Gotta say, MFP is disappointing more each day

paperpudding

I don't quite get the snark about OP deactivating - posters said things like If this site is not for you, don't be on it - then seem to get upset when OP takes herself off it.

I think the MFP tool leaves some room for improvement too and the forums do sometimes have people replying with uneccesary snarkiness.

Some seem to hold their snark as a badge of honour even.

SixPack17

For such a minimal goal of 15lbs, inputting that you want to lose 2lbs a week is A LOT! I'm trying to lose 30lbs at 1lb a week. My caloric allowance is 2080 a week with a goal of 2200 calories to burn. I can achieve that with 3 decent workouts in a week. You pretty much set yourself up for failure. Try changing it to half a pound a week and I bet you'll have an easier and more enjoyable time reaching your goal.

1234terri

at 5.5 weeks you need far more time to really give this a good analysis. And I never eat back my exercise cals..if I can manage. I don't give a hoot what other people say here..I never do and it's one of the only ways I ever lose weight. Do what you need to lose weight, your way. Don't always pay 100% attention to all the many folks who have very firm ideas how about YOu should lose weight. Just keep at it. Give it a good 3-4-5 months before you give up or stay grumpy. hang in there.

skittlesnhoney

I don't think OP is around anymore, but just in case.

I believe MFP's 1200 calorie level it set you to would be NET calories. So if you exercised and burned 300 calories a day you would actually be eating 1500 calories. That's what they mean by "eating back your exercise calories".

For 15 lbs. a week I would set your weight loss expectations to .5 a lb. a week.

Or set your exercise level to sedentary and then eat back your exercise calories.

Sharon_C

I think this is a great cautionary tale for everyone. Don't blindly put your trust in a free website. Or even a paid website. Do your research. Read, read, read. Educate yourself.

I was trained as a journalist and have a background in research. Don't trust one site. Always use multiple sources. Collect as much data as possible.

fast_eddie_72

With such a low weight loss goal, losing two pounds per week is so so so unrealistic. The tool is limited by what you tell it. Change your goal to 1 pound or .5 pound per week and it'll up your calories accordingly.

Absolutely. It's a tool. 2 lbs. a week is a lot. But especially for someone only trying to lose a few lbs.

Like blaming a hammer for bashing you in the thumb.

fast_eddie_72

MFP is way too vague. It doesn't tell you what the recommended weight loss rate is for your weight (it says 'lose 1 lb a week' is recommended though). Neither does it doesn't explain having to log exercise calories and eat them back. There's a lot of room for improvement overall.

Okay, that's not a bad point.

Having said that - MFP told my wife 1,200 lbs. too. Like it tells any woman who puts they want to lose a lot of weight fast. After about three days, she figured out that she couldn't do that on a regular basis and fiddled with the settings to come up with something more reasonable.

Vailara

It's not just people who want to lose weight fast, though. Like many people, if I put in a goal of 1lb a week, then I'll still get 1200. It IS misleading. Of course, MFP allows me to put in 2lb a week, but I'd lose weight at actually the same rate as if I'd chosen 1lb a week. That might just make me feel like I was failing. In fact, even 1lb a week doesn't give me a 500 calorie deficit, so the system isn't doing what it lets us think it's doing! I do wish MFP would talk us through it.

The OP here did adjust her weight loss goal to 1lb a week, and was given a target of 1270 calories. It's hardly any different to her 2lb target of 1200 calories. It's misleading for beginners.

As for eating back exercise calories being obvious - I don't think it is. MFP asks us to enter our exercise goals when setting up our profile. I believe that often people think that if they put in their three gym trips a week, then MFP is giving them a calorie allowance based on that. There would be no need for them to add in exercise again, unless they were planning to use MFP to track exercise.

It would be simpler if MFP simply left that information out of the profile. MFP doesn't need to know how often you plan to exercise, or even what your goal weight is (it doesn't seem to use that information). But because MFP asks for the information, some people are going to think that their calorie goal is based on that information.

Don't get me wrong, I think MFP is great and have been using it in my own way for a long time. But I think there's room for change in how it's set up for new users.

RamonaFr

No advice, just want to say that Norovirus really sucks and I'm glad you feel better now.

florentinovillaro

1) It's not the website's fault that you set your goal for 2lbs/week loss when you only have 15lbs to lose. That's your own fault. Set it to .5lbs/week. 1lb/week, TOPS.

