MFP portion sizes

seh43

Hi all! I'm using MFP because I wanted to work out if I'm eating enough protein and then I kind of got sucked in. My weight's been stable since I was 16 at 65 kg +/- 2. I've never been on a diet and don't plan to, but following MFP it looks like I'm eating too much. The app tells me I'm consuming 2500-700 per day. Can that be true? I usually exercise 5 times a week and cycle to work, but even so 2500 kcal seems like a lot to me.

Maybe I get my portion size wrong? Do you guys weigh your food, so you know how big your portions are? I'm just generally guessing or going with the portion size the app gives me.

The_Enginerd

Unless you are weighing your food, you really have no idea how much you are eating, unless it happens to be something where it's prepackaged and the serving is the entire package. And even then it can be off.

Guessing and eyeballing usually goes the other way though... people under estimating how much they are eating but a large amount.

If you are pretty active, you could very well maintain on 2500 calories a day.

nxd10

I agree, although people to under-estimate rather than over.

If your weight is stable, don't change anything. (BTW, you could have been me until I was 45 - then things changed. This is my first and only effort to change weight) However, you can't accurately monitor nutrients unless you get portion sizes correct.

In addition to weighing, there are a lot of visual cues to judge portion size that I find work well for me. Google 'portion size' and click on 'images'. I also check myself frequently with a scale or measure to keep myself in line.

nxd10

BTW - the MFP portion sizes are almost ALWAYS wrong for what I eat. They have to be changed to fit what YOU are eating. I almost always have to change way downwards. If you are stable and getting what you think are high numbers, you may have to too.

Also, if you don't log your exercise, you don't know if you are over or under eating (relative to what you're supposed to - you are maintaining, so whatever you're doing is correct). What matters is not what you eat, it's what you NET (input - output).

SunofaBeach14

weigh your food

unless you have experience estimating portion sizes and getting them right, the chances are that you're awful at it like most people

tiger_lily5

Here's a nice guide for you,
http://lifehacker.com/5880630/use-your-hand-to-estimate-your-portions

geebusuk

How far is your cycle to work?
What sort of exercise do you do 5x a week.
(Your diary is closed so can't see details.)

Kenazwa

I weigh or measure. I really prefer when I can find an entry that says something like "1/2 cup cooked" because that's quick and easy for me. Entries like "2 oz uncooked" are pretty much meaningless when you're cooking for a family like I am.

ifyouknew

I weigh everything at home. If you do that for a while, you get very good at estimating portion sizes, so you don't need to weigh/measure when you eat out.

I also bike to work every day plus do other cardio and some weights, and on an average day I burn about 2400 calories. So you're in the right ballpark. But I would say if your weigth has always been stable, and you want to keep it that way, you shouldn't change what you're eating based on anything MFP says. Clearly you were already doing it right before.

gigglesinthesun

clearly if your weight is stable then you are eating just the right amount

seh43

Thanks for this, everyone! I row (on the water) about 3 times a week and do weights twice a week, as well as sometimes spinning. My bike to work is short, through traffic, and adds up to about 40 mins per day, pretty low intensity. In terms of measuring portion sizes, that's a bit difficult, because I eat lunch in a canteen. I don't think I'll go to the effort of really weighing everything, but it's still very interesting to see where calories are distributed. E.g. I had no idea that porridge is so calorific! Add some whey protein and bam! 500 kcal!

Thefatman0627

Thankx ... that will help me!