Why are calories being taken away

OhMsDiva
OhMsDiva Posts: 1,073 Member
edited November 25 in Health and Weight Loss
I have a question. Just out of curiosity. From what I understand, the amount of calories that I am allotted is meant for me to lose weight even if I do not move an inch. I noticed one day, early in the day that I started out with a deficit of about 170 calories. Why does MFP take calories away if I am lazy and don't do much moving on any particular day?

Replies

  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    It shouldn't. If you lose enough weight, your total daily calories might change to meet your new needs, but it shouldn't just take calories away halfway through the day. I don't think so, anyway.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Presumably you have a step or fitness tracker linked to your account and you have negative adjustments enabled. You will have calories removed when you move less than your activity level (that you chose) would indicate for the day. This prevents you from canceling out your deficit.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    Do you have MPF synced to an activity tracker? If you aren't on target with your normal activity level, and have the setting to allow negative calories, then yes, MFP will show negative calories in that circumstance.
  • OhMsDiva
    OhMsDiva Posts: 1,073 Member
    I do have mfp synced with my fitbit, but I will have to look and see what the settings are. All of this is foreign to me. I just know what my calorie allotment is for a day and I just go with that.
  • lmr0528
    lmr0528 Posts: 427 Member
    Sounds like you have negative calorie adjustments on.
  • revolucia78
    revolucia78 Posts: 196 Member
    You can change that setting - Go into Settings --> Diary Settings --> Scroll down to Calorie Adjustments and uncheck the box that says "Enable Negative Adjustments." This way it will still give you extra calories if your FitBit logs more activity for the day but won't take away calories.
  • Linzon
    Linzon Posts: 294 Member
    I had negative calorie adjustments on for my FitBit for months and it randomly disabled itself the other day, maybe yours could have randomly enabled if you didn't have it on before?
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Presumably you have a step or fitness tracker linked to your account and you have negative adjustments enabled. You will have calories removed when you move less than your activity level (that you chose) would indicate for the day. This prevents you from canceling out your deficit.

    This^

    I wear a FitBit (well sometimes) - I sync it to MFP where I have set my activity level to sedentary.

    If I fail to "achieve" a sedentary status on any given day, then calories should be taken away. By the same token, I will get awarded calories for more activity.

    Set your activity level in MFP that most closely matches your actual activity level. That way adjustments will be much smaller.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    MsMarvel27 wrote: »
    You can change that setting - Go into Settings --> Diary Settings --> Scroll down to Calorie Adjustments and uncheck the box that says "Enable Negative Adjustments." This way it will still give you extra calories if your FitBit logs more activity for the day but won't take away calories.

    It's actually better for weight loss to keep negative adjustments enabled. Say MFP calculates your maintenance calories to be 2000, and to lose a pound a week you need to eat 1500 calories. If you have a day where you're sick or lazy and don't get many steps in, MFP will read that you've only burned 1850 calories for the day. In order to keep that deficit constant and not overeat, it has to adjust your calories downward, therefore you only need 1350 calories that day in order to stay on track.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    Without an activity tracker, MFP assumes what you say about your activity level is true. If you say you're lightly active, then MFP considers a lightly active lifestyle and the calories you'll burn. But if you're using a tracker, and you say you're lightly active but you don't move very much: MFP gets an adjustment from Fitbit *if you have negative calories enabled.

    The answer is to choose a lower activity level OR move more.
    OhMsDiva wrote: »
    I do have mfp synced with my fitbit, but I will have to look and see what the settings are. All of this is foreign to me. I just know what my calorie allotment is for a day and I just go with that.

  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
    OhMsDiva wrote: »
    I do have mfp synced with my fitbit, but I will have to look and see what the settings are. All of this is foreign to me. I just know what my calorie allotment is for a day and I just go with that.

    As long as you're active enough it will "give them back." :)
  • kuroshii
    kuroshii Posts: 168 Member
    Also note that the "sedentary" setting does not mean being a couch potato all day. It still implies at least SOME movement. I keep myself on sedentary and it tends to even out. On the days I work from home, I tend to get ~150cal taken away from me unless I do a workout or at least go for a walk. But on the days I seriously leave the house, not only does it not take away but I might even get calories added.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    kuroshii wrote: »
    Also note that the "sedentary" setting does not mean being a couch potato all day. It still implies at least SOME movement. I keep myself on sedentary and it tends to even out. On the days I work from home, I tend to get ~150cal taken away from me unless I do a workout or at least go for a walk. But on the days I seriously leave the house, not only does it not take away but I might even get calories added.

