Macros and Exercise Rumors - Fact or Fiction?

Agree with:
13) Weigh everything (important).
11) Unsweetened ice-tea and the water in your protein drink count as water intake (unimportant IMO to track water intake at all unless you have particular medical issues or tend to be dehydrated)

Disagree with the rest I'm afraid and I seem to have found my personal "balance of nutrition, calorie intake and fitness".

You have some very strange restrictions in there which are unnecessary and most likely counter productive.

4. Eating animals and animal products makes you feel guilty. Feeling guilty sucks.

Eating animals makes me feel grateful to nature. Feeling gratitude about nature is good.

I agree with most but disagree with the avoidances of certain foods unless it's short term. For long term goals things like bananas, bread and almond milk are just fine as long as they fit in your calories and macros.

Disagree with hitting your macros daily, almost impossible especially a -5+ and keeping under your calorie allowance is more important.

Calorie counting and macro goals are simple if you keep it that way, once you start to be anal about and limit yourself on what you can eat then you stop enjoying the process and will not keep going long term.

Good luck

So these are things you've seen around MFP for offered up for us to pontificate on? Don't mind if I do! ;-)

Rumor Mill - Fact or Fiction:

1) Don't input your exercise into MFP. It will mess up your calorie intake for consistency day-to-day. Put a 1 if you want friends to give you snaps. (I log my gym effort in the Exercise Notes section daily)

This really depends on how you are calculating your calories, TDEE or MFP/NEAT. I eat back exercise calories, so I input them/use a Fitbit.

2) Eat 2000 Calories a day - With heavy gym, you need to keep your calories up. Increase carbs to 232, 48f and 160p

Depends on how heavy your gym is, how fast you want to lose, what your daily activity and other numbers are. I think 160 protein is unnecessarily high with a goal weight of 130 (I think it should be based on LBM), but it wouldn't hurt you if you like eating that way.

3) Eat below 1000 Calories - Achieve this by eating high protein, low carbs and fat. High protein is needed to build and repair muscle.

Too low, obviously.

4) Keep an eye out for carb and sugar intake. Try to keep carbs below 60. Unused carbs turn to fat, and fat builds more fat.

The last part is nonsense--increased fat is caused by a surplus of calories. Low carb works for some people, it's personal choice. I find it's easier to cut calories without really noticing it if I cut carbs some, but for me that means 40% or below, no where near so low as 60 g (but again low carb can work if it fits your preferences). If you are having trouble staying satiated or keeping calories down, definitely check out sugar numbers just to understand where they are and if they are high, and you also might want to look at overall micronutrient content, which would also involve seeing what percentage of your diet is higher sugar/calorie AND lower nutrient items, but I wouldn't stress about it, especially not the sugar in fruit and dairy.

5) Avoid bread. If you must, only eat whole wheat bread - if you do have a slice of bread, have no more than a half a slice

If you like bread, eat bread unless it leads to excess calories. I am neutral to eh on most bread, so find it a good way to cut calories, but with rare exceptions (naan, for example) I'm not going to overeat bread, so it would be a pointless thing to eliminate.

6) No pasta. If you must, whole wheat pasta only.

Silly. If it isn't your thing or you are doing low carb, sure, whatever. Otherwise just watch serving sizes and make a nutrient dense tasty sauce. See if you like the sauce on vegetable-type foods on occasion as an alternative, maybe. Try whole-wheat pasta to see if you like it. I think it goes really well with certain kinds of sauce, whereas I prefer white with others.

7) Cut out cereals (like Kaji) that are high in carbs

See comments on bread and pasta.

8) Don't drink almond milk. High fat and carb content

Drink it if you like it, need an alternative to dairy, or find it a good way to cut calories. Just don't then lecture others about how you are better than those who eat processed foods! I like dairy, though, personally.

9) When having a salad, use straight red wine vinegar only. No olive oil of any kind. Balsamic vinegar is much higher in carbs and sugar. Stay away.

Use what you like. A little fat is good with veggies, but this can be achieved by adding some cheese or olives to the salad and using red wine vinegar (or making dressing out of it with mustard, etc.). Or use olive oil or find some dressing that is acceptable to you at the store, whatever makes it more likely you will enjoy eating vegetables.

10) Avoid bananas, dried fruits like crancherries, etc. Bananas are high in carbs and sugar which turn to fat

No, but be aware that bananas and especially dried fruits have a good amount of calories and dried fruits may not be as filling as the whole ones.

