How to set macros to loose weight

JodPhelps

Can someone give advice on how many calories to eat a day and how to adjust macros for a female 48 years old, 165 lbs wanting to loose about 35 lbs?

AnnPT77

Set up your MFP profile, and be reasonably accurate without obsessing about it. The recommendations it gives you will be a reasonable starting point for most people, as long as they don't try to lose weight faster than sensible for their current weight. (There's no way to get adequate nutrition on too few calories, no matter the percentages.)

At 165 wanting to weigh around 130, I'd suggest a pound a week as a maximum weight loss rate, but slower is fine. Losing any meaningful total amount of weight is going to take quite a long time, weeks to months for 35 pounds . . . that puts a premium on adopting a routine you can continue for that long without over-depriving, tanking your energy level, or triggering a snapback in appetite.

Slow and steady can possibly get us to goal weight in less calendar time than an approach that results in deprivation-triggered over-eating, breaks in the action, or maybe even giving up altogether. Once we get there, there's the "keeping it off to stay at a healthy weight", which many people think is tougher than the loss itself. Finding sustainable eating & activity habits while losing improves the odds of successful maintenance.

After 4-6 weeks, compare your actual loss rate to your target rate, and adjust calories if needed to stay at a sensible yet satisfying loss rate. Protein is important to preserve muscle during loss, and we need some fats, too, for best health. The MFP defaults are a good start, but you can adjust those goals, too, as you learn more, and see what helps you manage your appetite and energy level. (That tends to be somewhat individual.)

Context: I'm a woman of 67, 132 pounds this morning, who was class 1 obese before losing weight to somewhere in this neighborhood back in 2015-16. I've been in a healthy weight range since then, though up and down a small number of pounds.

Best wishes!

frhaberl

I'm a 47 year old woman who is working my way down from 228 to 148. I'm currently at 171 (yay!) and finally did what AnnPT77 suggested in terms of adjusting my calories based on my weight loss trend. I started out with my activity setting at "Sedentary", but changed it to "Lightly Active" based on the rate I'm losing weight vs what MFP predicts. While I still have a desk job and I count and eat back the calories from my intentional walks, I have been consistently losing faster than the calculator predicts. No complaints, and I could keep going with my current target goal calories, but I am at a point where I want to have the visual reinforcement that I CAN eat a few more calories (about 150/day) than I have been eating and still stay on track.

My suggestion to you is the same as AnnPT77 - set your weight, height, age, activity level and target loss/week in MFP and make that your target. I think it's helpful to set your activity level based on the normal activity level THAT YOU DON'T ENTER SEPARATELY AS EXERCISE IN MFP and then be consistent about whether you are eating back your exercise calories or not. The other key if you want the numbers to be pretty accurate when you recalculate is to log EVERYTHING you eat, using weight measurements instead of generic serving sizes (1 banana).

One of the hardest things for me was to trust the process for long enough to get good data. It's very tempting to keep tweaking things when the weight loss feels like it's going slower than it should, but if you stick out the 4-6 week period before making changes, you may see that you don't really need to change anything to lose weight and you can put your change energy into changes that will make weight loss more sustainable for you.

yirara

Macros don't really matter for weightloss. Calories do. But the right mix of macros can make you feel more full and more happy. However, which macro mix this is is something you need to find out as everyone is different. Why not log your food for a while and stay within a reasonable weightloss goal (max 1lbs per week) and then consider whether a meal kept you full or not. And then make adjustments. Btw, I never changed macros settings, but I naturally eat quite close to the standard settings with sometimes a bit more carbs, or fats, or protein (rarely, as it's a reflux trigger for me).