My Fitness Pal - Accuracy?

redrose89

Hi Guys, hoping someone can help.
I just downloaded myfitnesspal, haven't used it in years. I plugged in my stats and its giving me a calories allowance of 2,120 cals. That just seems way too much. I have been counting calories for a while now and generally tried to stay around 1,500 (I just felt that was the right amount to diet at) but I haven't lost any weight at that. The reason I downloaded MFP was because I thought I needed to reduce calories.  
I go spinning twice a week and I do a barbell class once a week. I work a desk job, but I walk to and from work, and I go home at lunchtime to walk my dog, and walk her again most evenings (sometimes himself takes her). Because of this I selected ""Active" on the activity level.  Maybe I need to change that? 
My stats are: female, 230 lbs, 5ft 6, my goal is to loose 1.5 lbs a week. 
The 2,120 is the daily standard before I have logged any exercise.
If anyone could offer some advice, I would really appreciate it!

Alf Veedersane

It's accurate for recording food. I've been sceptical about its calculations for exercise etc so I don't use those.

Try this:

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

See what that gives you.

redrose89

redrose89 wrote: »

Hi Guys, hoping someone can help.
I just downloaded myfitnesspal, haven't used it in years. I plugged in my stats and its giving me a calories allowance of 2,120 cals. That just seems way too much. I have been counting calories for a while now and generally tried to stay around 1,500 (I just felt that was the right amount to diet at) but I haven't lost any weight at that. The reason I downloaded MFP was because I thought I needed to reduce calories.  
I go spinning twice a week and I do a barbell class once a week. I work a desk job, but I walk to and from work, and I go home at lunchtime to walk my dog, and walk her again most evenings (sometimes himself takes her). Because of this I selected ""Active" on the activity level.  Maybe I need to change that? 
My stats are: female, 230 lbs, 5ft 6, my goal is to loose 1.5 lbs a week. 
The 2,120 is the daily standard before I have logged any exercise.
If anyone could offer some advice, I would really appreciate it!

I would probably drop your activity level from active. Your daily standard intake is purely based on your weight. Personally, i think 1500 cals a day is fine if it's manageable for you. Log your exercise to keep track of it, but don't adjust your calorie intake due to exercise.

redrose89

Basil3 wrote: »

I would probably drop your activity level from active. Your daily standard intake is purely based on your weight. Personally, i think 1500 cals a day is fine if it's manageable for you. Log your exercise to keep track of it, but don't adjust your calorie intake due to exercise.

Thank you! I'm not sure now if 1500 was manageable - I haven't been loosing weight (is it a myth if you are not consuming enough cals for your body type you will not loose weight?) I was also pretty much always hungry, suffered from headaches and was constantly thinking about what my next meal would be. I've been really trying for the last 6 months, I feel like I've toned up, but I'm nowhere near what I want to be.

njs030

Have you lost any weight in 6 months?
What are you eating?

Danbo!

I had the same skepticism about it too. I moved the setting for activity to "not very active" as I work a desk job. It's telling me to eat 1,500 cals a day to lose 2lbs per week. Using Apple Watch, on average I burn about 1,800 calories a day total, so 1,500 isn't really creating a huge deficit.

I stopped using MFP to log excercise. It's too inaccurate, too many variables amongst people. I cycle to work, Apple Watch tells me I burn about 200 cals, Runkeeper tells me about 350-400, and MFP tells me something in between, so I'm not sure what to believe. I think the watch might be most accurate due to heart rate sensor.

I'm being very strict and keeping to 1,300 cals a day. Any excercise is a bonus, so I'd never eat my earned calories if that makes sense.

Keep up the walking to/from work and at lunch. It's good for weight loss and the mind how long is the walk? Personally I can't run to save my life and cycling doesn't seem to have an effect on the scales, but I lost 60lbs through diet and walking. I found walks over longer times helped, as your body won't burn fat for the first 20-odd minutes of exercising. Well it will, just not efficiently, mostly burns sugar.

