MFP suggested "maintenance calories" reached = tells me I'll gain weight?
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MarianMarMoi
Posts: 87 Member
Hello everyone! I'm just a little confused so I made this thread.
I've been trying to find a meal plan that makes me reach my calorie goal every day, I set it to maintenance just so that I know that's the number to beat every day (+ the macros) since I am a little low in my weight. I'd say I'm pretty close to the goal, I could just add an apple to what I eat every day and I'll be over it, but last night I completed an entry that was 11 calories below, and this is what mfp says:
Does mfp have a minimum maintenance? Because looking at this it seems that I could just keep eating slightly below the maintenance and still gain weight, meaning it's not maintenance.
I've been trying to find a meal plan that makes me reach my calorie goal every day, I set it to maintenance just so that I know that's the number to beat every day (+ the macros) since I am a little low in my weight. I'd say I'm pretty close to the goal, I could just add an apple to what I eat every day and I'll be over it, but last night I completed an entry that was 11 calories below, and this is what mfp says:
Does mfp have a minimum maintenance? Because looking at this it seems that I could just keep eating slightly below the maintenance and still gain weight, meaning it's not maintenance.
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Replies
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You need to find out for yourself what your maintenance calories are. Mfp calculates them, but those calculations are based on population averages. No single person is average. That means you could be higher or lower. Thus why not stick with this for a few weeks and see what your weight does. I know that my maintenance cals are higher than what mfp tells me. Thus whenever I actually track my food and close out the diary it tells me I will gain weight. Which I won't.
Your problem... maybe more of a glitch?1 -
Don't pay too much attention to the "if every day were like today" thing. It's a gimmicks and a generalization and it can be glitchy. The only way to know whether the maintenance calories MFP estimated is correct is to follow it for a few weeks and see what happens. If your weight isn't doing what you want, tweak from there.2
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I'm sorry, but it's just not that smart. "Maintenance calories" MFP gives you are just an estimate, the average for a person your sex/age/activity level/size/etc. Your actual individual body will be a little different than the estimate. So don't stress about it. It's not gospel.
Use the estimate MFP gives you to guide your eating for 4-6 weeks, then adjust your calorie goal based on your actual personal weight loss results.
Your actual maintenance is the amount your weight stays stable at if you eat that way on average over time, and the most accurate way to figure it out is by your eating and loss rate, plus a little math. The MFP estimate is just a starting point.
I'm in year 3 of maintenance. My weight stays stable when I eat several hundred calories more than MFP thinks I should. That big a difference is unusual, most people are close, but it happens. Shrug.1 -
Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
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MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?1 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?
That was my thought. OP, have you recalculated your goal lately?0 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?
That was my thought. OP, have you recalculated your goal lately?
No, I don't think I've changed my weight on here since I joined.
I did however change from "gain 0.25 kg per week" to maintenance some days ago because I thought it was easier to keep track that way, could that have confused it?0 -
MarianMarMoi wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?
That was my thought. OP, have you recalculated your goal lately?
No, I don't think I've changed my weight on here since I joined.
I did however change from "gain 0.25 kg per week" to maintenance some days ago because I thought it was easier to keep track that way, could that have confused it?
It shouldn't have. It gets glitch sometimes. You might go back and check that everything is set up the way you think it is.
One other thought: Do you have a monitor (like a FitBit) synced to MFP? If you did, and it wasn't showing you as burning as many calories on that day as MFP thinks you should for the activity level you told it, that might be the issue (but I'm out of my depth a bit here, as I don't use a synced fitness monitor.)0 -
Did you set it to maintain the weight you are now or your goal weight?0
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lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?
That was my thought. OP, have you recalculated your goal lately?
No, I don't think I've changed my weight on here since I joined.
I did however change from "gain 0.25 kg per week" to maintenance some days ago because I thought it was easier to keep track that way, could that have confused it?
It shouldn't have. It gets glitch sometimes. You might go back and check that everything is set up the way you think it is.
One other thought: Do you have a monitor (like a FitBit) synced to MFP? If you did, and it wasn't showing you as burning as many calories on that day as MFP thinks you should for the activity level you told it, that might be the issue (but I'm out of my depth a bit here, as I don't use a synced fitness monitor.)
Everything looks to be as it should, it is quite odd, if it's not a glitch I'm really not sure where that number would come from.
I don't have anything synced to mfp, I just log food every now and then on my laptop. I've still not gotten around to log my steps and exercises.
