Do your macros and calorie limits ever come out even?

fultimers

I have been following a recommendation (which has been resulting in weight loss) to consume in a day: 1620 calories, 150 grams carbs, 60 grams fat, and 120 grams protein. NEVER do my calories and macros come out even or come even close.

Either I have used all my macros but still have calories left or I have no more calories left but still have more macros to get in. I will admit, however, that I almost always go over on my carbs by 20-40 grams.

Is it even possible to come out even? Or is there a problem with my calorie to macros ratio? Or does it even matter?

Mr_Knight

The macros line up perfectly with the calories - if you hit the macros exactly, you'll hit the calories exactly. If you go over (under) the macro goals, you'll go over (under) the calorie goal.

Am I misunderstanding the problem...?

david_vm_mcmillan

Well, based on your macronutrients you would have 540 calories fat (9 calories/g), 480 protein (4 calories/g), and 600 calories carbs (4 calories/g); adding up to 1620 calories. However it is worth noting that these are not the only macronutrients that generate calories. Their are several other sources of food energy that are not generally included inside of measurements like these such as Ethanol (7 calories/g), Organic acids (3 calories/g), polyols (2.4 calories/g), and fiber (2 calories/g). These alone could amount to the differences you are noticing but it is worth noting that not all entries in the database of this site contain every macronutrient in the correct amount for whatever reason. (misreading, lack of information on label, estimated stats) This could also cause a bit of a fluctuation.

It is possible to come out even though unlikely. Just try to use the macros and calories as a structure to help you build your weight loss goals around.

Hopefully that helps to answer your question.

fultimers

Thank you for the responses so far! I'm thinking that perhaps I just eat too much of a certain macro and then I run out of calories for the others.

I guess I shouldn't worry too much if the macros and calories don't match as long as I don't exceed my calories by too much.

And I like the point that the numbers in the database aren't always accurate.

As for fiber and the other things that were mentioned--that never occurred to me.

lynn_glenmont

The macros line up perfectly with the calories - if you hit the macros exactly, you'll hit the calories exactly. If you go over (under) the macro goals, you'll go over (under) the calorie goal.

Am I misunderstanding the problem...?

That works in theory but not in (logging) practice in my experience.

I've had days when I added up the calorie values for the remaining macros in the evening and the total was as much as 160 calories less than my remaining calories for the day. I'm guessing it's the result of some combination of bad database entries that don't include all the macro information (although I pretty much always check for that when doing entries), bad package label information that's been incorporated into the database, and the accumulation of all those half grams of macro nutrients that MFP rounds up to the next whole number.

Also, if you're drinking alcohol, the MFP macros are not going to track exactly with calories, since MFP doesn't track alcohol grams, but they should show up in the calories. And maybe fiber throws off the calculations a little bit too, since nutrition labels, in the U.S. anyway, seem to count them the same as other carbs, but my understanding is that the human digestion system can't extract the full 4 calorie. Then again, I don't know if the "total calories" on the nutrition labels is total available calories or includes the ones that will be excreted undigested.