Macros Help

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TanyaJ514
TanyaJ514 Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello! I need help with understanding my macros and why I’m not losing weight. Originally I used MyFitnessPal to calculate my calories and macros but then a trainer friend of mine suggested I use IIFYM to calculate it. I am working out 5-6 days a week; 45 minutes weights and 30 minutes cardio a workout day.

My job is pretty sedentary, I’m a professor working from home. I do get up every two hours to walk my dogs for 10-20 minutes.

According to IIFYM:
Calories: 1820
Protein: 141g
Fat: 64g
Carbs: 170g

I am 29 yo female, 5’7, 172 lb. My goal is to get to 135-140 lb.

I’ve only been counting my macros for 2 weeks consistently and working out like this for 1 week. Two weeks ago I was 177 and dropped to 172 in the first week. Now I haven’t lost any weight at all this past week. I know there won’t be major results right away, but I expected to see some weight loss in these two weeks but I haven’t lost much. According to my scale, my body fat % is 40.4, my muscle mass % is 56.5, and my body water % is 42.6. Any help or advice would be much appreciated. I’m getting super discouraged. Thanks Y’all!

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,958 Member
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    You don't have a lot of weight to lose.

    If you get a one pound per week loss, that would be very good.


  • TanyaJ514
    TanyaJ514 Posts: 4 Member
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    cmriverside wrote: »
    You don't have a lot of weight to lose.

    If you get a one pound per week loss, that would be very good.


    Thank you! I am so new to macro counting I was getting worried. I appreciate your insight!
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,898 Member
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    TanyaJ514 wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    You don't have a lot of weight to lose.

    If you get a one pound per week loss, that would be very good.


    Thank you! I am so new to macro counting I was getting worried. I appreciate your insight!

    Just wanted to make sure you knew it's not the macros per se that are helpful for weight loss - they help indirectly when you arrive at a macro balance that makes you the fullest for the least calories.

    This is why vegans who eat a lot of carbs (which might look like 60% of calories from carbs) can lose weight successfully as can people doing keto who eat a lot of fat (which might look like 60% of calories from fat).

    Looks like you are in the middle, at 32% protein, 31% fat, and 37% carbs.

    The MFP default macros are 20% from protein, 30% from fat, and 50% from carbohydrates.

    Any of these macro splits will work, if they are satiating, and thus help with compliance to a calorie deficit.

    (They can also be unsatisfying, but people white knuckle their way to a calorie deficit. This can lead to problems such as burnout and then binging.)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,154 Member
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    In addition to what others have said, you seem to have started a new exercise program just after starting with the calorie reduction. New exercise tends to increase water retention, as that's part of muscle repair. It can amount to several pounds, and that water weight will mask fat loss on the scale, until the nice fat loss continues long enough to peek out from behind the water-retention clouds.

    Yes, it's true that those body composition scales are not accurate enough to give you comparative data over a period that short. Over many weeks, you may be able to see a useful trend from them (ignoring outlier readings), but the absolute value is always questionable.

    Further, at your age, I'm betting you still have monthly hormonal cycles. Many women see multi-pound water retention changes at points in their cycle, and exactly what those points are can differ by individual (and sometimes even be different in different months)! So, while that's happening, that water retention also masks fat loss. Usually, in this realm, a truer picture comes from comparing your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different cycles.

    I get that all of this is frustrating, but honestly, 2.5 pounds on average per week is faster than it would be sensible (health risk wise, appearance wise) to lose at your size, on a continuing basis, anyway. I'm sure that you want to arrive at the wedding vivacious, glowing, strong and healthy, with glossy hair and a lovely manicure. Losing too fast (more than 0.5-1% of current body weight weekly, on average) starts to risk fatigue, lassitude, looking haggard, maybe thinning hair/brittle nails . . . and there are worse, though even less likely, potential health consequences of very fast loss. I'm not trying to scare you (well, maybe a little), but I do feel like popular media spread ideas that it's healthy and normal to lose super fast (reality TV shows, tabloid headlines like "Lose 20 pounds in 30 days with the Dr. XYZ diet!!!", IG influencers who flat-out misrepresent reality for clicks and follows, etc.)

    Probably your first week's loss included some water weight drop, and perhaps reduced average digestive contents in transit (on the way to becoming waste), in addition to some fat loss. Then, probably in week 2, you have some water weight happening for various reasons that's making the scale mislead.

    Stay with a sensible calorie deficit and good nutrition, keep up the good exercise, and you'll both lose weight and be a beautiful, energetic, vivacious bride. (Congratulations on the upcoming wedding!)

    P.S. This might be an informative thing for you to read:

    https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
  • TanyaJ514
    TanyaJ514 Posts: 4 Member
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    TanyaJ514 wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    You don't have a lot of weight to lose.

    If you get a one pound per week loss, that would be very good.


    Thank you! I am so new to macro counting I was getting worried. I appreciate your insight!

    Just wanted to make sure you knew it's not the macros per se that are helpful for weight loss - they help indirectly when you arrive at a macro balance that makes you the fullest for the least calories.

    This is why vegans who eat a lot of carbs (which might look like 60% of calories from carbs) can lose weight successfully as can people doing keto who eat a lot of fat (which might look like 60% of calories from fat).

    Looks like you are in the middle, at 32% protein, 31% fat, and 37% carbs.

    The MFP default macros are 20% from protein, 30% from fat, and 50% from carbohydrates.

    Any of these macro splits will work, if they are satiating, and thus help with compliance to a calorie deficit.

    (They can also be unsatisfying, but people white knuckle their way to a calorie deficit. This can lead to problems such as burnout and then binging.)

    Thank you! This definitely helps with explaining the breakdown a bit more. It’s so stressful trying to understand the importance of macros and not just calories in general.
  • TanyaJ514
    TanyaJ514 Posts: 4 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    In addition to what others have said, you seem to have started a new exercise program just after starting with the calorie reduction. New exercise tends to increase water retention, as that's part of muscle repair. It can amount to several pounds, and that water weight will mask fat loss on the scale, until the nice fat loss continues long enough to peek out from behind the water-retention clouds.

    Thank you for the information! I definitely can tell my water weight has had a large impact with the extra workouts I’ve been doing. This week I finally saw a slow/steady weight loss and I felt more like I was doing something right. Thank you for the congratulations also!
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
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    You've lost 5 pounds in two weeks. Fantastic work! You're literally doing as great as you could possibly be doing. Weight loss is going to vary from week to week and is frustratingly random and illogical, you just have to roll with it. Keep doing what you're doing.

    There's nothing wrong with focusing on macros but they won't impact your weight loss. Make sure you're hitting that calorie target consistently, because that's where the weight loss will come from.

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