Are the projections on here true?

Arynamber · December 2010

You know when you finish your food log for the day and it says your "expected weight" in 5 weeks... has anyone ever tracked this?? Im curious as to if this is at all accurate. Having a down day after magically gaining three pounds overnight.. and really could use a pick me up.
Thanks

rose1617 · December 2010

not remotely.
Mine's been saying I'll be 120 something pounds in 5 weeks for the last 2-3 months lol. On average I lose about 0.5 lb/week. Find what your stride or pattern is and do the math for yourself. For me, it's taken me 7 months to lose 17 pounds. That's actually a little over 0.5 lb/week, but I'm not into the 120's yet.

edorice · December 2010

Nope, I don't even hit complete anymore. There are too many variables for it to be accurate. Also, I don't eat the same meals or same calories or same workouts daily. So, i can't give an exact repeat performance. LOL

ickybella · December 2010

Mine used to be really close! I keep track of it in my food notes and there were a couple of times that it was exactly right. The closer I get to my goal weight, though, the more wrong it is.

tmogs · December 2010

The projects are true if you eat the same (as the day your looking at) everyday for 5 weeks. Because we seem to vary from day to day with our calories intake you might be higher or lower in 5 weeks

kaylurzz · December 2010

Nope. It's been telling me about the same weight since I've started using MFP and I have yet to reach that weight. I just ignore it now haha

RDTaylor13 · December 2010

those "projections" might be accurate if you ate the exact same meals everyday (exactly the same calories) and did the same amount of exercise. which I'm sorry to say, unless you have OCD, isn't likely to happen.

redefiningmyself · December 2010

I posted a similar question when I first joined and someone gave me good advice, so on weigh in day, I track what it says on a calendar. I can honestly say that most of the time its pretty accurate within a couple of pounds in either direction.

I did go through a period of about 3 weeks where I wasn't motivated, and didn't really work out, but continued to log. Obviously the predictions changed, and didn't continue to take off pounds during that time, but even those predictions were pretty accurate.

I think if you are eating consistently its more likely that the predictions will be accurate. If you vary your caloric intake a great deal on a daily basis, it would be a lot harder for the predictions to become accurate.

someuser · December 2010

I don't think anyone here could say for sure as nobody eats the same thing each day for 5 weeks. However, I'd say it's also probably as accurate as the information you feed it. Unless you're eating all pre-packaged foods etc, the info we feed into this site can be quite off. I tend to over exaggerate what I enter on this site if anything so I know I'm not going over but my Dad uses this site also and when we eat out together, then I watch him enter his values, I shake my head at his wild underestimations. He'll put 1 cup of green beans at a chinese restaurant when he ate the whole plate by himself. Then he'll forget the small amount of ground pork that was in that dish. There is a lot of unaccounted calories there and it adds up.

ickybella · December 2010

I don't think anyone here could say for sure as nobody eats the same thing each day for 5 weeks. However, I'd say it's also probably as accurate as the information you feed it. Unless you're eating all pre-packaged foods etc, the info we feed into this site can be quite off. I tend to over exaggerate what I enter on this site if anything so I know I'm not going over but my Dad uses this site also and when we eat out together, then I watch him enter his values, I shake my head at his wild underestimations. He'll put 1 cup of green beans at a chinese restaurant when he ate the whole plate by himself. Then he'll forget the small amount of ground pork that was in that dish. There is a lot of unaccounted calories there and it adds up.

You don't have to eat the same thing, just the same number of calories. By the way, have you tried to explain to him that he's underestimating? It could save him a lot of frustration when he thinks he's well within his calorie range but his weight-loss stalls.

P.S. I think it's mainly here for motivation. It's telling you "Keep doing what you're doing and these are the numbers you'll see on the scale, at some point."

RedneckWmn · December 2010

I stopped hitting complete. I've never been close to what the projections are. But my calories vary and so do my workouts. It's never the same thing. I'm sure if you ate and did the same thing everyday it would be more accurate.

LuckyLeprechaun · December 2010

That little phrsse is the reason I'm still here, and still losing.

When I saw it for the first time, I thought,.....Oh ya RIGHT. So I decided to prove it wrong. I logged and stayed in my calories for the first 5 weeks, religiously. I was happily surprised to see that I lost more than had even been predicted.

You can do this! A 3 lb "gain", unless you had 11,000 extra calories, isn't a "real" gain. You likely had a high sodium day and so you've got a little extra water. No biggie. Drink more and flush it out and .....................stay strong!!!

Ha1ley11 · January 2011

That little phrsse is the reason I'm still here, and still losing.

When I saw it for the first time, I thought,.....Oh ya RIGHT. So I decided to prove it wrong. I logged and stayed in my calories for the first 5 weeks, religiously. I was happily surprised to see that I lost more than had even been predicted.

You can do this! A 3 lb "gain", unless you had 11,000 extra calories, isn't a "real" gain. You likely had a high sodium day and so you've got a little extra water. No biggie. Drink more and flush it out and .....................stay strong!!!

great advice!!

Are the projections on here true?

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