Slightly confused about Calorie adjustments
Options
Replies
-
As someone who relies heavily on numbers to remove most of the guess work (I understand all of these numbers are estimates - but at least it gives me hard numbers to work with), this makes me uncomfortable. What's the best way to figure out how many calories MFP will be removing for the rest of the day? Is it a set number per hour? At least if I have that information I can make a better decision on how I set my daily meal up and not have to worry so much about whether or not I'm going to go over my calorie limit inadvertently.
I don't notice my remaining calories going down that dramatically in the evening, even though I do get considerably more sedentary then. So, it seems odd that your remaining calorie estimate drops by so much. However, assuming that yours does and it isn't due to something being set wrong...
One solution could be to look at your average TDEE (look on your FitBit profile page, it gives it for the last 30 days) and use that as your baseline. Subtract off the proper offset for the rate of weight loss you're aiming for and that is your calorie limit. If you've been less active than normal, subtract a few calories. If you've been more active than normal, add a few calories. This approach is not customized perfectly for each day, but over the long run should work well enough and doesn't involve doing calculations each day.
Another approach would be to look at how many calories FitBit says you have burned so far that day, add in the proper number of calories for your BMR for the rest of the day (this will underestimate calories unless you go to bed immediately after eating), then subtract off the offset for your weight loss goal. This method would be customized for your day's activity, but requires more arithmetic every day.
A third approach would be to use FitBit's number for calories left to eat (make sure it is set to assume the rest of the day will be sedentary). Most of us find it works better to use MFP's estimate, but in your case, I suspect that might not be the case.
Personally, I don't find the negative calorie adjustment first thing in the morning to be a problem. I just look at it and think "better get moving so I can turn that positive and be able to eat what I want." So, it motivates me to be active right away, rather than sitting at my computer and puttering, as is my tendency.0 -
>TDEE (look on your FitBit profile page, it gives it for the last 30 days) and use that as your baseline. Subtract off the proper offset for the rate of weight loss you're aiming for and that is your calorie limit.
https://www.fitbit.com/user/24TB33
Would TDEE then be the "average burn" which is 3040 for the last 30 days? That seems... rather high. So, I would subtract 700 from that and it would give me 2340. Which is actually pretty close to what I eat when I chose to eat back exercise calories.0 -
>TDEE (look on your FitBit profile page, it gives it for the last 30 days) and use that as your baseline. Subtract off the proper offset for the rate of weight loss you're aiming for and that is your calorie limit.
https://www.fitbit.com/user/24TB33
Would TDEE then be the "average burn" which is 3040 for the last 30 days? That seems... rather high. So, I would subtract 700 from that and it would give me 2340. Which is actually pretty close to what I eat when I chose to eat back exercise calories.
Yes, the "average burn" is your TDEE. It doesn't seem high at all to me. My TDEE for the last 30 days is 2743 and I'm a 58 year old woman. You're much younger and you're male. You go for 2.5 hour intense hikes. (I usually go for a 1 hour, 3.5 mile hilly walk and do some Zumba every day.)
If I were 22 years younger and male, but my same height and weight, my BMR would be 300 calories higher - right there that accounts for the difference between our TDEEs.0 -
So the first issue was that I was using an older BMR rate - I didn't recalculate it after losing weight. Ooops. I also didn't realize MFP was using a different equation than my doctor was using. Now that I've corrected those number in my head, the numbers on MFP are making A LOT more sense.
Though I'm still not happy waking up and seeing a negative calorie adjustment for the day. It's a bit of a demotivator right now. It feels like I'm starting the daily race 20 paces behind where I should be. Yes, I understand feelz =/= reality.
This also doesn't remove the concern about not being able to plan ahead when my calorie adjustments are going to keep going negative even after I've burnt a bunch of calories. That's also a demotivator to me. Seeing the "You burnt 900 calories on that hike!" drop to "No, you only burnt 800... we mean 750... nope, we really meant 600... Just kidding it was only 550."
