Hi there, I am 51, a bit overweight and certainly under-muscled! I have been doing a daily HIIC workout routine for the last month and have started to see the start of some muscles coming. I eat VERY well and had started Noom, which had set a daily caloric goal of 1350. Noom is ok, and far tooooo expensive and a friend recommended MyFitnessPal. I love it so far, but am confused about the caloric goal it offers. It has a goal of almost 1900 calories per day. Watching the percentages I notice I don’t get enough protein so after each workout I drink a plant-based protein shake, or after a meal if my protein and calories are too low I will add this drink as well. Yesterday I weight 183.4, Hooray!!!! But this morning... 185.6...?!! What happened? I have cut down my salt intake as well and mostly I eat vegetables. I am careful not to get more than 1 tablespoon of olive oil a day. The part that gets really confusing is that in order to post here I seemed to have to create another account and that account had the goal of 1200 calories per day! It’s very confusing!
fredoviola1
Member Posts: 4 Member
Member Posts: 4 Member
Replies
There's no need to have protein after every meal if your protein and calories are too low. Your goal should be to hit your protein and calorie goal for the total day -- you don't have to adjust after each meal.
It's totally normal to have days where you weigh more than the previous day even if you're losing weight. Many things can cause this -- muscle repair after intense exercise, food being processed by the body, a day that is higher in carbohydrates or sodium, dehydration, or other factors. Pay attention to the long term trend, the day-to-day is just part of that.
Just remember that a sustainable weekly loss is less than 2lbs, and more commonly 1lb or below. But, you daily weight can vary by 1-2 lbs. If you weight daily (in the morning after toilet in underwear) and watch the trend over several days, you will know how you're doing.
As for your plan, double check your profile and make sure everything is entered correctly. For starters, select sedentary and 1lb/week loss. I would think your suggested daily intake would be closer to 1500kcals/day (roughly).
Best of luck!
Bodyweight isn't static...it fluctuates naturally with changes in water, waste, etc. Losing weight isn't a linear process. Weight management in general is about long term trends, not the day to day data.
Yes!
If you do a workout, you can enter it under "exercise" and get a calorie compensation. If you find you are losing weight faster than you want, you can bump your activity level up to the next level. In general, it seems to work better to start conservative and work up in terms of your plan.
Thank you!
MFP is designed so that you choose an activity goal based on your regular daily activity without exercise and then log your exercise (or used a synced device like a Fitbit) and eat back the calories burnt from additional activity.
You can do it one of two ways: adjust the profile and don't log the exercise, which is probably less precise. Or you can leave it and log your deliberate exercise. The second won't change the goal because MFP doesn't know your burn until you enter it, it will impact the calories remaining.