My Fitness Pal Accuracy

ExplorerJodie
ExplorerJodie Posts: 7
in Getting Started
Hi guy,

Just a quick question, how accurate is My Fitness Pal when it projects your weight in 5 weeks time? I have fallen off the wagon time and time again, but I have had a big talk with myself and I am determined to follow it through. I really want My Fitness Pal to be correct. I am currently 161.4 and in five weeks time My Fitness Pal is saying I am going to be 145. This seems like an awful lot. How have you found the accuarcy so far?
Thanks x

Replies

  • ColeCake292012
    ColeCake292012 Posts: 247 Member
    Myfitnesspal is a great tool, but as you learn about your body and what works for you, you'll probably make adjustments.

    I used to be under the notion that I had to eat 1200-1400 calories/day to lose weight. Over time, and with the help of my FitBit and personal experience, I've learned that my magical number is an average of 1500-2000 calories/day depending on my mood and appetite (usually around 1700 on average).

    If you don't have a food scale, that'll greatly improve your logging accuracy.

    If you're logging exercise based on myfitnesspal alone, without the aid of a heart rate monitor, you may see that you're more accurate only eating back part of your exercise calories as opposed to all of them.

    Everybody is different, but its a common theme to make adjustment to your calorie goals and calories burned through exercise.
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  • scrapjen
    scrapjen Posts: 387 Member
    That "prediction" is based on "if every day were like today" and honestly, how often are your days alike? I'll have a good day, then a bad day, then a medium day.

    Seriously, that bugged me so much I stopped "completing my day" just so I wouldn't have to see that anymore!

    I gather my weekly averages and look at that. Sometimes the numbers line up (calories in vs calories out, 3500 deficit = one pound of loss) and sometimes they don't. EVERYTHING is still an estimate anyway. Just keep plugging away doing the best you can. :)
  • poedunk65
    poedunk65 Posts: 1,336 Member
    Use it for what it is a tool. I use another site to accurately figure out my calorie burns, but that too is based on avg's. everyone's metabolism and body are unique.

    I strongly recommend reading or watching Forks Over Knives. But again I don't use all the info there, just what works for me.
  • Blufairae
    Blufairae Posts: 22 Member
    Are you looking at the number that is displayed after you finish logging your foods/activities for the day? If so, that is an estimate of what could happen if your food intake and activity levels were exactly like that day's every day. It is not meant to be an actual progression, but rather a motivational tool that tells you if you are on track to meet your goals based on that day. Read that fine print that accompanies that statement. Keep working hard and I am sure that you will meet your goal.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    I'm sure there are people out there for whom the 5 week weight prediction has been spot on but for me and a lot of my friends its been a joking point ...take it with a pinch of salt but its nice to think that if we were eating very consistently then we would probably see that weight, obviously MFP bases it on calculations with our expected TDEE and eating at deficit.

    I agree with @colecake's comments about finding our own 'magical number', it takes a wee bit of time but stick with logging your food accurately and moving that bit more and you will have success :)

    All the best! :)
  • Laurayinz
    Laurayinz Posts: 930 Member
    (calories in vs calories out, 3500 deficit = one pound of loss) and sometimes they don't. EVERYTHING is still an estimate anyway. Just keep plugging away doing the best you can. :)
    Yep, it's just math. it takes your under or over calories at the end of the day and multiplies by 35 (days), then divides that by 3500 to get lbs, then adds or subtracts it from your last weigh-in. Or something like that. it's assuming that your calories left at the end of the day will be that every day for the next 35 days. It doesn't account for other things that can influence weight.
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,228 Member
    It is not accurate. It is only calculating the mathematics of weight loss. There is absolutely no way of predicting how your hormones are going to behave over the next 5 weeks.
  • ExplorerJodie
    ExplorerJodie Posts: 7
    Thank you so much for all your advice. I will definitely take it with a pinch of salt. x
  • keobooks
    keobooks Posts: 92 Member
    Luckily for me I have a terrible memory for promises like that. I just get excited when I see the number and think .. Yay! Someday I will weigh that much! Five weeks later I'll not way that much, but I'm sure I'll still look at the number and say ..yay!
  • mccindy72
    mccindy72 Posts: 7,001 Member
    I stick to my goal pretty tightly, so for me it's pretty close. if you are accurate and honest with your logging (and you are weighing your food to get accurate calorie counts), and you are very close to your goals each day, it should be pretty close to correct. it has been for me.
  • Bun_Ya
    Bun_Ya Posts: 174
    The 5 week projection is not accurate at all.
    /thread
  • mccindy72
    mccindy72 Posts: 7,001 Member
    The 5 week projection is not accurate at all.
    /thread

    Since it's subjective, based on the accuracy of the logging of the user, and the ability of the user to stay within the range of calorie deficit, such a blanket statement is not accurate at all, and does not end the thread.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    Pay no attention to the predictions. Just dial in your stats and go for something reasonable like 2 pounds a week. Don't starve and exercises really help but you must eat back your exercise calories. This works if you stay with it.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Pay no attention to the predictions. Just dial in your stats and go for something reasonable like 2 pounds a week. Don't starve and exercises really help but you must eat back your exercise calories. This works if you stay with it.

