Question: Food Diary Totals

Rworthy
Rworthy Posts: 271 Member
edited September 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
So I have a question about using the MFP Food Diary. First of all, I've noticed that only the iPhone app lists all nutrients, such as Vitamin A,C,E, all fats, and all minerals on your home page. I can't find any of that on the online version.

Secondly, I was watching a fitness show last night and she said everyone is on a 1,400 to 1,500 calorie diet to lose 2 pounds per week. I find that when you log an exercise, MFP bumps up your calorie intake to around 1800. Should I be staying in the 1,400 to 1,500 range, and just not logging my exercises, or should I consume the recommended 1,800? I have noticed that when I am diligently logging everything I eat, I don't lose weight, as opposed to just being mindful of what I eat and not logging it down. Any help?

Third, let's talk nutrients. I am noticing *(from the iPhone app only) that I am way above in Cholesterol, sodium and sugar. And way low in nutrients such as iron, potassium, etc. I investigated a product I was logging in as Archer Farms Cashew Cranberry and Almond trail mix. The bag doesn't list major nutrients such as magnesium or potassium, but researching the nuts themselves, almonds are quite high in potassium. I'm wondering if other products I was logging leave out essential nutrients, so I'm not as low in them as I think, or if I really do need to take some sort of supplement to get these nutrients? So confused...

Replies

  • my2loves04and06
    my2loves04and06 Posts: 312
    Secondly, I was watching a fitness show last night and she said everyone is on a 1,400 to 1,500 calorie diet to lose 2 pounds per week. I find that when you log an exercise, MFP bumps up your calorie intake to around 1800. Should I be staying in the 1,400 to 1,500 range, and just not logging my exercises, or should I consume the recommended 1,800? I have noticed that when I am diligently logging everything I eat, I don't lose weight, as opposed to just being mindful of what I eat and not logging it down. Any help?

    I guess I'm not exactly sure what you're asking, but my MFP goal is to lose 2 lbs/wk and my caloric goal for that is 1370/day. Even if I don't exercise daily, I'm still losing close to 1.5 lbs/wk. That's with logging all of my foods diligently as well. As for calories added back in from exercise, it depends on what type of exercise you do and for how long you do it. MFP doesn't just bump you up to 1800 calories no matter what exercise you enter. When I do the 30 Day Shred, I burn 267 cals, so MFP bumps my daily cal intake up to 1637.
  • surlydave
    surlydave Posts: 512 Member
    If you go to Food, then Settings, you can change your settings to track additional values. That would include things like sodium. Unfortunately, you can only track up to 5.

    Most people on here will tell you yes, you should eat your exercise calories. Personally, I may eat some of them but not all. To some extent this is all guesswork.

    I am always over on sodium as well. I guess I am not going to worry about it since my BP is fine, but I am sure I am retaining water. Don't track any of the other nutrients so I can't help there.
  • Lisatru62
    Lisatru62 Posts: 13
    Most people are concerned with their cholesterol and sodium intakes because of high blood pressure and heart disease. This is probably why this information is listed but not potassium. Woman should be particularly concerned with calcium and iron, which is why it is probably listed on the food diary. I wouldn't be overly concerned with reaching a particular goal in all of your nutrients because it can become an obsession and not to mention, very difficult.
    When one of my children was small I was concerned that he was not getting enough vitamins because he seemed to want to eat only one food each day. I knew that it was impossible to get all he needed from one food because there is no perfect food. The doctor told me not to worry and try and look at the overall picture. What does he eat each week, each month?
    So try not to worry and look at what you are eating every week or month. If you are getting too much sodium or cholesterol laden foods in your diet, you should probably take a look at what you are eating and try and eat either less of these foods or learn to prepare them in another way to make them more healthful.
    Good luck and try not to worry.
  • Rworthy
    Rworthy Posts: 271 Member
    I guess I'm not exactly sure what you're asking, but my MFP goal is to lose 2 lbs/wk and my caloric goal for that is 1370/day. Even if I don't exercise daily, I'm still losing close to 1.5 lbs/wk. That's with logging all of my foods diligently as well. As for calories added back in from exercise, it depends on what type of exercise you do and for how long you do it. MFP doesn't just bump you up to 1800 calories no matter what exercise you enter. When I do the 30 Day Shred, I burn 267 cals, so MFP bumps my daily cal intake up to 1637.
    My daily calories start at about 1,400. When I burn 400 calories in exercise, it bumps my daily calorie intake to 1,800. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably haven't logged an exercise in MFP.
  • Rworthy
    Rworthy Posts: 271 Member
    Most people on here will tell you yes, you should eat your exercise calories. Personally, I may eat some of them but not all. To some extent this is all guesswork.
    Are you losing your goal weight each week? I'm curious. (Hypothetical) If you eat what MFP tells you, do you lose your goal weight? If you eat less than MFP, do you lose more than your goal? I wonder...

