Curious, does MFP work exactly as it theoretically should?

juliegin
juliegin Posts: 77 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Curious, has anyone ate their calories exactly for 5 weeks and lost the exact amount MFP says they will?

I personally can never stay eat exactly my calories every day, every week. Some days I eat more, some days less. But maybe there are some "scientists" out there who have done this before as an experiment?

Replies

  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
    I added up how many calories I ate versus my maintenance calories, and it worked out almost exactly right for the whole time I was losing.
  • Sadore
    Sadore Posts: 27 Member
    It doesn't work for me at all and I've tried eating more, eating less, working out more, working out less, more water, eating back exercise calories, not eating back exercise calories. Regardless, I never lose a pound but just keep going...
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    I don't eat the same amount of calories every day, but the average over a week is usually very close to the MFP recommendation. I lost most of my weight before joining MFP, but when I joined I didn't make any diet changes and found I was eating what they recommended.
  • iceqieen
    iceqieen Posts: 862 Member
    I have an excel sheet with the numbers for the past 8 weeks, and aside from occational increases due to water retention the daily weight in line is almost spot on to the calculated weight line. As long as you have "normal" BMR and are logging properly it should show the expected numbers (+/- water weight if you ate lots of sodium or trained really hard).
  • riadastfu
    riadastfu Posts: 69
    It's meant to be a guide based on mathematical equations.

    It doesn't take into account every possible fluctuation in your hormones/activity level. You shouldn't expect it to be accurate, at least I don't. I personally only expect about 50-60% of the expected weight loss to happen.
  • juliegin
    juliegin Posts: 77 Member
    I know in general it works, especially if it is mostly followed, we all have our bad days, believe me. I was just wondering if anyone did this before, as sort of an experiment and what results they got if they ate exactly their calories every day, as difficult as that would be to do for 5 weeks straight.
  • sweetpea129
    sweetpea129 Posts: 755 Member
    I pretty much eat right around my daily calories and have been losing 2 lbs a week consistently since losing. So, for now, its spot on for me.
  • BenS1
    BenS1 Posts: 6
    I stick to the target calories that MFP has set each day to within 30 calories typically (And never go over).

    For the first 3 months MFP said I'd lose 0.9 lb's per week but Ia ctually lost 1Kg (2.2lb's) per week, so MFP was massively underestimating the weight loss, which was nice.

    But for the past 2 months MFP set me a new lower daily cal target and since then its predicted I'd still lose 0.9 lb's per week but I've actually lost about half that! So now its massively over estimating my weight loss.

    Overall though I know I couldn't have lost the 35lb's that I have lost without MFP, so its a great tool but not 100% accurate in my opinion.

    Thanks
    Ben
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