what can I eat today?

Dr_Axe

I wish the add food tab would display the carbs, fat, and protein of the foods we have eaten before. I often feel hungry late afternoon and have already consumed my daily allowance for one of the macros. It'd be nice to see what of my usual foods could fit into the remaining two groups. So that I could easily find something to eat with out feeling I've ruined the whole day.

cwolfman13

You don't need to be bang on with your macros. Most people in the world have no idea what their macro ratios are, and there is no universally optimal macro breakdown. If you're using MFP defaults, they are just that...there's nothing magical about them.

tomcustombuilder

Don't worry too much about it. Being off on macros isnt a big dear as long as your protein is reasonable. Be more concerned with the calorie aspect of what you want to have.

calorie target>macro target

Corina1143

You're still pretty new. You'll soon memorize way more of that kind of stuff than you ever wanted to.

AnnPT77

It won't ruin the whole day if your macros are off, but I don't mean to discount your feelings when I say that . . . but I'd hope to change your mind.

If your key goal is weight loss, as is true for many here, the calories are the direct influence on body fat gain/loss.

Macros are important for nutrition, health, energy level, body composition, and that sort of thing. But any impact on fat gain/loss is indirect, via energy level (fatigue = move less) or appetite (hard to stick with calorie goal).

Even where macros are meaningful, close on average over a few days is great, no need to be exactly exact every day. MFP's default recommendations are very mainstream (i.e., compliant with generalized expert guidelines), so a reasonable starting point for most people. As you learn more about nutrition, you'll discover that some people will benefit more from modified macro mixes, and that those can be healthy, too. (I'm talking about active people needing more protein or maybe carbs, or certain macro mixes influencing individual satiation, and that sort of thing.)

I agree with others that getting a reasonable amount of protein is probably highest priority for most people, especially during weight loss; and it's fine to treat that as a minimum and go over.

Fats, too, are an "essential nutrient" in that our bodies can't manufacture the needful parts of them out of any other nutrient, so we need to eat some. It's fine to be over the default fat goal, too, but it might be good to have some mono- or polyunsaturated fats in the mix (nuts, avocados, olive oil, seeds - that sort of thing).

Carbs are more flexible, in the sense that our bodies can repurpose other nutrients biochemically to fill that space. Some people find that carbs spike appetite so want to eat less of them, while others find that too-low carbs can limit energy level . . . but that sort of thing is individual, and you can figure out where you need to be by paying attention to how you feel.

Overall, there's no need to stress about this on an individual day level. As you're logging, you'll notice patterns. If you notice a pattern that seems to be a problem for you, you can gradually tweaking your routine eating habits to improve it. As long as you haven't been medically diagnosed with some relevant health condition or deficiency, you don't need to fix it immediately. Moving in a positive direction over time is fine.

For example, if I person noticed that they were always low on protein, they could look into some foods or snacks they enjoy eating that have a bit more protein, and put those in their routine go-to choices more often. Keep noticing, and keep making changes like that, they'll get to the point where their habits lead to the right average mix of nutrients, without obsessing about daily details.

If you're stressed about this in the short run, do a web search for "macro cheat sheet" or "what to eat for macros" and look at the images especially. The one below is an example from a random web site (ownyoureating), but I'm not particularly endorsing that site (I know nothing about it). It's all kind of straightforward information; the sites may differ a little, but they'll have a lot of overlap. It's just a guide, not a prescription/proscription.