What is wrong with MFP diet/fitness profile?

nytrifisoul
nytrifisoul Posts: 500 Member
edited November 2019 in Fitness and Exercise
Its seems no matter how many days/min i choose for weekly workout it doesnt change how many pounds per week or how many pounds in a month i will lose. It seems the only thing that seems to change how many pounds you will lose is your normal daily activities. This doesn't work for me because my job requires both deskjob, and hard labor, meaning some days i am sitting at a desk, and some days i am all over the place doing manual labor/contruction.

I have been keeping track of my calories in calories out in my head, but i was using MFP as a baseline and i now realize while i am still losing weight, its slower then it should be because MFP has me calculated as 1.3lb/week even though i choose 2lb/week. And it wont change unless i choose a higher daily activity level which i don't want to do because it changes daily.

It would be much more reliable for me to change and stick to the daily workout min/hour to compensate for the lb/per week/month
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Replies

  • nytrifisoul
    nytrifisoul Posts: 500 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    the workout goals doesn't have anything to do with your calorie goal. I'm not really sure why that's there.

    MFP only uses your daily activity setting to calculate your calorie goal. If you're losing slower than you like, maybe change it down a setting. If you're active half of the time, and sedentary half of the time, maybe just choose "lightly active" and see how that goes for a while. (for example)

    The problem is, i might only be lightly active 2 out of 5 days. Which brings up a question, does MFP assume 5 or 7 days? Most people do jack *kitten* on there days off, or if anything, a little bit of exercise.
  • nytrifisoul
    nytrifisoul Posts: 500 Member
    I don't know, this just seems easier to completely forget about using MFP and just calculate it all in my head. There should be a option to add a set amount of weekly calories burned or minutes doing a specific exercise so it affects your profile. Its easier for me to stick with a exercise routine , then to keep going in there on a daily bases changing my job activity level.

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,907 Member
    Did you read that link in my post above?

    It may help you. I'm not sure we ( or I ) am understanding your issue entirely.
  • Go_Deskercise
    Go_Deskercise Posts: 1,630 Member
    I don't know, this just seems easier to completely forget about using MFP and just calculate it all in my head. There should be a option to add a set amount of weekly calories burned or minutes doing a specific exercise so it affects your profile. Its easier for me to stick with a exercise routine , then to keep going in there on a daily bases changing my job activity level.

    Your are making this more difficult than it needs to be....

    Keep your activity level at one setting and log your calories.
    Do you use any kind of fitness tracker because it will give you + or - calories based on your level of activity for that day. It all happens automatically
  • nytrifisoul
    nytrifisoul Posts: 500 Member
    I dont use a fitness tracker. Just a polar H7 and a smart phone with the Polar Beat app. My gripe was i was under the assumtion that everything in the fitness profile affected the daily calorie intake goal to lose 2lb/week. Then after almost two months i just realized it defaulted to 1.3lb/week and never changed my daily goal calorie intake. I am staying below my daily calorie goal but the weight loss is stalling and its probably because i was trying to stay close to what MFP suggested.

    Whats the point of entering in how much you want to lose in a week if it doesn't change how many calories you should eat per day.

    Example: i select sedentary and want to lose 2lbs/week it sets calories to 1500 a day, but below tells me i will lose 1.3lb/week. Only if i choose lightly active will it then change to 1.8lb/week. And if you change your weekly workout it doesnt affect it at all.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,443 Member
    I dont use a fitness tracker. Just a polar H7 and a smart phone with the Polar Beat app. My gripe was i was under the assumtion that everything in the fitness profile affected the daily calorie intake goal to lose 2lb/week. Then after almost two months i just realized it defaulted to 1.3lb/week and never changed my daily goal calorie intake. I am staying below my daily calorie goal but the weight loss is stalling and its probably because i was trying to stay close to what MFP suggested.

    Whats the point of entering in how much you want to lose in a week if it doesn't change how many calories you should eat per day.

    Example: i select sedentary and want to lose 2lbs/week it sets calories to 1500 a day, but below tells me i will lose 1.3lb/week. Only if i choose lightly active will it then change to 1.8lb/week. And if you change your weekly workout it doesnt affect it at all.

    MFP won't allow you to go under 1200 calories for 2 lbs per week. So, to lose 2 lbs per week, perhaps you would really need 1100 calorie per day. MFP won't allow that. So, it gives you 1200 calories and you only lose 1.8 lbs per week.
  • nytrifisoul
    nytrifisoul Posts: 500 Member

    MFP won't allow you to go under 1200 calories for 2 lbs per week. So, to lose 2 lbs per week, perhaps you would really need 1100 calorie per day. MFP won't allow that. So, it gives you 1200 calories and you only lose 1.8 lbs per week.

    Is that for women? Maybe 1500 is the limit MFP will allow for men. I wish i would have known that if true. I didn't notice it say that anywhere when i was putting in my info.

