Curious for feedback

billiesilva1983

Hey new friends! My name is Billie from Hawaii. I am a single mom of twins, and just starting my new health and wellness journey. Curious to get feedback on how many calories should I eat a day as well as protein? This is all new to me, and very confusing to be honest. trackimg all these calories, and protein is making me a little bit discouraged however, I am working out every single day and choosing to eat way healthier. As well as smaller portions. Should I be very concerned on how many calories I eat a day? I weigh 157 pounds and I am 53. I’m hoping to get down to at least 135 pounds. I want to be very fit. Any feedback is greatly appreciated and still learning how to use this app lol

capgordon6530

Hey hope ur well I hear u it is all confusing the nutrition side of it I still don't fully get it lol but my mfp won't let me add friends wish u well in getting to it

AnnPT77

billiesilva1983 wrote: »

Hey new friends! My name is Billie from Hawaii. I am a single mom of twins, and just starting my new health and wellness journey. Curious to get feedback on how many calories should I eat a day as well as protein? This is all new to me, and very confusing to be honest. trackimg all these calories, and protein is making me a little bit discouraged however, I am working out every single day and choosing to eat way healthier. As well as smaller portions. Should I be very concerned on how many calories I eat a day? I weigh 157 pounds and I am 53. I’m hoping to get down to at least 135 pounds. I want to be very fit. Any feedback is greatly appreciated and still learning how to use this app lol

If you set up your profile in MFP as accurately as possible, it will give you a starting calorie goal and macronutrient goals (including protein).

MFP expects you to set your activity level based on your daily life excluding intentional exercise then log exercise when you do sou gme, and eat those calories back, too. (As an alternative to logging exercise, you can sync a fitness tracker to MFP and let it do the activity calorie adjustments. If you choose that way, I recommend enabling negative adjustments in MFP.)

Follow the MFP estimate closely for 4-6 weeks (whole menstrual cycle(s) for those who have them). "Closely", to me, means around +/- 50 calories or thereabouts, on average over a few days to a week.

Once you have that 4-6 weeks of calorie logging and body weight results, calculate your average weight loss per week over the whole time period. Compare that to the loss rate you asked MFP to create for you. If they're significantly different, adjust your calorie goal using the idea that 500 calories daily is roughly a pound a week of fat gain/loss. (Use arithmetic for fractions of pounds.)

As you go along, trying to hit the MFP protein (and other nutrients') level, you can notice whether you mostly feel full, energetic and happy with the default nutritional goals. If not, tweak them gradually to dial in better satiation or energy.

If you want a more personalized research-based protein estimate, this is one possible source:

https://examine.com/protein-intake-calculator/
https://examine.com/guides/protein-intake/

That will give you a protein estimate in grams (a better way to estimate it, TBH). You can then set your MFP percent for protein to be close to that recommendation, and adjust the other values to add up to 100%. A common strategy is to reduce carbs to make room for additional protein if needed, but some people find it preferable to reduce fats for reasons of satiation or energy level. (We need some fats for best health, so don't go crazy low fat, though.)

Note that the calculator linked above asks you for body weight . . . but the accompanying guide suggests that if very overweight, it may be more helpful to use healthy goal weight rather than the current high weight as input to the calculator.