Nutritional Needs

It's pretty much impossible to be exactly exact on all of them every single day, and that's fine. Pretty good, on average, most of the time: That's plenty good enough for weight loss, health, etc.

Ignore the "in 5 weeks" prediction. It's not very accurate. Notice how it says "if every day were like today"? Every day can't possibly be like today. Today I went shopping, did a lot of walking. Tomorrow I won't shop, so will move less. That kind of thing. Real life is about averages over time.

What I'd suggest with calorie goal is to try to average close to it, like maybe +/- 50 calories (approximately). But it's OK to average over a few days. (The MFP phone/tablet app will give you a weekly average calorie view in the Nutrition menu.) MFP may reset at midnight, but our bodies don't. If I eat (making this up) 250 calories below goal today, and 250 over tomorrow, that's the same as hitting it exactly both days.

Calorie goal is the key direct determinant of fat gain or loss. If your most important goal is weight loss (or gain, or stability), then calorie goal is the most important. (Even then, it's just a starting estimate until you have 4-6 weeks track record of weight changes at about that calorie goal, after which you can adjust if necessary.)

Macros - fats, protein, carbs - are about nutrition, which is important for health, energy level, and that sort of thing. Nutrition can indirectly affect body weight through energy level or appetite, but the direct mechanism is still calories.

Protein and fats are "essential nutrients" in that our bodies can't manufacture some of their essential subcomponents out of any other intake, so we need to eat some. We need a certain minimum of each of those. It's fine to get more than the minimum (within calories), as long as you don't have some contraindicating health condition (you'd know).

Many (not all) people find they get enough fat without paying it much attention. Quite a few people (not all) have to pay more attention to get reasonable protein. Protein can be even more important than usual during weight loss, because it's part of what helps us keep our muscle mass while losing mostly fat. So, try to get pretty close to a reasonable protein and fat level most days, on average.

That doesn't have to be perfect instantly, though. If (for example) you're persistently low on protein, it would be good to work on improving that. But if you're not diagnosed with a deficiency up front, you can work at that by gradually changing eating habits. It's not "perfect immediately or fail".

Carbs are more flexible, in that our bodies can make its own out of other intake, if necessary. Some people find that eating more carbs spikes their appetite. Those people will probably be better off eating lower carb. Other people find that eating low carb tanks their energy level. Those people will probably be better off eating relatively more carbs. If you start off around the MFP default level, and notice how you feel, you can figure this out.

Personally, I focus on getting enough fats and protein, am fine with either or both being over goals (within calories), and I just use carbs to balance calories. For me, this isn't some white-knuckled exactitude every day, but kind of automatic because I've worked on developing eating habits that get me there almost on autopilot. It took a little time to get there, and I didn't fail or die while I was figuring it out.

Micronutrients and fiber are also useful nutrients. Personally, I find that as long as I make it a point to eat plenty of varied, colorful veggies and fruits daily, micros and fiber fall into place pretty nicely without too much detailed attention to each and every one. Here again, its averages over a few days that matter more than being exact every day. Close, in those few-days averages, is plenty good enough.

Think about it: In order for any one of us to be here, there were hundreds, thousands of generations of humans who needed to live at least until reproducing age, or we wouldn't even be here. They didn't have access to all the nutritional information we have, nor the wide range of nutritious foods from all over the world that we have now. They did OK anyway. I think that if we undershoot our potassium goal for a whole week, nothing terrible is going to happen. My peasant ancestors probably lived on turnips (or whatever) for months at a time, and got along semi-adequately: They lived long enough for me to exist.

While living only on turnips (or whatever) is obviously not optimal, I think it's a pretty clear indication that nutrition isn't something that we need to be totally exact on every single day or something terrible is going to happen. It's good to work on improvements, but it isn't an urgent crisis to fix everything, nor is it essential to be perfect.

Please do try to relax, not overthink it, give yourself a little grace. You can work on improvements, and make some good progress.

Best wishes!

I like to keep it simple as far as my diet is concerned. I eat mostly whole foods and eat until satiated which is what the longest lived and healthiest people on the planet do and I don't see any good reasons to change that philosophy. I suspect those people don't know much about nutrition in general, at least I don't think Ikarian's are taking night school nutritional classes, and there's sheep and walking involved but I've decided my dog, sports and the gym are good surrogates.