So for me here is what happens: I go most of the day with no meals (eating breakfast makes me ill, I'm rarely if ever hungry around lunch [even after a work out], and I really like the intermittent fasting idea of eating only during a specific set of hours in the evening, and not eating outside of those hours - unless my body is telling me very different on that day) so at around 5pm when I'm starting to feel a bit hungry I look at MFP and see what my calorie limit for the day is. Let's say I was active and MFP says I can eat 2000 calories (1500 [goal set by MFP]+500 [calories reported by fitbit]=2000). So, I set about cooking a nice meal of around 2000 calories. But, in a few hours, that number is going to drop. So, I won't actually be able to eat 2000 calories over a few hours. Instead I'll need to adjust it down. I wouldn't have a problem doing this, except... I don't know how far to adjust it down - now I'm back to guess work.
As someone who relies heavily on numbers to remove most of the guess work (I understand all of these numbers are estimates - but at least it gives me hard numbers to work with), this makes me uncomfortable. What's the best way to figure out how many calories MFP will be removing for the rest of the day? Is it a set number per hour? At least if I have that information I can make a better decision on how I set my daily meal up and not have to worry so much about whether or not I'm going to go over my calorie limit inadvertently.
The FAQ mentions the following fact.
Sedentary on the 2 sites is NOT the same.
MFP Sedentary = Mifflin BMR x 1.25
Fitbit Sedentary = similar to Mifflin BMR x 1.03 or some such small number, I can't find where I wrote it down right now.
So by the time you wake up since your device hasn't synced, indeed, the Fitbit estimate of your daily burn up to that point you see it - is less than MFP estimated you'd get. So negative calories.
You also missed the point in the FAQ - that Fitbit calorie adjustment is NOT what your exercise burned.
It's the difference between what MFP thought you'd burn and what Fitbit says you burned, either based on small increases or your device syncs.
It is NOT exercise. You could do NO exercise and be very active and have a big adjustment. You could do a big huge workout and be especially lazy rest the day and have negative adjustment.
Are you totally sure you have MFP set to Sedentary - because after each Fitbit to MFP sync, that is what is used to calculate rest of the day. Again, the FAQ shares the math.0 -
Yes, MFP is set to sedentary.0
-
Hello,
I'm a bit confused about calorie adjustments between Fitbit and MFP. I'll use what happened yesterday as an example: I went on a long hike (about 2.5 hours). At the end, when FB synced with MFP it had a calorie adjustment of around 900 calories (this was around 12pm). I can easily see this being the case as where I hike is pretty intense (lots of up and down, very steep hills etc.). This is fairly typical of my day. 2-3 hours of intense work followed by a sedentary rest of the day (I'm a student). Later in the day (around 10pm) I logged my meal for the day, which included eating an extra 900 calories (went out with friends to dinner) bringing my calories eaten to around 2400. As I hit "complete this entry" the FB calorie adjustment dropped from 900 to 350, putting me way over my calorie limit for the day.
Does this mean that it was estimated that if I kept hiking all day that I would have burned 900 calories, or did I actually burn 900 calories on the long hike? If it's the latter, why might my calorie adjustment drop by 600 calories later in the evening?
I had a very similar issue to this.
My Fitbit worked fine on days with no running, but when I did a run with Runkeeper, the adjustment would go haywire. For example, yesterday before I went out running, the Fitbit adjustment was +74. I then did a 646 KCal run and the Fitbit adjustment went to -346, so the net effect of the run was under 300 KCal. Not happy.
But I think I've sorted it. My setup had both Fitbit and Runkeeper feeding into MFP. But what I think was happening in the background was that MFP was also feeding the run into Fitbit which then adjusted it again and sent it back to MFP.
I have now moved my setup to Runkeeper>Fitbit>MFP and removed the Runkeeper to MFP link completely and hey presto, the adjustment went to +730.
Problem solved. Hope this helps.0
