Tracking calories

embermarie97

Iv been in a weight loss journey up and down for years. I suck at tracking my food. And then when I do and it gives me 2100 calories to eat in a day, for me that’s way too much. But I try. So when I don’t hit all my macros. I know I fail. How do you get over that. For example. I’m 200lbs and would like to be 160 and see how I feel. But tracking macros is always my biggest set back. And it’s a big reason why I fall back off.

csplatt

Forget about the macros. You can lose weight while ignoring them. Once you’ve had some success you can decide whether you want to aim for those specific goals are not.

So MFP tells you to eat 2100 to lose weight but that’s too much food for you? Are you entering your foods into MFP via weight (grams and ounces) and adding ingredients individually rather than choosing generic entries like “cheeseburger” or “lasagna”?

88olds

Agree, skip the macros. The more requirements you make for your program the harder it is to follow.

Unfortunately the only real way to find what is going to work for you is trial and error. This applies to everything in weight loss. The calculators do not give the answer to the question How much should I eat to lose X by Y date? The calculators are based on averages and statistics, but no one is exactly average. This drives a lot of people crazy and causes them to quit. Take the calculator number as a starting point. You seem to have already determined that 2100 calories is too much. Aim for 2000. Try that for a couple of weeks.

Weight loss has 2 parts- eating in a calorie deficit and living with it. Avoid going all in on the deficit by cutting as much as you can as fast as you can. Give yourself time to adjust. Slow and steady wins the race. As you lose you will have to keep cutting calories as your weight goes down. You will face the same trial and error process over and over again. It takes a lot of persistence and determination but it can be done and is more than worth it.