daily goals

katlaug

Calories 1200
Carbohydrates 50 % 150 g
Fat 30 % 40 g
Protein 20 % 60 g
Custom Daily Goals
this is what they suggest when i enter my information for my daily goals what type of carbs and fat should i be eating my weight is coming off very slow

AnnPT77

Weight management (body fat) is about calorie intake vs. calorie expenditure, in direct terms. Macros or nutrition generally can have an *indirect* affect via energy level (moving less if eating too little, simplistically), or compliance (sub-par nutrition can spike appetite, make it tough to stick with calorie goal consistently, increases chance of giving up).

Common reasons for "slow loss", some of which may not apply to you, but you haven't given enough details to evaluate so I'll throw them out here as potentials:

1. Unrealistic expectations. For most people, a pound a week +/- is a good rate, but the blogs and tabloid headlines scream "lose 20 pounds in 4 weeks", and reality TV shows (like the classic, Biggest Loser) show highlight reels from methods regular humans with real lives can't replicate, and the people on the shows don't sustain long term). Another potential for unrealistic expectation is about timing of fat loss: The picture becomes clearer with 4-6 weeks of experience data. A week or two's results can be quite misleading, especially in the first weeks.

2. The logging learning curve, for both food and exercise estimates. It's a skill, and it takes all of us time to refine and develop. If your diary were open, some of the old hands could take a look, see if anything sticks out. Some basics (if not losing as expected) are using a food scale (which has a learning curve for efficiency in itself), not using other users' recipe-type entries because we don't know what's in them (things like lasagna, pancakes, tuna salad, etc.), checking a food's accuracy before using it the first time, etc.

3. Various common misunderstandings or pitfalls in estimating calorie goal or synching a fitness tracker, too numerous to mention without more info about you to narrow the possibilities, but including the rare possibility that an individual is statistically non-average in some way.

1200 is a pretty low calorie goal, so another possibility is stress-related water retention. Your profile says you're 62, but that you've had a profile since 2018, so I'm not sure whether that's current, and you didn't mention there or here how tall you are, your current weight, how active you are in daily life, or what/whether you do exercise.

As context, I'm 65, used calorie counting to lose from class 1 obese to a healthy weight a few years back at 59-60, and have stayed at a healthy weight since, after previous decades of overweight/obesity. I'm severely hypothyroid (properly medicated), but differ from you in various ways, I'm sure.

If you mention your current age, weight, height, briefly describe your daily life and exercise, folks here can probably be more helpful. If you're willing to make your diary viewable, even temporarily, that could also help.

Best wishes!

katlaug

i am 62 5'4" 185 lbs weight i started my weight lose in January 2021at 203

AnnPT77

katlaug wrote: »

i am 62 5'4" 185 lbs weight i started my weight lose in January 2021at 203

Thank you. So, looks like around 18 pounds in 8 months, so a bit over half a pound a week?

If you're consistently eating 1200 and have been each day for that whole time since January, that would imply maintenance calorie needs around 1500-ish or so. If so, that's a bit below average - if you're sedentary, average would be around 1650-1750 at your current size, higher if more active.

If the 1200 is a new idea, *not* the amount you've been eating since January? I'd assume that you're average in calorie needs to start, i.e. believe MFP about calorie goal. If you've requested 2 pounds a week loss rate from MFP, maybe consider 1.5 pounds instead, for more nutritional flexibility, sustainability.

As someone not dissimilar height/age (I'm 5'5", so a little taller, but 65 now so a little older), I wouldn't suggest reducing calories below 1200 because of the risk to good nutrition. (Coincidentally, I started my weight loss 6+ years ago around where you are now, at 183 pounds.)

Are you doing any exercise at this point? If not, that would be worth considering IMO. I'm not suggesting that some intense, difficult thing is necessary, just something manageable & ideally even fun - any kind of increased movement can help. I know that at our age, many of us have limitations to work around, but even quite moderate/manageable exercise can make a contribution to fitness/health progress.

Normally, I *don't* suggest that someone exercise and not eat those calories back (if using the MFP standard methods), but in this case something very moderate added would probably be better than cutting intake, nutritionally, IMO; and you would seem to have room to lose a bit faster and still not be going crazy-fast. (Others will differ in opinion, I'm sure, and if so I hope they'll comment/explain, to help you think things over). This paragraph, too, assumes you've been eating at around 1200 since January, with the weight loss you report as a result. If that's not true, then I'd still encourage exercise (good for health!), but also starting with MFP by eating back exercise calories in the way the MFP process is designed to work.

The other potential would be to consciously work at increasing non-exercise activity. There's a thread about that here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

But none of that is about the question you asked, macronutrients (it's about the question you implied, slower than desired weight loss).

The USDA recommended amounts for you** (at maintenance calories) would be 68g protein and 42-74g fats. Since those are the essential macronutrients (our bodies can't manufacture them from anything else), I'd encourage you to get something like that as bare minimums, if you can, even on reduced calories. If possible to bump protein up even a bit more, and still be happy/satisfied with your eating routine, that might be useful. (It would mean dropping carbs a bit more, unfortunately, if you stick with 1200 calories.) There are some studies suggesting that it's helpful to get more than minimum protein while losing weight (to preserve muscle), plus many people find protein foods filling.

** Estimated by: https://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/dri-calculator/

With respect to your "what type of carbs and fat should I eat" question:

People differ in what they find filling, so it might take some personal experimentation, but quite a few people find simple (a.k.a. whole) foods more filling than more refined foods. In that light, getting your carbs from things like whole grains, veggies, and some fruits would possibly be more filling, plus more nutrient dense for their calories.

For fats, many nutrition authorities think it's healthful to get a fair fraction of fats from things like nuts, nut butters, avocados, olive oil, seeds, and that sort of thing - i.e., making sure to get monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, not just the saturated fats that predominate in meat, cheese, etc. Most people with a standard US diet get quite a bit of Omega-6 fats, so it can be helpful to get some Omega-3s to balance. Food sources of those are fatty cold-water fish, walnuts, some kinds of seeds (like hemp, flax, chia).

All of that said, I'm personally a believer in eating foods one enjoys, so it's not that I think you should stand your eating habits on their head in ways that would be unpleasant to you, but rather that you might think of foods you enjoy that would make a positive contribution to nutrition and satiety.

All of this is just my opinions, though based on experience and reading, etc., for my own weight loss/health efforts.

Best wishes!

katlaug

thank you