    This^

    Sundays can be my "sloth" days. Seeing calories taken away reminds me...."hey, get off your butt."
  • Artemiris
    Artemiris Posts: 189 Member
    I use a FitBit and I enabled negative calories. I set activity level on sedentary and yesterday, because I sat at home all day, MFP took about 150 calories away.

    I have a question. What do you guys do on the days MFP gives you many more calories to eat? Do you eat them all? Half? None? Is FitBit (more or less) accurate?
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Artemiris wrote: »
    I use a FitBit and I enabled negative calories. I set activity level on sedentary and yesterday, because I sat at home all day, MFP took about 150 calories away.

    I have a question. What do you guys do on the days MFP gives you many more calories to eat? Do you eat them all? Half? None? Is FitBit (more or less) accurate?

    I have a Charge HR and have been eating back my calorie adjustments since July. It seems to be pretty accurate -- I lose when I expect to lose and I maintain when I expect to maintain.
  • OhMsDiva
    OhMsDiva Posts: 1,073 Member
    maidentl wrote: »
    OhMsDiva wrote: »
    I do have mfp synced with my fitbit, but I will have to look and see what the settings are. All of this is foreign to me. I just know what my calorie allotment is for a day and I just go with that.

    As long as you're active enough it will "give them back." :)

    I realize that, but I was just curious. As I stated before, I do not pay attention to the calories that I get or lose from exercise. I have a set amount of calories that I eat daily (1800)
  • kuroshii
    kuroshii Posts: 168 Member
    Artemiris wrote: »
    I use a FitBit and I enabled negative calories. I set activity level on sedentary and yesterday, because I sat at home all day, MFP took about 150 calories away.

    I have a question. What do you guys do on the days MFP gives you many more calories to eat? Do you eat them all? Half? None? Is FitBit (more or less) accurate?

    It's rare that MFP gives me "many" extra calories. Depending on how much of a surplus I have and whether I'm actually hungry, I might eat at least some of them back. I'll check my nutrition levels and see if I'm particularly low in something (like protein) and maybe grab a slice of lean turkey or handful of nuts to nosh on. If my surplus is small or if I'm seriously not hungry I don't bother eating any extra.

    If MFP is adding on lots of calories more often than not, you might consider bumping up your activity level so that your base amount is higher to start with. Just remember it will then take that much more away on your less active days!
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
    OhMsDiva wrote: »
    maidentl wrote: »
    OhMsDiva wrote: »
    I do have mfp synced with my fitbit, but I will have to look and see what the settings are. All of this is foreign to me. I just know what my calorie allotment is for a day and I just go with that.

    As long as you're active enough it will "give them back." :)

    I realize that, but I was just curious. As I stated before, I do not pay attention to the calories that I get or lose from exercise. I have a set amount of calories that I eat daily (1800)

    I'm sorry, I guess I misunderstood your what your concern is.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    This is why I set the thing to "sedentary" and just leave it there. Don't want the numbers lying to me.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    Or at least I'd rather they lie to me in the opposite direction ha ha!
  • krithsai
    krithsai Posts: 668 Member
    maidentl wrote: »
    OhMsDiva wrote: »
    maidentl wrote: »
    OhMsDiva wrote: »
    I do have mfp synced with my fitbit, but I will have to look and see what the settings are. All of this is foreign to me. I just know what my calorie allotment is for a day and I just go with that.

    As long as you're active enough it will "give them back." :)

    I realize that, but I was just curious. As I stated before, I do not pay attention to the calories that I get or lose from exercise. I have a set amount of calories that I eat daily (1800)

    I'm sorry, I guess I misunderstood your what your concern is.

    If you don't want to account for your calories from exercising, you can disable negative adjustments.
  • OhMsDiva
    OhMsDiva Posts: 1,073 Member
    maidentl wrote: »
    OhMsDiva wrote: »
    maidentl wrote: »
    OhMsDiva wrote: »
    I do have mfp synced with my fitbit, but I will have to look and see what the settings are. All of this is foreign to me. I just know what my calorie allotment is for a day and I just go with that.

