log them. All of these things can make a difference when it comes to hitting our calorie goals. If you're combining several of the less accurate behaviors (or if you're choosing just one less accurate behavior, but it's resulting in a significant amount of under-recorded calories), it can make a difference.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

My experience is that, if I log honestly but not obsessively, my weight responds as expected. I don't weigh everything anymore, but I did enough weighing of meats so as to calibrate my eyeballs. Sometimes I weigh things to see if I'm still on track. When foods are calorie dense, you need to measure more carefully (oils, etc), but that just means using a tablespoon.

In short, my experience is that it works!

However, weight loss is a slow process. I suggest setting your account up for 1lb/week loss, sedentary. Let the Garmin calculate your activity calories and it will add in a few more. When possible, leave some of those active calories "on the table" (literally), and you will do even better. But you must be consistent and patient.

Expect your weight to bounce around by 1-2lbs daily and watch the trend over many days.

Best of luck!

kshama2001

There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

callsitlikeiseeit

if you open your diary we can help you better. otherwise all we can give is the standard advice of you are probably not logging accurately and eating more than you realize.

crb426

What it comes down to is that you are most likely eating more than you think you are.

My advice:
-Use a food scale and weigh everything. A slice of bread can vary greatly from the package label, for example.
-Make sure you choose the most accurate food entry (check labels, compare to official sites like the USDA).
-Also make sure you are weighing the food in the same state as the database (such as cooked verses raw).
-Trust that foods made in restaurants will have higher errors in calorie count verses what you make yourself.
-Underestimate calorie burn from exercise.
-Choose foods that are easy to calculate.
-Log EVERYTHING. Toppings on your burger. Mayo on your sandwich.

springlering62

I’m a 133 pound, 5’7” 58 year old woman and I maintain at about 2400-2500 per day (although I workout and walk a lot).

I’m leaning towards logging inaccuracies.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10012907/logging-accuracy-consistency-and-youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p1

sijomial

tommb801 wrote: »

My question is, how accurate is all this calorie counting in MFP?

Although there are outliers it's far more common that the problem lies with how you are calorie counting rather than the numbers given to you.

Opening your diary would help enormously.