Is the diet and exercise algorithm adjusted for age?

pmdenlinger · September 2022

I am 65 years old, in good health, and have gone from 188lbs to my current 147. I would like to get down to 130 - 135, but it is a real struggle. I walk 10 miles every day and do core and cardio daily. I try to keep my caloric intake between 800 - 1200 daily. The trouble is MyFitness Pro tells me everyday that I am eating less than the FDA’s minimum daily requirements, so it won’t log the information in my diary. I’m thinking that I’m 65 and only 5’5” so of course my metabolism is slower and I require less fuel to keep me going. So I’m wondering maybe the algorithm does not take my age and height into account? Does anyone face similar issues?

spiriteagle99 · September 2022

I am 65, female, and weigh 122 lbs. MFP gave me a base net goal of 1400 when I was 60, but I burn hotter than average, so 1600-1800 actually works better for me. I eat back all my exercise calories. I run, walk and bike mostly, and burn an extra 500+ calories a day, which gives me a lot of leeway. I have successfully maintained my weight for several years.

You are eating too few calories, especially if you aren't eating back your exercise calories. It is very hard to get decent nutrition on less than 1200 calories, which is why MFP won't let you close out your diary when you eat less than that. They don't want to encourage unhealthy behavior. OTOH, if you only need 1400 or so to maintain your weight, eating 1200 calories means that your weight loss will be slow. However, your exercise allows you to eat enough calories to get enough protein, carbs, and fats to maintain health and still keep a reasonable deficit. If you are walking 10 miles a day, you should be eating at least an extra 500 calories to fuel that exercise.

sijomial · September 2022

Yes your age is taken into account when you do your goal set up.

You are simply aiming far too low and the app is trying to guide you towards a healthier approach - please rethink.

pmdenlinger · September 2022

Ok, but if I increase my exercise from the current four hours daily, that would leave very little time for other activity. I have not felt any bad effects or discomfort eating < 1200 calories daily. If anything, my mind and thinking are better. So this makes me think the algorithm is off when it comes to me.

pmdenlinger · September 2022

Just to add some information, my BMI is 24, which is normal for my size and age. I would like to get my BMI down to 16-18, which would count as lean which would mean that I am aiming at < maintenance to get that final 10-15 pounds off.

Lietchi · September 2022

A BMI of 16-18 is not 'lean', it's underweight and really not something you should aim for. Combined with how little you're eating and how much you're exercising, it's setting off alarm bells for me regarding your health.

As for the algorithm: it does take age into consideration. However, it is also based on population averages, individual metabolisms very.

claireychn074 · September 2022

OP - I mean this in the nicest way possible. Your posts are ringing warning bells about disordered eating. No, you shouldn’t increase your exercise beyond your current 4 hours each day in order to lose weight faster. I don’t know if you’re female or male, but male at 16-18% body fat for a 65 year old is lean and could be challenging (unless you’re a long distance cyclist /6runner). As a female it’s very challenging and not that healthy to maintain long term.

You are not eating enough to fuel your body. It doesn’t matter if you feel good, your lack of calories (unless you aren’t tracking accurately which is also possible) means your body will be using muscle as well as fat to survive. Your heart is a muscle. When drastically underfuelling you will slow down as your body tries to conserve energy, you will lose muscle mass as well as fat, and ultimately you will tank and feel dreadful.

You need to eat more.

Hollis300 · September 2022

"Old" person here.

When MFP gives the message that you are eating less than the recommended daily requirement, I believe that means you are eating less than 1000 calories a day (correct me if I'm wrong). Your day will still be in your food diary but won't post to the newsfeed.

Also, less than 1000/day is way, way too few for someone walking 10 miles a day.

Yes, MFP takes age into account when it recommends a daily program of calories, protein, carbs, etc. I am older than you, female, 5'3, and work at a physical job 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Just now I put a younger age into the settings to see if that would change the recommended calories and MFP gave me about 100 calories more per day.

My experience is I've lost about 3 pounds a month without starving myself. I reached goal with no problem and am going to let my body weigh where it ends up, as long as I am at least 10 pounds away from the normal/overweight line. I prefer "real" food to shakes, but I bought some protein shakes for when I'm tired to keep me away from takeout and have found them to be a great supplement to my day.

I can't buy into all the cultural things people say about age and weight loss. I've never had a problem.

Best wishes to you.

springlering62 · September 2022

This is my N=1, however, we are similar in many aspects. I am 60, 5’7”. I work out several hours a day, too, cardio,HIIT, power yoga, Pilates, aquafit with water bells and ankle dragger devices, a wee bit of spin, weightlifting and a lot of walking.

I think more in terms of (Apple Watch) move rotations than hours worked out, typically 4-6 cycles a day.

I do it because I enjoy staying in motion and off the couch, plus a healthy dose of OCD.

I would be sick as a dog at the calories you are describing I cannot even fathom how you do it. How are you holding yourself up?

I maintain at 3000+ per day.

I’m going out in a limb here and thinking maybe you have the same Body Dysmorphia issues I have. In the upper 120’s, I wasn’t lean, I was freaking scary. I couldn’t see it but others sure could.

I’m maintaining at 139-140 right now.

At home, I feel fat, lumpy and dumpy. So I make a point in cardio classes and at the gym to get right in front of and look (hard for a former obese person who avoided for years) at myself in the mirror so I can see what I’m doing and refamiliarize myself with my body. Hopefully, I see there what others see, too. In those moments, I like it. I feel strong, powerful and successful. Making myself acknowledge this has helped.

