Programming a fast day in MFP?

I2k4

A fairly new user, would appreciate advice or suggestions on how best to program MFP targets for one fast day a week while keeping the same weekly total targets for calories and especially macros. I find the MFP daily diarizing very helpful for keeping overall nutrition on target, but skipping a day seems like I'm stuck with either 1) a lower (wrong) daily goal for the right weekly target, or 2) a higher right daily goal for a (wrong) weekly target, both wrong because of the no food 7th day. Would be glad to learn I'm missing something (I have searched but didn't find anything here.)

(Not interested in discussing fast days as such, it's something I have done over the decades and will do for limited periods when I feel the call.)

Thanks.

cwolfman13

MFP doesn't have a mechanism for that, at least not with the free version. I don't know about premium, but I would guess that is also not a feature.

ETA: it looks like premium does have a feature for setting different calorie goals for different days so maybe something to look further into for you.

goal06082021

MFP isn't natively set up to support fasting days. I believe Premium lets you set custom daily calorie goals, but you can't go below a certain amount (it's either 1000 across the board, or 1200 for women/1500 for men).

However, you can Quick Add calories to subtract them from your daily allotment without having to look up a specific food and thus throw off your macro counts. I use this to sort of fake the Premium custom daily goal. I'll log my food for the day, then Quick Add my remaining calories rounded down to the nearest hundred, to "bank" those calories to spend later on the weekends, or for planned special occasion meals/treats. The "banked" calories get added to another day as cardiovascular exercise (I have a custom exercise set up just called "banked calories"), to increase my goal for whichever day.

So for you, you'd figure your budget however you prefer (using the guided setup, a TDEE calculator, throw some chicken bones, whatever). On fast day, Quick Add all of your calories to account for them. Distribute those calories across your six non-fasting days by logging some cardio (strength exercises don't give you calories). Like, if your daily allotment is 1800 and you fast on Mondays, you'd Quick Add 1800 calories to Monday, then go in and add 300 Exercise calories each to Tuesday through Sunday.

I2k4

goal06082021 wrote: »

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On fast day, Quick Add all of your calories to account for them. Distribute those calories across your six non-fasting days by logging some cardio (strength exercises don't give you calories). Like, if your daily allotment is 1800 and you fast on Mondays, you'd Quick Add 1800 calories to Monday, then go in and add 300 Exercise calories each to Tuesday through Sunday.

Interesting approach, thanks, I suppose I might calculate Cardio "Create an Exercise" something like "Fast Day Carryover" to enter on food days, and (I think) that would adjust the daily macros along with the calories to make up for the uneaten. (I am using the free service - mainly Android. I haven't seen a "Quick Add" but will look for it - I'd want the app to accurately show zero for the fast day and add more for the other days - along with any real exercise burn - to get the right weekly targets and feeding.)

goal06082021

On desktop, you can click the three-dots menu under a meal heading and select "Quick Add" from the list. In the Android app, if you go to Add Food, there's a big button right under the search bar that says "Quick Add." You can also customize your meals - the default is 4, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, but you can have up to 6 and call them whatever you like. I have breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, dessert, and banked, and I do my Quick Adding as described under the "banked" meal heading.

I2k4

Thanks, I had set five calorie target meals with a final empty (usually protein) Snack, and will play with Quick Add and with saving a custom Exercise for spreading the fast day nutrition loss over following days.