11) Unsweetened ice-tea and the water in your protein drink count as water intake

Sure, why not.

12) Eat six small meals a day. A yogurt or 1 protein drink is considered a meal

Eat however many meals make you feel happiest and most satisfied on your calorie allotment. I like 3 and rarely snack since I don't enjoy small meals that much, but people differ.

13) Weigh everything

If you are counting calories it makes it easier and more accurate, although I lost fine before I started weighing. Weighing is kind of fun.

14) Macro intake - must be +/- 5 of your daily goal. Need to hit exact intake daily.

Depends on your goals.

15) Have protein with every meal. Eat egg whites only. Or, 3 egg whites and 1 egg minimum. Egg whites are high in protein and have no fat or carbs.

Protein with every meal works really well for me, but experiment to find what works for you. I'm against tossing yolks and think eggs have few enough calories that it's silly not to eat the yolks and seems to suggest fat phobia or the like. But egg whites (the cartons are less wasteful) have their uses if you want to add a little protein to an omelet or add more liquid due to the amount of veggies without the calories from a whole 'nother egg. And if you don't like egg yolks, no need to eat them, of course.

16) Calories aren't important to monitor as much as your macros and fat intake.

Calories are important but if you count macros you are also counting calories so could do it that way. Fat intake strikes me as like the least important thing, but I'm sure some people differ, possibly even for good reasons!

1) Don't input your exercise into MFP. It will mess up your calorie intake for consistency day-to-day. Put a 1 if you want friends to give you snaps. (I log my gym effort in the Exercise Notes section daily)

- If you put in your settings you work out 5x per week, I wouldn't put exercise calories in unless I did ABOVE AND BEYOND. But, if you put you sedentary in your settings, you NEED to put in everything. I personally put sedentary, because I have a desk job and don't work out, or maybe lightly active because I am a mom to a toddler. But anyway, when I do anything extra, I put it in. Usually I eat most of my exercise calories back. But my settings are based on NOT working out.

...

4) Keep an eye out for carb and sugar intake. Try to keep carbs below 60. Unused carbs turn to fat, and fat builds more fat.

- Moderation is key. I personally go low carb, but like, less than 150 or 200 grams, not 60!

5) Avoid bread. If you must, only eat whole wheat bread - if you do have a slice of bread, have no more than a half a slice.

- I eat bread, if it fits my macros...

6) No pasta. If you must, whole wheat pasta only.

- See #5

7) Cut out cereals (like Kaji) that are high in carbs

- This is pretty much the same thing as 5 and 6...

8) Don't drink almond milk. High fat and carb content

- You must be thinking coconut milk, almond has hardly any fat, but it is carby...but again, if it fits your macros..

9) When having a salad, use straight red wine vinegar only. No olive oil of any kind. Balsamic vinegar is much higher in carbs and sugar. Stay away.

- You have got some strange advice.

10) Avoid bananas, dried fruits like crancherries, etc. Bananas are high in carbs and sugar which turn to fat

- They are high in carbs, but if they fit...

11) Unsweetened ice-tea and the water in your protein drink count as water intake

- Sure

12) Eat six small meals a day. A yogurt or 1 protein drink is considered a meal

- If that is what keeps you from being hungry, yeah. That's what I do.. well it's more like meal-snack-meal-snack-meal-sometimes snack

13) Weigh everything

- Yes.

14) Macro intake - must be +/- 5 of your daily goal. Need to hit exact intake daily.

- Eh, moderation....I say calories need to be exact, macros need to be close but I'm not THAT picky.

15) Have protein with every meal. Eat egg whites only. Or, 3 egg whites and 1 egg minimum. Egg whites are high in protein and have no fat or carbs.

- I don't eat eggs, but if you have a high protein goal you really need to eat some kind of protein every time you eat or you will never meet you goals...

16) Calories aren't important to monitor as much as your macros and fat intake.

