*still* don't understand calorie adjustment

ashleesaid

I just got my jawbone up move yesterday. Before that I was using my iPhone as my pedometer. When I did that, MFP would give me back calories to eat based on the number of steps I took.

Now that I'm using my jawbone, I've walked more than I did previously but getting zero calories added back for eating. Why is this happening?

fyoung1111

Did you link your jawbone account with MFP? That integration has been working for more than a year now.

ashleesaid

Yes, they're linked. MFP shows the number of steps I've walked but gives me 0 calories back.

LAT1963

You have to link accounts.

Dunno about Jawbone.

Right now there's an issue with Polar--it reports calories from exercise sessions but not "negative adjustments" if, on a particular day, you are under-active for the baseline fitness you told mfp. Polar link is also not reporting steps. MFP has a note about this in their FAQ area, you could check to see if there's a note about Jawbone interface issues.

ScubaSteve1962

LAT1963 wrote: »

You have to link accounts.

Dunno about Jawbone.

Right now there's an issue with Polar--it reports calories from exercise sessions but not "negative adjustments" if, on a particular day, you are under-active for the baseline fitness you told mfp. Polar link is also not reporting steps. MFP has a note about this in their FAQ area, you could check to see if there's a note about Jawbone interface issues.

You can get your steps to add by disconnecting and reconnecting the app

ashleesaid wrote: »

I just got my jawbone up move yesterday. Before that I was using my iPhone as my pedometer. When I did that, MFP would give me back calories to eat based on the number of steps I took.

Now that I'm using my jawbone, I've walked more than I did previously but getting zero calories added back for eating. Why is this happening?

With my polar if I don't burn more calories than mfp projects I don't get credit for them, I will get a negative adjustments.

ashleesaid

I un synced the iPhone and the jawbone is the only source. Update: I've gone over 10k steps and now it's giving me 157 cals back. Still seems like too few...

ScubaSteve1962

What do you have your daily activity set on?

ashleesaid

Sedentary

Christine_72

Do you have negative adjustments enabled?

DJPM5

The negative adjustment can be turned on and off at the myfitnesspal website

katkins3

Calorie adjustments drove me nuts, so I ignor them completely.. I set a calorie goal, which never changes, for me 1500, and concentrate on the basics. If I "earn" exta calories from exercise, I consider that icing on the cake and let it ride.

ashleesaid

I do have negative adjustments enabled but I don't really understand what that means either haha. The FAQ article about it just confuses me and I consider myself to be reasonably smart

ScubaSteve1962

I think negative adjustments mean it use your Jawbone's projected calorie burn for the day instead of MFP

boomhower1820

I gave up on it. Used a Garmin Vivosmart and the adjustments drove me nuts. Seemed everday it would counteract my workout regardless how much I walked. Whether it was 2,000 or 5,000 steps it would negative adjust almost exact what my workout was measured by my HRM and digifit. I quit wearing the Garmin and leave a couple hundred calories as my workouts are constant cardio so the measured calorie burn is a little high.

MelodyandBarbells

ashleesaid wrote: »

I do have negative adjustments enabled but I don't really understand what that means either haha. The FAQ article about it just confuses me and I consider myself to be reasonably smart

So your MFP account says sedentary, but is there a similar setting in your Jawbone account?

Basically if you told jawbone your activity level was Wonder Woman active, it'll wait till you accomplish that activity for the day before it starts giving you extra calories, possibly deducting calories at the end of the day if you don't hit that goal, whatever it might be. It could be that for what your activity level is set in Jawbone, it doesn't start giving you more extra calories to eat until you exceed, say, 7500 steps

You should peruse your jawbone account to see if there's any settings to be tweaked

kk_inprogress

ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »

I think negative adjustments mean it use your Jawbone's projected calorie burn for the day instead of MFP

No, negative adjustments mean if you don't take enough steps to meet the activity level (sedentary, active, etc) that you set on MFP, it will deduct calories until you achieve that level.