    It seems like when I eat what MFP tells me calorie-wise, I don't lose weight at all. If this is true, then there must be a glitch in MFP.
  • JosieMomGramma
    JosieMomGramma Posts: 727 Member
    I personally think that the extra calories that we are given with the exercise calories burned, is something that each one of us has to experiment with. I know that on the days I do physically hard exercise I can get away with a few more calories that day. But not all that is calculated in. I think you just have to find out by adding a few extra calories at a time for yourself. As for worrying about the nutrients you are consuming. Every diet I have ever been on has advised me to take a multi-vitamin & mineral supplement. I was watching the Dr Oz show just the other day & he recommended that if you want to lose weight , taking a multi-vitamin supplement WILL help you to lose. It only stands to reason that with our low-cal diets we will be lacking in valuable nutrients & vitamins in our diet. Don't get discouraged as I have been on so many diets & joined so many weight loss groups for half my life, that did not work over the long haul. I am soooo thankful for this website as it is the first time I am comfortable with being able to eat what I want, but to just keep it all logged in every day to be accountable for the calories I am consuming. It has been a real eye opener for me, as to the calories that are in everything I use to eat. It blew me away. Now I do not eat anything without looking up the calorie count. The best thing about MFP is keeping a food diary!! Also keeping a record of my exercise just makes me feel good about myself, that I am burning some of the calories I am consuming. Wishing you success on your journey for a healthier you!
  • Rworthy
    Rworthy Posts: 271 Member
    Thanks! Same to you! I will make a trip to the health food store for some liquid, gluten-free supplements when I get a chance.
  • my2loves04and06
    my2loves04and06 Posts: 312
    My daily calories start at about 1,400. When I burn 400 calories in exercise, it bumps my daily calorie intake to 1,800. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably haven't logged an exercise in MFP.

    I've logged exercise, so I KWYM. I thought youwere making a blanket statement that MFP bumped everyone up to 1800 cals. Anywho, I usually eat back most of my exercise cals, unless I have a major burning day (1,000+), then I don't eat even close to all of them back. I've still lost whether I exercise adn eat the cals back or whether I don't exercise and stick to the MFP cal goal.
  • MacMadame
    MacMadame Posts: 1,893 Member
    You should do what makes sense for you. MFP is just a tool so feel free to use it how you want.

    When I was losing, I didn't log my exercise here. I was on a program that gave me a calorie limit and goals for protein, carbs and fat. So I ate to my program. As I exercised more, they changes my goals so it was accounted for that way. That's one way to use MFP.

    Others use MFP in other ways. One way is to let MFP calculate a calorie deficit and eat as many calories as it takes to keep that deficit. This would mean picking a daily calorie goal outside of exercise and then eat all your exercise calories (or part of them).

    As for the nutrients, you are counting on the labels to be accurate and then for the member who entered the food to enter it accurately. I don't think that's very reliable. But I don't think it matters because:

    My doctor says you only need to watch sodium if you have high blood pressure or kidney disease. Studies show that dietary cholesterol has very limited impact on heart health. For most people, if you eat a lot of cholesterol, your body just makes less and, if you cut down on your dietary cholesterol, your body makes more.

    The only thing I look at is fiber. I need to have more fiber so I do track that.

    One thing to keep in mind: ALL these numbers are estimates. If you are doing what MFP says in terms of eating calories and you aren't losing weight, then the numbers are off. Maybe it's giving you a higher BMR than you really have so your base calories are too high. Maybe you are overestimating how much you are burning in exercise so you can't really eat all those calories.

    I found that when I started, MFP was saying I should be losing 2 lb. a week when I was losing 1 lb. So obviously the numbers it was giving me were wrong. Now I'm at goal weight and in much better shape and MFP isn't giving me enough calories.

    IMO, reality has to trump estimates so I've just adjusted MFP to match my reality.
  • Rworthy
    Rworthy Posts: 271 Member
    MacMadame:
    You should do what makes sense for you. MFP is just a tool so feel free to use it how you want.

    When I was losing, I didn't log my exercise here. I was on a program that gave me a calorie limit and goals for protein, carbs and fat. So I ate to my program. As I exercised more, they changes my goals so it was accounted for that way. That's one way to use MFP.

    ...I found that when I started, MFP was saying I should be losing 2 lb. a week when I was losing 1 lb. So obviously the numbers it was giving me were wrong. Now I'm at goal weight and in much better shape and MFP isn't giving me enough calories.
    110 Pounds lost - now you're my role model! Would you be willing to make your food diary public so I can see what you're eating?
  • MacMadame
    MacMadame Posts: 1,893 Member
    I had a bad experience with the food police the last time I opened it up. I can send you a code to get in though.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories