5 week prediction - is it accurate?

JK1542020
JK1542020 Posts: 73 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So you know when you complete your diary it gives you a prediction of what youd weigh in 5 weeks if you eat that amount of calories each day? Is there any chance you can do better? I assume its suppise to be motivational but i find it very depressing and the opposite of motivational. I think "is that all?!" And it makes me want to eat less wich isnt necessarily a good thing.

Is it accurate? Can i acheive better or is that it?

Replies

  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    How much do you have available to lose and how much are you trying to lose every week?

    The predictions are usually wrong in ALL directions because people neither eat nor move the same for 5 days in a row and even when they do weight still changes unpredictably.

    However I concur with @amusedmonkey that the most common reason people give up is unrealistic expectations, hence my first question.

    Yes, you are right, it could be wrong in any direction. My thoughts were influenced by the barrage of why am I not losing weight threads and those who lose more just don't post as often.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,600 Member
    edited April 2020
    freelymama wrote: »
    So you know when you complete your diary it gives you a prediction of what youd weigh in 5 weeks if you eat that amount of calories each day? Is there any chance you can do better? I assume its suppise to be motivational but i find it very depressing and the opposite of motivational. I think "is that all?!" And it makes me want to eat less wich isnt necessarily a good thing.

    Is it accurate? Can i acheive better or is that it?

    You won't see it if you don't click on "Complete this Entry"/"Complete Diary".

    I believe the only other effect of not clicking that is that MFP won't put the end of day message into your timeline, telling your MFP friends you completed the day and did/didn't come in under calorie goal. If you want to tell your MFP friends how your day went, you can type a message on your timeline instead (and that actually probably would get you more social interaction, if you're more descriptive than the default message).

    So, it's pretty optional to see that. If you don't want to, don't click "Complete".

    I agree with others that it would be more productive to focus on making your weight loss process more sustainable, not faster. (You're getting advice above from people who've actually been successful at loss and maintenance, in case that isn't clear.)

    Most of us will be best served by figuring out how to stay at a healthy weight permanently, after we get to goal. Not only does keeping the loss process more sustainable make it likelier we'll actually reach goal, it also makes it likelier we'll be healthy/strong/vibrant when we do, and it gives us a chance to experiment with finding an exercise and eating routine that will keep us at a healthy weight long term.

    Losing fast? Gets us to goal quicker, unless the unsustainability torpedos the overall effort, and may not do any of that other good stuff.

    Best wishes!
  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
    Not in my experience.
  • xmissxamyx
    xmissxamyx Posts: 70 Member
    patrickaa5 wrote: »
    I think it's motivational when I overeat and see that if I keep that up for 5 weeks I'll gain 15lbs.

    That's really the only time i ever click 'complete diary' if I've eaten way more than i should've. Seeing the negative impact laid out in front of me really motivates me to do better.
  • brendog79
    brendog79 Posts: 60 Member
    I'm 340 lbs. Mfp is estimating a 17 or 18 lb loss in 5 weeks but I've lost 11 lbs in 10 days now for an avg of a lb a day.
  • Jacq_qui
    Jacq_qui Posts: 443 Member
    Nope, not accurate, not useful, but I like to see that one day I might weigh that!
  • hipari
    hipari Posts: 1,367 Member
    The 5-week prediction is now within 10lbs of my first major milestone goal. Seeing the prediction go up, down and near that goal is motivating me because it makes two things more concrete: 1) I am losing weight and getting closer to that goal, and I can reach it in a reasonable amount of time 2) If I eat over my calorie goal, it will have concrete effects on whether the scale moves towards my goal or not.

    I don't trust the prediction to be accurate, though.
  • sassysmom35
    sassysmom35 Posts: 130 Member
    edited July 2020
    Every day for the past 3 months it says in 5 weeks I'll weigh somewhere in the 150s.
    Every. Day.
    Currently 167.4
    And I weigh EVERYTHING and don't eat my exercise calories back.
    So yeah not accurate at all over here lol
    I wouldn't put any stock in it
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    I deliberately had an uneven daily eating pattern so the daily prediction was wildly inaccurate despite losing weight steadily week on week. My actual rate of weight loss only needed one small adjustment to my calorie goal after a few weeks to compensate for fairly relaxed but consistent logging to proceed at my predicted rate.

    Not sure what you mean by "doing better"?
    To be hitting my weight loss goal on target was the best I could do and either slower or faster weight loss was worse not better because I picked a sensible and sustainable rate of loss.
    Losing quicker wasn't my aim and I suspect you may be regarding "faster" as "better" when those words have different meanings.
  • Kabbij
    Kabbij Posts: 6 Member
    I don't know how accurate it is, but I use it as a vague indication that I'm on the right track :) as long as mine says 2.5kg less (a pound a week), I'm happy! If I overeat and it says less, I know I need to do better.

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