I would note that you shouldn't feel hungry all the time. I usually would in the first week of a diet but once you get into the flow of it, you shouldn't really ever feel hungry except before meals. Drinking water can help suppress the hunger but long term look at what you're eating and go for high nutrition low calorie food like lean meat, fish and veg.

Hollister11

How do you all last on 1300-1500 a day. I use 2100 and sometimes I'm still hungry

redrose89

notjustsweet wrote: »

Have you lost any weight in 6 months?
What are you eating?

Literally nothing, the scales haven't budged since I bought them. In fairness my fiance has told me that he has noticed a weight loss, sometimes I can "feel it" around my hips and tummy, but its not showing on the scales or in my clothes.
I don't have a huge appetite when I wake up, but have a protein drink in the morning - made with water its made by Vega and is made from plant protein. Then around 9 I have breakfast its usually greek yoghurt with some honey and hemp hearts, or overnight oats made with greek yoghurt, or those mini egg omelettes with veg.
Lunch is usually salad with a tin of tuna, if I haven't had eggs at breakfast I'll have it with the salad. Sometimes I'll have the egg omelette with veg.
Dinner is usually meat/chicken, veg and sweet potato or some sort of carb(small portion). We have fish a once sometimes twice a week. 
Snack would be some fruit, or carrots and hummus or an apple and peanut butter. 
I cook everything from scratch, rarely ever use shop bought sauces. I think I'm quite health conscious and watch what I eat, but I'm definitely not an expert. I would like to think my diet is quite good.

Macy0161

Using Heart Rate is more accurate, but that's still based on the max and min you input (well I assume optical heart rate does the minimum for you).

I haven't used their calculator for a long time, but it was off the wall low compared to what I was manually working out at the time.

My own experience was to aim for lb on the diet side and lb from exercise - so 500 off maintenance on the diet side, and try to earn and not eat into at least 500 calories.

Danbo!

Hollister11 wrote: »

How do you all last on 1300-1500 a day. I use 2100 and sometimes I'm still hungry

It's all down to weight, height, activity level and other factors. I'm 5'11", male and 198lbs. When I was 260lbs I'd have collapsed at 1,300 cals a day.

TBH MyFitnessPal is the only thing that has ever worked for me. By logging calories I learn about what I'm eating. Before I'd eat a home made curry and think "ah sure that's healthy, why amnt I losing weight?" Once I entered all the ingredients it was obvious, so I now weigh each thing, substitute some ingredients, smaller portions, etc.

Now high calorie food isn't as tempting. I've actually found a few times at the end of the day I'll have been under 1200 and need to go find something else to eat. Mad.

The only thing is you have to log absolutely everything. A pain in the hole at first but it starts remembering **** you eat so it's quicker, and the barcode scanner has an impressive amount of items in the database.

I recently logged a day at 1,400 and decided to go back and adjust serving sizes and add in the "small" stuff I might have been tempted to have if I was just winging a healthy day. Say I didn't weight my cereal and had 50g instead of 30g. Or I had a cappuccino and a small snack from the coffee shop. Went for a sandwich instead of salad, etc. I ended up at 3,900. Insanity. So log everything and it becomes like a budget.

I've a bit to go yet but it does work.

Macy0161

As per Danbo is exactly how I used, and continue to use, my fitness pal!

Hollister11

Danbo! wrote: »

It's all down to weight, height, activity level and other factors. I'm 5'11", male and 198lbs. When I was 260lbs I'd have collapsed at 1,300 cals a day.

TBH MyFitnessPal is the only thing that has ever worked for me. By logging calories I learn about what I'm eating. Before I'd eat a home made curry and think "ah sure that's healthy, why amnt I losing weight?" Once I entered all the ingredients it was obvious, so I now weigh each thing, substitute some ingredients, smaller portions, etc.

Now high calorie food isn't as tempting. I've actually found a few times at the end of the day I'll have been under 1200 and need to go find something else to eat. Mad.

The only thing is you have to log absolutely everything. A pain in the hole at first but it starts remembering **** you eat so it's quicker, and the barcode scanner has an impressive amount of items in the database.

