Enabling negative calories

clark614

What is the reason that people enable negative calories and what is the reason it's done? Thank you.

shadow2soul

To keep your deficit the same on active and inactive days.

Example:

MFP thinks you burn 2000 calories based on your activity level setting.
You select a 500 calorie deficit for 1 lb per week loss. This gets you a goal of 1500 calories.
2000 MFP maintain
-500 1lb per week deficit
1500 NET goal

Fitbit tells MFP, " Today she only had a calorie burn of 1800. "
1800 Fitbit burn
-2000 MFP maintain
-200 adjustment
MFP says, " Well, if you want to lose 1 lb per week I'm going to have to deduct 200 calories since you didn't burn the 2000 calories set by your activity level. " This gets you a goal of 1300 to lose 1 lb per week.

1800 Fitbit burn
-500 1lb per week deficit
1300 Goal


Without it enabled, if you burned 1800 calories you would have a 300 calorie deficit instead of the 500 you want for 1 lb per week loss.
1800 Fitbit Burn
-1500 MFP goal without adjustments
300 deficit

malibu927

It's done to make sure that a person who is using an activity tracker isn't overeating.

Say your goal to lose a pound a week is 1500 calories. This means MFP has figured your maintenance calories to be 2000 calories. When you sync your activity tracker, MFP estimates what your total burn for the day will be and it will add calories. So if it thinks you'll burn 2200 calories for the day, it will add 200.

But maybe one day you're sick, or you decide to take a rest day. MFP reads your tracker and estimates that you will only burn 1850 calories for the day. If you eat your allotted calories, you'll only have a deficit of 350 calories for the day. In order to keep the deficit constant, MFP will take away the 150 calories and your intake will be 1350. It will do this down to the 1200 calorie minimum, so if you're set to 1200 then you'll never see a negative adjustment.