To think my fitness pal lies

[Poptart4]

I've been religiously logging everything and keeping within my 1200 cals per day but haven't lost a single pound. I'm now thinking that my fitness pal is giving me the wrong calorie information.

Do you trust they are right with the amount of calories they say are in your food?

Or maybe I need to eat less than 1200 to lose weight. For context I'm 5ft 4 and 10st 10lbs. I'd like to get back to 9 stone but losing hope as I'm getting no where.

I have had good success with it when I stick to it - and with higher limits than 1200cals too (though I am taller than you). I think it overestimates calories burned in exercise, but the food ones are pretty accurate for the most part. How long have you been doing it?

How long have you been calorie counting?

I use My Fitness Pal but I don't use the calories on there, I log them myself from the item either by scanning the barcode or inputting the info from the nutritional information.

Have you calculated your TDEE? It could be that you need to eat less than that to be in a calorie deficit- although that would be very few calories! Could also mean you need to eat more if 1200 is far less than you need- tdeecalculator.net/

A lot of the calorie and nutritional information in the MFP database is added by users, a large proportion of whom are American, so it can be way off. I never automatically use the first items that come up on the search list, I look to make sure that the nutritional content matches up with what is on the product label, or from the product as listed on the shop's website. You can also scan the bar code on the packaging, though that sometimes comes up with the wrong item. You need to go do a little detective work!

Also do you exercise? If so, do you eat back the calories you've burned? I didn't really start to see results until I stopped doing that, as most fitness trackers etc massively overestimate how many calories you've burned,

The food database on mfp relies on its users inputting nutritional data, so you can’t rely on it.

Are you accurately logging everything, using scales? 1200 is the minimum calories you will be given, mfp does not recommend going under that for any reason, without advice from a medical professional.

How long have you been logging calories for? Are you eating back exercise calories?

Are you doing any exercise? I could live on greens and stay the same weight if I'm not actually putting the effort in with exercise.
Exercise is always the key with weight loss.

Agree with pp. I lose weight with it successfully on 1200 but only if I put my exercise level as 'sedentary' (whether it is or not). It massively over estimates the calories you burn imho

Are you burning 1700 calories a day to give yourself the 500 calorie a day deficit (1lb loss per week).
Are you weighing everything and logging that way or making assumptions on portion sizes, example adding a teaspoon of jam from the selections when actually you may be using 25g?

It works well for me when i stick to it so i don't think it's innacurate.

I lost 2.5st using MFP and Couch to 5k, but I didn't start seeing any real weight loss until the running ramped up.

If you've recently started exercising along with calorie counting your body will be holding water. Drink loads of water and the pounds will come off.

You also might need a higher daily calorie intake and get your macros right. Your body burns calories when you eat, if you up your protein and fibre your body will burn more processing then carbs and fat.

Nutracheck is better imo, their minimum calories per day is 1400 and their database does not rely on other users. You do have to pay for it but it isn't very much.

You can input anything you like - you can say a cheesecake has six calories and it will believe you. If you scan the nutritional data of every single food item you eat from the barcode and weigh it, you have a much higher chance of success.

I haven't been exercising

That's something I'm really going to put alot more effort into.

I've been tracking for a month and haven't lost a thing. I've just checked my tdee. It says my maintenance calories are 1615 per day. My basal metabolism rate is 1346cals.

So now I'm thinking I should stick to 1000 cals per day and ramp up the exercise. Although 1000 cals seems really low but it might be the only way.

It’s famous for this op. So yes it’s likely to under estimate.

You need to exercise.
Are you measuring everything? Including how much oil you use, drinks, milk in tea even. You'd be surprised how the calories sneak in.

I wouldn't drop to 1000 that's really low, stick with 1200 for now and start being more active even if it's just walking and yoga etc. Give it another month or so and don't eat it extra to cancel our the exercise

It's the same for me. I declined a biscuit yesterday and when I weighed myself this morning there was NO CHANGE!

I don't know why I bother making the effort.

1200 is the minimum given for a reason, and you should be eating back at least some of your exercise calories. 1000 calories, with no added exercise calories, is not sustainable long term, and could quite quickly leave you not having the energy to DO the exercise.

It is harder as a smaller person, but slower weight loss over a longer time is far more likely to stay off. I am your height, and just under your target weight, by using mfp set to 0.5lb loss a week and eating back at least half of my exercise calories, and logging food carefully using a scale, I have continued to lose weight steadily on 1400/1500 calories (+exercise) without any difficulty.

I didn't lose anything until a PT told me to up my protein and down my carbs. I'm on 1450 calories a day, of which 109g should be protein. It basically means meat / fish + veg instead of a sandwich. Lots of Greek yoghurt. You feel full and it does seem to be working.

I had bacon and eggs this morning. Scanned the aldi bacon barcode and the calories/fat etc were totally, totally wrong. It was a bit of a fluke that I noticed tbh and had to add a 'new' food and manually input the right figures. Ballache. No idea if the eggs were accurate as it had no nutrional information on the box!

I don't think it's true that MFP is always inaccurate for calorie consumption, but you do need to be careful what options you pick, as some of them are wildly out and some are misleading. A few checks and balances as you're starting out will soon help you pick the correct ones. Then I find it very accurate indeed.

For instance - if you're weighing dried pasta, make sure you're using an entry to log this that is for uncooked pasta not cooked, which makes a huge different. Same for rice, cous cous, potatoes - any carb, really.Once you get a feel for what the calories should be for certain things, it's much easier to spot the accurate ones.

Also - do make use of the barcode scanner! Almost everything that is pre-packaged can be scanned, you can cross check this to the packaging, and be totally confident it's correct. Things like mince, cheese or pre-prepared sauces can vary wildly between brands based on fat content, so it's important to pick the correct one, and scanning is the best way to do that. Plus it's fast and easy.

I've lost weight successfully several times using MFP (just struggle keeping it off!). I'm currently down almost 1.5 stone of my lockdown weight, and it's entirely down to MFP, as injuries are currently making exercise difficult.

I mentioned this on a thread the other day, but I'd been happily eating something thinking it was 100cal due to MFP, but on closer inspection of the actual packet, it was more like 200. I'd been having a couple thinking it was OK within my overall calorie count. It wasn't really.

I'm finding it quite hard to stick to the limit some days, but I am doing a lot more exercise and the weight is slowly coming off. I'm trying not to eat the exercise calories back, but I'm also currently v hungry. Will try more water and greek yoghurt.

I've been tracking for a month and haven't lost a thing. I've just checked my tdee. It says my maintenance calories are 1615 per day. My basal metabolism rate is 1346cals.

So now I'm thinking I should stick to 1000 cals per day and ramp up the exercise. Although 1000 cals seems really low but it might be the only way.

You never eat below your BMR. So start eating 1350, and make sure you're burning 1850 at least. Do you get your steps in? Exercise?

Anyone can add an item into MFP, you need to check that it is actually the food you are eating and the calories are correct.
You can't just search something like 'lasagne' and just add the one that says 400cal per portion and expect it to be right for what you have eaten.