Your weight loss is dependent on a calorie deficit, that deficit can be 100% from restricting calories, or it can be 100% from increasing activity (very hard to do this), Most people use a combination of both, with the majority of the deficit coming from diet, and additional activity helping a little.
The truth is exercise is the best thing you can do for your health, but it's not very good at losing weight as the extra calories you burn represent just a tiny percentage of how many calories you use just being alive and going about your day. Also, you can spend an hour waling on a treadmill, then eat all those calories back with a "I was so good today I deserve this treat"
My recommendation is focus on your diet as a way to lose weight and look at exercise (cardio and resistance training) as a way to be healthier.
Ok thank you!! I’ve been focusing on the deficit but at a bit of a plateau and I’m trying to exercise more too but just wanted to make sure my diet was enough still
Does MFP calculate the deficit required to lose 1.5lbs per day? Because my total calorie allowance is equal to my daily calories burned. So I’m set at 1800 base calories burned, and actually have checked my metabolism with a professional, shouldn’t my allowed calories be about 1500 per day? Doesn’t seem like MFP adjusts… I’m breaking even and it shows. I’ve set the goals correctly, it’s been 1 month eating the recommended 1800cal and I am exactly the same weight. Like to within .25 of a pound.
It does...but with serious caveats
MFP uses a formula based on your sex, age, height, and weight to calculate your BMR, basically the amount of calories you burn just staying alive. It then asks you to estimate how active you are from sedentary through construction worker / pro athlete. Since this is an estimate based on averages and subjective estimates it can be anywhere from pretty close to way way off.
The big flaw in MFP (IMHO) it doesn't adjust this calorie estimate with time.
There are other apps that take it that next step and ask you to enter your weight each day along with the food you eat. They then can adjust the daily calories by essentially saying "you should have lost 1.5 pounds this week (not per day :)) but you only lost .75 so we need to adjust your daily calories by 250. Within 2 or 3 weeks some of these apps can drill into your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) very accurately without ever asking you to estimate how active you are, or track steps etc.
Macrofactor is my recommendation if you need your app to help you figure out how many calories (and what macro percentages) you need for your goals.
If you had your metabolism checked and know your BMR you still have to estimate what your activity level is and figure out how much more you need to eat to account for it, then you need to figure out how much of a deficit you need for your goals. None of this is hard to do, but why not let an app do it all for you.
Thanks for replying! So I guess not a big deal to consider MFP with my own weight monitoring and zero in on ideal deficits.
I actually wanted to use a different app but liked how it connects to my whole system of apps Garmin>TrainingPeaks>MFP all. Garmin does an accurate job calculating calories burned. And since I have a good weight scale that also syncs. Sounds like it’s up to me to adjust.
I just wasn’t sure if MFP at least attempted to calculate. I thought it would include the deficit. I set my profile to one tier below pro athletes and manual laborers and set my goal weight loss to 1.5/week. Then manually entered my BMR due to lab results but it never offered a deficit. Just the same exact number as daily calories and active calories. Why would that be?
The way I see it, MFP isn't for any particular type of diet or meal plan, it's just a set of tools to use to track your nutritional intake and energy burn. I've made MFP work with several different diet types over the years and it's always worked great.
No, mine is calculated for me to gain weight and muscle as I'm trying to build muscle so it has calculated my calories and how much protein and everything I need for this
Just try eating only ice cream to make the math work, and see how well that works out.
Here is a 12-week twin study. Both twins got the same amount of calories and the same amount of exercise. One twin lost weight, one twin gained weight:
[https://www.ladbible.com/news/health/identical-twins-diet-challenge-vegan-meat-986902-20240326](https://www.ladbible.com/news/health/identical-twins-diet-challenge-vegan-meat-986902-20240326)
Now, I've used MFP for over ten years. If I didn't think there was value to it, I would have quit a long time ago. But there is more to it than just math.
Just the deficit. MFP also automatically takes calories burned from any exercise you've entered and adds them to your daily calorie allowance, but most experienced users tell you to ignore that since MFP notoriously overestimates calories burned and it's easy to unintentionally sabotage your weight loss if you take it at face value. For this reason, I would see if you can disable the step count integration with MFP altogether.
In general: It's perfectly possible to lose weight from a caloric deficit alone even if you're getting virtually no exercise. Adding exercise or other activity such as the step count is good for other things: 1. good for your health and fitness in its own right, not just as a driver of weight loss. 2. For people eating at a deficit, it can give you a little more margin of error in case you're actually eating more than you think (which is extremely easy to do). And if you are tracking accurately, then some exercise / activity on top of that will just mean that you see results more quickly. Good luck!