I recently logged a day at 1,400 and decided to go back and adjust serving sizes and add in the "small" stuff I might have been tempted to have if I was just winging a healthy day. Say I didn't weight my cereal and had 50g instead of 30g. Or I had a cappuccino and a small snack from the coffee shop. Went for a sandwich instead of salad, etc. I ended up at 3,900. Insanity. So log everything and it becomes like a budget.

I've a bit to go yet but it does work.

I'm 5'10 and 180lb. I log everything other mfp but less than 2K and I'm going mad,

redrose89

Danbo! wrote: »

I had the same skepticism about it too. I moved the setting for activity to "not very active" as I work a desk job. It's telling me to eat 1,500 cals a day to lose 2lbs per week. Using Apple Watch, on average I burn about 1,800 calories a day total, so 1,500 isn't really creating a huge deficit.

I stopped using MFP to log excercise. It's too inaccurate, too many variables amongst people. I cycle to work, Apple Watch tells me I burn about 200 cals, Runkeeper tells me about 350-400, and MFP tells me something in between, so I'm not sure what to believe. I think the watch might be most accurate due to heart rate sensor.

I'm being very strict and keeping to 1,300 cals a day. Any excercise is a bonus, so I'd never eat my earned calories if that makes sense.

Keep up the walking to/from work and at lunch. It's good for weight loss and the mind how long is the walk? Personally I can't run to save my life and cycling doesn't seem to have an effect on the scales, but I lost 60lbs through diet and walking. I found walks over longer times helped, as your body won't burn fat for the first 20-odd minutes of exercising. Well it will, just not efficiently, mostly burns sugar.

I would note that you shouldn't feel hungry all the time. I usually would in the first week of a diet but once you get into the flow of it, you shouldn't really ever feel hungry except before meals. Drinking water can help suppress the hunger but long term look at what you're eating and go for high nutrition low calorie food like lean meat, fish  and veg.

Thanks for the advice!
I love walking. I moved to a different country around 2 years ago and I feel that is when I put on weight (around 30 lbs). When I lived in Ireland I was out walking 3/4 days a week for an hour and I always maintained what for me was a happy size! I know moving country is no excuse to stop walking - but life just completely changed. Its extremely cold in the winter months, so I joined the gym to get my exercise in, finally built up the courage about 6 months ago to start going to classes. Our walks for the past 6 months have been 3x 15 mins a day as it has just been too cold. The weather is finally picking up again so we are getting out on bigger walks. I hope in the next couple of weeks it will be warm enough to do a 40 minute walk every morning. At the minute we are doing 10 mins in the morning and lunchtime (by the time I get home thats all we have time for) and 30 mins in the evening.

njs030

redrose89 wrote: »

Literally nothing, the scales haven't budged since I bought them. In fairness my fiance has told me that he has noticed a weight loss, sometimes I can "feel it" around my hips and tummy, but its not showing on the scales or in my clothes.
I don't have a huge appetite when I wake up, but have a protein drink in the morning - made with water its made by Vega and is made from plant protein. Then around 9 I have breakfast its usually greek yoghurt with some honey and hemp hearts, or overnight oats made with greek yoghurt, or those mini egg omelettes with veg.
Lunch is usually salad with a tin of tuna, if I haven't had eggs at breakfast I'll have it with the salad. Sometimes I'll have the egg omelette with veg.
Dinner is usually meat/chicken, veg and sweet potato or some sort of carb(small portion). We have fish a once sometimes twice a week. 
Snack would be some fruit, or carrots and hummus or an apple and peanut butter. 
I cook everything from scratch, rarely ever use shop bought sauces. I think I'm quite health conscious and watch what I eat, but I'm definitely not an expert. I would like to think my diet is quite good.

Are you weighing everything?

Danbo!

notjustsweet wrote: »

Are you weighing everything?

Was just about to ask. You don't need to weigh everything every day, but once you take a look at things like the honey or hummus, etc, and weigh out the suggested serving size, you may be surprised.

