Accuracy of MFP against individual specifics?

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caitycaits
caitycaits Posts: 4
in Health and Weight Loss
I joined MFP several weeks ago, and it started off going great, but lately it's not been so helpful.
Today I entered in my food intake and my cardio exercises, and my net gain was only 434ish calories..
Now I've noticed since I started that I'm always under my calorie target, perhaps not always the sugar target as that is my biggets problem, and at first it didn't bother me; but now I'm doing more exercise to 'tone up' and it's significantly decreased my net gain of calories. I weigh myself pretty much every day and I'm just about a healthy weight and it very rarely changes unless I'm ill, so I don't understand what's going on. I have a high metabolism but that doesn't contribute to anything..
I'm pretty sure I don't have a problem with my health regime, I don't need to eat that much every day but I'm a bit worried that maybe I don't eat enough substantial food, like proper meals etc.
Should I be eating more? As I said before, my weight doesn't change drastically like MFP would suggest, but I am worried that maybe I'm burning off muscle that I'm trying to gain and that's not good.
Sorry for the ramble, but any suggestions? Should I just adjust the MFP results to my own individual needs or should I eat more protein high foods just in case? Thanks (:

Replies

  • WifeMomDVM
    WifeMomDVM Posts: 1,025 Member
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    Well, I can't see your diary so I'm not sure what you are eating. I manually set my settings to 40% carb, 30% protein, and 30% fat. Also, not sure from your post if you are eating are your exercise calories. Always eat your exercise calories to avoid starvation mode. If you want to build muscle - then yes, you may need to increase your protein intake some but also you have to work those muscles and lift some weights.

    Again, not exactly sure what your exact goals are, but hopefully others will be able to help.
  • Elliebee22
    Elliebee22 Posts: 19
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    Hey JP! Yeh it's about eating the calories you've burnt off- you don't need to eat all of them but you need to keep it at the average total. I'm always under as well. I agree with eating more protein filled things if you want to gain more muscle (not that you need it you're like......a wall.....haha)
  • Alexface21
    Alexface21 Posts: 23
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    Ellie.... it's Caitlin not JP. :')
  • costendorf
    costendorf Posts: 3
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    There is a good reason for the manual adjustment of your carbs, protein & fat on MFP. Each person can be completely different and it is impossible for a program to estimate accurately. I would suggest meeting with a nutrition expert to find the plan that works with your current health level. This will also change as you lose weight, gain muscle mass, modify your diet, increase your metabolism and change levels of exercise intensity. Without paying large sums of money to have a metabolic assessment, a good place to start is at a reputable gym by having a standard fitness assessment done to establish a more accurate BMR than any calculator can give. Your level of caloric intake depends greatly on your age, weight, BMI, daily activity and metabolism. My carb/protein/fat caloric percentages are 50/30/20, but that is because I am trying to lean up and build muscle mass. This calorie split can be different depending on your goal. I also consume 2000-2500 calories daily with 60-75 minutes of moderate cardio and STILL have a deficit of 500-700 calories.

    Sugar plays a large role in your responsiveness during activity. Below AT, you burn fat based calories while above AT you burn glucose (sugar) based calories. If your activities are always above AT, you require larger amounts of carbs, but below AT, you should not be consuming so many sugars. Keep in mind that natural sugars such as pure glucose found in fruits are easily converted to energy by your liver, but simple sugars such as fructose require extra work from your organs to convert to usable energy. Any unused sugars will be stored as fat if your metabolism and activity level don't support it. In general, sugars should be kept as low as possible while maintaining the recommended carbohydrate intake. MFP does a pretty decent job of recommending total carbs, but again, this depends on having the proper BMR specified in your goals.
  • caitycaits
    caitycaits Posts: 4
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    There is a good reason for the manual adjustment of your carbs, protein & fat on MFP. Each person can be completely different and it is impossible for a program to estimate accurately. I would suggest meeting with a nutrition expert to find the plan that works with your current health level. This will also change as you lose weight, gain muscle mass, modify your diet, increase your metabolism and change levels of exercise intensity. Without paying large sums of money to have a metabolic assessment, a good place to start is at a reputable gym by having a standard fitness assessment done to establish a more accurate BMR than any calculator can give. Your level of caloric intake depends greatly on your age, weight, BMI, daily activity and metabolism. My carb/protein/fat caloric percentages are 50/30/20, but that is because I am trying to lean up and build muscle mass. This calorie split can be different depending on your goal. I also consume 2000-2500 calories daily with 60-75 minutes of moderate cardio and STILL have a deficit of 500-700 calories.

    Sugar plays a large role in your responsiveness during activity. Below AT, you burn fat based calories while above AT you burn glucose (sugar) based calories. If your activities are always above AT, you require larger amounts of carbs, but below AT, you should not be consuming so many sugars. Keep in mind that natural sugars such as pure glucose found in fruits are easily converted to energy by your liver, but simple sugars such as fructose require extra work from your organs to convert to usable energy. Any unused sugars will be stored as fat if your metabolism and activity level don't support it. In general, sugars should be kept as low as possible while maintaining the recommended carbohydrate intake. MFP does a pretty decent job of recommending total carbs, but again, this depends on having the proper BMR specified in your goals.

    Thanks a lot for all that info; I've calculated a rough BMR and next time I go to the gym I'll get it done properly, and from there work out how much of what I should be eating.

    Thanks again :)

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