Why do my macros keep changing/resetting?

durden wrote: »

Cortelli wrote: »

This is a bug that has been uncorrected for 3+ weeks now, and a hilarious one for a calorie and nutrient tracking app / website. See this earlier thread below - there is a workaround listed in the comments there while we wait for a fix.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10888683/daily-goals-change-to-what-mfp-thinks-is-correct#latest

This is a different thing & is also probably not a bug.

When you create your profile, we ask you for your age, height, weight, gender, and normal daily activity level. We use these factors to determine the calories required to maintain your current weight. We also ask how much weight you would like to lose or gain per week, and with this goal in mind we subtract calories (for weight loss) or add calories (for weight gain) to determine your daily calorie goal.

For more information on how we calculate your initial goals, please see this article: https://myfitnesspal.zendesk.com/hc/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals .

Because your daily calorie goal already accounts for your intent to gain or lose weight at a particular rate, you can achieve your goal by eating the specified number of calories per day, with no additional exercise required. If you do exercise, then your daily calorie goal will increase for the day, to stabilize your weight loss or weight gain at the rate you initially specified.

The calories added to your daily goal are divided among the various nutrients such as fat, carbs, and protein, which is why these increase when you log calories from exercise.

When you upgrade to MyFitnessPal Premium… (Web, iOS and Android)​

If you are an advanced user or have specific dietary needs, you may wish to exert more control over your nutritional goals. Users who subscribe to MyFitnessPal Premium can modify the effects of logging cardio exercise. This can be helpful, for example, to those who must not consume more than a certain amount of carbs per day, or who may wish to distribute their exercise calories across fat, carbs and protein for specific dietary or performance goals.

With a Premium subscription:
- In Android and iOS, visit the "Goals" Screen and tap "Exercise Calories"
- On the Web, click "My Home" then "Goals" then click "Edit" in the "Fitness" area

Then, turn exercise calories to "Off" if you want your nutritional goals to remain static when you add cardio exercise.
Or leave, exercise calorie "on," but select "Custom percentage" and modify the ratio of carbs, protein and fat added back to your goals when you work out!

To reach our support team for additional assistance, please visit https://myfitnesspal.zendesk.com/hc/en-us or email directly to support@myfitnesspal.com

cpatel682 wrote: »

I keep setting my macros to a specific percentage for carbs/fat/protein and it keeps changing on me constantly. I think it stays for maybe a day and then resets to some arbitrary amount. Anyone experienced this or know how to fix it?

Cortelli wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Cortelli wrote: »

durden wrote: »

Cortelli wrote: »

This is a bug that has been uncorrected for 3+ weeks now, and a hilarious one for a calorie and nutrient tracking app / website. See this earlier thread below - there is a workaround listed in the comments there while we wait for a fix.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10888683/daily-goals-change-to-what-mfp-thinks-is-correct#latest

This is a different thing & is also probably not a bug.

When you create your profile, we ask you for your age, height, weight, gender, and normal daily activity level. We use these factors to determine the calories required to maintain your current weight. We also ask how much weight you would like to lose or gain per week, and with this goal in mind we subtract calories (for weight loss) or add calories (for weight gain) to determine your daily calorie goal.

For more information on how we calculate your initial goals, please see this article: https://myfitnesspal.zendesk.com/hc/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals .

Because your daily calorie goal already accounts for your intent to gain or lose weight at a particular rate, you can achieve your goal by eating the specified number of calories per day, with no additional exercise required. If you do exercise, then your daily calorie goal will increase for the day, to stabilize your weight loss or weight gain at the rate you initially specified.

The calories added to your daily goal are divided among the various nutrients such as fat, carbs, and protein, which is why these increase when you log calories from exercise.

When you upgrade to MyFitnessPal Premium… (Web, iOS and Android)​

If you are an advanced user or have specific dietary needs, you may wish to exert more control over your nutritional goals. Users who subscribe to MyFitnessPal Premium can modify the effects of logging cardio exercise. This can be helpful, for example, to those who must not consume more than a certain amount of carbs per day, or who may wish to distribute their exercise calories across fat, carbs and protein for specific dietary or performance goals.

With a Premium subscription:
- In Android and iOS, visit the "Goals" Screen and tap "Exercise Calories"
- On the Web, click "My Home" then "Goals" then click "Edit" in the "Fitness" area

Then, turn exercise calories to "Off" if you want your nutritional goals to remain static when you add cardio exercise.
Or leave, exercise calorie "on," but select "Custom percentage" and modify the ratio of carbs, protein and fat added back to your goals when you work out!

To reach our support team for additional assistance, please visit https://myfitnesspal.zendesk.com/hc/en-us or email directly to support@myfitnesspal.com

This may be true - I do not know of this user's specific experience. However, the bug I described also affects macro percentages.

When logging weight, other than through the work-around identified in the thread I linked, not only is the user's daily calorie goal reset to an MFP-derived target, but the macro percentages are also reset.

I am a free user, not a premium subscriber. When I log weight, MFP adjusts my fixed daily calorie goal to an MFP-provided goal. It also adjusts my macros to 50 / 30 / 20 for C / F / P. If I don't use the weight-logging work-around to avoid a reset of my goals, I have to manually reset my fixed daily calories and also reset my macro splits to my preferred targets.

The OP wrote that his / her macro percentages were changing on a daily basis, not that exercise or some other factor was changing his total calorie goal or gross amounts of grams of each macro was changing.

While true, a *kitten* ton of people have no clue how this site works and don't understand that when they log exercise, their calories increase...and for that to happen the macros also have to change. The OP mentioned "arbitrary"...it if was going back to a default MFP preset based on weight and desired rate of loss, it wouldn't be some arbitrary amount. Macros changing to apparently arbitrary amounts indicates to me that exercise was logged and the macros changed to reflect the change in calorie target and if one's exercise burn is different day to day, that change would for sure appear to be arbitrary if you didn't understand any of this.

Sure. But I do know how to use this site - I've been on it for almost a decade, almost as long as you. I find it really helpful in tracking information.

I haven't been logging exercise in a long time. I watched my target calories and macros change right after logging a daily weigh-in, for weeks now when I didn't use the workaround. I would wake up, do my business and weigh. I'd go to MFP and see my daily target calories as XXXX. I'd log a weigh-in and go back to home page and my daily target calories had changed to YYYY. To reset goals, I'd go to "Goals" and not only would the calorie target be different, but the macro targets changed to 50 / 30 / 20 (which is not my goal macro split). This went on for several weeks.

This was a clear bug that was noticed by many users - but a surprisingly small percentage seemed to come to the Tech Support forum to report on it. FWIW, I logged weight without the workaround this AM and the goals didn't change. Maybe it's fixed? I'll try again tomorrow.