I used to have a bowl of cheerios and think it was healthy. Have you ever seen the suggested serving size of 30g. It's like 4 cheerios

redrose89

notjustsweet wrote: »

redrose89 wrote: »

Literally nothing, the scales haven't budged since I bought them. In fairness my fiance has told me that he has noticed a weight loss, sometimes I can "feel it" around my hips and tummy, but its not showing on the scales or in my clothes.
I don't have a huge appetite when I wake up, but have a protein drink in the morning - made with water its made by Vega and is made from plant protein. Then around 9 I have breakfast its usually greek yoghurt with some honey and hemp hearts, or overnight oats made with greek yoghurt, or those mini egg omelettes with veg.
Lunch is usually salad with a tin of tuna, if I haven't had eggs at breakfast I'll have it with the salad. Sometimes I'll have the egg omelette with veg.
Dinner is usually meat/chicken, veg and sweet potato or some sort of carb(small portion). We have fish a once sometimes twice a week. 
Snack would be some fruit, or carrots and hummus or an apple and peanut butter. 
I cook everything from scratch, rarely ever use shop bought sauces. I think I'm quite health conscious and watch what I eat, but I'm definitely not an expert. I would like to think my diet is quite good.

Are you weighing everything?

Not everything. I measure out my yogurt and oats in cups, hemp hearts,honey, hummus, peanut butter in tablespoons/teaspoons so I know the cals, I know the cals of an egg. Is it necessary to weigh out salad and veg? I just check the calories in whatever I'm eating and keep a tally. For dinner it a piece of fish, a breast of chicken or a "regular" portion of meat - nothing extreme, lots of veg and a small portion of carbs.

njs030

redrose89 wrote: »

Not everything. I measure out my yogurt and oats in cups, hemp hearts,honey, hummus, peanut butter in tablespoons/teaspoons so I know the cals, I know the cals of an egg. Is it necessary to weigh out salad and veg? I just check the calories in whatever I'm eating and keep a tally. For dinner it a piece of fish, a breast of chicken or a "regular" portion of meat - nothing extreme, lots of veg and a small portion of carbs.

How do you know the calories in the fish/chicken/meat?
Or in the carbs, salad, veg etc?
It might seem like nothing but it adds up quite quickly.

If you're not losing weight something isn't working so going back to basics and weighing everything is a good start so you know you're eating 1500 and no more.

Don't forget drinks!!

Tigger99

What age are you?

Are you writing down every single thing you eat? And alcohol if you drink it?

You are either missing something in what you log or you need to go to the doctor and get blood tests done to make sure something isn't stopping you losing weight.

I weigh about 140, similar activity to you and consume 1800cals a day. If I was in your position I would be in Mountjoy having killed someone in a hunger induced rage. How on earth are you surviving on 1500cals considering that you are 230lbs?

marialouise

I think the problem here is that you've selected an activity level which includes your exercise, and then you want to track your exercise on top of that. 2120 is taking into account 3 walks a day and 3 classes a week, so you can't log any more exercise as extra as it's already accounted for. I also don't think that a few walks a day and 3 classes counts as Active, maybe someone who works a physical job or is on their feet all day like a nurse or a barman who works out a bit is active I think, you're probably "lightly active" BUT I think the numbers are arbitrary anyway.

In any case what I would do would be set your activity level to sedentary, and get the food right. Weigh everything meticulously so that you can accurately measure calories in. There is almost no totally accurate way of measuring calories out so what you have to do is track the calories going in, and observe the resulting weight trend. If your weight is staying the same, then you are at your maintenance level. If your weight is going up, then you have too many calories in/don't have enough calories out. If your weight is dropping, take it slowly and see how you feel about the rate of weight loss. It doesn't matter if it's 1500 or 1800, you just have to track the food and track your weight/measurements and find the right energy balance. Give it three weeks and then when you find the number you can tweak the diet. You might find the number is actually 1700 and between moderate exercise and diet you're hitting below that. You might find you're really hungry and people here can suggest filling foods or whatever. But you'll never know what your maintenance is unless you track your food and your weight over a fixed period. A little bit of experimentation is required but it'll pay off when you have clearer numbers to work with.

