Macros?

Bex953172 wrote: »

Thanks for your advice!
Yes that makes a bit more sense.
Especially with the maths part and how it should add up.
Although I'm terrible at maths but I'll figure it out.

And yeah tbh I don't eat back my exercise calories in general, just if I fancy a snack and some are spare 😂

The PP had some good advice, but I disagree with one piece of it.

If you only do a small amount of exercise (half an hour to an hour) 3 times a week or something like that, and you're shooting for a moderate loss rate to start with (like 0.5% of current weight per week, i.e. a pound a week at 200 pounds), then it's probably OK to let exercise increase your loss rate.

If you're doing a lot of exercise, and going for the most aggressive loss rate (like 2 pounds a week), then it's a bad plan to let the exercise speed up loss rate. Fast loss is hard to continue long enough to lose a meaningful total amount of weight, and losing too fast increases health risks.

In between those two extremes, it's a question of how much health risk you're willing to accept. Many of us are losing weight for health reasons, so compromising that with fast loss isn't helpful. Too-fast loss can also lead to things like hair thinning, brittle nails, and other appearance consequences, though those aren't as severe as what can happen on the health side. If part of your plan is fitness improvement, then underfueling is kind of shooting yourself in the foot.

Is something bad guaranteed to happen if you lose fast? Of course not. But the risk is higher.

I ate all of my carefully-estimated exercise calories while losing weight, and lost fine. Better yet, I learned the skill of estimating those calories, so it's been easy to accommodate variations in exercise load for the 7+ years since that I've been maintaining a healthy weight since that loss.

To answer your specific questions, though the PP did a good job:

1. Do I still count calories if I'm doing Macros?

PP explained this well. Counting macros gets you to the same place as counting calories while watching macros, as long as the database entries for your foods are accurate. (The database is crowd-sourced, so many entries are inaccurate. Verify them at first, until you have a good set in your recent/frequent foods on MFP.)

2. If I've ate all my Fat percentage for the day, but have calories left over. Does that mean I CAN have a snack but has to have no fat?

You'd be better off estimating your macro needs in grams, based on your bodyweight (goal bodyweight, mostly). Once you have the number of grams of protein and fats you need, and large amounts of varied, colorful veggies/fruits for fiber and micronutrients, you can use your remaining calories for whatever you want.

3. What happens when you exercise?
How can I know what I can eat if I don't know what I've burned off? For example it will give me extra calories but doesnt change the fat/carb/protein percentages

Just choose a consistent method of estimating the exercise calories, and a consistent approach to eating them back, i.e., consistent percentage (see cautions above). follow those estimates for 4-6 weeks, then look at your average weight loss per week over that time period. (Assuming you still have menstrual cycles, compare your bodyweight at the same relative point in at least two different monthly cycles.) If you've lost faster than sensible, raise your calorie goal going forward. If you could still healthfully lose faster, lower your calorie goal. (Use the assumption that 500 calories per day is roughly a pound a week, and do the math.)

If you calculate your minimum best-outcome macro needs in grams, and know those numbers, you can mentally reallocate calories after that point no matter what your diary says (Or pay for premium MFP, which will let you set those values explicitly.) For example, in maintenance I shoot for 100g protein, 50g fats as my minimums, at 5'5" and low 130s pounds. (I also eat 800g+ veggies fruits most days.) After my nutritional minimums are dialed in, I feel free to spend calories - exercise calories or any other calories - on anything I want.

For many people, a good route to go is a good brand/model of fitness tracker - worn 24x7 except when charging - and synching that to MFP. For the average person, that'll work great. Some people are not as average (we're all individuals, right?). For them, that 4-6 week trial period will shake that out, and they'll know how to adjust. If you can get a type of fitness tracker that knows what exercise type you're doing - weight lifting vs. running vs. yoga, etc., - because you tell it, that can be helpful . . . but those models are a little more expensive.

Other than that good option for estimating exercise calories, there are reasonable ways of estimating exercise calories that are close enough to be workable. If you say what kind(s) of exercise you do, folks here will have suggestions.

As an exercise calorie estimate, zero is always guaranteed to be wrong.

Keep monitoring and adjusting going forward. That'll work fine.

If you work out and burn calories that MFP gives back to you...it *will change your macros based on the percentages you have set. So it will give you some more of each based on your own personal breakdown.

As far as if you can still have a snack if you're 'out of fat' for example...sure, and probably try to choose something that's lower in fat. As long as you are within your calories...being slightly off or over your fat goal for the day isn't going to make a huge different unless you're an athlete or something.

For me personally...I focus more on my overall calories bc it's just easier. Your macro split/breakdown is really important for figuring out what keeps you satiated the best -- in turn, making it easier for you to stay within your calorie goal/deficit.

As far as 'do you have to count calories if you're counting macros'....nope. You are likely to be within your calorie goal if you are within your macro goal - assuming the macro breakdown was made using the calorie goal initially. Again, being off a bit isn't going to ruin anything.