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,443 Member

    MFP won't allow you to go under 1200 calories for 2 lbs per week. So, to lose 2 lbs per week, perhaps you would really need 1100 calorie per day. MFP won't allow that. So, it gives you 1200 calories and you only lose 1.8 lbs per week.

    Is that for women? Maybe 1500 is the limit MFP will allow for men. I wish i would have known that if true. I didn't notice it say that anywhere when i was putting in my info.

    Yes. 1200 for women, 1500 for men.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    Its seems no matter how many days/min i choose for weekly workout it doesnt change how many pounds per week or how many pounds in a month i will lose. It seems the only thing that seems to change how many pounds you will lose is your normal daily activities. This doesn't work for me because my job requires both deskjob, and hard labor, meaning some days i am sitting at a desk, and some days i am all over the place doing manual labor/contruction.

    I have been keeping track of my calories in calories out in my head, but i was using MFP as a baseline and i now realize while i am still losing weight, its slower then it should be because MFP has me calculated as 1.3lb/week even though i choose 2lb/week. And it wont change unless i choose a higher daily activity level which i don't want to do because it changes daily.

    It would be much more reliable for me to change and stick to the daily workout min/hour to compensate for the lb/per week/month

    MFP uses the NEAT method and only regular daily activity is factored into your calorie goals. Your exercise goals are just for you and have no bearing on your calorie targets which is why you log purposeful exercise and get additional calories to "eat back"

    MFP won't allow you to go under 1200 calories for 2 lbs per week. So, to lose 2 lbs per week, perhaps you would really need 1100 calorie per day. MFP won't allow that. So, it gives you 1200 calories and you only lose 1.8 lbs per week.

    Is that for women? Maybe 1500 is the limit MFP will allow for men. I wish i would have known that if true. I didn't notice it say that anywhere when i was putting in my info.

    1500 is the bottom limit for men. 2 Lbs per week means 1,000 calorie deficit...you're getting 1.3 Lbs per week because your NEAT at sedentary is not high enough to have a 1,000 calorie deficit without going below the lower limit for men @ 1500 calories. MFP is estimating your NEAT to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,300 calories at sedentary.
  • nytrifisoul
    nytrifisoul Posts: 500 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    I guess we figured out the problem. You don't need to be losing 2 lbs a week. That's too aggressive and would have you eating far too little calories. Change your goal to 1 lb a week.

    No the problem is i can't accurately add a daily activity level as it changes daily. The only constant would be entering in a daily workout which has no affect on daily limits. And i was not aware of this for the past two months. I am now aware, and come to the conclusion its pointless for me to use MFP to track CICO. Might aswell log everything down on a piece of paper since i basicly have to manually log every daily change in MFP. Seems like more work.

    Anyway, if it works for others more power to ya's.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,724 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    I guess we figured out the problem. You don't need to be losing 2 lbs a week. That's too aggressive and would have you eating far too little calories. Change your goal to 1 lb a week.

    No the problem is i can't accurately add a daily activity level as it changes daily. The only constant would be entering in a daily workout which has no affect on daily limits. And i was not aware of this for the past two months. I am now aware, and come to the conclusion its pointless for me to use MFP to track CICO. Might aswell log everything down on a piece of paper since i basicly have to manually log every daily change in MFP. Seems like more work.

    Anyway, if it works for others more power to ya's.

    So just use your average amount of activity to set your activity level, or set your calorie goal manually. If you like, calculate your calorie goal using an external TDEE calculator (like Sailrabbit or Scooby's Workshop) that lets you account for your exercise and activity level differently, then plug that calorie goal in manually here.

    Or do it in your head, if that's easier.

    (Doing it in my head was how I stalled weight loss, and what made me start using MFP way back in 2015. Since I'm still at a healthy weight now, after decades of obesity before 2015, I'm pretty happy with MFP. But it doesn't suit everyone; maybe it doesn't suit you.)
  • ktekc
    ktekc Posts: 879 Member
    Why do you think that logging a daily workout in the exercise log wouldn't effect your daily limit? If you log say, 250 cal burnt doing a jog it will add 250 to your calorie goal for the day. If doing strength training log it under cardio so it will actually give you calories back (though not much) Most people eat about 50-75% of the calories given by a workout til they know if the numbers are correct then adjust from there.
  • nytrifisoul
    nytrifisoul Posts: 500 Member
    ktekc wrote: »
    Why do you think that logging a daily workout in the exercise log wouldn't effect your daily limit? If you log say, 250 cal burnt doing a jog it will add 250 to your calorie goal for the day. If doing strength training log it under cardio so it will actually give you calories back (though not much) Most people eat about 50-75% of the calories given by a workout til they know if the numbers are correct then adjust from there.

    I assumed there was a "general" amount of calories figured in the daily workout min/hr just like there is a general amount of calories figured into the daily activity level. Not sure why some of you are having a hard time understanding why someone would think that option would change the amount of daily calorie intake. Like i said, why even have that option in there if it does nothing.