We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!
Calories & Nutrients - Help!
wendylou1704
Posts: 6 Member
Hi everyone!
Sorry if this has been asked and answered, but I've been scrolling for ages, and can't find a thread on it.
I've been using MFP for years, albeit on & off, and it's worked well for me in the past.
I have 1200 cals to use each day.
I make sure I enter my cals accurately every time, don't use generic entries, weigh stuff if I'm not sure etc.
I eat 3 fairly healthy meals per day.
Typically, cereal for breakfast; eggs, toast, noodles or salads for lunch and evening meal is usually meat, chicken or fish in some form with rice, pasta or potatoes, and plenty of vegs!
I also have snacks most days such as biscuits, crisps or ice cream but nothing excessive. And I drink loads of water and tea (I'm English, it's what we do!)
I also exercise 3x per week by walking around 3km each time.
So I feel like I'm doing everything right. However, I'm not losing any real weight. I'm just maintaining or losing a few ounces here & there.
But, here's the thing, and I get the feeling this is pretty important... I very rarely use all my calories. I'm usually around 1050-1100, occasionally 1130.
But I'm paying attention to the nutrients (fat, sugar, carbs, protein) I'm allowed per day too, and so I'm adjusting what I eat to make sure I don't go over on those. But then I'm low on cals!
My main goal is to lose weight, so does eating fewer than your daily cals have a detrimental effect on weight loss? And is sticking to the daily allowance for nutrients also having an adverse effect?
I'd appreciate any guidance. Thanks!
Sorry if this has been asked and answered, but I've been scrolling for ages, and can't find a thread on it.
I've been using MFP for years, albeit on & off, and it's worked well for me in the past.
I have 1200 cals to use each day.
I make sure I enter my cals accurately every time, don't use generic entries, weigh stuff if I'm not sure etc.
I eat 3 fairly healthy meals per day.
Typically, cereal for breakfast; eggs, toast, noodles or salads for lunch and evening meal is usually meat, chicken or fish in some form with rice, pasta or potatoes, and plenty of vegs!
I also have snacks most days such as biscuits, crisps or ice cream but nothing excessive. And I drink loads of water and tea (I'm English, it's what we do!)
I also exercise 3x per week by walking around 3km each time.
So I feel like I'm doing everything right. However, I'm not losing any real weight. I'm just maintaining or losing a few ounces here & there.
But, here's the thing, and I get the feeling this is pretty important... I very rarely use all my calories. I'm usually around 1050-1100, occasionally 1130.
But I'm paying attention to the nutrients (fat, sugar, carbs, protein) I'm allowed per day too, and so I'm adjusting what I eat to make sure I don't go over on those. But then I'm low on cals!
My main goal is to lose weight, so does eating fewer than your daily cals have a detrimental effect on weight loss? And is sticking to the daily allowance for nutrients also having an adverse effect?
I'd appreciate any guidance. Thanks!
0
Replies
-
You don't give your age, height, weight, goal weight. Without those stats, it's difficult to answer your question.
The best answer I can give is with the information provided is - Go back to weighing and logging everything, no skipping, cheating, or forgetting.wendylou1704 wrote: »But I'm paying attention to the nutrients (fat, sugar, carbs, protein) I'm allowed per day too, and so I'm adjusting what I eat to make sure I don't go over on those. But then I'm low on cals!
My main goal is to lose weight, so does eating fewer than your daily cals have a detrimental effect on weight loss? And is sticking to the daily allowance for nutrients also having an adverse effect?
In reference to the bolded in your statement, there are three macronutrients - Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats. Sugar is a carb, you don't have to double track that unless you have a medical reason.
Carbohydrates are 4 calories per gram. Protein is 4 calories per gram.
Fats are 9 calories per gram.
You should be hitting your calories if you are hitting your macros. Because you are not, I suspect you are choosing bad entries for the food (they are user-entered and not always correct), or your logging is off in some other way. Your food diary is private. If you are willing to make it public, people will be willing to help you find the errors.3 -
As is mentioned above, estimating calorie intake accurately is key. Lots of people are logging and THINKING that they're in a certain calorie range, but they're actually eating more than they think. It's understandable because logging is like a lot of things -- we're not born knowing how to do it, we've got to figure it out.
Some common issues include eyeballing portion sizes, using measuring cups/spoons, not logging things like drinks, condiments, or cooking oil, choosing incorrect database entries, or using generic/homemade entries made by other people. Sometimes people are also having unlogged days or meals that are setting them back.
