Understanding the basics

zaerodriguez1216

Hey all, I have multiple questions which will essentially allow me to understand way better of what I’m exactly doing to lose weight.

1) why does the “Macro” and “nutrients” tabs have different intake values ?
2) why do my calories up (allow me to eat more) depending what protein/total fat intake I have?
3) I’ve seen a note that says “adjusted to meet macros” what does that mean?
4) what happens if you reach your protein for the day but not your calories ?

AnnPT77

zaerodriguez1216 wrote: »

Hey all, I have multiple questions which will essentially allow me to understand way better of what I’m exactly doing to lose weight.

1) why does the “Macro” and “nutrients” tabs have different intake values ?

I'm not sure what you're referring to?

In the phone app, under the Nutrition menu item, my Macronutrient tab has (as its main display) a graph of my macronutrient percents. They're the percent of calories that (according to the foods I logged) came from each macronutrient, as a percent of my total actual gross calories for the day. It says (for example) that my protein goal was 20% of calories, but the 122g of protein I ate was actually 23% of the 2046 calories I've eaten so far (protein has approximate 4 calories per gram).

Same area, the Nutrients tab is a table of values (nutrient name, total grams logged, goal in grams, grams left). The numbers there agree that I ate 122 grams of my 100 gram protein goal.

Can you put a screen shot in here to show what you're asking about? (Or maybe there's someone who knows they haven't customized, so sees what you do . . . .).

2) why do my calories up (allow me to eat more) depending what protein/total fat intake I have?

Are you sure they do? Your calorie goal should increase if you log exercise (or you have a fitness tracker synched to MFP and it logs exercise/activity calories for you). I can't think of anything that would change your calorie goal based on eating more/less fat or protein.

3) I’ve seen a note that says “adjusted to meet macros” what does that mean?

Where are you seeing that, under what circumstances?

4) what happens if you reach your protein for the day but not your calories ?

Um, nothing? Calories are the main thing that directly determines fat gain/loss/maintenance. Macros are for nutrition, health, body composition, maybe satiation and energy level. They can affect fat gain/loss indirectly, like if you eat in a way that saps your energy, you'll do less and burn fewer calories in daily life plus maybe bring less intensity to exercise sessions; or if you're undernourished you may have cravings that make it hard to stick to your calorie goal.

But in theory, you could eat any macro combination at appropriate calories and lose weight (if you could stay full, keep energy up) . . . you just might not stay healthy, if you don't get good overall nutrition.

Lots of us think of protein goal as a minimum, fats goal as a minimum, eat carbs to balance calories or to achieve some other end (appetite control, energy, happiness, diabetes control if we have diabetes, whatever).

If you're low on calories, but you've gotten your protein minimum, then it's fine to eat more fats, carbs or protein until you're close to calorie goal. If I hit my protein minimum, but was low on fats, I'd probably prioritize getting some more fat. However, it's the pattern of many days that matters for good overall nutrition. Like, if you're very often at/over protein but way under fats, it's worth tweaking your habits to get better nutrition (for health reasons, not weight management so much). If it's just one weird day, and things average out over longer time periods, it's probably fine.