    2 pounds a week is not reasonable at all for OP. 1 pound is more like it.
  • segovm
    segovm Posts: 512 Member
    There are two problems with the 5 week projections:

    1. They consider the calories reported the total amount of calories. Most people fail to appreciate the the FDA is just fine with a 25-30% margin of error on calories reported on their food labels and almost completely those errors are on the side of too few calories listed.

    2. The system takes averages for the exercise weight loss that are almost always going to be off and again in favor of the bigger numbers since there is literally no way a generic average is going to equate to your specific workout intensity.

    For me, I mostly just try to log everything in, eat healthy food, and push myself as hard as I safely can for the workouts I do. While the time to specific weight is going to be wildly off due to factors outside of my control, I know that healthy eating active people are, by and large, not often morbidly obese.
  • Bun_Ya
    Bun_Ya Posts: 174
    The 5 week projection is not accurate at all.
    /thread

    Since it's subjective, based on the accuracy of the logging of the user, and the ability of the user to stay within the range of calorie deficit, such a blanket statement is not accurate at all, and does not end the thread.
    Since I am 100% accurate with my logging and can easily stay within my calorie deficit, I can accurately say that the 5 week projection has been wrong 100% of the time. From that, as the variables are accounted for, we can extrapolate that the previous blanket statement is valid.
  • mccindy72
    mccindy72 Posts: 7,001 Member
    The 5 week projection is not accurate at all.
    /thread

    Since it's subjective, based on the accuracy of the logging of the user, and the ability of the user to stay within the range of calorie deficit, such a blanket statement is not accurate at all, and does not end the thread.
    Since I am 100% accurate with my logging and can easily stay within my calorie deficit, I can accurately say that the 5 week projection has been wrong 100% of the time. From that, as the variables are accounted for, we can extrapolate that the previous blanket statement is valid.

    Do you weigh all of your solid foods yourself with a food scale? do you enter in all of your nutritional values yourself, or do you rely on the entries in the data base already entered by other MFP member that may not be accurate? Do you wear a heart rate monitor with a chest strap when you exercise to accurately monitor your calorie burns, or do you use the calorie burns estimated by MFP, which are not accurate?

    Those are also all variables which must be accounted for. The big picture is much more complicated than it first appears.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I am currently 161.4 and in five weeks time My Fitness Pal is saying I am going to be 145. This seems like an awful lot. How have you found the accuarcy so far?

    It's not at all. It's a mathematical projection of your deficit on one day, whether it's sustainable or not or consistent with how you normally eat or not. For example, I "fasted" on Good Friday and ate about 100 calories, and it gave me some lovely looking estimate for in 5 weeks even though obviously I'm not going to be eating 100 cals a day for 5 weeks and it would be a bad idea to do so and the computer was otherwise telling me my calories were too low.
  • Bun_Ya
    Bun_Ya Posts: 174
    The 5 week projection is not accurate at all.
    /thread

    Since it's subjective, based on the accuracy of the logging of the user, and the ability of the user to stay within the range of calorie deficit, such a blanket statement is not accurate at all, and does not end the thread.
    Since I am 100% accurate with my logging and can easily stay within my calorie deficit, I can accurately say that the 5 week projection has been wrong 100% of the time. From that, as the variables are accounted for, we can extrapolate that the previous blanket statement is valid.

    Do you weigh all of your solid foods yourself with a food scale? do you enter in all of your nutritional values yourself, or do you rely on the entries in the data base already entered by other MFP member that may not be accurate? Do you wear a heart rate monitor with a chest strap when you exercise to accurately monitor your calorie burns, or do you use the calorie burns estimated by MFP, which are not accurate?

    Those are also all variables which must be accounted for. The big picture is much more complicated than it first appears.
    Yes, like I told you - the variables are accounted for.

    The big picture is that while MFP has many useful aspects, some of them are as useful as tits on a bull.

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