If you open your diary, we may be able to help you figure out what is going on.2 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »Carbohydrates are 4 calories per gram. Protein is 4 calories per gram.
Fats are 9 calories per gram.
You should be hitting your calories if you are hitting your macros. Because you are not, I suspect you are choosing bad entries for the food (they are user-entered and not always correct), or your logging is off in some other way. Your food diary is private. If you are willing to make it public, people will be willing to help you find the errors.
I will amend this slightly. Even if you pick only good entries, the macros won't equal cals exactly most days due to (1) rounding, and (2) fiber. Fiber (or fibre) in UK entries doesn't count toward carbs, but will be counted in part toward cals. (US entries--including USDA entries--are off in the opposite way, as fiber is counted in carbs, but not 100% in cals.)
That said, focus on cals, not macros, as a limiting factor. Going over protein is good when you are at 1200, and going over carbs or fat is neutral so long as they aren't crowding out important nutrients. Doesn't seem like OP is looking at fiber, but going over fiber is also good.
Re not losing, that has nothing to do with being under cals or the macros. It means you are either (1) eating too much over the course of a week or so, or (2) have cut cals so low that your overall activity is down (which is less likely as the easy explanation).
Opening your diary would help us identify if you have bad entries or common logging errors, because to be honest your description of what you are eating doesn't sound so filling that you should be having issues reaching 1200 or that it is likely to be under 1200 unless you are eating absolutely tiny quantities.2 -
Thanks for your replies. It’s appreciated.
To answer some of your questions...
I’m 55, 5’2”, 144lbs, goal weight is 133lbs or less!
To log things, I either scan the bar code and adjust the entry to the correct portion size or I weigh on scales the amount I’m having.
As I said, I don’t use generic entries, nor do I guesstimate portions.
For any recipes I make, every single item is weighed, or scanned and the correct amount is logged.
I’m pretty strict with my logging - there’s no point in kidding yourself - so I everything I eat/drink goes on. Drinks, condiments, cooking oils etc. I even log things like Splenda sweeteners even tho they have no calories.
I don’t want to make my profile public (there’s good reasons which I won’t go into) so my question remains: is eating fewer calories than your daily allowance detrimental to your weight loss?
And if it is, how on earth do I eat more when I don’t want to!!
Thanks0 -
Scanning the barcode doesn't guarantee that the entry is correct. If your logging is consistently showing you're at a deficit and you aren't losing weight, then usually the answer lies somewhere in how you're estimating your calories in. Without seeing your diary, it's going to be hard for us to be more specific than that, but it might be worth double-checking the entries you're using for accuracy.5
-
+1 suggestion to triple-check the database entries you're using (check against USDA for whole foods, against the label in your hand for packaged foods), and also weigh your packaged foods. Legally they can be off by as much as 20% in either direction. Scanning isn't automagically more accurate. It's not pulling the data off of the label in your hand, it's just searching the database without you having to type in the food name, so check and make sure the entry that comes up matches the info on the label. The database was built by your fellow users over the past decade and a half, so it's subject to human error; and, even if someone copied over the information flawlessly 10-15 years ago, the recipe or serving size may have changed in the interim. And then there's the differences already mentioned about how different countries' nutrition facts labels can vary.
And to answer your question: yes, eating too little is also detrimental to your health. Your body is running on 10,000-year-old software. If you're severely restricting calories, your body, instead of emptying out its "savings account" (your excess body fat) when the day's energy bill comes due and there's not enough food to pay it, will try to reduce the "charges" by cutting nonessential functions or slowing things way, way down. Have you noticed your hair and nails being more brittle lately, your skin a little more dry? It's not just because it's winter, your body has also cut way back on the nonessential functions of replacing those cells as they slough off.6 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Scanning the barcode doesn't guarantee that the entry is correct. If your logging is consistently showing you're at a deficit and you aren't losing weight, then usually the answer lies somewhere in how you're estimating your calories in. Without seeing your diary, it's going to be hard for us to be more specific than that, but it might be worth double-checking the entries you're using for accuracy.
This.
If you don't want to make public, you could copy a couple of days, not sure if it's possible to cut and paste.1 -
wendylou1704 wrote: »is eating fewer calories than your daily allowance detrimental to your weight loss?
If the question is: "do I need to eat up to my calorie goal and not less to lose weight" the answer is no. Not losing because you are eating too little is generally not a thing.
Of course, eating too little is bad for your health (below goal doesn't necessarily mean "too little" for health reasons, but if your goal is 1200, then you really shouldn't be eating below it). However, the most likely answer here is that you AREN'T eating below 1200 or that you are but occasionally having higher days/meals that are counteracting the deficit the rest of the time.
If you are eating the foods you mention, really eating below 1200, and feel like you couldn't eat more, I would see a doctor and discuss it. First, while sometimes people go overboard with restriction and change their diet a lot and end up eating high protein and fiber and volume or some such temporarily and feel extra full, there's nothing in the diet you described to make that likely, so feeling like you couldn't eat more IF cals are accurate would be worrisome. Second, you shouldn't be maintaining on less than 1200 at your stats. If you are positive you are eating less than 1200 and it couldn't possibly be logging issues, then I would bring your log to a doctor or ask to see a dietitian and seek out tests about thyroid or some such. But that's more the zebra answer, not the horse, and you would want to make sure the log was as accurate as possible for at least a month or so before using it with a doctor, I think.3 -
You're not really that heavy, and your calorie goal is 1200. What weight loss goal have you selected? If your goal is too high then MFP will always give you 1200 as eating less than that is not healthy. That means you won't lose at the chosen rate of loss.
You wrote that you lose a few ounces here and there.
How much have you lost now, and over what time?1 -
You're not really that heavy, and your calorie goal is 1200. What weight loss goal have you selected? If your goal is too high then MFP will always give you 1200 as eating less than that is not healthy. That means you won't lose at the chosen rate of loss.
You wrote that you lose a few ounces here and there.
How much have you lost now, and over what time?
Ok, so I’ve said I want to lose 1lb per week. Slow & steady. And more likely to keep the weight off.
I started at 11st in Jan 2019. In Dec 2019, I weighed 9st 12.6lbs. That was on 1200 cals per day.
Then I put a few lbs on Xmas & NY. I started again last Jan at around 10st 3lbs (approx) but then the pandemic hit, complete lockdown happened (I live in Spain) and my work dried up and eating habits/diet went out of the window!
I started MFP again in Jan this year, weighing 10st 7.6lbs. So I’ve lost about 3lbs in 3 months. Which is rubbish!!
I’ve no idea what I’m doing differently to 2019 when I lost over a stone.
It’s very frustrating1 -
wendylou1704 wrote: »You're not really that heavy, and your calorie goal is 1200. What weight loss goal have you selected? If your goal is too high then MFP will always give you 1200 as eating less than that is not healthy. That means you won't lose at the chosen rate of loss.
You wrote that you lose a few ounces here and there.
How much have you lost now, and over what time?
Ok, so I’ve said I want to lose 1lb per week. Slow & steady. And more likely to keep the weight off.
I started at 11st in Jan 2019. In Dec 2019, I weighed 9st 12.6lbs. That was on 1200 cals per day.
Then I put a few lbs on Xmas & NY. I started again last Jan at around 10st 3lbs (approx) but then the pandemic hit, complete lockdown happened (I live in Spain) and my work dried up and eating habits/diet went out of the window!
I started MFP again in Jan this year, weighing 10st 7.6lbs. So I’ve lost about 3lbs in 3 months. Which is rubbish!!
I’ve no idea what I’m doing differently to 2019 when I lost over a stone.
It’s very frustrating
How much did your daily life activity level change, between 2019 and now? Maybe you've already considered that, but we've had a few threads where the OP didn't understand why they were losing slower now, and come to find out their work from home life (or non-work life) was quite different from their commute plus onsite work life. (There can be other factors, too, like maybe ordering groceries vs. walking the aisles in person, etc.).0 -
wendylou1704 wrote: »You're not really that heavy, and your calorie goal is 1200. What weight loss goal have you selected? If your goal is too high then MFP will always give you 1200 as eating less than that is not healthy. That means you won't lose at the chosen rate of loss.
You wrote that you lose a few ounces here and there.
How much have you lost now, and over what time?
Ok, so I’ve said I want to lose 1lb per week. Slow & steady. And more likely to keep the weight off.
I started at 11st in Jan 2019. In Dec 2019, I weighed 9st 12.6lbs. That was on 1200 cals per day.
Then I put a few lbs on Xmas & NY. I started again last Jan at around 10st 3lbs (approx) but then the pandemic hit, complete lockdown happened (I live in Spain) and my work dried up and eating habits/diet went out of the window!
