MyFitnessPal Sugar Recommendation, etc.

PonderinGal

I'm new to MFP and am still in the process of modifying the "My Goals" dietary aspect of it, but I've managed to confuse myself. Not only do are the MFP recommendations and "combinations" of things like fats and sugars a bit precarious, but they don't seem to be based on any information I have come to acquire regarding weight loss. For instance, according to widespread recommendations, women should not consume more than 25g of sugar daily, should consume at least 25g of fiber, 1800-something or other mg of sodium, etc. But MFP's recommendations seem to be...entirely off! I mean, the recommendations seem to be utterly illogical, not conducive to weight loss, let alone weight maintenance. I feel that I MUST be at fault; I must be misunderstanding something! Additionally, as certain combinations of things change (fat + fiber), so do the DRA's for each of those things. I do not want to eat as many carbohydrates, fats, etc. as are being recommended, but I can only modify my settings to a certain degree. I don't claim to be a dietician, so would someone mind clarifying for all or some of this for me? I'm not sure I've made my confusion very clear, but I guess that's how confusion works sometimes... Anyhow...Thank you in advance!

Shovelita

So, since you don't want to eat as many fats, carbs, and sugars as is being recommended, what would you like to replace it with? I guess all that really leaves is protein?

yarwell

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1181259-so-what-s-with-this-sugar-then-revised-faq-jan-2014 may help, and links to MFPs recent revisions

PonderinGal

I don't know. I'd like to understand MFP's system mainly. When selecting a goal planner, there's the "guided" option and the "custom" option, but neither really seem to provide plans that make sense to me. I think I may be obsessing just a little, as well. I don't want to eat too many carbohydrates, but then again I don't want too much fat, either...but I don't know how to balance them and MFP's settings don't seem realistic according to my understanding of them.

lemurcat12

I think you might be obsessing more than necessary, like you say. Why not just see what your food gives you at first and then see how it goes. You can always modify.

Regarding some of the specific questions:

Sugar counted by MFP is all sugar, including that in fruit and vegetables. But if you really want less than 25 g, you can always set it to that. It will get blown by a couple of pieces of fruit, however. The current goals are no more than 15% of calories a day, which is actually lower than the Institute of Medicine's 25% of calories per day (which makes sense to me given that many people are on calorie deficits here), but there's plenty of debate about it. Figure out what makes sense to you, and also just look at where your sugar is coming from, which you can see if you focus on the foods and not the totals more. (Full disclosure, I just decided to swap out sugar for fiber, since I'm not concerned about my sugar intake having looked at the results for a while.)

I believe fiber is at 25 g, so I'm not sure what you are asking there. Are you thinking you are supposed to stay below all of them? You aren't--it depends what they are. Fiber's a minimum.

You can modify your macros to your heart's content (everything else too, I think), but remember that protein, fat, plus carbs HAVE to add up to 100%. You can't lower one without increasing at least one of the others. Also, although I personally think the protein percentage used is low (for me and my calorie goals, at least), you don't want some absurdly high protein percentage either. If nothing else it's hard to meet in an ordinary balanced diet, especially since many protein sources also include fat.

I personally prefer more of a 40-30-30 or 35-35-30 ratio, as that works better for me, and there's no particular benefit to MFP's recs, but they are also pretty much in line with USDA diet recommendations. The thing is that if you don't want your carbs so high you are usually going to have to increase fat, and there's really nothing wrong with doing so. The main thing with macros is get enough protein, don't go too low on fat and consider that more might help you feel fuller or be more satisfying, and decide what proportion of carbs works for you. I found lowering carbs to 100 g or under (or about 30% of a 1200 calorie goal) was helpful at first, but as I increased exercise I've found myself choosing to add more carbs back into my diet. Mostly I do this my considering my protein and fats as minimums and not worrying where calories earned from exercise come from, but others are more focused on their macro percentages.

PonderinGal

Thank you for your advice! You're right: I am obsessing. I'm a perfectionist who wants to do this thing right by understanding the interactions of all these different elements. I will chill a bit and take your pointers into consideration. I think posting so late at night may have had something to do with the confusion, too. I wish I could go back and delete my silly post! Thanks, all!