myfitnesspal

after hearing this mentioned as a great free tool to help monitor food intake and exercise i thought i would look at it today....

seemed ok to use and got given targets to eat that would also change to take into account of exercise.sounds perfect

My problem is that it gives targets of carbs fat protein and sugars etc

 the sugar is only 24g for the day..and a small banana is 12 and a small 200ml of apple juice is 23.whilst i know large amounts of either of these is not great for you......surely a small banana and a sml apple juice a day should be able to be accommodated in a healthy eating plan...

Am i doing something wrong........otherwise a pint of 1% fat milk on its own would reach the daily limit and this volume or equivalent in other dairy is recommended for the calcium for older ladies

«1

Comments

  • I'm no expert on this site seren but I would think that because it's a diary system that gets you to look at your food intake and make suggestions then 24g is 24g no matter where it comes from - so if you have to cut something, you have to cut something

    as for the milk - you could subsititute with calcium supplements if you're concerned about keeping calcium levels up

  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭

    24g?!  That's less than two teaspoons, in everything.  All day.

    (I've just noticed my Waitrose muesli is 23g sugar per 100g, which I easily eat for breakfast!  With milk and sugary coffee!  That takes me up to 9am...)

    Where's Sarah?

  • phil .it seesm so low that I can't see my self ever working to it.exercise does increase it .

     i have been able to have a plateful of chipshop chips tonight as they have no sugar.......not sure that this is going to be the healthiest way for me to go forwardimage

  • That does seem very low.

    The Guideline Daily Amount of Sugar for adult women is 90g.

     

  • I use mfp, I lost over a stone about 18 months ago, and I use it to monitor what I'm eating (making sure I don't overcompensate after a hard session!).   I guess the low sugar target is maybe to stop you going for loads of "diet/low fat" foods which are usually high in it ?

    my sugar quota for the day is over as I've had a banana and some orange juice amongst other things , and I'll go over my 'fat' quota later as I'm having an avacado with dinner, but by now I don't get too hung up about it.

  • thanks fraggle........#i will not get too hung up over it as I feel that to avoid any fruit becuase it is high is not good ......my whole idea is to avoid the high sugars of cake etc.....

    but really as a way to reduce the bread intake...

  • I think for me it opened my eyes as to how many calories I was getting from drinks - I used to drink loads of squash in the evening. Now, I drink it very very diluted or drink fruit tea (0 cals image )

    obviously it's not a perfect system, but you can use it to your advantage, but you have to be disciplined (something I've failed to do recently!)

  • i don't think it needs to be perfect.just having to record it should help......worth a try .its free and so nothing to lose apart from the weight

  • You can adjust the percentages you want from your daily cals - the defaults are miles away from what I am after.

     

    I tend to ignore the sugars and fat and just look at total cals, total protein and total carbs aiming for the goals I have set myself.  It's working a treat for me at the minute. 

  • BookyBooky ✭✭✭
    I really wouldn't be too concerned about the sugar limit, assuming you're being sensible and not eating your entire carb allowance in added sugars. Obviously there's the nutrition side of things, but where kcals are concerned 1g of carbs is ~4kcal regardless of whether it's a sugar or a complex starch. MFP is pretty good, but as has already been said, capping sugar also caps your intake of healthy foods - fruit, dairy, veg, etc.

    I'm not sure how they calculate allowances - activity does increase the amounts, but the totals go up for all macronutrients and that doesn't entirely make sense. It's a useful tool though, but that's true for any form of food diary.
  • I think the biggest advanage of the programme is that it seems to have every item of food on the planet already loaded.

  • Have used it since last June and lost over 45lbs so far.

    I mainly use the carb/protein/fat as indicators for daily balance and requirements.

    You can custom set your daily requirements if you need, I find it a really useful tool.

  • thanks for letting me know that I can adjust the totals.will work out something more useable for me........

     

  • Hi I have just started using Mfp, which I think is really good. However, the calories burnt as per run are nearly double that in comparrision to the calculator RW use. Does anyone else agree?

    Thanks

  • It's fine for me. Are you using the same weight for both ?
  • SteadyCJSteadyCJ ✭✭✭

    I found the calories burnt for exercise way out to what my Garmin said. I also had to tweak it so that my basic total calories were higher, then the weight started shifting, I was eating too little to lose weight at one point.

  • It's been great for us; we don't use anything other than the total calories calculator; the calories for exercise has been about right for us. It's only a nominal thing, but we've lost just slightly more lard than the calculator suggested, probably because the basal metabolic calorie allowance per day is a tad low.

  • Thank you for your responses really helpful. I imputed the same figures in both the RW and Mfp and the difference was huge. The figures were higher than my Garmin but the mfp app came out nearly double the RW we pace calculator. Ill keep looking at it and post up anything I find out. Thanks again 

  • signed up today. Everything was looking good for the day until I remembered I had one bottle of alcoholic ginger beer. Oops put me over target for calories, fat, carbs, sugar...

     

    do people actually weigh what they eat or estimate as I did today? Made me realise how little of a clue I have about how much of things I am eating.

  • Sounds like you need to weigh things - its easy to underestimate what you're having.
  • Adam - have you sorted out the calorie difference yet ?
  • Are you wearing an HRM with your Garmin? I find I get far lower readings for calories burned if I wear an HRM than if I don't. Which is odd, because calories burned is a function of weight and distance, rathe than intensity.

  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭

    My target calories for the day on MFP are coming out at 1200 - which seems a tad low (and quite hard to stick to!).  It's ok on the days I run, because I get the "added" calories that I've burned off, but on a non-running day, I'm starving.

    I thought 1400 - 1500 was the weight loss level for wimmin.

    Anyone know what it should be?

    In saying that, I am finding just logging things makes me less likely to snack - especially the leftover food in the staff room at work........

  • runningowlrunningowl ✭✭✭

    I stopped using MFP because it doesnt like the low carb high fat & protien way of eating which insidently since lowering carbs and increasing fat has meant I have lost weight and still am. I dont suffer energy crashes including not hitting the wall in a sub 3hr marathon attempt,  lower blood pressure & cholesterol.  

    I dont worry about the sugar I eat. I still eat good carbs(sugar) like veg, fruit & oats but limit processed carbs (bad sugar) like bread, pasta, white rice & ppackaged cereals like corn flakes

     

    Myfitnesspal didnt like that.  Said I was double the fat I was supposed to have

  • Hello Nessie ! My calories came out as 1200 too. As you say its fine when you exercise isnt it ?



    I theeenk its just a simple calculation - you want to lose say 10lbs and you have 44 days to do it - soooo.



    3500 x 10 = 35000 excess calories to lose. Divide by 44 days = 795 calorie deficiency you'd need to run at.



    It definitely helps - if you account for everything you eat/drink then you really pay attention and only eat if you really need to !
  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭

    Hi Cougs!  

    Struggling a bit today - I've had 1213 calories and haven't had my tea yet!  Ah well, tomorrow's another day.......

  • I've used a Rosemary Conley book to set the calorie value I needed to get down to my target weight and put that value into my fitness pal...and set a goal of 1lb a week with exercise 2-3 times a week.

    It seems to have worked for me, since 02 Jan till 18 May I have lost 15 kg's (33lb) by sticking to 1800 calories a day on most days.

    Should have said - I do weigh my food as well, as it has been the only way to get it right.

  • booktrunkbooktrunk ✭✭✭

    nessie: 1,500 calories will in theory loose around 1lb a week. 1,200 is around 1.5 -2 lbs a week. 

  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭

    Thanks booktrunk - I'll stress less about going over the 1200 mark.  I hate being really hungry. 

Sign In or Register to comment.