I started MFP again in Jan this year, weighing 10st 7.6lbs. So I’ve lost about 3lbs in 3 months. Which is rubbish!!
I’ve no idea what I’m doing differently to 2019 when I lost over a stone.
It’s very frustrating
How much did your daily life activity level change, between 2019 and now? Maybe you've already considered that, but we've had a few threads where the OP didn't understand why they were losing slower now, and come to find out their work from home life (or non-work life) was quite different from their commute plus onsite work life. (There can be other factors, too, like maybe ordering groceries vs. walking the aisles in person, etc.).
My daily activity etc is more or less the same!
I work from home now and did then. Same hours, same job.
However, I did less exercise then than I do now.
It’s pretty much the same lifestyle.
1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Scanning the barcode doesn't guarantee that the entry is correct. If your logging is consistently showing you're at a deficit and you aren't losing weight, then usually the answer lies somewhere in how you're estimating your calories in. Without seeing your diary, it's going to be hard for us to be more specific than that, but it might be worth double-checking the entries you're using for accuracy.
This.
If you don't want to make public, you could copy a couple of days, not sure if it's possible to cut and paste.
I don’t understand how scanning the barcode from a product can give wrong info.
If it brings up the correct product and I make sure I add the serving size I’m having, how can that be wrong.
As I stated earlier, I never use ‘generic’ entries. If I don’t have a barcode to scan, or the food isn’t in the database with a green verification tick, I add it manually using the nutritional info on the pack and weigh the serving size out.0 -
Scanning just pulls up an entry from the database and just like doing a manual search in the database, the entry may be good or may be (a little bit or very) wrong.1
-
wendylou1704 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Scanning the barcode doesn't guarantee that the entry is correct. If your logging is consistently showing you're at a deficit and you aren't losing weight, then usually the answer lies somewhere in how you're estimating your calories in. Without seeing your diary, it's going to be hard for us to be more specific than that, but it might be worth double-checking the entries you're using for accuracy.
This.
If you don't want to make public, you could copy a couple of days, not sure if it's possible to cut and paste.
I don’t understand how scanning the barcode from a product can give wrong info.
If it brings up the correct product and I make sure I add the serving size I’m having, how can that be wrong.
As I stated earlier, I never use ‘generic’ entries. If I don’t have a barcode to scan, or the food isn’t in the database with a green verification tick, I add it manually using the nutritional info on the pack and weigh the serving size out.
If you're comparing calories/nutrients to the label before adding it to your diary, it's fine. The problem is that anyone (any MFP user) can add an entry with a bar code, and it may be incorrect, or may've been correct when they added it, but the product formulation has changed.
The green verification ticks just mean multiple users have said the info is correct. It can still be out of date, or even incorrect in some way that those users didn't care about.wendylou1704 wrote: »wendylou1704 wrote: »You're not really that heavy, and your calorie goal is 1200. What weight loss goal have you selected? If your goal is too high then MFP will always give you 1200 as eating less than that is not healthy. That means you won't lose at the chosen rate of loss.
You wrote that you lose a few ounces here and there.
How much have you lost now, and over what time?
Ok, so I’ve said I want to lose 1lb per week. Slow & steady. And more likely to keep the weight off.
I started at 11st in Jan 2019. In Dec 2019, I weighed 9st 12.6lbs. That was on 1200 cals per day.
Then I put a few lbs on Xmas & NY. I started again last Jan at around 10st 3lbs (approx) but then the pandemic hit, complete lockdown happened (I live in Spain) and my work dried up and eating habits/diet went out of the window!
I started MFP again in Jan this year, weighing 10st 7.6lbs. So I’ve lost about 3lbs in 3 months. Which is rubbish!!
I’ve no idea what I’m doing differently to 2019 when I lost over a stone.
It’s very frustrating
How much did your daily life activity level change, between 2019 and now? Maybe you've already considered that, but we've had a few threads where the OP didn't understand why they were losing slower now, and come to find out their work from home life (or non-work life) was quite different from their commute plus onsite work life. (There can be other factors, too, like maybe ordering groceries vs. walking the aisles in person, etc.).
My daily activity etc is more or less the same!
I work from home now and did then. Same hours, same job.
However, I did less exercise then than I do now.
It’s pretty much the same lifestyle.