You can also try the opposite of this: try hit 2100 every day and see what happens! Don't log any exercise and just see what happens. If the weight doesn't change, adjust your activity setting.
For what it's worth I always had mine set to sedentary and just ate a little bit more on higher activity days, or if I was extra hungry.


I think the main response from this thread is that you won't have any answers until you accurately start measuring your food. Cups and tablespoons have a higher margin for error than you might expect. I weigh my oats, seeds,nuts, meat, yoghurt etc to the gram.
A breast of chicken can be 150-200g, that could be 165-220 calories that you're just guessing. A "small" portion of rice/pasta/sweet potato can still be 150-250 cals so all this estimating can really add up. The eggs can vary in size, I have some in my supermarket which are 63 cals for small and 98 cals for large, are you always buying the same eggs?
I'm on the fence about weighing veg. I used to do it when I was on 1500 cals to check I was getting enough fibre, iron, vitamins etc, but you don't need to obsess about grams of lettuce. Some veg are higher in carb than others (eg winter squash vs summer squash, carrots, peas, sweetcorn), the sugar in some fruits might surprise you etc, so it's no harm in the beginning to educate yourself on what's in your favourite foods.
You DO need to obsess about nut butters by the way, please don't measure these with a spoon, they need to be weighed!!! You can put the jar on the weighing scales and see it go to -10g, or else serve it out with the dish you'll be using on the weighing scales. If you haven't weighed peanut butter before, you might be in for a surprise, I was very upset the first time I did it!


Don't change too much the first week, eat as you normally do, just weigh it first and then you'll start to see where your errors might have been. You say "nothing extreme" in terms of food and portions but when your calorie budget is as low as 1500 the difference between lean chicken, or beef with 10% fat makes a crucial difference if you're serious about cutting calories and not starving. You might find you were 'eating a healthy snack of carrot sticks and peanut butter' which turned out to be 300cals. Start weighing, you'll find your answers there I think.

Oh my gosh I re-read this, it's so long and I'm sorry, I hope it's clear and  some of it is helpful!

28064212

marialouise wrote: »

I think the problem here is that you've selected an activity level which includes your exercise, and then you want to track your exercise on top of that. 2120 is taking into account 3 walks a day and 3 classes a week, so you can't log any more exercise as extra as it's already accounted for.

This. I run 100km+ a week, but I log all my runs as exercise. My job is a desk one, so my activity level is set to sedentary

marialouise wrote: »

BUT I think the numbers are arbitrary anyway

Also this. The only true measure is in the results. It doesn't matter what MFP 's estimates are. If you're not losing weight, you need to reduce your calorie intake.

Mellor

marialouise wrote: »

I think the problem here is that you've selected an activity level which includes your exercise, and then you want to track your exercise on top of that. 2120 is taking into account 3 walks a day and 3 classes a week, so you can't log any more exercise as extra as it's already accounted for. I also don't think that a few walks a day and 3 classes counts as Active, maybe someone who works a physical job or is on their feet all day like a nurse or a barman who works out a bit is active I think, you're probably "lightly active" BUT I think the numbers are arbitrary anyway.

100% This.

The daily calories calculator that MFP uses is perfectly accurate (its similar to harris benedict or the one Scooby uses).
The inaccuracies come from people putting in inaccurate data. If you overestimate your activity, then you cals will over. Same if you double count. The issue is that they use subjective lightly/moderately/very active terms

I always think that the activity level should refer to your day job not exercise, as if you work a desk job, you are sedentary. You're furniture mover, you are active etc.

People who go to the gym to lift weights 3 or 4 times a week should be forgiven for assume that's moderately active.
Let's say they've a BMR of 1840 (80kg a guy). The difference between sedentary and moderately active is 640 calories a day, or 4500 cals a week. (Very active is 6750/wk.)
Going to the gym 3 or 4 times a week isn't close to enough for moderately active. It's probably just about scrapping lightly active tbh (2250/wk).

Hollister11

I was under my calories today but my meal were very calorie high

Breakfast 600
Lunch 500
Dinner 800

Is this OK?