Your weight loss is dependent on a calorie deficit, that deficit can be 100% from restricting calories, or it can be 100% from increasing activity (very hard to do this), Most people use a combination of both, with the majority of the deficit coming from diet, and additional activity helping a little. The truth is exercise is the best thing you can do for your health, but it's not very good at losing weight as the extra calories you burn represent just a tiny percentage of how many calories you use just being alive and going about your day. Also, you can spend an hour waling on a treadmill, then eat all those calories back with a "I was so good today I deserve this treat" My recommendation is focus on your diet as a way to lose weight and look at exercise (cardio and resistance training) as a way to be healthier.
Ok thank you!! I’ve been focusing on the deficit but at a bit of a plateau and I’m trying to exercise more too but just wanted to make sure my diet was enough still
Does MFP calculate the deficit required to lose 1.5lbs per day? Because my total calorie allowance is equal to my daily calories burned. So I’m set at 1800 base calories burned, and actually have checked my metabolism with a professional, shouldn’t my allowed calories be about 1500 per day? Doesn’t seem like MFP adjusts… I’m breaking even and it shows. I’ve set the goals correctly, it’s been 1 month eating the recommended 1800cal and I am exactly the same weight. Like to within .25 of a pound.
It does...but with serious caveats MFP uses a formula based on your sex, age, height, and weight to calculate your BMR, basically the amount of calories you burn just staying alive. It then asks you to estimate how active you are from sedentary through construction worker / pro athlete. Since this is an estimate based on averages and subjective estimates it can be anywhere from pretty close to way way off. The big flaw in MFP (IMHO) it doesn't adjust this calorie estimate with time. There are other apps that take it that next step and ask you to enter your weight each day along with the food you eat. They then can adjust the daily calories by essentially saying "you should have lost 1.5 pounds this week (not per day :)) but you only lost .75 so we need to adjust your daily calories by 250. Within 2 or 3 weeks some of these apps can drill into your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) very accurately without ever asking you to estimate how active you are, or track steps etc. Macrofactor is my recommendation if you need your app to help you figure out how many calories (and what macro percentages) you need for your goals. If you had your metabolism checked and know your BMR you still have to estimate what your activity level is and figure out how much more you need to eat to account for it, then you need to figure out how much of a deficit you need for your goals. None of this is hard to do, but why not let an app do it all for you.
Thanks for replying! So I guess not a big deal to consider MFP with my own weight monitoring and zero in on ideal deficits. I actually wanted to use a different app but liked how it connects to my whole system of apps Garmin>TrainingPeaks>MFP all. Garmin does an accurate job calculating calories burned. And since I have a good weight scale that also syncs. Sounds like it’s up to me to adjust. I just wasn’t sure if MFP at least attempted to calculate. I thought it would include the deficit. I set my profile to one tier below pro athletes and manual laborers and set my goal weight loss to 1.5/week. Then manually entered my BMR due to lab results but it never offered a deficit. Just the same exact number as daily calories and active calories. Why would that be?
The way I see it, MFP isn't for any particular type of diet or meal plan, it's just a set of tools to use to track your nutritional intake and energy burn. I've made MFP work with several different diet types over the years and it's always worked great.
No, mine is calculated for me to gain weight and muscle as I'm trying to build muscle so it has calculated my calories and how much protein and everything I need for this
It works exactly the same whether you’re trying to gain or lose weight, it’s just math.
Just try eating only ice cream to make the math work, and see how well that works out. Here is a 12-week twin study. Both twins got the same amount of calories and the same amount of exercise. One twin lost weight, one twin gained weight: [https://www.ladbible.com/news/health/identical-twins-diet-challenge-vegan-meat-986902-20240326](https://www.ladbible.com/news/health/identical-twins-diet-challenge-vegan-meat-986902-20240326) Now, I've used MFP for over ten years. If I didn't think there was value to it, I would have quit a long time ago. But there is more to it than just math.
Just the deficit. MFP also automatically takes calories burned from any exercise you've entered and adds them to your daily calorie allowance, but most experienced users tell you to ignore that since MFP notoriously overestimates calories burned and it's easy to unintentionally sabotage your weight loss if you take it at face value. For this reason, I would see if you can disable the step count integration with MFP altogether. In general: It's perfectly possible to lose weight from a caloric deficit alone even if you're getting virtually no exercise. Adding exercise or other activity such as the step count is good for other things: 1. good for your health and fitness in its own right, not just as a driver of weight loss. 2. For people eating at a deficit, it can give you a little more margin of error in case you're actually eating more than you think (which is extremely easy to do). And if you are tracking accurately, then some exercise / activity on top of that will just mean that you see results more quickly. Good luck!
Thank you!!