I don't get negative calorie adjustment, someone please explain (numbers provided)

RobBasss

I have read what it is over and over and I get the gist of it but I don't understand the numbers for example:

MFP daily calorie goal: 2060
I walked 1.5 hours this morning ~300 calories burned / 9100 steps (I split the difference between mapMyWalk and Garmin vivosmart 3 guesstimates on calories burned)

On my exercise MFP page I have this:
Walking, 3.0 mph, mod. pace 80 229
Garmin Connect calorie adjustment -294 <--WTF where is this coming from

So instead of earning a little bit of calories from my morning walk, I actually lost, How from 1.5 hours of walking I had 65 calories ADDED to my total??? My food page says:

2060 GOAL 385 FOOD + 65 EXERCISE = 450

When I go to explanation I see:

Garmin Connect Calories Burned Full Day Projection
(Based on 977 calories burned as of 9:46 am) 2495

MyFitnessPal Calories Burned (Includes 229 calories from exercise) 2789 <--where did this high number come from?

Garmin Connect Calorie Adjustment -294

Seems there is a bug in this, or if someone can explain the number to me I would greatly appreciate it.

IMHO, my daily goal is 2060, the 300 from my walk this morning should get added to that, so I am safe to consume up to 2360 since I worked out today and still be within my goal for the day.

Duck_Puddle

Mfp takes what your Garmin/Fitbit/tracker thinks you will burn in the day (2495) and then subtracts out the total calories it expects you to burn in the day (2789 for you including whatever you logged for exercise). The difference is what it logs as a calorie adjustment. The calorie adjustment is a measure of physical activity/calories burned. It will be the same whether your calorie goal is 1200 or 12000 (calories remaining will be different). The adjustment is based only on what mfp thinks you'll burn in a day minus what your tracker thinks you'll burn in a day.

RobBasss

How does MFP come up with the 2789 number, I logged 300 calories so why is the projection for the day so high? One or both of those projections seems to have an issue or both are just really bad at estimating.

CyberTone

RobBasss wrote: »

How does MFP come up with the 2789 number, I logged 300 calories so why is the projection for the day so high? One or both of those projections seems to have an issue or both are just really bad at estimating.

2789 Cals (MFP full day projection) - 229 Cals (logged purposeful exercise) = 2560 Cals (MFP estimated maintenance without purposeful exercise, i.e. only included self reported Activity Level)

2560 Cals (MFP estimated maintenance) - 500 Cals (one week loss rate goal) = 2060 Cals (MFP Daily Goal at reported Activity Level)

The difference 2495 Cals (Garmin full day projection) - 2789 Cals (MFP full day estimate including purposeful exercise) = -294 Cals. This is only valid at that point in time that the two apps synced. As you move more throughout the day, the Garmin projection will either increase or decrease until the final sync at 11:59 P.M. The MFP full day estimate includes Activity Level plus logged purposeful exercise, if you do not log any more purposeful exercise, the MFP full day estimate will not change throughout the day. The adjustment keeps the different accounting methods in sync.

Tacklewasher

What is your activity level set to in MFP? It sounds to me like MFP expected that level of activity, so it adds in the walk but deducts it out as it was already included in your base calories.

Duck_Puddle

RobBasss wrote: »

How does MFP come up with the 2789 number, I logged 300 calories so why is the projection for the day so high? One or both of those projections seems to have an issue or both are just really bad at estimating.

Mfp expects you will burn 2789 calories today. The 2060 goal to eat doesn't factor into your calorie adjustment in any way. It's completely irrelevant to the calculation. The adjustment is based only on how many calories you burn.

mariecb07

RobBasss wrote: »

On my exercise MFP page I have this:
Walking, 3.0 mph, mod. pace 80 229
Garmin Connect calorie adjustment -294 <--WTF where is this coming from

Without a screenshot and more context, it is hard to know, but this seems straightfoward to me. Here's what I think is happening:

1. MFP is telling you that walking at that speed for that page burns about 230 calories.
2. Your Garmin Connect is telling you your walking burns about 294 calories. Garmin included a negative sign to remind you that calories are being burned/subtracted. This is causing you the problem (see below).

The variation in the absolute numbers is pretty typical. You're getting estimates. Calculating calories burned during exercise is tricky, and to do it really well, you actually need a lot of information about an individual (age, resting heart rate, exertion, body weight, etc.). So this means that between your two sources, you have estimates that you burn somewhere between 230ish and 290ish calories doing that exercise.

Now, here's what's causing the problem for you:

You're getting the number "65" because that's the difference between the MFP exercise estimate and the Garmin exercise estimate. This indicates to me that you're logging your exercise twice by mistake. To MFP, your exercise page is reading:

I burned 229 calories from walking. (Represented as 229 by MFP; MFP uses positive numbers)
I gained 294 calories from walking. (Represented as -294, which MFP reads as calorie gain due to the negative).

And then you're logging BOTH, so MFP is finding the difference and saying, "They burned some calories walking but they also say they gained some according to this other device. They gained more than they lost. Therefore, +65!"

You need to record each exercise only once. You can use the MFP estimate or the Gamin estimate, but not both. If you want to use the number from Garmin, you need to manually enter is as a positive number so that it doesn't throw off the MFP equations. If you log some exercises just via your Garmin, enter them in addition to exercises that you separately log with MFP, but make sure the number is positive. For example, my iphone tracks my steps/walking every day. That is logged on my exercise page automatically as a positive number via the MFP app. If it was sending in my steps as a negative number, it would be causing the same problem for me.

RobBasss

I think I see the math now will read through your post again.

So then is the issue with the Garmin device, I would think it would be much higher / projected since I went for the walk early this morning and just messing around the house I am already past 10000 steps / 5mi before 11 am, I went over my settings in the Garmin app I noticed I did not set an activity level, I would say I am a 6 on their 1-10 scale, since I workout 5 days a week, but after I fixed that I did not see any numbers change in the app.

Again in keeping it simple, I "earned" an extra 300 calories for the day, but because of the reported value by the Garmin device, MFP is adjusting thinking I won't hit 2789 so let me adjust his daily intake to compensate / keep him on track.

Duck_Puddle

RobBasss wrote: »

How does MFP come up with the 2789 number, I logged 300 calories so why is the projection for the day so high? One or both of those projections seems to have an issue or both are just really bad at estimating.

In another explanation...mfp expects you will burn 2560 calories in a day with no purposeful exercise. If you had no Garmin, that's what your base calories burned would be. Your calorie goal (to eat) is 500 less than that. If you exercise, you add to that 2560. If you had no Garmin, you would log your exercise and mfp would assume your logged exercise would add to the 2560-and add to your remaining available calories to eat. Like today, you've logged 229 calories of activity. That's above and beyond the 2560. Mfp now thinks you're going to burn 2789 calories today. If you had no garmin-this would be the end. The 2789 is calories burned. Burned. If you changed your weight loss setting to 2 pounds a week or changed it to gain 2 pounds a week-your calories BURNED stay the same.

Your Garmin is supposed to be figuring out the calories burned side of things for you. Your Garmin is tracking all of your activity. So if you go for a walk and play at the park, or you do a workout, or you do whatever it is you do-the Garmin is tracking your activity and your calories burned. The idea of linking this to mfp is that it simplifes the calories BURNED side. Garmin figures you'll burn however many calories in the day based on the activity it has recorded (the 2495). The rest is just subtraction between what mfp thinks you'll burn and what Garmin thinks you'll burn. The calorie goal for how much to eat has zero to do with this.

RobBasss

Thank you both, I think I finally understand the math. I did some random online calculators and to no surprise MFP pretty closely matches those site based on the fact I workout 5x a week (I chose moderately active):

You need 2,572 Calories/day to maintain your weight. 2,572
You need 2,072 Calories/day to lose 1 lb per week. 2,072

How accurate are these devices at predicting daily caloric burn? I know they have access to heart rate and assuming you don't take it off much, it pretty much knows what your doing all day, but since each person is different, metabolic rates and what not, I can't imagine they are spot on, but probably within 10-15% of being correct?

Tacklewasher

RobBasss wrote: »

Thank you both, I think I finally understand the math. I did some random online calculators and to no surprise MFP pretty closely matches those site based on the fact I workout 5x a week (I chose moderately active):

You need 2,572 Calories/day to maintain your weight. 2,572
You need 2,072 Calories/day to lose 1 lb per week. 2,072

How accurate are these devices at predicting daily caloric burn? I know they have access to heart rate and assuming you don't take it off much, it pretty much knows what your doing all day, but since each person is different, metabolic rates and what not, I can't imagine they are spot on, but probably within 10-15% of being correct?

You just have to keep experimenting on how accurate it is for you. I find my Garmin VivoActive HR to be almost spot on based on my loss rate. Certainly close enough that the error gets lost in the noise of other errors (logging errors, food database errors etc.). When I didn't eat them all back, I lost faster than I should have, so I kept eating more of them back.