Is everybody following their macro nutrient goals

f8corrigan

Hi how easy are you finding it to hit your micro nutrients to lose weight. Does it work

Corina1143

The only macro I consider for weight loss is protein. Weight loss is determined by calories in versus calories out. But my hunger is definitely driven by protein, or lack of. For me, it's very important. I'm sure it's not for some people. And some people's hunger is driven by fat or carbs. You'll need to figure out what affects you and how.

I've never heard of or personally observed any effect of micronutrients on weight. I watch sugar, sodium and fiber closely for other health reasons--high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Welcome to MFP and good luck on your journey to better health here.

nossmf

When you plug your numbers into the MFP calculator, it'll spit out macro "goals" for you to strive for each day: this many grams of protein, this many of carbs, this many of fat. You can change the percentages for each macro (for example, if you want to follow a low-carb diet, you can set carbs to 0%-5%).

Here's the point which often trips up people new to the app: these numbers are general guidelines, not hard and fast rules. If MFP suggests you should get 100g of protein, and you eat 95g, you did not fail your plan; if you eat 105g, you did not fail your plan. A little over, a little under, these are general targets which can help you make decisions, not mandatory "or else!" numbers you must hit EXACTLY every day.

Now, if MFP is suggesting 100g of protein, and your normal diet is getting 30-35g every day, it may be worth evaluating what you eat to see if you can make any changes. But personally, as long as I get within 10% or so of my "goal" most days, I'll call it good. If I'm way off once every now and then (spent the day at the ballpark with my kids eating hotdogs, so my protein is very low for the day), I'll call it good, since most days I hit (close to) my goal.

I've been logging on MFP for 15 years; I think I hit all 3 macros perfectly ONCE in that span. Don't let the macros paralyze you with fear of eating "wrong" because you were a little high or low one day. We're not in this race for the next 3 weeks, but for the rest of our lives. When you're driving down the highway, you don't drive in a perfectly straight line; your car may drift slightly left and slightly right, but overall if you stay in your lane you get to where you're going. Pick a lane; stay committed; reach your destination! You got this!

AnnPT77

Um, your thread title says macro goals and your post says micro goals. Is it both?

First, you don't have to hit any of those goals to lose weight, strictly speaking. Only calories directly affect fat gain/loss. Eat fewer calories than we burn, we'll lose body fat. (Lose too fast, we'll lose relatively more lean tissue in addition to fat, so avoid that!) We burn calories every day just being alive (heart beating, breathing, thinking) plus through daily life activity (job, home chores, etc.), and then exercise too, if we do some.

Macro and micro nutrients are the building blocks of nutrition. Nutrition is mostly about health, energy level, exercise performance, body composition (if trying to build/maintain muscle), and that sort of thing. Nutrition can affect weight loss indirectly, because sub-par nutrition can trigger fatigue (so we move less, burn fewer calories) or cravings (making it hard to stick with calorie goal). The direct effect is still via calories.

The good news is that we don't need to be exactly exact on nutrition values every single day. Pretty close, on average over a few days, will be fine. Further, as long as not starting when already diagnosed with some dire nutritional deficiency or diet-mediated health condition (like diabetes or kidney disease or alpha-gal or something), you can work on gradually improving your nutrition by gradually tweaking your routine eating habits. It can be easier to gradually evolve your eating in positive ways, rather than trying to do it all at once.

Once I hit my calorie goal consistently, and figured out how to stay reasonably full and happy most of the time while doing it, I lost weight. I worked on improving nutrition in other ways more gradually. Now (in year 7+ of maintenance), just following my long-established routine eating and activity habits tends to give me good nutrition and appropriate calories the majority of days. Since the majority of days cause the majority of results, that's good enough for reasonable long-term success. (It didn't take the whole 7+ years to find those habits; most of them came from the year of loss before maintenance.)

Give yourself some time and patience to work this all out. As long as you keep working at improvement, figuring out how to hit your calorie goal the overwhelming majority of the time, adjusting the calories based on your weight loss rate as needed, you'll succeed. Just keep going, it'll work.

Best wishes!

spiriteagle99

TBH, I pay no attention to the macros. I lost 50+ pounds and have maintained that loss for about 10 years and all I look at normally is the net calories. I do occasionally look at protein, since I don't want to lose muscle (too hard to get back at my age) but that's it.

To lose weight, calories are what counts. For health and feeling full it makes a difference what you eat, but that is something very individual. Some do better with more protein, or more fat, or more carbs. But there is no one size fits all answer.

AnsonHamm

I utilize the macros as you can loose weight with a caloric deficit but still be unhealthy. My personal goal is to cut weight to look ripped. If I don’t somewhat follow the Macros I’ll actually loose muscle mass in the process. By trying to follow Macros and be at a caloric deficit I feel better and have more energy for the gym. I would say that some type of consistent exercise is required to really have results accelerated.

zebasschick

i pay some attention to macros, but for weight loss, only calories matter.

btw, i go into my MFP setting and change my macros if my goals change. i increased protein and decreased carbs recently as my current goal is building muscle. and even so, if i'm over or under on carbs or fats, i don't really worry about it.

f8corrigan

Thank you everyone, all your comments are very helpful. Yes been following the calorie deficit. I just wasnt too clear about the macros. So you helped me understand these better. Thanks.