not sure that i understand the 'net' figure? help please

sue020369
sue020369 Posts: 20 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, today is my first day.
my numbers for today are:
Goal calories 1200
added exercise (through fitbit) 1277
actually consumed 1480
calories left 997

Net 203

what does this mean? there is no way that I can eat another 997 cals today, 1480 is more than enough

thanks in advance x
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Replies

  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    Assuming all your calculations are correct, then yes you should eat another 997 calories.

    HOWEVER

    I'm very very very suspicious you earned 1277 exercise calories today, unless you just went out and ran a half marathon.
  • sue020369
    sue020369 Posts: 20 Member
    I don't know as that was what fitbit data sent over, I did a 5 mile walk
  • Ruatine
    Ruatine Posts: 3,424 Member
    @sue020369 Is your MFP activity level set on sedentary?
  • sue020369
    sue020369 Posts: 20 Member
    yes it is
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    Have you checked that the time zones are set properly for both MFP and Fitbit?
  • Ruatine
    Ruatine Posts: 3,424 Member
    edited August 2015
    That's why you're seeing such a huge adjustment from Fitbit. Your activity level wasn't sedentary today (5 mile walk - great job!) so there's a big difference in the number of calories you burned today between the static number that MFP assumes at a sedentary activity level and your actual level as calculated by Fitbit.

    The net calories is basically showing you how much you ate minus how much you exercised according to your Fitbit - so the "net" number of calories you really consumed today. If you ate another 997 calories that would bring your "net" up to 1200. However, most people on MFP only eat back about 50% of their calorie adjustment from exercise.

    ETA: I use a Fitbit Charge HR. My MFP activity level is set to sedentary. If I have an especially active day (very long walk, Zumba, etc.), I see big adjustments from Fitbit as well. I never eat back all of those calories, because there's always a margin of error in any calorie burn estimation.
  • sue020369
    sue020369 Posts: 20 Member
    oh thank you, I may have another glass of wine then lol as I really cant eat anymore. As for fitbit, I have been on my feet all day as well working xx
  • sue020369
    sue020369 Posts: 20 Member
    CyberTone wrote: »
    Have you checked that the time zones are set properly for both MFP and Fitbit?

    yes, its all correct :)
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    edited August 2015
    sue020369 wrote: »
    today is my first day.
    my numbers for today are:
    Goal calories 1200
    added exercise (through fitbit) 1277
    actually consumed 1480
    calories left 997

    Net 203

    what does this mean?

    Your Fitbit burn is TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. If you eat at a reasonable deficit from that, you will lose weight.

    Your default MFP calorie goal (1,200) is activity level minus deficit.

    Adjustments are the difference between your Fitbit burn and your MFP activity level. You've burned 1,277 calories more than your activity level.

    If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments, your adjusted goal is TDEE minus deficit: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

    Do not eat all 997 calories, though. When you set up your Fitbit it has to guesstimate your TDEE since midnight—so your first day's burn is not accurate. And my adjustments were wonky at first, so you might want to leave 100–200 calories' "wiggle room" just in case. My adjustments got better, almost as if MFP was "learning" my routine.
  • sue020369
    sue020369 Posts: 20 Member
    Thank you
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    edited August 2015
    1277 is a lot of calories to earn in addition to what you burn by just sitting around. Since you have listed you only have 14 pounds to lose you would need to exercise strenuously for several hours to burn that much... such as the aforementioned half marathon. I suspect your Fitbit is still learning about your daily movements.

    You are supposed to attempt to net (goal calories - exercise calories) 1200 calories per day. Since you have a goal of 1200 (Do you have your weekly goal set to 2 pounds per week?) you should be eating back your exercise calories or at least the majority of them, perhaps not today's though. Keep in mind that if you lose weight too quickly, more of what you lose will be muscle, not fat.
  • Kimegatron
    Kimegatron Posts: 772 Member
    I got an extra 819 calories yesterday from a 7.19 mile walk yesterday and some extra steps through the day. It sounds a bit off.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited September 2015
    Kimegatron wrote: »
    I got an extra 819 calories yesterday from a 7.19 mile walk yesterday and some extra steps through the day. It sounds a bit off.

    @Kimegatron - What's your activity level set to? How many steps did you get throughout your day to day activities (not including your walk)?

    edit:

    On Aug 27, I took 24, 537 steps.
    I have my MFP profile set to Sedentary (currently). MFP doesn't expect me to burn a whole lot based on that activity level. I received an 822 calories as an adjustment, because I burned 822 more calories than MFP expected me to that day.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    editorgrrl wrote: »
    sue020369 wrote: »
    today is my first day.
    my numbers for today are:
    Goal calories 1200
    added exercise (through fitbit) 1277
    actually consumed 1480
    calories left 997

    Net 203

    what does this mean?

