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Hello, I’m new on here and had a question about adding Macros.

Does anyone know how to add the exact macros? I tried add mine but it won’t let me add the exact grams in %

When I add them in grams it ups my calories.

Does anyone have an idea how to input the correct amount of macros a person needs.

Answers

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,397 Member
    What are you trying to set, exactly - what values for all 3 macros in grams, and calorie level?

    In free MFP, you can only set macros in percents, in 5% increments. Do you have premium MFP? That's needed to set in grams, or in finer than 5% increments.

    Macros have a characteristic calorie level (4 calories per gram for protein and carbs, 9 calories per gram for fats, 7 calories per gram for alcohol (which isn't a macro, but people consume it, and it has calories). When it comes to setting goals, your calories and macros should balance out, at least close enough subject to rounding errors in the arithmetic.

    If you try to set some macro goals in grams that don't arithmetic out to your calorie goal, yeah, it will adjust your calories to match the gram goals.

    Later, when you log your food, the macro grams and calories will almost never balance out exactly, because food labels also have rounding allowances, the individual items added/multiplied may result in minor rounding discrepancies, and there are a lot of inaccurate entries in the database (which is crowd sourced, after all) so balancing calories and macros exactly is pretty much a pipe dream. Fortunately, close is good enough; exactly exact isn't necessary for nutrition, fitness, or weight loss.