I wish this great program would compute the exercise calorie reduction into the dairy food calories

rpw733

This is a great program. However, in the food dairy, it computes (adds) all the calories (and other items) for each meal. But when I enter exercises, it does not subtract the calories burned from the total food calories, to give me a net calories for the day.
Or, am I just not doing something correctly?
Thanks in advance,
Bob

jemhh

I'm guessing you're talking about strength training. Go to the cardiovascular exercise section and log "strength training " for time. The strength exercise section is just a set/rep/weight log.

rpw733

Thank you, but I wanted to know if the calories burned (used) in exercise are subtracted from the calories consumed (eaten) in the food part of the program. If not, this would be a great function to add (consumed calories - burned calories giving net calories for the day), in the Food function of the program.

shadow2soul

rpw733 wrote: »

Thank you, but I wanted to know if the calories burned (used) in exercise are subtracted from the calories consumed (eaten) in the food part of the program. If not, this would be a great function to add (consumed calories - burned calories giving net calories for the day), in the Food function of the program.

That is in fact how this site works.
MFP gives you a calorie goal to NET.
When you don't workout, you eat the Calorie goal MFP gives you.
When you do workout, your calories consumed - exercise burn = Calorie Goal MFP gave you (NET goal)

It is recommended to start with eating 50% back to account for any logging errors on your part and overestimations in calories burned. Then after 4-6 weeks look at your avg weekly loss. If you lost more on avg than you wanted or more than 2 lbs per week; eat more of those exercise calories. If you lost less on avg than you wanted (providing your not trying for more than 2lbs per week) or maintained; eat less of those exercise calories and maybe have other users look over your log for any errors there (the food database is full of stuff that is way off).

marm1962

........doesn't subtract calories burned from your calories for total food for the day, is this what I am understanding? If yes, then no, it doesn't "subtract" calories burned, but it does "add" exercise calories. If you want to know what your NET calories are for the day then go to the top of the page and click on REPORTS

shadow2soul

marm1962 wrote: »

........doesn't subtract calories burned from your calories for total food for the day, is this what I am understanding? If yes, then no, it doesn't "subtract" calories burned, but it does "add" exercise calories. If you want to know what your NET calories are for the day then go to the top of the page and click on REPORTS

It depends on if you are looking at mobile or website.
On the website the top of the home page is

Calories Consumed - Exercise = NET
Your goal being to get the NET number to match the calorie goal MFP gave you.

The app is a little strange with how this is displayed being:
Calorie Goal - Calories Consumed + Exercise Burn = remaining calories to eat

You can see what your NET is from within the app by going to the Nutrition section -> Calories -> Select NET instead of Total
You can also see your weekly avg Net from this tab as well by changing if from daily to weekly.

rpw733

Thank you marm1962 and shadow2soul....great responses....I can now see it is working as I hoped. If I do cardio (ie., stationary bike), and some weight lifting, does it add calories burned (from cardio and weights) and subtract the two from food calories consumed? I haven't had a chance to see if it does this yet.

rpw733

And something else:
There are (in my opinion) a couple of design flaws.

1. If you do exercise, it add the calories as "Earned" to your normal goal. This is confusing (as least to me). It should just subtract them from the daily Goal Total.
For example. My Daily Total Goal is 1450 and the food calories were 1195. If I add exercise (300 calories), it adds them to the Goal (ie., it changes 1450 to 1750). I think it should just subtract 1450 - food 1195 - exercise 300) = Net. I just do not understand the reasoning for the computation like it is.

2. If you go to MY Home, it shows Your Daily Summary ( Goal - Food - Exercise = Net) but only for the current day. It does not allow you to pick a day like you can in the Food Diary. It should allow you to go to whatever day you want.

zamphir66

rpw733 wrote: »

And something else:
There are (in my opinion) a couple of design flaws.

1. If you do exercise, it add the calories as "Earned" to your normal goal. This is confusing (as least to me). It should just subtract them from the daily Goal Total.
For example. My Daily Total Goal is 1450 and the food calories were 1195. If I add exercise (300 calories), it adds them to the Goal (ie., it changes 1450 to 1750). I think it should just subtract 1450 - food 1195 - exercise 300) = Net. I just do not understand the reasoning for the computation like it is.

Because when you exercise above your normal activity level, you get to "eat back" some of those calories. Many people eat about half of them to allow for a margin of error. A few people don't eat them back at all, but for me, eating more of the foods is half the reason I exercise!

shadow2soul

rpw733 wrote: »

And something else:
There are (in my opinion) a couple of design flaws.

1. If you do exercise, it add the calories as "Earned" to your normal goal. This is confusing (as least to me). It should just subtract them from the daily Goal Total.
For example. My Daily Total Goal is 1450 and the food calories were 1195. If I add exercise (300 calories), it adds them to the Goal (ie., it changes 1450 to 1750). I think it should just subtract 1450 - food 1195 - exercise 300) = Net. I just do not understand the reasoning for the computation like it is.

2. If you go to MY Home, it shows Your Daily Summary ( Goal - Food - Exercise = Net) but only for the current day. It does not allow you to pick a day like you can in the Food Diary. It should allow you to go to whatever day you want.

2. Your formula is wrong here. The home page displays your goal, but it is not included in the equation. It's just Food - Exercise = NET. If the program did the formula the way you have listed, people wouldn't be eating near enough. Example:
Your math:
1450 goal - 1200 consumed - 400 burned = -150
lets say MFP thinks you burn 2450 in a day before exercise and selecting 2 lbs per week loss is how you got the 1450 goal. Add in exercise and the burn becomes 2850. Doing the math the way you have it written would increase your deficit from the max recommendation of 1000 to 1650 which isn't healthy.

MFP's math:
Goal Before Exercise + Exercise burn = what you should consume for weight loss
The NET math being
1850 consumed - 400 burned = 1450 NET

1. The NET math actually confuses a lot of people. It doesn't help that they have it displayed differently in different places. The bottom of your diary shows you what you should eat for the day (exercise included) so that you maintain a healthy deficit.

cgvet37

I don't see the problem. If your goal is 1,500 calories, and you consumed 1,400. You have 100 calories remaining. If you burn 200 calories during exercise, then you are 300 calories under your goal. I think you are over complicating things.

Machka9

The exercise part seems to work for me.

My daily goal is 1350 calories.

If I walk for an hour, I might burn 200 calories ... so that gets added to my 1350 giving me 1550 to consume.

rpw733

I guess it is just the way I was looking at it....thanks all for your response.

cwolfman13

rpw733 wrote: »

And something else:
There are (in my opinion) a couple of design flaws.

1. If you do exercise, it add the calories as "Earned" to your normal goal. This is confusing (as least to me). It should just subtract them from the daily Goal Total.
For example. My Daily Total Goal is 1450 and the food calories were 1195. If I add exercise (300 calories), it adds them to the Goal (ie., it changes 1450 to 1750). I think it should just subtract 1450 - food 1195 - exercise 300) = Net. I just do not understand the reasoning for the computation like it is.

2. If you go to MY Home, it shows Your Daily Summary ( Goal - Food - Exercise = Net) but only for the current day. It does not allow you to pick a day like you can in the Food Diary. It should allow you to go to whatever day you want.

This is because exercise isn't accounted for in your activity level...the target you get assumes no exercise...exercise is additional activity and thus should be accounted for which is why calories are added...that's how you account for that activity...you move more you can eat more and still accomplish the same end.

trinateegardens

rpw733 wrote: »

I guess it is just the way I was looking at it....thanks all for your response.

I know exactly what you are talking about! I could not see the reasoning for doing it that way either.