    As long as you're active enough it will "give them back." :)

    I realize that, but I was just curious. As I stated before, I do not pay attention to the calories that I get or lose from exercise. I have a set amount of calories that I eat daily (1800)

    I'm sorry, I guess I misunderstood your what your concern is.
    maidentl wrote: »
    OhMsDiva wrote: »
    maidentl wrote: »
    OhMsDiva wrote: »
    I do have mfp synced with my fitbit, but I will have to look and see what the settings are. All of this is foreign to me. I just know what my calorie allotment is for a day and I just go with that.

    As long as you're active enough it will "give them back." :)

    I realize that, but I was just curious. As I stated before, I do not pay attention to the calories that I get or lose from exercise. I have a set amount of calories that I eat daily (1800)

    I'm sorry, I guess I misunderstood your what your concern is.

    No worries. I just really did not understand why calories would be taken away. My understanding was the calories that were set for me by mfp were enough to lose weight if I was a bump on a log everyday and did nothing at all.
  • OhMsDiva
    OhMsDiva Posts: 1,073 Member
    kuroshii wrote: »
    Artemiris wrote: »
    I use a FitBit and I enabled negative calories. I set activity level on sedentary and yesterday, because I sat at home all day, MFP took about 150 calories away.

    I have a question. What do you guys do on the days MFP gives you many more calories to eat? Do you eat them all? Half? None? Is FitBit (more or less) accurate?

    It's rare that MFP gives me "many" extra calories. Depending on how much of a surplus I have and whether I'm actually hungry, I might eat at least some of them back. I'll check my nutrition levels and see if I'm particularly low in something (like protein) and maybe grab a slice of lean turkey or handful of nuts to nosh on. If my surplus is small or if I'm seriously not hungry I don't bother eating any extra.

    If MFP is adding on lots of calories more often than not, you might consider bumping up your activity level so that your base amount is higher to start with. Just remember it will then take that much more away on your less active days!

    Any day that I do any type of exercise I get extra calories. I have my setting set to sedentary but I also put that I expect to exercise 30 minutes per day 5 times per week. I realize that I get more calories because I have so much weight to lose. I do not really do strenuous or long workouts so I just look at it as getting some health exercise in since my job is a desk job and I am primarily sitting all day.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    OhMsDiva wrote: »
    kuroshii wrote: »
    Artemiris wrote: »
    I use a FitBit and I enabled negative calories. I set activity level on sedentary and yesterday, because I sat at home all day, MFP took about 150 calories away.

    I have a question. What do you guys do on the days MFP gives you many more calories to eat? Do you eat them all? Half? None? Is FitBit (more or less) accurate?

    It's rare that MFP gives me "many" extra calories. Depending on how much of a surplus I have and whether I'm actually hungry, I might eat at least some of them back. I'll check my nutrition levels and see if I'm particularly low in something (like protein) and maybe grab a slice of lean turkey or handful of nuts to nosh on. If my surplus is small or if I'm seriously not hungry I don't bother eating any extra.

    If MFP is adding on lots of calories more often than not, you might consider bumping up your activity level so that your base amount is higher to start with. Just remember it will then take that much more away on your less active days!

    Any day that I do any type of exercise I get extra calories. I have my setting set to sedentary but I also put that I expect to exercise 30 minutes per day 5 times per week. I realize that I get more calories because I have so much weight to lose. I do not really do strenuous or long workouts so I just look at it as getting some health exercise in since my job is a desk job and I am primarily sitting all day.

    If you play with the settings you'll notice that MFP doesn't give many extra calories toward your goal because you said you expect to exercise a certain amount. I have mine set to sedentary and said I plan to workout 5 times per week for 40 minutes; I got 1260 calories per day. I then changed it to 80 minutes 5 times per week and got 1270 calories per day. 70 calories doesn't really account for 3+ extra hours of exercise.

    Frankly, if you only want to eat a specific amount of calories per day, I'd suggest removing the sync between your Fitbit and MFP altogether. You aren't using it so why let it cloud things? In the settings you can also remove the calorie adjustments for exercise entered into MFP, if you wish.
  • kuroshii
    kuroshii Posts: 168 Member
    OhMsDiva wrote: »
    No worries. I just really did not understand why calories would be taken away. My understanding was the calories that were set for me by mfp were enough to lose weight if I was a bump on a log everyday and did nothing at all.

    You understand now though, right? DON'T BE A LOGBUMP! :wink:

    :smiley:

This discussion has been closed.