Help me understand my TOTAL & GOAL % in nutrition 🙏🏼

staceyjade1984
staceyjade1984 Posts: 1 Member
in Getting Started
I’m desperately looking for some guidance on using the My Fitness Pal app.

Once iv logged my meals then check my Macros it’s confusing me alot .

My macros look like

35% Carbs
35% Fats
30% Protein

However some days when I go over my % like today for fat. When I click on it it says I still have not met my goal.

It says
42% total
35% goal

However on the second pic it says 47g total fat and goal is 58 g of fat so shouldn’t my % total read lower than my goal total?
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Again below for carbs
37% total
35% Goal

However my nutrient goals are telling me I am under in grams

Total is 89g
Goal is 117
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But some days when the % are very close it seems to add up saying my daily goal has been met
Here is protein
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33% total
30% goal

And my grams are nearly dead on

I’m so bloody confused and no matter how much googling I do I can’t figure it out

I don’t have my steps or activities changing my intake of calories

Any guidance would help so much
I hope this makes sence to someone!

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,826 Member
    I think you're just confused between the absolute numbers and the percentages. Percentages will always add up to 100, no matter how much it how little you've eaten.

    For example:
    If your goal is 2000 calories, but you've only eaten 500 calories worth of food, you could have perfect macro percentages (proportions between fat, carbs and protein) but you would still only have reached 25% of your absolute goal for each macro.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    The pie chart %s are a snapshot in time and will always add up to 100% and simply illustrate what % of your calories are coming from each macro and that specific point in time. Your absolute numbers in grams is your goal.

    If I just eat breakfast and look at my pie chart, the %s on the pie chart are going to add up to 100%...that doesn't mean I've met my actual goal in terms of calories or grams of each macro. The pie chart is just a snap shot of that specific moment in time. So I might have a macro goal of 40%C/30%C/30%F...I can hit those % targets with just breakfast, but I'm still going to be pretty far off in terms of my actual calorie target and absolute grams targets...it would just mean that 40% of my breakfast calories came from carbs...30% of my breakfast calories came from protein...and 30% of my breakfast calories came from dietary fat.
  • ecjim
    ecjim Posts: 1,001 Member
    You might find it more accurate & maybe easier to log the macros by the grams - a set amount for protein & some fat - if you are loosing weight you can manipulate your cals by the amount of carbs

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