- Dietary fat doesn't make you fat. I personally consider overall calories to be more important than macros. I actually try and make my fat and protein goals and worry only about not going over my carb goal. But it's reasonable, I still eat bread, pasta, etc.

bump

1) Don't input your exercise into MFP. It will mess up your calorie intake for consistency day-to-day. Put a 1 if you want friends to give you snaps. (I log my gym effort in the Exercise Notes section daily)

- If you put in your settings you work out 5x per week, I wouldn't put exercise calories in unless I did ABOVE AND BEYOND. But, if you put you sedentary in your settings, you NEED to put in everything. I personally put sedentary, because I have a desk job and don't work out, or maybe lightly active because I am a mom to a toddler. But anyway, when I do anything extra, I put it in. Usually I eat most of my exercise calories back. But my settings are based on NOT working

I basically agreed with everything else, but wanted to clarify something here, because it's commonly misunderstood.

It's true that if you include your activity (the exercise in question) in activity level you don't then eat it back. I think of this as stuff like walking around or what you do on your job. If you put in lightly active because you walk 3 miles every day, among other things, you wouldn't also log the walks. Generally I wouldn't include intentional exercise in this other than daily walking, but you can.

But the question that MFP asked about workout goals--5x a week or the like--is separate and plays no role in your calorie goal unless you log the exercise. A lot of people seem to find this confusing and assume otherwise.

Rumor Mill - Fact or Fiction:
1) Don't input your exercise into MFP. It will mess up your calorie intake for consistency day-to-day. Put a 1 if you want friends to give you snaps. (I log my gym effort in the Exercise Notes section daily)

If you're doing the MFP default method, then you should log your exercise and eat back exercise calories, as the calorie goal already has your deficit built in. If you find that the calorie burns given by the MFP calculator are excessive, then only eat back 50-80% of the exercise calories (depending on how excessive you find them to be).

If you're doing the TDEE - x% method, then you shouldn't eat back exercise calories, as your activity/exercise calories are already built into your calorie goal.

2) Eat 2000 Calories a day - With heavy gym, you need to keep your calories up. Increase carbs to 232, 48f and 160p

There is no number of calories suitable for everyone. If you are doing the TDEE-x% method you need to start with an estimate from a calorie calculator (e.g. Katch McArdle or Harris Benedict with an activity factor) and then subtract a percentage (10% if you have a little to lose, 20% if you have a lot to lose, etc - see other threads for more accurate details about this). This gives you a calorie goal that's individual to you, based on your size, weight and activity levels.

3) Eat below 1000 Calories - Achieve this by eating high protein, low carbs and fat. High protein is needed to build and repair muscle.

No, just no. This is too few calories for pretty much anyone - if anyone has a genuine medical reason to eat this little amount of food, then they should be under the supervision of a doctor.

4) Keep an eye out for carb and sugar intake. Try to keep carbs below 60. Unused carbs turn to fat, and fat builds more fat.

The first sentence is good advice. The second sentence is too low a carb intake for most people. The third sentence is partially true - any unused energy (calories) whether they come from fat, carbs or protein, may be stored as fat. Although surplus calories could also be stored as glycogen or used to build muscle in specific circumstances. If you're a couch potato, then unused calories will be stored as fat. If you're a strength athlete doing a bulk phase, then some will be used to build muscle, some stored as fat. You do not need to eat low carb to lose fat though, you just need to stay in calorie deficit, i.e. eat less than you burn off. It's easy to overeat on high carb and high fat food, so you absolutely do need to exercise good portion control, i.e. weigh these and log them, but there's no need to avoid them altogether. Moderate carb and moderate fat + adequate protein intake is what's best to aim for.

5) Avoid bread. If you must, only eat whole wheat bread - if you do have a slice of bread, have no more than a half a slice
6) No pasta. If you must, whole wheat pasta only.
7) Cut out cereals (like Kaji) that are high in carbs
8) Don't drink almond milk. High fat and carb content
9) When having a salad, use straight red wine vinegar only. No olive oil of any kind. Balsamic vinegar is much higher in carbs and sugar. Stay away.
10) Avoid bananas, dried fruits like crancherries, etc. Bananas are high in carbs and sugar which turn to fat

All of these have the same answer - there is no food that you need to avoid. You just need to exercise portion control and stay within your calorie goal. You can eat all the above foods, but they are calorie dense, so weigh them out carefully and be sure to log them. Accuracy = you're eating the number of calories you think they are = staying within your calorie goal = fat loss. The above foods are easy to overeat on if you don't exercise good portion control, hence the above sayings. But there is no reason to not eat them if you want to. Just weigh them carefully.