2) You blaming your 1200 calorie diet for passing out is just silly. 1200 is low but not THAT low. There are people here eating 500/calories a day for months at a time, fasting for days at a time (0 calories a day) and they aren't passing out. I'm not saying that any of this is a good idea, but you have to have some pretty serious issues to just randomly pass out. Issues like having a virus that causes you to vomit a lot, resulting in poor nutrition, dehydration and passing out. OH WAIT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. You admitted yourself that you were dehydrated, and fluids were given to help you recover. What does that have to do with 1200 calories/day diet?

Stop trying to push blame onto a simple website when the issues are entirely your own.

^ This.

Sunitagt

It's not just people who want to lose weight fast, though. Like many people, if I put in a goal of 1lb a week, then I'll still get 1200. It IS misleading. Of course, MFP allows me to put in 2lb a week, but I'd lose weight at actually the same rate as if I'd chosen 1lb a week. That might just make me feel like I was failing. In fact, even 1lb a week doesn't give me a 500 calorie deficit, so the system isn't doing what it lets us think it's doing! I do wish MFP would talk us through it.

The OP here did adjust her weight loss goal to 1lb a week, and was given a target of 1270 calories. It's hardly any different to her 2lb target of 1200 calories. It's misleading for beginners.

As for eating back exercise calories being obvious - I don't think it is. MFP asks us to enter our exercise goals when setting up our profile. I believe that often people think that if they put in their three gym trips a week, then MFP is giving them a calorie allowance based on that. There would be no need for them to add in exercise again, unless they were planning to use MFP to track exercise.

It would be simpler if MFP simply left that information out of the profile. MFP doesn't need to know how often you plan to exercise, or even what your goal weight is (it doesn't seem to use that information). But because MFP asks for the information, some people are going to think that their calorie goal is based on that information.

Don't get me wrong, I think MFP is great and have been using it in my own way for a long time. But I think there's room for change in how it's set up for new users.

Yeah, but you can't blame the tool for not doing all the research for you. I've spent countless hours reading through studies, articles, various topics created here to get the information I have about how to best go about my weight loss and reach my health goals. They're incredibly important to me, why wouldn't I put the time and energy into understanding exactly what I'm doing? That's on you, not on MFP. You don't understand something, why aren't you researching to figure out what it means?

And the exercise you put in is simply to give you a goal for the week for logging exercise. I don't see why that's an issue, where it clearly gives you the calories back to eat when you log it. It's telling you inherently to eat them back, I think it's pretty clear when you log it that that's what you're supposed to do.

BinaryPulsar

The exercise calorie thing never worked for me personally because I exercised at night (when I first started mfp), so then I would under eat all day, exercise and then have to eat, but I just wanted to go to bed. And the thing is that I just need to eat more everyday regardless of exercise. I tried pre-logging exercise, but my predictions didn't always happen as planned at that time. I need to eat before exercise for energy, not after.

So, doing TDEE is an option for some people. I can eat the same amount every day and vary it based on my own signals of hunger or fullness.

Even at the highest activity level, mfp sets me too low. Mfp does not know my exact activity and lifestyle, my metabolism, or how much muscle I have (they don't have a bf% factor).

I got all the calorie formulas and calculated them myself.

raegrove

Sadly she deactivated her account.

EvenThatNameIsTaken

I'm glad for all that folks share, harsh or not, because when I need to ask a question in the future and need some solid answers, I want you all to be honest with me. With all that I have been reading on MFP, there have been extremely sharp people on this site to explain every detail to people that need assistance. They have given up their time for others as well as their pictures, diet and exercises. Its been amazing!!!!!!!! I love MFP and friends!

yepyepyep

MarKayDee

I love that this is still going.

Angold83

This probably isn't what you wanted to hear, but the problem isn't the tool it's the user.

You told this website that you wanted to lose TWO lbs per WEEK. That's a 7000 calorie deficit per week, or 1000 calorie deficit per day. Is it really a surprise that it gave you an absurdly low calorie target?

The reason you kept seeing 1200 calories a day recommended is because MFP will never recommend lower than that. That's the absolute minimum it will possibly recommend to anyone for any reason.

Set your weight loss to a more reasonable 0.5 lbs/week and you only need a 250 calorie deficit per day.

