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MFP ADDING exercise calories from Jawbone...say whaaaat??!!

BananaBee3
BananaBee3 Posts: 224
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
So, I use a Jawbone UP bracelet to log my workouts and when I sync it to MFP, I believe that MFP only takes into account the calories I've burned from how many steps I've taken that day, NOT the workouts I've recorded with Jawbone.

I have no problem manually adding in the workouts to MFP, but why does MFP ADD the calories I've supposed expended? Shouldn't MFP be SUBTRACTING the exercise calories from the food I've already eaten?

I may be missing something here because I have no idea what sort of formula Jawbone/MFP uses to calculate this stuff.

Note: When I manually added in the 400-ish calories I burned from todays workout, MFP did give me a bit over 300 more calories to eat. So maybe I just need to manually add in the workouts I log with UP? I would have thought that MFP would at least sync with the calories expended during the workouts logged with Jawbone.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

Replies

  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    MFP has a Jawbone UP Bracelet group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/13420-jawbone-up-bracelet

    Do not log any step-based activity. Your UP is already tracking that for you.

    Log non-step exercise (like biking or swimming) in UP—never MFP.

    Log food & drink (including water) in MFP.

    Enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    Set your activity level to sedentary: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided & set your goal to .5 lb. per week for each 25 lbs. you need to lose.

    Follow your MFP goal, eating back your UP adjustments.

    Your UP total burn is your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). If you follow my instructions you'll be eating at TDEE minus an appropriate deficit. I lost the weight & have maintained for 6 months using these settings.
  • hazleyes81
    hazleyes81 Posts: 296 Member
    The advice above is good except I don't necessarily suggest setting your activity to sedentary. Play around with it a bit until you minimize the number of calorie adjustments you receive from the tracker to MFP. I have to keep mine set at active to minimize the addition or subtraction of calories from my activity tracker.

    I have a fitbit not a jawbone. Do you get a line in your diary stating the adjustment? Can you click on it and see what it says (jawbone estimate for daily burn v mfp estimate for daily burn) and let us know what it is saying?
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