11) Unsweetened ice-tea and the water in your protein drink count as water intake

Any water will hydrate you. It all mixes with food in your stomach anyway. How much water you need depends on the climate and your activity levels... i.e. how much you sweat. If you sweat more, drink more. If your urine is clear or very pale, you don't need additional water. If you drink anything that has calories, be sure to weigh it and log it carefully. But drinks containing calories will hydrate you just as well as drinks that don't contain calories. It's all water, i.e. molecules of H2O

12) Eat six small meals a day. A yogurt or 1 protein drink is considered a meal

You can if you want to but you don't have to. Stick to your calorie goal and eat at whatever times of day are most convenient for you and what's going to help you stick with your diet long term. Lots of people find 6 meals a day helps because it stops you being hungry for long periods and makes it easier to avoid unplanned snacking. But it doesn't suit everyone. No need to force yourself into a meal pattern that doesn't suit you. The important thing is sticking to your calorie goal.

13) Weigh everything

Yep - although for liquids volume measurements are fine and may be more practical. For non-liquids, weighing is better. The more accurate you are with this, the more sure you can be that you're eating the exact number of calories you're supposed to be eating. Sticking to your calorie goal = success at fat loss.

14) Macro intake - must be +/- 5 of your daily goal. Need to hit exact intake daily.

I've had plenty of success without being this strict. I try to make sure I'm over on protein, and hit my calorie goal. If I'm over on carbs and under on fat one day, I try to balance that out a bit by being over on fat and under on carbs a day or two later. You do need to ensure adequate intake of protein. regularly being under or over on the other ones can cause problems, but a day here and there won't hurt.

15) Have protein with every meal. Eat egg whites only. Or, 3 egg whites and 1 egg minimum. Egg whites are high in protein and have no fat or carbs.

The first sentence is good advice but providing you're not regularly under on protein you're not going to die of kwashiorkor or anything. Protein helps you to feel full.

Re the eggs: yolks are extremely nutritious and throwing the yolks away is a total waste. They will not make you fat or raise your blood cholesterol (some medical issues may make it necessary to avoid egg yolks - doctors should advise in those cases). Egg white is a good way to bump up your protein intake while adding minimal calories, so if you're under on protein and don't have calories to spare it's a good option, but routinely throwing egg yolks away is wasteful and unnecessary. They are full of all the nutrients to grow a baby chicken. They are good for you.

16) Calories aren't important to monitor as much as your macros and fat intake.

Calories are the most important one to monitor in terms of whether you're going to actually lose weight or not. If you're not in calorie deficit then it does not matter what else you do, you won't lose weight. HOWEVER for health and good nutrition, you do need to monitor your macronutrient ratios - inadequate protein will mean you lose lean mass along with the fat (and long term will make you very ill). Inadequate fat, vitamins and minerals will lead to deficiency disease. Inadequate carbohydrate intake will lead to you feeling tired, run down, lacking energy to work out properly or even get through your day. Inadequate fibre will mean you have a very bad time in the bathroom. Inadequate water will cause all kinds of problems.... so, it's calories in v calories out for weight loss..... protein, fat, carbs, vitamins, minerals, fibre and water for good health.

So these are things you've seen around MFP for offered up for us to pontificate on? Don't mind if I do! ;-)

Rumor Mill - Fact or Fiction:

1) Don't input your exercise into MFP. It will mess up your calorie intake for consistency day-to-day. Put a 1 if you want friends to give you snaps. (I log my gym effort in the Exercise Notes section daily)

This really depends on how you are calculating your calories, TDEE or MFP/NEAT. I eat back exercise calories, so I input them/use a Fitbit.

2) Eat 2000 Calories a day - With heavy gym, you need to keep your calories up. Increase carbs to 232, 48f and 160p

Depends on how heavy your gym is, how fast you want to lose, what your daily activity and other numbers are. I think 160 protein is unnecessarily high with a goal weight of 130 (I think it should be based on LBM), but it wouldn't hurt you if you like eating that way.

3) Eat below 1000 Calories - Achieve this by eating high protein, low carbs and fat. High protein is needed to build and repair muscle.

Too low, obviously.

4) Keep an eye out for carb and sugar intake. Try to keep carbs below 60. Unused carbs turn to fat, and fat builds more fat.

The last part is nonsense--increased fat is caused by a surplus of calories. Low carb works for some people, it's personal choice. I find it's easier to cut calories without really noticing it if I cut carbs some, but for me that means 40% or below, no where near so low as 60 g (but again low carb can work if it fits your preferences). If you are having trouble staying satiated or keeping calories down, definitely check out sugar numbers just to understand where they are and if they are high, and you also might want to look at overall micronutrient content, which would also involve seeing what percentage of your diet is higher sugar/calorie AND lower nutrient items, but I wouldn't stress about it, especially not the sugar in fruit and dairy.

