MFP saying 1100 cals a day?....... Super confused now, please help

Ok so the biggest thing is your body absolutely needs the extra calories if you are working out 5 times a week. I'm doing the same, and after a month had no results. But I was hardly eating over 1000 calories. Now that I am eating more, I am losing weight. When you exercise, your body speeds up your metabolism. If you are not eating enough, your body starts getting confused and has to go into energy saving mode. The biggest thing with eating more is you HAVE to balance your micros and macros. I have found MFP to be my greatest tool for doing this. I'm still not perfect with it, but I have gotten much better. Also, instead of 3 big meals with snacks in between, try 5-7 smaller, more balanced meals.

To calculate protein, carbs, fiber, and fat per day:

A. Body weight x 1.25 = grams protein
B. Body weight x .45 = grams fat
C. (grams protein above x 4) + (grams of fat above x 9) = calories from fat and protein
D. Starting calorie amount - calories from fat/protein = total calories from carbs
E. Calories from carbs / 4 = grams carbs

Other tips:
1. Take in 25-35 grams fiber per day
2. Keep sodium between 1500-2000 mg daily
3. On sedentary days drop carbs by 25%
4. Try to keep your sugar intake below 30 grams
5. Avoid fat and fiber in pre- and post- workout meals (keep fiber around 3 grams and fat under 4 grams)

I calculate my meal totals according to these numbers so that my meals are balanced, and I am not taking in all my carbs in one meal and fat in another. When you balance you nutrients, your body processes them easier, making them more digestible which is also why you are able to take in more calories per day. I wouldn't expect results the next day, but I am a week and a half into this method and I am finally starting to see the results I want.

You said you eat a lot of carbs and have pcos.. Have you considered playing with your macros?

A higher level of insulin, which is common in those with pcos, can make it difficult to maintain a healthy weight. I'm hypoglycemic and would also not lose on a low calorie diet with exercise because of the types of food I was eating. I have since gone keto..eating only 18g of net carbs per day and it has helped tremendously. I wouldn't recommend keto for someone who is accustomed to high carbs or without consulting a doctor.

However, it probably wouldn't hurt to look at what you are eating and when. It's important to incorporate fats and proteins with carbs in order to decrease insulin spikes. Also, consuming carbs that are also high in fiber will help. Lots of water is important, as well.

I do wonder if you've found a glitch in the MFP app as the goal shouldn't go below 1,200. I get 1,280 cals a day if I set it at 1lb/week. Change it to 1.5lbs/week and it says 1,200. Change it to 2lbs a week and it still says 1,200. It's not meant to go below 1,200. What it's saying is that at my weight, I can't lose 2lbs a week without under-eating, so I have to go slower.

There's either a glitch in the app or you've previously edited your cals manually to 1,100 (you can edit what it shows) and now it doesn't update automatically when you change your goal. Maybe try re-installing the app.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/3300-pcos-and-low-glycemic-eating and other groups may help

Carry on as you are doing. But let's see why MFP is giving you these number and look at a strategy for PCOS.

Let's look at the math:
You calculated your BMR and TDEE.
You got 2400 TDEE, BMR of 1600, which is in between lightly active and active.
That seems like a reasonable starting point. How would MFP use that?

Lets start with assuming that MFP uses the same base number:

--BMR 1600 * sedentary (1.25) ~ 2000 TDEE
--2lb loss = -3500 cals * 2 / 7 days ~ about - 900 to 1000 cals

This is why it MFP gives you 1100 cals for that type of cut. It makes sense from the math but it also assumes that you will be eating back your exercise activity.

What MFP is actually telling you for that weight loss of 2 lbs, is eat 1100 cals + exercise cals which is going to be around 1500? Or so. If you were on a TDEE-20% cut you would have to set your cals to 1920 for about a 1lb loss per week.

So MFP/TDEE cut method agree:

2lb loss: 1100 + exercise cals
1lb loss: probably 1600 + exercise cals
1lb loss (TDEE-20%): 1920 cals

But all of this is academic if you are losing only 0.5 lb per week at about 1400 avr where you should be expecting closer to 1 lb+ per week.

That just leads to frustration.

Let's look at some of the issues and make real recommendations.

First why can the numbers be off? Could be logging, could be weight loss is being hidden by exercise activity, could be the effects of PCOS. Whatever the reason, it suggests that short term thinking has to be replaced by long term tracking - if the weight loss is hidden normal water weight, TOMs, etc. it will only show up over longer tracking and "woosh" effects.

Your macros settings look fine.

You can keep your settings at 1100 + 240 of exercise cals and your 1600 days which puts you in about 1400 average a week. OR If the warning is bothering you - set MFP at 1340 and don't eat back exercise. But I don't like this because we sometimes lose the motivation for exercise.

Now to the nitty gritty of macros:

How good are you at hitting your macro over time? Are you keeping below the carb limit to see if that helps or is it impossible?

There are a few strategies for reducing carbs:

1) slow reduction - accept that you might be eating a lot of carbs and slowly track and reduce amount over time.
2) full carb reduction with refeeds - go on a LCHF to get some satisfying loss (a lot will be water weight) for a period of 6-8 weeks
3) embrace a low carb lifestyle - I'm not a fan, but a lot of people swear by that...
4) etc...

BUT whatever the strategy you choose - I would first just track and see where you are over time.

I'd say you want to be able to look at something like this and see how you are doing with carbs over time:



In summary Keep doing what you are doing your 1300/1600 is fine - see first if carbs are consistent, define a carb tracking/reduction strategy for 6-8 weeks, if you want to test, look at your data and determine if tenable (mentally). See if it improved loss rate.
DON'T GO CRAZY.

Oh, and use the tool - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/EvgeniZyntx/view/mfp-data-export-tool-the-overview-659927

rayrayfitz wrote: »

Phrick wrote: »

@rayrayfitz‌ - you need to start including in your posts that you have PCOS. It is a metabolic disorder and it needs to be taken into consideration by people who want to help you. It basically makes all the online calculators pretty much irrelevant to your particular situation, and by leaving out that very key piece of information you are going to get lots of advice that is really useless to you. PCOS changes the "CICO" equation, sometimes quite significantly, because your body doesn't process carbs the same way as a person without PCOS. CICO will still work, but you have understand that YOUR CICO equation is different. Someone with identical stats to you who does NOT have PCOS, will (sadly) get to eat more calories than you because your body just does not work the same way. And Scooby's and all the other TDEE calcs out there assume you do not have any kind of underlying issue to muck up the equation.

See this confuses me also, as my GP told me that PCOS as and struggling to lose weight is an old wives tail and is an excuse for peopel who aren't motivated to lose weight, so I never thought it was relevant. He said nothing except a true thyroid issue would influence, and the effect PCOS has on your metabolism is "rubbish"

http://www.webmd.com/women/polycystic-ovary-syndrome-pcos-and-weight-gain
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/2/1/35
http://humupd.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/5/432

The GP is wrong! While it is true that you can still lose weight with PCOS, it is well known that it makes it much more difficult due to metabolic syndrome that often accompanies PCOS.