Why is MyFitnessPal saying I will gain weight when I am under calorie goal?

jbr4567

Hi there. I’m not sure if this is a silly question or if I’m misunderstanding the app’s calculations. I have been using the app to count calories for over two weeks now. For the past couple of days I have been 146 and 418 calories under my 1500 calorie daily goal respectively. Yet when I press “complete diary” at the end of the day, the app says that if I keep eating like this I will gain six pounds in the next five weeks. This is quite disheartening and I’m thinking it must be a mistake.

I admit it’s been very difficult to meet the app’s macro goals and I often go over the fat goal even with no snacks except fruit and what I think is healthy eating, but even when I met the macro goals a couple of days ago the app said I will gain weight. I am also struggling to hit 10K steps per day, but I walked 5k today so I wasn’t just sitting around. Also, even when I have failed to meet the step goal on other days but have gone under or met my calorie goal, the app has still said I will lose a significant amount of weight.

I have also been doing a 15 minute cardio workout every day but haven’t done that for the past few days… is this the reason?

I know the 5 week thing is pretty inaccurate anyway, but I would like to know if this is just a glitch or if I’m doing something wrong. I don’t think it will put me in a very healthy mindset if I’m told I’ll gain weight after only eating roughly 1100 calories in a day, lol. Also, I would appreciate any tips on keeping my fat macros down.

If relevant: 5’9” woman, 11st 6lbs, have lost 1-2 pounds (not sure how accurate the scale is since it fluctuates daily), losing 1 pound per week and want to get to 11st for now.

Lietchi

Sounds like a glitch, under your calorie goal should give you projected weight loss. Unless you accidentally set your goal to gaining weight, but that sounds unlikely with a calorie goal of 1500.
This projection is pretty much useless anyway, I never bother to close my diary.

John772016

Agree with @Lietchi , I closed my diary twice while I was losing weight 8 years ago, read what it said, chuckled and never closed it again.
That projection has no real value. Don't let it worry you.

PAV8888

Re check your settings or re run guided setup and check your daily intake totals

Regardless of accuracy of projection (which is zero) the result suggests that MFP thinks you logged more calories than your predicted daily expenditure which would not be mathematically possible if you logged under goal and would be extremely unlikely anyway for someone logging under 1500cal

rcervetto

Check what it thinks your current weight is. It's possible it's set to a higher weight from previous usage of MFP or a mistake in your original entry, causing it to give inaccurate information if you don't update your weight in the app every day. I only update it every 5-10 pounds down to update my calorie goal, I don't need it telling people I lost the same few pounds day after day with water weight fluctuations.

cmriverside

I am also struggling to hit 10K steps per day, but I walked 5k today

I don't think anyone addressed this in their replies.

IF YOU are connected to some kind of step or activity tracker, that can affect your "Goal" calories. Since you mention steps and a number, I'm assuming you're connected.

If that's the case, you are somehow not getting your settings correct. Please tell us which tracker and what your settings for activity are (both on the tracker and on this site.)

For the record? I stopped using the "Close the diary" or whatever that thing says. It's a gimmick. However, if you have your tracker set incorrectly, that's going to create issues for your food intake, so it makes sense to figure that out.

jbr4567

Hi, yes, the app is connected to my phone’s steps tracker. I’m not sure what the settings are or how to change them though.

As far as I can tell, the app now tells me I will gain weight whether I am over or under the calorie goal (especially under 🤔). It only tells me I will lose weight if I more or less hit the calorie goal exactly. I’ve deleted and reinstalled the app and nothing has changed. I suppose I’ll just stop completing the diary but I don’t really have that much faith in the app’s settings now… have lost 3 pounds nonetheless!

PAV8888

disconnect your tracker from the app or remove permissions would be the thing to do. How could be answered by support/FAQ/or experimenting. They are different in the app for iphone, android and web page.

On web you might be able to go to: https://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps and look to the lower right hand side to see which "apps" are connected. Double click on them to open them and then click the disconnect button.

jbr4567

Actually, I was wrong. The more calories I eat, the more it says I will lose weight now!!

I disconnected the tracker, but that didn’t change anything

PAV8888

MFP support?🤷‍♂️ I mean it sure sounds as if a bit has flipped. Tbh if you haven't been logging too long just starting a new account may be the easiest thing to do