Negative adjustments

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juliet2244
juliet2244 Posts: 5 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi All! Help, so I enabled negative adjustments on my fitness pal so that it would account for steps taken with my Garmin Vivoactive.... but it is subtracting my calories burned from my food!
i.e. 1300 calories goal- 500 food -400 exercise says 400 calories remaining! I have a friend who has the FitBit and hers is working, what am I doing wrong??

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  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    A negative calorie adjustment means you've burned fewer calories than your MFP activity level (sedentary, lightly active, etc.). But they never put your calories below 1,200.

    In the app, go into your diary and click the adjustment in your diary. Then click it again at the top—not the blue button at the bottom. (On the website, click the "i" in a blue circle next to the adjustment.) You'll see the math MFP used to calculate it.
  • juliet2244
    juliet2244 Posts: 5 Member
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    Thanks for your help, I don't see anything accept a box to "check" next to negative calorie adjustments under the diary
  • juliet2244
    juliet2244 Posts: 5 Member
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    Here are 2 puctures, one of my Garmin app the other MFP... I'm just lost ..
  • juliet2244
    juliet2244 Posts: 5 Member
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  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    edited August 2015
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    juliet2244 wrote: »
    Thanks for your help, I don't see anything accept a box to "check" next to negative calorie adjustments under the diary

    That's your diary settings (not your diary), and you want to check the box to enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    Set your goal to .5 lb. for every 25 lbs. you're overweight, and set your activity level to sedentary: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

    Ignore your Garmin calories and follow your MFP calorie goal, eating back your adjustments. Log food & drink in MFP; log exercise in Garmin.

    PS. That MFP screenshot you posted isn't your diary, either—it's your home screen. The link to your diary is at the bottom, second from the left.
  • juliet2244
    juliet2244 Posts: 5 Member
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    I'm 15lbs over weight, I've lost over 100 2 yrs ago, I do only eat my calorie goal. I've used this app for 4 years. I just don't understand why when it adjusts it subtracts my exercise. But the Fit Bit will say.. hey you walked 5 miles that's 500 cals burned exercising. (For example)
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    Your Fitbit burn is TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. If you eat less than that, you will lose weight.

    If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments in your MFP diary settings, eating back your adjustments means you're eating TDEE minus deficit.
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,862 Member
    edited August 2015
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    This is very interesting. My question is why are her exercise calories showing up as a negative number, rather than a positive? Maybe you answered it, but it's a little confusing still. This is why I won't allow MFP to use my fitbit exercise calories. I've seen some very strange diaries where there's either excessive additions of exercise (like the exercise was added twice or double counted), or now this negative number when it should be a positive to allow for more calories to be eaten, rather than less.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    fiddletime wrote: »
    Why are her exercise calories showing up as a negative number, rather than a positive?

    I've seen some very strange diaries where there's either excessive additions of exercise (like the exercise was added twice or double counted), or now this negative number when it should be a positive to allow for more calories to be eaten, rather than less.

    1. If you burn fewer calories than your MFP activity level, you lose calories.

    2. Do not log any step-based activity—your Fitbit is tracking it for you. Log non-step exercise (like swimming or biking) either in Fitbit or in MFP—never both. Exercise logged in MFP overwrites your Fitbit burn during that time, so there's never any double dipping.

    You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • yadavnathwani
    yadavnathwani Posts: 2 Member
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    I have the same problem, I ran for 35 minute this morning and MFP shows -737 calories, does that even make sense? It isn't giving me any credit for my run this morning.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
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    What do you have as your activity level? It looks to me like you've set it higher than you should and you need to set it at a lower level. MFP is assuming a certain number of calories will be burned by your normal activities, and if you don't reach that it deducts the difference.

    Can you grab a screenshot of the exercise tab?
  • Kimberlywest1
    Kimberlywest1 Posts: 1 Member
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    Has anyone figured out an easy way to understand this? It seems quite confusing
  • jennybearlv
    jennybearlv Posts: 1,519 Member
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    Are you logging your activity through Garmin or MFP? MFP made a dumb change a few months ago where any activity logged in MFP is subtracted zeroing out the activity.

