Iron from red meat

MFP food entries are crowdsourced.

Much like the reason many of us are here, MFP is “garbage in, garbage out”, too.

I think you are a new user. Unless you have a medical necessity to track iron, don’t get lost in the details. It can be overwhelming.

Focus on calories to start with, and get your weighing and logging down. It may take months.

Then, move on to macros : protein, fats and carbs.

You are still going to lose weight without tracking macros or details, so don’t fret.

I’ve been on MFP 7 years (significant weight loss and many years of steady, plodding maintenance).

My default nutrition now is SOOOO much better, I don’t even worry about vitamins, unless blood tests indicate a deficiency of something.

I monitor protein carefully, couldn’t care less about carbs (I know I’ve had a bellyful when my weight shoots up several pounds overnight), and lately, I’m trying to get more fats in my diet. I’ve realized feel better with slightly higher fats. Less brain fog, less inflammation. My go-to right now is olive oil.

Spend a few months monitoring your overall eating to learn these things about yourself before you dive headfirst into the minutiae. Thats one reason so many people quit so fast. They’re just overwhelmed by all the cracks and crevices of planning, and fail to see the mountain in front of their nose.

However, everything depends on your personal situation. Did your doctor specifically advise more iron?

I’m 63, highly active, doing a lot of different things. Today I’ll walk, do a short run, and pull a couple of hot yoga classes. My biggest nutritional need today is hydration.

The lovely and admirable @claireychn074 who posted above is much younger, and a serious lifter and bodybuilder. She likely has totally different needs than either one of us, and with her great experience, probably tracks details a lot more than me.

I used to worry about sodium being too high, but finally realized I needed and craved it because of the hot classes I do. I sweat out a ton of sodium.

I still managed to kick a large percent of me to the curb, where it remains this day. Somewhere around 40% of me, thanks to MfP, consistent logging, and o my worrying about the biggies.