Mellor

Did you drink nothing but water all day? No snacks of any sort?

Then its fine. But if you had and snacks or drinks, you should log them too

marialouise

Hollister11 wrote: »

I was under my calories today but my meal were very calorie high

Breakfast 600
Lunch 500
Dinner 800

Is this OK?

That's 1900, only time will tell if this is the right number for you or not. 
In terms of calories in meals, it's fine. You can eat two meals of 850 or three meals like you did.  I usually eat something like 4 meals of 400 and then maybe a small snack or two depending on the day. In principle, what you eat and when you eat doesn't matter, and it's just the calorie numbers. There's not really a right or wrong, whatever pattern works for you and makes the calorie deficit easy to stick with is the right way

As time goes on, if you find you're hungry you can find some lower-calorie alternatives to your favourite foods, or develop a preference for a particular meal at a particular time, but for now just tracking everything will show you a lot.

redrose89

Guys thanks so much for all the responses, but I really did just want to know about the accuracy of myfitnesspal. It seems like some of you are giving advice on nutrition, what I should be eating and explaining weight loss. When I said I wasn't an expert an nutrition I should have been clearer, I don't know about macro's, keto's stuff like that. But thank you for the advice none the less. 
In the past week I have upped my cals, not to the extent that myfitnesspal advised, as I just feel like that is too many for me. I stepped on the scales today, as I do every Monday :-/ and it says I've lost 8lbs. I don't know if thats a fluke or not, but I'm going to run with it. I wanted to update this for anyone is was wondering the same thing as me when I started this thread. Like I said, it may be a fluke so I will just have to monitor it over time. 
Thanks again for the advice

Danbo!

redrose89 wrote: »

Guys thanks so much for all the responses, but I really did just want to know about the accuracy of myfitnesspal. It seems like some of you are giving advice on nutrition, what I should be eating and explaining weight loss. When I said I wasn't an expert an nutrition I should have been clearer, I don't know about macro's, keto's stuff like that. But thank you for the advice none the less. 
In the past week I have upped my cals, not to the extent that myfitnesspal advised, as I just feel like that is too many for me. I stepped on the scales today, as I do every Monday :-/ and it says I've lost 8lbs. I don't know if thats a fluke or not, but I'm going to run with it. I wanted to update this for anyone is was wondering the same thing as me when I started this thread. Like I said, it may be a fluke so I will just have to monitor it over time. 
Thanks again for the advice

Deadly, congrats!

At least you know your metabolism works:D Hope you were less hungry too. 8lbs is a massive amount in one week, just don't be too disheartened if it's not every week! Great way to kick off the motivation anyway. Keep it up.

marialouise

redrose89 wrote: »

Guys thanks so much for all the responses, but I really did just want to know about the accuracy of myfitnesspal. It seems like some of you are giving advice on nutrition, what I should be eating and explaining weight loss. When I said I wasn't an expert an nutrition I should have been clearer, I don't know about macro's, keto's stuff like that. But thank you for the advice none the less. 
In the past week I have upped my cals, not to the extent that myfitnesspal advised, as I just feel like that is too many for me. I stepped on the scales today, as I do every Monday :-/ and it says I've lost 8lbs. I don't know if thats a fluke or not, but I'm going to run with it. I wanted to update this for anyone is was wondering the same thing as me when I started this thread. Like I said, it may be a fluke so I will just have to monitor it over time. 
Thanks again for the advice

Well done on the weight loss. I didn't mean to be patronising or explain too much in my response, but the information everyone gave was for you, and also like you said for the benefit of others who might be trying to learn something from the thread. Your question was "how accurate is MFP" and then you told us you don't weigh everything, so naturally that's what most of us started to hone in on, sorry if that wasn't the advice you were looking for.
"The accuracy of MyFitnessPal" has many dimensions and I was just trying to help by offering specific advice on which foods to weigh more carefully (MyFitnessPal is only accurate when you are too), and what activity level might be more appropriate.. I hope anyway you don't feel I was trying to tell you what to eat or how to lose weight. Well done on the weight loss, keep up the good work.