    Your Fitbit burn is TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. If you eat at a reasonable deficit from that, you will lose weight.

    Your default MFP calorie goal (1,200) is activity level minus deficit.

    Adjustments are the difference between your Fitbit burn and your MFP activity level. You've burned 1,277 calories more than your activity level.

    If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments, your adjusted goal is TDEE minus deficit: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

    Do not eat all 997 calories, though. When you set up your Fitbit it has to guesstimate your TDEE since midnight—so your first day's burn is not accurate. And my adjustments were wonky at first, so you might want to leave 100–200 calories' "wiggle room" just in case. My adjustments got better, almost as if MFP was "learning" my routine.

    Listen to Karen!
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,825 Member
    sue020369 wrote: »
    I don't know as that was what fitbit data sent over, I did a 5 mile walk

    A 5 mile walk might be 277, but not 1277.

  • Kimegatron
    Kimegatron Posts: 772 Member
    Kimegatron wrote: »
    I got an extra 819 calories yesterday from a 7.19 mile walk yesterday and some extra steps through the day. It sounds a bit off.

    @Kimegatron - What's your activity level set to? How many steps did you get throughout your day to day activities (not including your walk)?

    edit:

    On Aug 27, I took 24, 537 steps.
    I have my MFP profile set to Sedentary (currently). MFP doesn't expect me to burn a whole lot based on that activity level. I received an 822 calories as an adjustment, because I burned 822 more calories than MFP expected me to that day.

    Hm, it looks like their website has my miles different than on the app. My app says 7.19, but the dashboard on a computer shows 6.69. Either way, I was beat! Yesterday I was at 15,770 steps for a total of 8.78 miles yesterday, burning 2,928 cals total. Looks like my app is off. BAH! I am set at sedentary though. My walk was 10,400 steps, and I'm not sure if it's the same on my phone. I can't check because if I'm caught with my phone out at work, I will get thrown out of a window. Not literally... hopefully...
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    Machka9 wrote: »
    sue020369 wrote: »
    I don't know as that was what fitbit data sent over, I did a 5 mile walk

    A 5 mile walk might be 277, but not 1277.

    @Machka9 - Fitbit adjustments are more than just exercise. They are to adjust what MFP thinks your TDEE is based on activity level selection to what Fitbit's estimate based on tracked activity. If she has her profile on Sedentary, but had a fairly active day and took a 5 mile walk, than the adjustment is probably reasonable. However, she hasn't really mentioned what her full day was like or if it's her first day (or if she did I missed it).
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,825 Member
    Kimegatron wrote: »
    Kimegatron wrote: »
    I got an extra 819 calories yesterday from a 7.19 mile walk yesterday and some extra steps through the day. It sounds a bit off.

    @Kimegatron - What's your activity level set to? How many steps did you get throughout your day to day activities (not including your walk)?

    edit:

    On Aug 27, I took 24, 537 steps.
    I have my MFP profile set to Sedentary (currently). MFP doesn't expect me to burn a whole lot based on that activity level. I received an 822 calories as an adjustment, because I burned 822 more calories than MFP expected me to that day.

    Hm, it looks like their website has my miles different than on the app. My app says 7.19, but the dashboard on a computer shows 6.69. Either way, I was beat! Yesterday I was at 15,770 steps for a total of 8.78 miles yesterday, burning 2,928 cals total. Looks like my app is off. BAH! I am set at sedentary though. My walk was 10,400 steps, and I'm not sure if it's the same on my phone. I can't check because if I'm caught with my phone out at work, I will get thrown out of a window. Not literally... hopefully...

    I wish! If it were that easy to burn nearly 3000 cal, I'd be underweight now. :smiley:

    8.78 miles = 14 km

    At 5 km/hour and thus burning approx. 200 cal per hour ... that's just shy of 3 hours worth of walking ... or approx. 600 cal burned.

    Of course, this is all approximate ... none of these things is really 100% accurate, but it is a good idea to estimate a little on the low side when it comes to exercise ... especially when you're trying to lose weight.





  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
    Machka9 wrote: »
    sue020369 wrote: »
    I don't know as that was what fitbit data sent over, I did a 5 mile walk

    A 5 mile walk might be 277, but not 1277.

    That's what I was thinking. Even 500 seems reasonable compared to 1200.