5) Avoid bread. If you must, only eat whole wheat bread - if you do have a slice of bread, have no more than a half a slice

If you like bread, eat bread unless it leads to excess calories. I am neutral to eh on most bread, so find it a good way to cut calories, but with rare exceptions (naan, for example) I'm not going to overeat bread, so it would be a pointless thing to eliminate.

6) No pasta. If you must, whole wheat pasta only.

Silly. If it isn't your thing or you are doing low carb, sure, whatever. Otherwise just watch serving sizes and make a nutrient dense tasty sauce. See if you like the sauce on vegetable-type foods on occasion as an alternative, maybe. Try whole-wheat pasta to see if you like it. I think it goes really well with certain kinds of sauce, whereas I prefer white with others.

7) Cut out cereals (like Kaji) that are high in carbs

See comments on bread and pasta.

8) Don't drink almond milk. High fat and carb content

Drink it if you like it, need an alternative to dairy, or find it a good way to cut calories. Just don't then lecture others about how you are better than those who eat processed foods! I like dairy, though, personally.

9) When having a salad, use straight red wine vinegar only. No olive oil of any kind. Balsamic vinegar is much higher in carbs and sugar. Stay away.

Use what you like. A little fat is good with veggies, but this can be achieved by adding some cheese or olives to the salad and using red wine vinegar (or making dressing out of it with mustard, etc.). Or use olive oil or find some dressing that is acceptable to you at the store, whatever makes it more likely you will enjoy eating vegetables.

10) Avoid bananas, dried fruits like crancherries, etc. Bananas are high in carbs and sugar which turn to fat

No, but be aware that bananas and especially dried fruits have a good amount of calories and dried fruits may not be as filling as the whole ones.

11) Unsweetened ice-tea and the water in your protein drink count as water intake

Sure, why not.

12) Eat six small meals a day. A yogurt or 1 protein drink is considered a meal

Eat however many meals make you feel happiest and most satisfied on your calorie allotment. I like 3 and rarely snack since I don't enjoy small meals that much, but people differ.

13) Weigh everything

If you are counting calories it makes it easier and more accurate, although I lost fine before I started weighing. Weighing is kind of fun.

14) Macro intake - must be +/- 5 of your daily goal. Need to hit exact intake daily.

Depends on your goals.

15) Have protein with every meal. Eat egg whites only. Or, 3 egg whites and 1 egg minimum. Egg whites are high in protein and have no fat or carbs.

Protein with every meal works really well for me, but experiment to find what works for you. I'm against tossing yolks and think eggs have few enough calories that it's silly not to eat the yolks and seems to suggest fat phobia or the like. But egg whites (the cartons are less wasteful) have their uses if you want to add a little protein to an omelet or add more liquid due to the amount of veggies without the calories from a whole 'nother egg. And if you don't like egg yolks, no need to eat them, of course.

16) Calories aren't important to monitor as much as your macros and fat intake.

Calories are important but if you count macros you are also counting calories so could do it that way. Fat intake strikes me as like the least important thing, but I'm sure some people differ, possibly even for good reasons!

Agree with these responses, though I'll clarify that I think everything you drink, along with the liquids in your foods, counts toward your water goal, which itself is a relatively arbitrary number from and old, descriptive study of how much hydration real people were getting.

This sounds like a pretty obsessive way to eat tbh. If you are a performance athlete looking for the peak of health and fitness maybe control like this is necessary. But I think most normal people can just calorie count. Try and keep their macros in some sort of balance and eat the food.

QFT....

Soooooo much of this ^^^^^

No wonder people are so scared to lose weight. You don't HAVE to give up anything. It doesn't HAVE to be complicated and you don't HAVE to starve. Is there some trial and error? Yes. Do you have to step outside your comfort zone? Yes. Do you have to change some habits? Yes. But ultimately you want to adopt habits that are SUSTAINABLE and will lead you down a path of long term success.

Eat at a deficit/maintenance/surplus (depending on your goals), log honestly, weight and measure everything. Eat foods that you enjoy and do exercise that you enjoy. Live a happy life and enjoy every minute of it.