Set point, macros and performance struggles

This app supports, even drives, the unproven eat less/move more theory of weight loss. It's so built in, they don't even realise that is what the app is doing. Even the one-pound-of-fat-equals-3500kcal is just a theory, and has never been proven, yet it underpins almost all weight loss advice.

More carbs is not the solution. Carbs are the kindling on energy. Unless you are doing 100m sprints, your running needs to be fuelled mostly by fat.

I was in the same situation as you and asked here, https://forums.cronometer.com/discussion/2800/I-can't-figure-out-what's-going-on-with-my-weight I was not satisfied with the answers, which were not open to the possibility the entire premise was wrong. I spent 3 weeks measuring every mouthful that I ate, and letting my phone measure activities to watch my weight not change a gram. I was thinking about food constantly, using will power all the time and that was just to maintain. I realised that if that was what I would have to do after I had lost the weight, I was doomed to fail. I looked for another way.

For me that was low carb and fasting. I have now been maintaining pretty effortlessly for a year (though not dining out much has helped!), so I am pretty sure this is a better strategy than eat less/move more.

This was the amino post:

https://forums.cronometer.com/discussion/4494/amino-skepticism-weightlifting#latest

so maybe I am not burning anything near what I think.

I think this is very possible.

I think I am going to try to use chronometer for macro tracking only and listen to body cues more for calories in.

Instead of using your subjective body queues, can you use objective data points? 3-4 weeks of regular weigh-ins and comparison of week n to week n+1. If you're recording body circumferences, changes week to week there ought to match your weight changes. If your weights & measurements aren't changing, then you have a pretty strong signal that you're at maintenance kcal levels. If your weight isn't changing but your circumferences are, then fat loss is being masked by water retention/muscle growth.

In your other thread you stated that you were looking to lose 3-5lbs. Running 30-40 miles/week and spending 3 days climbing in the gym suggests you are quite fit, and 3-5lbs for you is probably much more difficult than on a novice trainee. You might have to adjust your expectations towards a lower rate of change (closer losing .5% of your bodyweight/week than 1%).

I actually have a masters in exercise physiology and sports nutrition

Grats! Seems like you ought to be teaching us a thing or two .

Questions:
If someone came to you saying "I run 40 miles a week and want to lose some weight" what do you think your first reaction would be? How would you go about methodically & systematically assessing the client to make recommendations? Have you done the same with yourself? How much are you saying "well I don't need to do exactly what I'd prescribe to a client, because [insert reason here] " ?

Here's an anecdote / some food for thought: I have been tracking calories & training off and on for the past 12 years or so (I'm no body builder or elite athlete -- just a recreational trainee, dad with slightly-better-than-dad-bod). Every time I stop & re-start, I iterate on my prior attempt. Most recently I started keeping a weekly rating of sleep, stress, hunger, and fatigugue -- Nothing fancy, just "0" for no problems, and "5" for mega problems. This isn't a new idea to me, just in the past I didn't do the work because "I didn't think it'd make a difference." Well, I added it this time, and was totally surprised at how just the simple act of adding 4 cells a week to my sheet actually drove behavior change. Like I have something in my mind that wants to have 0's and 1's in the cells, which influenced me to get to bed earlier, get my screens turned off sooner, etc. And if you had asked if I would have predicted this I would have said "no way... writing that stuff down won't matter at all." Go figure.