Finding the right numbers for daily intake

Grace4me2023

I need some advise on finding how many calories, carbs, protein I should be eating in a day. Can you please help me with this. Thanks

kshama2001

Go here: https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change-goals-guided or More > Goals in app.

1. Put in your stats.
2. normal daily activities refers to your job.
3. Ignore How many times a week do you plan on exercising? - that does not get included in the equation.
4. Select a rate of loss in line with the chart below.

The resulting calories is your daily calorie budget. It's normal to go a little over or under, but since weight loss is already included in these calories, you don't want to intentionally go hundreds of calories under.



Here's a reputable protein calculator:

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

I shoot for 500 calories of exercise per day, and when I achieve that, using the MFP default of 20% protein aligns with the protein grams recommendation from Examine. If I were completely sedentary, I'd need to bump it up to 30%.

The MFP default macros 50% from carbohydrates, 20% from protein and 30% from fat are a good place to start if you're not sedentary. (In that case, you probably need more protein; see above.)

I naturally go above my fat macro. That's only a problem for me because fat doesn't fill me up very much, and I like to have more calories to spend on carbs and protein.

So, I focus on protein, work to reduce fat a little from where I'd go intuitively, and let the carbs fall where they may.

AnnPT77

Put your individual data into your MFP profile. Set it to ask for a weight loss rate of one pound per week to start (and definitely stay in the loss range of 0.5-1% of current weight per week, preferably the lower end of that unless under close medical supervision and severely obese).

When you set your MFP activity level, the app is designed for that to be your activity excluding intentional exercise. MFP then expects you to log intentional exercise (or sync a fitness tracker) and eat those calories, too, when you're more active.

That will give you a starting goal for calories, protein, carbs and fats.

If your key goal is weight loss, it's the calories that are direct determinant. Good nutrition is important for health, and nutrition can indirectly affect weight loss through fatigue or appetite struggle, but calories are the direct mechanism.

Start logging your eating, and try to hit your calorie goal, like maybe within +/- 50 calories daily. Do that for 4-6 weeks. It's fine to start with foods you eat now and like, you don't have to immediately revolutionize your eating style (and maybe never need to). Even if you don't seem to be losing at first, stick with it. (More about why later.) If you seem to be losing weight very fast after a couple of weeks, and start feeling weak or fatigued for no other obvious reason, eat somewhat more, but otherwise just stick close to the MFP goal.

Log your exercise and eat those calories, or at least a reasonable consistent fraction of them, too. If you sync a tracker, enable negative calorie adjustments in MFP.

Meanwhile, notice how you feel (appetite, cravings, energy level, etc.). Start thinking about how patterns in your eating affect those things, and adjust your eating, still using foods you like. You can change food choices, portion sizes, timing of meals/snacks to find your best individual, sustainable mix while hitting your calorie goal.

As you get that in reasonable shape, you can start thinking about nutrition. Protein and fats are "essential nutrients" in the sense that our bodies can't manufacture them out of anything else, so we need a certain minimum of those. If you're routinely low over and over on one of those, work on adjusting your eating in a more nutritious direction, still choosing foods you like. Your food diary will help you figure this out. You don't have to be exactly exact on anything: Pretty close on average over a day or few is fine.

You can also adjust your nutritional goals depending on how you feel. Some people feel better eating a little more protein or fats, or maybe fewer carbs - that's all individual. The MFP goals are a good starting point, but you can learn more about nutrition and about yourself and adjust accordingly.

At the end of 4-6 weeks, look at how much weight you've lost on average per week. If you have menstrual cycles, compare body weight at the same point in at least two different cycles to calculate your average weekly loss. Having carefully tracked eating and activity for long enough, you now had the data you need to make a personalized calorie goal. (MFP or any other calculator just gives you an average for people similar to you. You're not an average, you're an individual. The numbers will be close to estimates for most people, but not for all.)

Compare your weekly weight loss rate over the time period to the rate you requested in your MFP set-up. Adjust your calorie goal using the assumption that 500 calories daily is approximately a pound a week. (Use arithmetic for fractional pounds).

That's how to get a reasonable accurate calorie goal, and fine-tune your eating to be more appropriate and nutritious.

Best wishes!

tomcustombuilder

Do what the above posters said then review results or lack of in 6 weeks and adjust calories accordingly.

MacLowCarbing

Advice above is a good start.

I played around w/my macros over time, raising/lowering protein, lowering carbs/raising fat, etc. till I found my sweet spot. As my body changes, I expect I'll have to do it again every now and then.