54.7 kg after 5 weeks would mean a bit more than 0.5 kg gain per week, which isn't even what I would have gotten if I had eaten 2100 like the 0.25 kg/week mfp setting told me... It has to be a glitch, no way I could gain weight that fast eating 1800 calories!0 -
DancingMoosie wrote: »Did you set it to maintain the weight you are now or your goal weight?
I haven't changed the weight that I put on mfp in the beginning, so it is that weight that it has set to maintain on.0 -
MarianMarMoi wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?
That was my thought. OP, have you recalculated your goal lately?
No, I don't think I've changed my weight on here since I joined.
I did however change from "gain 0.25 kg per week" to maintenance some days ago because I thought it was easier to keep track that way, could that have confused it?
It would change certain calculations behind the scenes, such that some of what you see on the screen before you made the change will be different from what you see after you make the change. No delayed effect though, except the delay of you maybe not looking closely at some particular value on the screen until a few days after the change.
There are quite a few profile changes a person can make that could make the "5 weeks" calculation have a somewhat different result for the same daily calories: Not just weight, but the activity level setting, age (recent birthday?), etc.0 -
MarianMarMoi wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?
That was my thought. OP, have you recalculated your goal lately?
No, I don't think I've changed my weight on here since I joined.
I did however change from "gain 0.25 kg per week" to maintenance some days ago because I thought it was easier to keep track that way, could that have confused it?
It would change certain calculations behind the scenes, such that some of what you see on the screen before you made the change will be different from what you see after you make the change. No delayed effect though, except the delay of you maybe not looking closely at some particular value on the screen until a few days after the change.
There are quite a few profile changes a person can make that could make the "5 weeks" calculation have a somewhat different result for the same daily calories: Not just weight, but the activity level setting, age (recent birthday?), etc.
Hmm, okay. I haven't had anything else changed on here. My birthday has not been yet, I haven't changed the activity level either. The only thing that I have changed was back to maintenance.
I've been playing around with recipes, but that shouldn't affect that part either.0 -
MarianMarMoi wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?
That was my thought. OP, have you recalculated your goal lately?
No, I don't think I've changed my weight on here since I joined.
I did however change from "gain 0.25 kg per week" to maintenance some days ago because I thought it was easier to keep track that way, could that have confused it?
It would change certain calculations behind the scenes, such that some of what you see on the screen before you made the change will be different from what you see after you make the change. No delayed effect though, except the delay of you maybe not looking closely at some particular value on the screen until a few days after the change.
There are quite a few profile changes a person can make that could make the "5 weeks" calculation have a somewhat different result for the same daily calories: Not just weight, but the activity level setting, age (recent birthday?), etc.
Hmm, okay. I haven't had anything else changed on here. My birthday has not been yet, I haven't changed the activity level either. The only thing that I have changed was back to maintenance.
I've been playing around with recipes, but that shouldn't affect that part either.
It's a puzzler, but probably not worth worrying about unless you like solving puzzles.
Best of luck with your goals.2 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?lynn_glenmont wrote: »MarianMarMoi wrote: »Thank you all for your answers.
I never expected it to give me an exact and correct number on what I need, I've just used it to aim at something. I got confused that mfp said it would make me gain weight when it is their number for maintenance, but I guess it's a glitch like you all say
Have you perhaps logged a new, lower bodyweight since MFP calculated the number you're using for maintenance?
That was my thought. OP, have you recalculated your goal lately?
No, I don't think I've changed my weight on here since I joined.
I did however change from "gain 0.25 kg per week" to maintenance some days ago because I thought it was easier to keep track that way, could that have confused it?
It would change certain calculations behind the scenes, such that some of what you see on the screen before you made the change will be different from what you see after you make the change. No delayed effect though, except the delay of you maybe not looking closely at some particular value on the screen until a few days after the change.
There are quite a few profile changes a person can make that could make the "5 weeks" calculation have a somewhat different result for the same daily calories: Not just weight, but the activity level setting, age (recent birthday?), etc.
Hmm, okay. I haven't had anything else changed on here. My birthday has not been yet, I haven't changed the activity level either. The only thing that I have changed was back to maintenance.
I've been playing around with recipes, but that shouldn't affect that part either.
It's a puzzler, but probably not worth worrying about unless you like solving puzzles.
Best of luck with your goals.
Thank you! I do like puzzles, but I think I'll skip that one! 1
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