    Logging the activity through Garmin usually works, but sometimes they get out of sync and it can take time to get rid of the negative adjustment. Opening up Connect and syncing your device and MFP can usually move things along. I have had it just get stuck like that though.

    Turning off negative adjustments doesn't really help, because you will still get your step calories set to zero.
  • millerd84
    millerd84 Posts: 1 Member
    edited July 2017
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    I'm having the same issue. I lost almost 50 lbs in 2015 as I was motivated to exercise to see how my available calories have gone up. Now it doesn't make sense. I've tried everything from disconnecting my Fitbit, changing negative calorie adjustment and back. Changing what device is tracking my steps - weirdly when I change what device tracks steps from Fitbit to my iPhone and back to the Fitbit, I have not added a single step but my minus calories goes up (-114 for 551 steps to now -280 for 551 steps). MFP is great for tracking food but absolutely garbage for its ability to fix issues. I've read on how to change it back to when it showed I could eat more food and no one gives a straight answer. In fact, I googled it yesterday and it worked for the day and now it's back to being stupid.

    MFP: please fix this issue for many of us.
  • HermanLily
    HermanLily Posts: 217 Member
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    yadavnathwani wrote: »
    I have the same problem, I ran for 35 minute this morning and MFP shows -737 calories, does that even make sense? It isn't giving me any credit for my run this morning.

    Mine did the same yesterday, today it corrected itself right before my eyes. Might want to look again. :D
  • laurenebargar
    laurenebargar Posts: 3,081 Member
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    My guess is going to be the activity you are set to is causing this. I've had the least amount of problems setting myself to sedentary.
  • BabyDim
    BabyDim Posts: 1 Member
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    This is my understanding of the negative adjustment. Hopefully I understand it correctly because I was very confused. When I set up my goal, I had to choose an activity level, I choose "active" because I go to the gym 4-5 times a week. In goals, I also had to state my weight loss goal (2-3 lbs. /week), the number of days I work out and the amount of time (minutes/hour). Based on these criteria, MFP calculates the number of calories I need to consume each day to meet my weight loss goal of 2-3 lbs. /week. I will need to consume 1,520 calories/day. Keep in mind, the 1,520 calories factors is what MFP thinks I should burn in calories for the day. For example, if MFP thinks I will burn 2,800 calories (estimate) for the day, MFP has already considered and adjusted for this in the 1,520 calories that I need to consume. Say I ended up burning 2,400 actual calories and not the 2,800, MFP has to make an adjustment. If MFP had factored in 2,800 calories in their calculation to calculate the 1,520 that I need to consume, I did not burn 2,800, I burned 2,400 calories, therefore there has to be a negative adjustment of 400 (2,400 – 2,800). When MFP calculated the 1,520 calories that I need to consume, the 2,800 was an estimated number. If I went to the gym today and burned 200 calories, this is already included in the 2,400 calories. Since I am using my iPhone to track my activity, MPF is pulling all the data (including the 200 calories I burn from the gym) to get to my total calories of 2,400. If you are showing a negative adjustment, it means you need to burn more calories or decrease your calorie intake. Hope this helps and my understanding is correct
  • KarenSmith2018
    KarenSmith2018 Posts: 302 Member
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    I have my Garmin synced to MFP and negative calories in place. From my understanding MFP gives a calorie allowance dependent upon the details entered when setting up the goals. I have mine set to sedentary and maintain my weight. Throughout the day MFP and my Garmin sync" and what my Garmin thinks i will burn overwrites the MFP estimate through adding and deducting calories in the exercise steps section. The garmin has to estimate that i will burn more than the MFP estimate to give me a positive addition for any steps or exercise. Every morning i start with a negative number but this reduces as the day goes on and i move around.

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