The danger wasn't putting your health in the hands of a free website, the danger was not knowing how the tool worked and using it anyways.

^^^^^^^^^^ This ^^^^^^^^^

Vailara

It's not just people who want to lose weight fast, though. Like many people, if I put in a goal of 1lb a week, then I'll still get 1200. It IS misleading. Of course, MFP allows me to put in 2lb a week, but I'd lose weight at actually the same rate as if I'd chosen 1lb a week. That might just make me feel like I was failing. In fact, even 1lb a week doesn't give me a 500 calorie deficit, so the system isn't doing what it lets us think it's doing! I do wish MFP would talk us through it.

The OP here did adjust her weight loss goal to 1lb a week, and was given a target of 1270 calories. It's hardly any different to her 2lb target of 1200 calories. It's misleading for beginners.

As for eating back exercise calories being obvious - I don't think it is. MFP asks us to enter our exercise goals when setting up our profile. I believe that often people think that if they put in their three gym trips a week, then MFP is giving them a calorie allowance based on that. There would be no need for them to add in exercise again, unless they were planning to use MFP to track exercise.

It would be simpler if MFP simply left that information out of the profile. MFP doesn't need to know how often you plan to exercise, or even what your goal weight is (it doesn't seem to use that information). But because MFP asks for the information, some people are going to think that their calorie goal is based on that information.

Don't get me wrong, I think MFP is great and have been using it in my own way for a long time. But I think there's room for change in how it's set up for new users.

Yeah, but you can't blame the tool for not doing all the research for you. I've spent countless hours reading through studies, articles, various topics created here to get the information I have about how to best go about my weight loss and reach my health goals. They're incredibly important to me, why wouldn't I put the time and energy into understanding exactly what I'm doing? That's on you, not on MFP. You don't understand something, why aren't you researching to figure out what it means?

And the exercise you put in is simply to give you a goal for the week for logging exercise. I don't see why that's an issue, where it clearly gives you the calories back to eat when you log it. It's telling you inherently to eat them back, I think it's pretty clear when you log it that that's what you're supposed to do.

I think it's great that you did so much research, but for some of us, it's not our field of study or expertise. I did loads and loads of reading before I even started dieting, and there is a huge amount of sometimes conflicting information (and misinformation!). And a lot of the studies you read have quite low calorie allowances. To be honest, I think the most useful thing has been trying things out and seeing what works for me, personally.

I think MFP should just be more open about how it works. I found out the information bit by bit. For instance, MFP doesn't tell you your BMR when you're setting it up: you have to look under "Apps" to find out what MFP has calculated and what calculator it uses (Mifflin St Jeor). It's not the most intuitive! Then it tells you to enter your exercise in your profile, but doesn't factor that into your calorie allowance, which puzzles some people.

It asks you to choose how much you want to lose a week, assuming a 500 calorie deficit per pound, but then has the cut off of 1200, so it may well be impossible for you to lose at the rate you've selected. Why ask us to choose between 1lb and 2lb if we're going to have exactly the same deficit whichever one we choose?

Goal weight - like exercise goals, it's irrelevant. MFP doesn't use that information in its calculations, as far as I can see. MFP will do the same calculations and give you the same options whether you have 200 lb to lose or 10lb. But users don't necessarily know that when they're setting it up - because MFP is ASKING for the information, people are likely to think they're getting more tailored options than they actually are.

I do think that MFP is a great calorie counting tool, which is why I've been here so long. But I think there is room for improvement, and in particular, the set-up could be clearer.

silken555

I know OP deactivated but for people in the same boat she is I'd recommend reading and then implementing this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/975025-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet

The TDEE method incorporates exercise so one doesn't need to think about eating exercise calories back.

I actually think MFP should put a little bullet point when one starts inputing their info.

Something simple like:
Recommended lbs/week based on number of lbs to lose:
5-20lbs - 0.5lbs/week
20-50lbs - 1lbs/week
50+lbs - 2lbs/week

It would help those who are just starting out and really aren't aware that there's a lot to know about weight loss to do it right.

I didn't even know there was a website when I installed the app. It took a few months before I started adding friends and then I saw them posting on a forum. That's when my real education began and I completely changed the way im going about this.

That said...personal responsibility IS important and I would never blame the app for a lack of success. Good or bad it's all up to me!

RaggedyPond