You watched my 3 day video series (If you haven’t you can watch it here)…
You downloaded MyFitnessPal (If you haven’t its in your app store)…
You entered your stats…
It gave you “goals”…
Now you’re wondering if these are right?
The answer is probably NOT!
MyFitnessPal needs to up their game. SERIOUSLY!
MFP plugged your numbers Into some equation to give you “average” numbers. But guess what girl, you ARE NOT average! You’re unique!
I’m just gonna take a wild guess here… you probably want to lose weight as fast as possible and so you told MFP you were active and wanted to lose 1lb per week (am i right???) The calculation for this most likely put you into wayyyy to much of a deficit.
So here’s the truth… it puts you in a huge deficit so that you initially lose weight and you automatically think ‘omg MFP is amazing, I’m gonna keep using it and tell all my friends about it” and then MFP looks like the hottest new app.
But then, a few weeks go by, you’re hungry, you don’t track, you fall off the wagon and then you just blame yourself.
Does this sound familiar?
This is actually how ALL diets operate. They all “work” because they all put you in a deficit so that you lose really fast. But then the reality is, you plateau because there either isn’t much room to take away or you ‘fall off the wagon.’
Wanna know a little secret???
All that you really need to do is be in a very small deficit at first, you’ll see progress, then once you plateau then you make another small adjustment, you make some progress, plateau again and then keep repeating over time to keep stimulating change.
Let me show you what this looks like: Let’s say you are eating 2000 cal normally and you start to follow MFP recommendation of a 500 calorie deficit which puts you at a new goal of 1500. You probably will see huge results then hit a hard plateau like she smashed into a wall of bricks. Now let’s say you were smarter than that… Instead of a 500 calorie drop, maybe you start with a 150 calorie drop which puts your new goal at 1850, you’ll see progress and then you’ll plateau but instead of crashing into bricks, you’ll just coast like you stopped pedaling on your bike. So then you might make a 50 calorie drop this time take you to 1800 calories (mind you, you’re still eating more than the 1500 calorie you who is stuck under a pile of bricks). You’ll see progress, come to slow and then you just keep implementing these small changes over time.
But now how do you know how much a small deficit is?
Well you have to figure out where your TRUE maintenance is. (Because if you think you’re eating 2000 cal but you’re really eating 2500 cal, then a 150 cal deficit is going to be way under!)
So the ONLY way to do figure out where you currently are is to track your normal intake! That means you are tracking WITHOUT trying to diet or eat healthy. You just track what you eat normally.
When you track in MFP this first week you should not be trying to make it to goal numbers at all! In fact, all you’re doing is collecting data… Just log the foods you eat! It’s that simple!
Once you Log consistently for at least 7 days then you are in a better position to find your starting macro goals! This is where I can come in to help! I offer 2 options: a DIY option where you take my 6 week course to Master Your Macros OR my signature 1:1 coaching where I customize everything for you!