ScubaSteve1962

kkenseth wrote: »

ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »

I think negative adjustments mean it use your Jawbone's projected calorie burn for the day instead of MFP

No, negative adjustments mean if you don't take enough steps to meet the activity level (sedentary, active, etc) that you set on MFP, it will deduct calories until you achieve that level.

MFP has made negative adjustments for me with 20000 steps, and mine is set to active. I very rarely get a positive adjustment. Yesterday with 15000 steps I got a negative adjustment of -670 from polar because after walking 5 miles yesterday morning and having a positive calorie burn of 569 I didn't do much of anything else the rest of the day, so I still ended up with a negative for the day.

Christine_72

ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »

kkenseth wrote: »

ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »

I think negative adjustments mean it use your Jawbone's projected calorie burn for the day instead of MFP

No, negative adjustments mean if you don't take enough steps to meet the activity level (sedentary, active, etc) that you set on MFP, it will deduct calories until you achieve that level.

MFP has made negative adjustments for me with 20000 steps, and mine is set to active. I very rarely get a positive adjustment. Yesterday with 15000 steps I got a negative adjustment of -670 from polar because after walking 5 miles yesterday morning and having a positive calorie burn of 569 I didn't do much of anything else the rest of the day, so I still ended up with a negative for the day.

Holy crap! How many steps do you have to do to have a positive adjustment at the end of the day?

I'm set to lightly active, and I don't get out of the negative until around 3,000 steps. But I walk all day, on and off. So I always end up in the positive at the end of the day.
I aim for 20,000-25,000 steps a day "most" days.

MysticRealm

ashleesaid wrote: »

I un synced the iPhone and the jawbone is the only source. Update: I've gone over 10k steps and now it's giving me 157 cals back. Still seems like too few...

That sounds pretty correct to me.
I ran a 5km obstacle course race today which had me climbing up and down hills and over walls, and such the entire time resulting in 70 'floors' and 12000 steps and I got 400 extra cals for that I believe. 10,000 steps isn't that much.

editorgrrl

ashleesaid wrote: »

I just got my jawbone up move yesterday. Before that I was using my iPhone as my pedometer. When I did that, MFP would give me back calories to eat based on the number of steps I took.

Now that I'm using my jawbone, I've walked more than I did previously but getting zero calories added back for eating. Why is this happening?

Adjustments are the difference between your UP total burn (which is TDEE) and your MFP activity level. Click on the adjustment in your diary to see the math MFP used to calculate it, but you've burned fewer calories than your activity level.

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

ScubaSteve1962

christinev297 wrote: »

ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »

kkenseth wrote: »

ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »

I think negative adjustments mean it use your Jawbone's projected calorie burn for the day instead of MFP

No, negative adjustments mean if you don't take enough steps to meet the activity level (sedentary, active, etc) that you set on MFP, it will deduct calories until you achieve that level.

MFP has made negative adjustments for me with 20000 steps, and mine is set to active. I very rarely get a positive adjustment. Yesterday with 15000 steps I got a negative adjustment of -670 from polar because after walking 5 miles yesterday morning and having a positive calorie burn of 569 I didn't do much of anything else the rest of the day, so I still ended up with a negative for the day.

Holy crap! How many steps do you have to do to have a positive adjustment at the end of the day?

I'm set to lightly active, and I don't get out of the negative until around 3,000 steps. But I walk all day, on and off. So I always end up in the positive at the end of the day.
I aim for 20,000-25,000 steps a day "most" days.

I'm at 25500 right now, with a calorie burn 2500 for the day. BMR is 1470, usually has to get to 1600 before I get a positive adjustment for the day.

blossomingbutterfly

What is your setting on here? I'm set to sedentary and I usually get a positive adjustment after about 3,000 steps.

karyabc

I fill you!! I'm def. not a number person, and I find this so confusing , I got my fitbit flex 4 days ago, sync it to mfp, today I've only walked 4,540 steps and is telling that I've earn extra 184 cals?, I have mfp set to sedentary, so what's this of negative adjustment?? should I enable it?

if anybody can help me too, would be awesome!!

pd: is this hijacking a thread? y'all let me know if I need to make my own thread, I came here and was gonna post something similar..