    1200 seems just way to high.

    But being a Fitbit adjustment it's not just for the walk it's for the day.

    Op is this your first time using a fit bit? How big were the adjustment on previous days where you didn't go for a walk.
    Did the Fitbit adjustment come through automatically or did you enter it manually?

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,825 Member
    Merkavar wrote: »
    Machka9 wrote: »
    sue020369 wrote: »
    I don't know as that was what fitbit data sent over, I did a 5 mile walk

    A 5 mile walk might be 277, but not 1277.

    That's what I was thinking. Even 500 seems reasonable compared to 1200.

    1200 seems just way to high.

    But being a Fitbit adjustment it's not just for the walk it's for the day.

    Op is this your first time using a fit bit? How big were the adjustment on previous days where you didn't go for a walk.
    Did the Fitbit adjustment come through automatically or did you enter it manually?

    Yeah, the Fitbit thing does seem to throw a wrench into the works sometimes. :grin:

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    edited September 2015
    I walked 16.4kms- 22,000 steps yesterday which gave me and extra 700 calories. My TOTAL daily burn was 2,653.

    This all per my fitbit. I'm set at lightly active
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
    Machka9 wrote: »
    Merkavar wrote: »
    Machka9 wrote: »
    sue020369 wrote: »
    I don't know as that was what fitbit data sent over, I did a 5 mile walk

    A 5 mile walk might be 277, but not 1277.

    That's what I was thinking. Even 500 seems reasonable compared to 1200.

    1200 seems just way to high.

    But being a Fitbit adjustment it's not just for the walk it's for the day.

    Op is this your first time using a fit bit? How big were the adjustment on previous days where you didn't go for a walk.
    Did the Fitbit adjustment come through automatically or did you enter it manually?

    Yeah, the Fitbit thing does seem to throw a wrench into the works sometimes. :grin:
    Since the op is asking about net calories I suspect this is the first time using mfp or a fit bit.

    My guess is that the op believes they are sedentary, set mfp to sedentary and now they have a Fitbit and according to the fit bit they are active.

    So the large adjustment is say 300 calories for the walk they did and 900 adjustment from mfp sedentary setting to the fit bits active data.

    If that makes sense.

    So assuming they are in fact active and not sedentary, if they set mfp to active they would get much smaller adjustments.

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,825 Member
    Merkavar wrote: »
    Machka9 wrote: »
    Merkavar wrote: »
    Machka9 wrote: »
    sue020369 wrote: »
    I don't know as that was what fitbit data sent over, I did a 5 mile walk

    A 5 mile walk might be 277, but not 1277.

    That's what I was thinking. Even 500 seems reasonable compared to 1200.

    1200 seems just way to high.

    But being a Fitbit adjustment it's not just for the walk it's for the day.

    Op is this your first time using a fit bit? How big were the adjustment on previous days where you didn't go for a walk.
    Did the Fitbit adjustment come through automatically or did you enter it manually?

    Yeah, the Fitbit thing does seem to throw a wrench into the works sometimes. :grin:
    Since the op is asking about net calories I suspect this is the first time using mfp or a fit bit.

    My guess is that the op believes they are sedentary, set mfp to sedentary and now they have a Fitbit and according to the fit bit they are active.

    So the large adjustment is say 300 calories for the walk they did and 900 adjustment from mfp sedentary setting to the fit bits active data.

    If that makes sense.

    So assuming they are in fact active and not sedentary, if they set mfp to active they would get much smaller adjustments.

    You're probably right.

  • ohmscheeks
    ohmscheeks Posts: 840 Member
    Enable negative adjustments, hun.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    Kimegatron wrote: »
    Kimegatron wrote: »
    I got an extra 819 calories yesterday from a 7.19 mile walk yesterday and some extra steps through the day. It sounds a bit off.

    @Kimegatron - What's your activity level set to? How many steps did you get throughout your day to day activities (not including your walk)?

    edit:

    On Aug 27, I took 24, 537 steps.
    I have my MFP profile set to Sedentary (currently). MFP doesn't expect me to burn a whole lot based on that activity level. I received an 822 calories as an adjustment, because I burned 822 more calories than MFP expected me to that day.

    Hm, it looks like their website has my miles different than on the app. My app says 7.19, but the dashboard on a computer shows 6.69. Either way, I was beat! Yesterday I was at 15,770 steps for a total of 8.78 miles yesterday, burning 2,928 cals total. Looks like my app is off. BAH! I am set at sedentary though. My walk was 10,400 steps, and I'm not sure if it's the same on my phone. I can't check because if I'm caught with my phone out at work, I will get thrown out of a window. Not literally... hopefully...

