Are you Under Reporting your Calories?
Are you under reporting? Calorie tracking apps like My Fitness Pal can be absolute game changers for some when looking to understand nutrition better and lose body fat. It’s not essential for everyone to do it but it’s a very useful tool in the right situations.
A common problem however is that many people do not track accuratley. And so there is often a situation where a client will not be able to understand why their weight hasnt changed even though they are sticking to their macros and calorie targets.
To lose weight we need to be in a calorie deficit (burn more calories in a day than you consume) for a sustained period to lose body fat. Most people who log into my fitness pal do so while trying to achieve a pre determined amount of calories calculated to allow them to achieve that deficit. So why do some people not see progress despite seemingly sticking to their calorie target.
One simple explaniation could be that you are underreporting your calories.
It is important that if you are going to the trouble to log your food in My Fitness Pal that you are as accurate as possible.
Most of the time under reporting is not done on purpose and is an honest mistake. Here are a few tips to make sure you never under report on My Fitness Pal again.
Accurately weigh and measure your food. Avoid using “servings” and “cups” as portions and instead use a food scale and stick to grams and millilitres. This is probably the biggest offender, the differences in calories can be huge!
Log things straight away. You are best to log something in advance of eating it or right after you eat it to avoid the likelihood of forgetting completely or partially what you ate earlier in the day. I’ve seen people forget to report whole snacks and meals this way.
Include everything that contains calories! Common things unreported are cooking sprays and oils, sauces, teas & coffees and so called “healthy foods”. These foods all still contain calories and can make a a significant proportion of you daily calories.
Log every day. Do you only log on days when you are in control. Having looked at many a clients diary a common theme is Mon-Thurs is full of detialed logging and the weekend is blank or has the odd entry. Could it be that weekend was maybe a right off? Did you maybe overspill on calories during the weekend that resulted in offsetting the good work through the week? Again if you go to the effort of logging try to do it accuratley or use it sloely on the days your more likely to be out of control and benefit from the accountabilty and support the app gives you. Flip it and track the weekend instead of the week.
Hopefully you found these tips helpful. Please dont hesitiate to contact us if you require any assistance with your nutrition.