MFP is ignoring my stated goals

Does the food you eat matter for muscle retention?

Sure... just not the way you think.

You will retain muscles that you USE (appropriate stimulus, probably via appropriate exercise being the primary driver there), are younger and more male (hormone levels), the closer you are to an energy surplus (ergo the smaller your deficit) and assuming you provide adequate protein (too little is bad, too much is relatively useless though ok for most though detrimental if it ends up crowding out other foods that would be more useful overall).

Whether the complete and digestible and available to your body protein comes from dirty and sugar polluted ice cream or glacier grown snow white extra clean fish or a cheap-*kitten* combination of dried lentils and rice in a broth makes no difference to your body in terms of being able to use that protein to protect your muscles.

Would having an adequate variety of healthy foods (vegetables, fruits), good quality proteins, and appropriate healthy fats make a difference in terms of satiety and nutrition? Absolutely.

Would having the occasional fun calories make a difference in your mental balance and ability to maintain your way of eating for several years? Absolutely.

If you're that worried about muscle retention you would be less worried about your absolute weight and more focused on how you could maintain an adequate exercise program. Absent that drive to strength train (which for example I personally do NOT, currently, have), your next best bet is... you guessed it... reasonable deficits with sufficient protein and a varied and healthy diet that does include a reasonable amount of treats!

Starting from a position of hate doesn't get you far. So you hate the status quo enough to motivate you to change it. Great. Now explore BETTER ALTERNATIVES you can keep doing for a long time to come.

If you want to determine your exact caloric balance:

-- weigh everything you're going to eat or drink.
-- log it BEFORE it crosses your lips.
-- realize that packages don't always list the calories for the totality of the contents.
-- ml mostly equal grams but not always (for example with high fat or high volume items such as ice cream or whipped cream grams are way fewer than ml)
-- weigh yourself daily and under consistent conditions on an UNYIELDING floor
-- use a weight trend application or web site

review your expected weight change over 3+ weeks and compare to your weight trend change (female 4-5 weeks including a hormonal cycle and compare to same points in cycle)

Note that weigh ins for 2-3 days after high sodium meals, airplane travel, or exercise where you felt the burn are likely to include a few lbs of water weight.

aecolley wrote: »

Just ignore MFP's recommendations and projections. Go with what works for you. And switch off that setting that tries to refund exercise calories to your daily target - it's as inaccurate as eyeballing the calories in a peanut butter sandwich.

It's really not. Yes, there are inaccurate ways to measure calories burnt through activity. But there are more accurate ways to do it also. And you can also compare your results to the estimates and make the appropriate adjustments. Assuming you burn *some* calories through exercise is way more accurate than assuming you're burning zero (which is what you're doing when you ignore physical activity completely).