High Protein/Low Carb with MFP -suggestions?

ascrudato75

Hello! I just joined this past week and wanted to know if any MFP users have implemented a high protein/low carb plan in conjunction with the calorie tracker. My metabolism works best with higher protein, lower carbs but even with changing my carb, protein and fat grams per day, the weight loss calculator does not refelect the amount of weight I am losing and will continue to lose. I mostly eat lean proteins but I will use healthy fats - no matter where I set my carb/protein/fat grams (in percentages), my plan exceeds the number of calories and fat grams each day. I try to stay around 60 or fewer carbs per day and my carbs are quality carbs - greens, legumes (high in carbs but high in fiber). I don't think the plan calculates net carbs based on the foods I have eaten. Anything "high" in carbs but also high in fiber is not broken down into net carbs.

I understand MFP is probably designed to focus on caloric and nutritional values and may not accomodate "fad" diets. I respect that but for me high (lean) protein with low (quality) carbs is not just a diet plan for me, it's the way I eat. I don't follow a prescribed plan such as Atkins or South Beach but I adopt certain things from those plans and make it work for me. I have been successful with following this plan in the past - both for weight loss and maintainence. in 2012 I had medical set backs and other issues which resulted in me putting on an extra 20 pounds. My husband and I enjoy the high protein and I am good with food shopping and meal preparation to follow the lean protein and quality carb plan. I just don't know who I can integrate that into my MFP profile and goals and still see the prediction of how much weight I will lose based on my caloric and nutrional intake each day. Perhaps it is not possible to calculate what the weight loss will be - maybe the system can only predict that based on calories and exercise goals. I am OK with that, just wondering if anyone else has run into this and I am open to suggestions. It is hard to stay at my goal of 1200 calories per day when following the high protein/low carb plus moderate "healthy" fats and I have to be at 1200 calories per day if I want the system to calculate my weight loss plan...at 1200 calories per day plus my exercise, I will lose the 30 pounds I want to lose in about one year at 1.4 pounds per week. On the high protein/low carb plan I have followed the past 5 days I have lost 4 pounds and I feel really good but 1200 calories is not reasonable (in my opinion) for these types of foods.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to any responses.

TheBoyEnigma

you can choose to manually edit your goals and the percentage you want from carbs/fats/proteins.

Justkritter

I think your plan is good. I don't really understand what you meant by 1200 cal is not reasonable? How much cal have you supposedly set for yourself in a day?

Yardtigress

You can change your setting to what ever you want. Take a look at my food diary. I eat veggie carbs and stay away from wheat carbs. I have to have some carbs as a diabetic, but I do limit them. I do go over on swim days, though. Go to My home, settings and then diary settings and you can set up what ever you like.

Rosytakesoff

I eat high protein low carb and I change my settings manually, as the previous poster suggested. I haven't found the weight loss predictor to be accurate. There are many factors that go into weight loss, and that predictor is very general.

technotribalgirl

Thank you for posting this topic, I was just wondering the exact same thing! Like the original poster, I too follow a high protein / low carb diet. And when I am successful at following that plan, I lose weight very easily. The information the people who replied posted was very helpful. I was able to go in and change my goals to match more what I try to follow as far as food intake per day. Thanks!

caribougal

I eat a high fat / low carb diet. As others have said, you can manually adjust your macro and cal goals.

First, figure out what an appropriate calorie goal for you is. Forget MFP's 1200... that works for some people but is generally too low for most. Here's a good link to help figure out your cal goal, and lots of MFP'ers follow it (thanks, HelloitsDan):

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

Then adjust your macros within that cal goal. You're correct that MFP doesn't track net carbs, so you'll need to do that yourself by subtracting your fiber total from your carbs at the end of the day.

I have not found that the weight loss predicted by MFP at the end of the day based on calorie goals is meaningful at all. It is amusing, however. My weight loss is very, very predictable. I had 20 lbs to lose to get to my primary goal, and another 5 to go to get to my stretch goal. I seem to lose a pound, then sit at the same weight for several weeks, even a month or so, and then drop a pound. I weight exactly the same thing down to the ounce every morning until... BAM... it drops, and then the cycle starts over. I'm weird. With low carb, I've seen that the inches and BF% have dropped faster than the scale, and continue to drop even when my weight on the scale stays the same.

I usually use the website version of MFP, but I like the phone/iPad version better when I want to see the pie chart of my macros every day. I wish the website version showed the pie chart too.