My Fitness Pal is whack, what do?

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

After a COVID shutdown I am restarting the Beginner prescription. I’m on week two, and I am trying to follow the nutrition guidance but I am way off on my target.

Some background. 34 years old. 207 lbs, started with a 39" waist. My primarily goal with the Beginner prescription is to loose weight, and reduce my waist size.

So I am am targeting 110 grams protein, and 2,200 kcal a day. I generally hit the fruit and vegetable guidelines, but I ignore my fat vs carb macro count each day. Why, I don’t eat out, everything my wife and I eat is from scratch, I probably eat red meat once a week, and lean mean twice to three times a week. I eat two eggs a day, a lot of legumes, and a fair amount of dairy. I don’t weigh my food, but have been trying to gauge calories based in volume (a cup of cook pasta for example).

I have been tracking what I eat with my fitness pal for five weeks and have not lost any weight. I have lost an inch on my waist so I am not gaining. So the simple answer to my nutrition problem is am underestimating my intake. But I don’t think that’s the issue.

I take my macros from my fitness pal, plug them into the beginner template along with my weight. The calorie estimates from the template vs my fitness Pal are off by a lot. Usually 200 to 500 calories a day, and it can swing either direction. I believe one source of variance is that my fitness pal is community sourced, and the number may not be accurate. But the math to get calories from macros isn’t hard, that shouldn’t be off so damn much.

So I’m a little stuck. I don’t eat the same thing every day, my wife and I enjoy making food from scratch and trying a lot of new recepies. Weighing everything out will get cumbersome and lower my adherence. I can see it making sense if I was eating broccoli, chicken, and rice every meal, but I just don’t want to do that.

Is there a better way for me to estimate my calories, maybe switch programs? Or should I just reduce my calories coming in knowing that I will be generally overestimating my intake?

2

David,

I would probably target ~ 160-180g protein if you’re asking me and, would stop ignoring your fat and carb macros. Why? Because you haven’t lost any weight using your previous approach, which suggests to me you may need some help with quantity.

I think you should try to guesstimate your macro intake to the extent you can so you can hit your calorie goal. If you still aren’t losing weight, I’d reduce your calorie intake. If you absolutely don’t want to count, I would plan on reducing # of servings of starchy carbs and added fats little by little until you start losing.

I think the program is appropriate, nonetheless.

-Jordan

3

To say I ignore the fat carb macros isn’t probably the best way of putting it. I just don’t have a target for fat and carbs, as long as I hit my protein and fiber goals, I assume I am doing good.

But back to my poorly worded original question. I am estimating my macro, and fiber, content using My Fitness Pal (MFP). The calories estimated from MFP are off by 10-25% from the calories estimated from the beginner prescription calculator. I am clearly eating too much, that is a given. But what is confusing me is why I am getting such different numbers on my calories form MFP and the spreadsheet. 10 - 25% error is a lot.

F / C / P / Excel calories / MFP calories
55 / 139 / 154 1856 2266
43 / 174 / 123 1575 2192
93 / 220 / 107 2145 2467
89 / 224 / 140 2257 2190
78 / 247 / 124 2186 2190

To simply my horribly written original post. 1. Is the error I am observing between MFP calorie estimates and the Barbell Medicine Excel sheet big enough that I should change apps, or the way I am doing things?
2. Should I be targeting a fat and carb goal each day, or does simply hitting calorie, protein, and fiber goals good enough? Thank you for recommending more protein. Consuming more protein and eating fewer calories seems appears to be what I need to fix.

4

Not necessarily, but I think the user-generated database of MPF coupled with not tracking macros, which would correct for this issue, is the problem. So, you could keep doing the same thing and lower your calorie target, or you could change what you’re doing.

5

My guess is that a lot of the “missing” calories from the Excel sheet are from alcoholic beverages. Depending on what selection you make, some nutrition logging programs add these as calories, but they do not add any macros.

6

Yea, you can just pick whatever macro you’d like to get them factored in there.