    Hmm...another thought, do you have the ChargeHR or Surge? And did you do anything that the Fitbit couldn't detect your steps?

  • Kimegatron
    Kimegatron Posts: 772 Member
    Machka9 wrote: »
    Kimegatron wrote: »
    Kimegatron wrote: »
    I got an extra 819 calories yesterday from a 7.19 mile walk yesterday and some extra steps through the day. It sounds a bit off.

    @Kimegatron - What's your activity level set to? How many steps did you get throughout your day to day activities (not including your walk)?

    edit:

    On Aug 27, I took 24, 537 steps.
    I have my MFP profile set to Sedentary (currently). MFP doesn't expect me to burn a whole lot based on that activity level. I received an 822 calories as an adjustment, because I burned 822 more calories than MFP expected me to that day.

    Hm, it looks like their website has my miles different than on the app. My app says 7.19, but the dashboard on a computer shows 6.69. Either way, I was beat! Yesterday I was at 15,770 steps for a total of 8.78 miles yesterday, burning 2,928 cals total. Looks like my app is off. BAH! I am set at sedentary though. My walk was 10,400 steps, and I'm not sure if it's the same on my phone. I can't check because if I'm caught with my phone out at work, I will get thrown out of a window. Not literally... hopefully...

    I wish! If it were that easy to burn nearly 3000 cal, I'd be underweight now. :smiley:

    8.78 miles = 14 km

    At 5 km/hour and thus burning approx. 200 cal per hour ... that's just shy of 3 hours worth of walking ... or approx. 600 cal burned.

    Of course, this is all approximate ... none of these things is really 100% accurate, but it is a good idea to estimate a little on the low side when it comes to exercise ... especially when you're trying to lose weight.





    No, lol, my total burn for the day was that much. If I burned that much on a walk I would die
  • Kimegatron
    Kimegatron Posts: 772 Member
    Kimegatron wrote: »
    Kimegatron wrote: »
    I got an extra 819 calories yesterday from a 7.19 mile walk yesterday and some extra steps through the day. It sounds a bit off.

    @Kimegatron - What's your activity level set to? How many steps did you get throughout your day to day activities (not including your walk)?

    edit:

    On Aug 27, I took 24, 537 steps.
    I have my MFP profile set to Sedentary (currently). MFP doesn't expect me to burn a whole lot based on that activity level. I received an 822 calories as an adjustment, because I burned 822 more calories than MFP expected me to that day.

    Hm, it looks like their website has my miles different than on the app. My app says 7.19, but the dashboard on a computer shows 6.69. Either way, I was beat! Yesterday I was at 15,770 steps for a total of 8.78 miles yesterday, burning 2,928 cals total. Looks like my app is off. BAH! I am set at sedentary though. My walk was 10,400 steps, and I'm not sure if it's the same on my phone. I can't check because if I'm caught with my phone out at work, I will get thrown out of a window. Not literally... hopefully...

    Hmm...another thought, do you have the ChargeHR or Surge? And did you do anything that the Fitbit couldn't detect your steps?

    I have the zip. Nothing that would have not calculated steps.
  • Kimegatron
    Kimegatron Posts: 772 Member
    I'm pretty sure that my burns have been pretty accurate. I even eating back my calories, and have lost 1-2 pounds a week. I'll have to tighten up my eating the closer to goal I get, I know that, but I'm enjoying the extra food now ha-ha
  • sue020369
    sue020369 Posts: 20 Member
    lol, no that was fitbits total for the day I guess? saying I burned 2800 all day (including just living) I didn't eat the extra calories though . thanks everyone, it was a bit misleading at the time, im happy to stick to about 1400 cals anyway x
  • Protranser
    Protranser Posts: 517 Member
    sue020369 wrote: »
    lol, no that was fitbits total for the day I guess? saying I burned 2800 all day (including just living) I didn't eat the extra calories though . thanks everyone, it was a bit misleading at the time, im happy to stick to about 1400 cals anyway x

    You provably could eat a little more than 1400 a day if you're regularly earning 1200 calories per day in adjustments, though.

    I thought my numbers were a bit high, too, but I've been eating almost all of them back and still losing more weight per week than expected. It's also possible I'm overestimating on my meals. So if youre feeling hungrier some days, you probably can eat more and still be on goal for weight loss. Check your weekly calorie totals under nutrition- > calories, and set day view to show you the week rather than the day, and look at the net values displayed there.

    Enjoy!

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