MysticRealm

karyabc wrote: »

I fill you!! I'm def. not a number person, and I find this so confusing , I got my fitbit flex 4 days ago, sync it to mfp, today I've only walked 4,540 steps and is telling that I've earn extra 184 cals?, I have mfp set to sedentary, so what's this of negative adjustment?? should I enable it?

if anybody can help me too, would be awesome!!

pd: is this hijacking a thread? y'all let me know if I need to make my own thread, I came here and was gonna post something similar..

It's likely cause you have it set to sedentary that you are getting high positive adjustments with so few steps. MFP expects you, at sedentary, to really not move at all (office job, not doing anything active after) so any walking will result in positive adjustments.

Negative adjustments mean that if MFP thinks you hsould be lightly active, but you're having a very sedentary day (so not burning as much as MFP thinks you should) it will 'take away' calories so that your deficit that you ask MFP to build in (say 500 a day) will be there.

Christine_72

@karyabc There's a mfp fitbit group with loads of info

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

karyabc

MysticRealm wrote: »

karyabc wrote: »

I fill you!! I'm def. not a number person, and I find this so confusing , I got my fitbit flex 4 days ago, sync it to mfp, today I've only walked 4,540 steps and is telling that I've earn extra 184 cals?, I have mfp set to sedentary, so what's this of negative adjustment?? should I enable it?

if anybody can help me too, would be awesome!!

pd: is this hijacking a thread? y'all let me know if I need to make my own thread, I came here and was gonna post something similar..

It's likely cause you have it set to sedentary that you are getting high positive adjustments with so few steps. MFP expects you, at sedentary, to really not move at all (office job, not doing anything active after) so any walking will result in positive adjustments.

Negative adjustments mean that if MFP thinks you hsould be lightly active, but you're having a very sedentary day (so not burning as much as MFP thinks you should) it will 'take away' calories so that your deficit that you ask MFP to build in (say 500 a day) will be there.

hi! thank your for your help,
Ok so basically my options would be either to update mfp to lightly active or just leave it how it is and enable the negative adjustment then?..

karyabc

christinev297 wrote: »

@karyabc There's a mfp fitbit group with loads of info

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

thank you christine! I'm going check it out and see if I can understand this whole fitbit thing

Christine_72

karyabc wrote: »

christinev297 wrote: »

@karyabc There's a mfp fitbit group with loads of info

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

thank you christine! I'm going check it out and see if I can understand this whole fitbit thing

No worries. I was so stressed out trying to figure it all out when I first got my fitbit. 6mths later and I'm still not 100% sure lol
I'm so not a numbers person

editorgrrl

karyabc wrote: »

What's this negative adjustment?? should I enable it?

Your Fitbit burn is TDEE. Your default MFP calorie goal is activity level minus deficit. Adjustments are the difference between your Fitbit burn & your MFP activity level.

Without negative calorie adjustments enabled, you'll never eat at a true deficit on days you burn fewer calories than your activity level. (But negative adjustments will never put your calories below 1,200.)

karyabc wrote: »

Ok so basically my options would be either to update mfp to lightly active or just leave it how it is and enable the negative adjustment then?

If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments, choosing an activity level is a matter of personal preference. Either way, your adjusted goal is TDEE minus deficit. At sedentary, you start with fewer calories in the morning, then get larger adjustments.

zanne54

Marking this thread so I can figure this out later when I'm not at work.

ashleesaid

After a few days of breaking the jawbone in so to speak I think it's giving me a fair amount of cals back. It's not as many as I was getting before but it's not super difficult for me to stay within every day.