I’m still lean. In fact, I’m all arms and legs and boy do I have a range. Woe betide anyone within six feet.

If you’re not weight training, aka recomp, consider doing that. In the course of (intentionally) gaining back 12 or so pounds, I have not gained size. If anything, arms and legs have thinned out and muscled up even further.

The other thing I’m going to throw at you…..

We took weight loss up to improve our health, right?

What we’ve both done is turn it into a hamster wheel of fear and mental stress, not to mention physical stress on our bodies.

You’ve got to fuel your body or you’re damaging it just as bad as if you’d done nothing to lose weight- potentially even worse if undereating creates or exacerbates a heart problem.

I just finished a couple hours of exercise. I’ve got 45 minutes before a particular power yoga class I absolutely look forward to every week. That’s enough time to EAT something to refuel my body.

I’ve also schedule a nice lunch immediately afterwards, again, to refuel my precious, one of a kind, irreplaceable body.

I’m 60, and retired, finally taking time for ME, creating a new and improved me, but remembering to be good to ME at the same time.

Hugs, baby. I know a lot of where you’re coming from. If I could throw this phone at you to shake you up, I would.

AnnPT77 · September 2022

Chiming in - piling on? - in the same vein, I'm afraid: What you're doing is not a good plan at all, if that calorie logging is accurate. It's possible to require fewer or more calories than average for one's demographic - a factor MFP does take into account - but most people are close to average. On top of that, we'd expect your calorie needs to be higher than average for our age (I'm 66) and your sex (your profile says you're male), because of your intense exercise schedule.

How fast have you lost from 188 to 147? You profile says you joined MFP in mid-May of this year. If that's when you started losing, that's 41 pounds in about 4 months, so roughly 10 pounds a month . . . way faster than recommended for anyone of your size at any age, and it's IMO even worse an idea at our age. Ironically, it's also especially a worse idea for someone shooting for a low body fat percent, if that person wants to be in any way healthy (or look good) afterward - I'll say why later.

Do you really mean BMI when you talk about your goals, or do you really mean body fat percent? If I calculate your BMI, it comes out to 24.5, but at 5'5"/147/male, you could also plausibly be around 24% body fat. Either of those would be in the healthy range (upper end) for a 65 y/o man.

But 16-18 BMI would be severely underweight: 96-110 pounds. That would be ridiculous, frankly. (I'm your height, female, and it would be ridiculously low for me, even - skeletal, profoundly unhealthy.) 16-18% body fat would be OK for a man our age, probably, but that's not going to happen in a healthy way by simply cutting fat from where you are currently.

You do core and cardio daily, plus walk 10 miles. Definitely don't increase that. If you want to be 16-18% body fat, the healthy way to get there is to add muscle, not cut bunches more fat.

Yes, muscle can be added at our age. It's not going to happen at 800-1200 calories a day, though - not even for me as a woman so theoretically lower calorie needs than you need as a man. Muscle gain can happen at/near weight maintenance calories, or faster at a slight calorie surplus, in the context of a good progressive weight training program, good overall nutrition (especially but not exclusively adequate protein). Young people, especially young men, may be an exception and able to gain muscle at a little bigger deficit, but it's a vanishingly small likelihood at our age to do it with a huge calorie deficit, even if a weight training beginner.

If your calorie logging is accurate, you're taking major, major risks with your health. That's without even getting into the nutritional deficits implied by that low a calorie intake. You're very likely destroying quality of life for your future self: Sarcopenia is real, and you're encouraging it to arrive early.

Eating 800-1200 calories gross intake would put me in the hospital in a matter of weeks - even as a 5'5" woman weighing in the upper 120s pounds with an exercise schedule that's less aggressive than yours (but more vigorous than average in our age group). As background, I lose slowly - the only way someone our age/size should lose the last 10-15 pounds, if we need to lose, at 1850+exercise calories, 2000-2500 gross calories eaten most days.

If your loss has stalled, it's because adaptive thermogenesis has your body in maximum "fight back to avoid actual starvation and death" mode, if 800-1000 is accurate. I'm not even being melodramatic here. You don't know me, but I'm not melodramatic by nature, quite the reverse. Even in the WWII Minnesota Starvation Experiment, the men were eating 1500 calories, and only had to walk/run 22 miles per week. They suffered for it, some of them lifelong, though they were young/resilient when they began the experiment.

If that calorie logging is accurate, change course. Eat more. Lose weight slowly, and make sure it's fat, not even more muscle (because I'm betting you've lost some already). Get adequate nutrition. Strength train.

Please. I know this seems harsh, but even though I'm a stranger, I really do care. You're taking extraordinary risks with your health and well-being. Please, please don't.

pmdenlinger · September 2022

More detail. I was 187 in August 2021, then got an Apple Watch to monitor my health. Doctor told me to lose weight so I started walking. Started at about 1 mile daily, then worked my way up to 10 miles over nine months. Got Pacer Pro which got me engaged with the walking community. My weight would plateau after losing every 10 lbs. and that is where I am now. So what sounds like starvation is actually just a plan to get to 130 - 135 in about a month. After getting to that range, I plan to go to daily intake of about 2k calories daily, which should be about breaking even for my weight then.
Thank you for all the care, and sorry for causing all the worry. A special apology to the ladies, for whom I have caused undue worry; I am moved by your expressions of concern. I am not trying to kill myself, nor am I trying to become a body builder. I am just trying to break through a plateau, lose 10-15 lbs and then go on to building muscle (which I assume will involve putting on some weight, but with muscle).

Is the diet and exercise algorithm adjusted for age?

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