Good. Just thought I'd ask, since I've seen people not realize the impact. 🙂 Presumably you've accounted for the exercise difference. I'll leave it to the others' comments, which seem reasonable to me.1 -
i scan barcodes that are not correct, and i have to LOOK for a correct entry. I try to not eat much that actually has a barcode, but it happens on occasion.
without seeing your diary, really the only thing we can say is that your logging is not accurate. no one will judge you, i promise. and if they do... block them. you can have your diary public and it does not make your PROFILE public. they are separate. mine (diary) is public and i eat all kinds of crap food. I also eat more than you and lose weight steadily.
recipes i enter are hand entered, to the gram, for every single item. so you see huge numbers as 'servings' but each gram is a serving.
anyway, others have given good advice.2 -
wendylou1704 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Scanning the barcode doesn't guarantee that the entry is correct. If your logging is consistently showing you're at a deficit and you aren't losing weight, then usually the answer lies somewhere in how you're estimating your calories in. Without seeing your diary, it's going to be hard for us to be more specific than that, but it might be worth double-checking the entries you're using for accuracy.
This.
If you don't want to make public, you could copy a couple of days, not sure if it's possible to cut and paste.
I don’t understand how scanning the barcode from a product can give wrong info.
If it brings up the correct product and I make sure I add the serving size I’m having, how can that be wrong.
As I stated earlier, I never use ‘generic’ entries. If I don’t have a barcode to scan, or the food isn’t in the database with a green verification tick, I add it manually using the nutritional info on the pack and weigh the serving size out.
For example, the barcode information for my protein bars says they are 190 calories for 63 grams of protein bar. That does not mean my protein bar necessarily weighs 63 grams. Nutrition labels are allowed to be off by up to 20%. That protein bar may weigh anywhere from 45-81 grams and you won’t know unless you weigh it. If it’s actually 75 grams of protein bar, then it’s actually 226 calories no matter what the label says.1 -
wendylou1704 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Scanning the barcode doesn't guarantee that the entry is correct. If your logging is consistently showing you're at a deficit and you aren't losing weight, then usually the answer lies somewhere in how you're estimating your calories in. Without seeing your diary, it's going to be hard for us to be more specific than that, but it might be worth double-checking the entries you're using for accuracy.
This.
If you don't want to make public, you could copy a couple of days, not sure if it's possible to cut and paste.
I don’t understand how scanning the barcode from a product can give wrong info.
If it brings up the correct product and I make sure I add the serving size I’m having, how can that be wrong.
As I stated earlier, I never use ‘generic’ entries. If I don’t have a barcode to scan, or the food isn’t in the database with a green verification tick, I add it manually using the nutritional info on the pack and weigh the serving size out.
If you're comparing calories/nutrients to the label before adding it to your diary, it's fine. The problem is that anyone (any MFP user) can add an entry with a bar code, and it may be incorrect, or may've been correct when they added it, but the product formulation has changed.
The green verification ticks just mean multiple users have said the info is correct. It can still be out of date, or even incorrect in some way that those users didn't care about.
All this, and bar codes can relate to different versions of the product (for example, they may share a bar code, but international versions often are different in various ways).
Not to mention the huge number of foods that wouldn't have a bar code, but I think people assume the bar code brings up specific manufacturer information and it does not. I've never once scanned a bar code.3 -
wendylou1704 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Scanning the barcode doesn't guarantee that the entry is correct. If your logging is consistently showing you're at a deficit and you aren't losing weight, then usually the answer lies somewhere in how you're estimating your calories in. Without seeing your diary, it's going to be hard for us to be more specific than that, but it might be worth double-checking the entries you're using for accuracy.
This.
If you don't want to make public, you could copy a couple of days, not sure if it's possible to cut and paste.
I don’t understand how scanning the barcode from a product can give wrong info.
If it brings up the correct product and I make sure I add the serving size I’m having, how can that be wrong.
As I stated earlier, I never use ‘generic’ entries. If I don’t have a barcode to scan, or the food isn’t in the database with a green verification tick, I add it manually using the nutritional info on the pack and weigh the serving size out.
It's just a different way to search the database. There isn't a separate, more accurate database accessable only through scans. It's the same database.2
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 394.3K Introduce Yourself
- 44K Getting Started
- 260.4K Health and Weight Loss
- 176.1K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.7K Fitness and Exercise
- 440 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153.1K Motivation and Support
- 8.1K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.4K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 4K MyFitnessPal Information
- 16 News and Announcements
- 1.2K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.7K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions