My Fitness Pal app - REALLY?!

[tommydamic68]

Holy crap! I just tried using My Fitness Pal app yesterday and man, it appears I am way off balance with many things diet wise. Does anyone use this app legitimately and have success? I would need to make some major diet changes like reduce fat {good fat), reduce protein and increase things like potassium, 3500 grams a day? besides a bit of belly fat, nothing too horrible, I feel good about my current body in the mirror - weight as well and my progress. What to do?

[grubman]

I feel good about my current body in the mirror - weight as well and my progress. What to do?

IMHO you answered your own question. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Life is too short to obsess over small chit. A healthy overall diet, agressive training, and enough recuperation produced awesome lifter physiques for 100 years...was Steve Reeves using an app when he was eating his moms steak, potatoes, and green beans?

[Gabbar99]

Holy crap! I just tried using My Fitness Pal app yesterday and man, it appears I am way off balance with many things diet wise. Does anyone use this app legitimately and have success? I would need to make some major diet changes like reduce fat {good fat), reduce protein and increase things like potassium, 3500 grams a day? besides a bit of belly fat, nothing too horrible, I feel good about my current body in the mirror - weight as well and my progress. What to do?

Not sure what you mean. In MFP, you set the calories, macros, etc. that you want. The app is just a calculator. I think the default equations overestimate calories burned during exercise, but that's adjustable or easily worked around. Also, the calorie values for food are submitted by users, so you have to search through and do some homework to choose the ones that are accurate.

I think when you first use it, it throws up some default numbers just to have something to start with. Are you saying those default numbers don't match your situation? If so, change them. Again, it's just a calculator.

[ironwill2008]

Holy crap! I just tried using My Fitness Pal app yesterday and man, it appears I am way off balance with many things diet wise. Does anyone use this app legitimately and have success? I would need to make some major diet changes like reduce fat {good fat), reduce protein and increase things like potassium, 3500 grams a day? besides a bit of belly fat, nothing too horrible, I feel good about my current body in the mirror - weight as well and my progress.


What to do?

Use MFP only as a means of adding up your calories and macros, and use only the food information that you input yourself. It's widely known that much of the calorie/macro info that MFP uses is inaccurate.

[WildcatDave]

I use it simply to track my macros. I setup my protein and fat to what I want, no need to worry micros.

[Rabbitjb]

MFP is full of so many user entered errors it's not worth bothering about the micro elements. Even the macros and calories need double checking before using them

It's a tool but needs to be used carefully

[tommydamic68]

Thanks all, I didd verify each food and drink calories wise, fat protein and so on. I can't seem to find where to adjust certain things to my liking like fat for one so perhaps I need to play around with it for a bit.

Edit: I used the default "maintain weight" - the other options were "lose weight" or "gain weight."

[Sweetums6000]

Thanks all, I didd verify each food and drink calories wise, fat protein and so on. I can't seem to find where to adjust certain things to my liking like fat for one so perhaps I need to play around with it for a bit.

Edit: I used the default "maintain weight" - the other options were "lose weight" or "gain weight."

Click “more,” then “goals,” then “calorie and macronutrient goals.”

Unfortunately, you have to pay for the app to be able to set it in grams. The free app only uses percentages.

[Garage Rat]

You need to manipulate the diet (calories) and macros to you personally.
An app is just general and not specific to an individual.
In other words what works for one will not always work for someone else.
My take is as far as macros go is at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight to preserve muscle while trying to lose fat.
The fat and carbs are something you need to experiment with and adjust on your own to see what works for you.
I'm old school and write it down in a journal.
I agree with everyone else that the apps can be inaccurate.

[machina1]

my buddy used it mainly to be sure he was eating enough. He was shocked to see how little he was really eating compared to how much he needed!!

[lowkey122]

Click “more,” then “goals,” then “calorie and macronutrient goals.”

Unfortunately, you have to pay for the app to be able to set it in grams. The free app only uses percentages.

??? I have the free app and it displays my macros in both percentage and grams.


OP I use it daily and it can be modified based on your personal goals and results. If it isn't a "create your own meal" that I've entered my own macros in then I primarily use the foods listed with a green check mark next to it. If I'm unsure or there isn't a check mark then I just take an average of the high to low information, because let's be honest if 100 calories is going to make or break your diet then MFP isn't the problem.

[Sweetums6000]

??? I have the free app and it displays my macros in both percentage and grams.

Been a while since I used the free app, so I checked website to see if it has changed and found this

Premium features include:

...

Macronutrients by Gram
Set macronutrient goals by either gram or percentage

MyFitnessPal distributes fat, carb and protein calories based on a percentage, in five percent increments. If you customize your macronutrient goals, all three goals will adjust to total 100%.

If you would like greater control over your goals, you may wish to consider upgrading to MyFitnessPal Premium. Premium users can set a very precise goal, in gram increments, for protein, carbs, or fat, or in calorie increments of one percent.

That was the whole reason why I upgraded. Having to fiddle around with the percentages to try to make my macro goals match my actual goal in grams was too annoying. I didn’t care about any of the other features.

[meloncap78]

I just lost 23 pounds using MFP and a good food scale. Seems to work fine. I set my macros to 40/40/20 and made sure they stuck right around there. It becomes second nature as to what you need to be eating after while and things just work out.

[blue9steel]

Awesome for tracking, horrible for setting targets.

[justinfore]

I think it's a good tool for "teaching" yourself how to eat. I used it religiously for ~2.5 years, now I don't really use it anymore. I use it to sanity check any change to my routine meals...but only for calories per meal. Hell with nit-picking macros and total calories/day.