Exercise Calories and Welcoming Tips and Advice

jkleidon27

Hi,

I just want to be sure that I'm using MyFitnessPal the right way. I'm a 5'10" male that has between 90-100 lbs to lose. I set my goal to lose a pound per week. I was given a goal of 2,240 calories.

What I try to do is to split up my calories per times of the day, which comes out to around 450 per breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 900 for snacks that I can adjust and put towards breakfast, lunch, dinner if needed.

An example of my day yesterday. My goal was 2,240 calories. I ate 2,238 in food calories. My exercise calories came in at 4,015 calories with the use of a Garmin Vivofit to track steps from walking (I think the calorie count might be a little high for 11,602 steps but I'm new here so I don't know). It leads to a remaining total of 4,017.

To anyone who has experience or has had success with MyFitnessPal, what do I need to do to ensure success or what do I need to change based on the sample day that I gave?

Ready2Rock206

Those exercise calories seem beyond high. There's no way I would eat all those. Normally I'd recommend half - but even half is extremely high. ... But normally if you're using MFP as intended you'd eat your goal plus the exercise calories. Doesn't matter how you split them.

RodaRose

The Garmin Fit is probably way over estimating your exercise calories.
Most people here eat back only a third or a half of the exercise calories.

By the way, what kind of workout did you do?

jkleidon27

Right now, I am just doing walking so I get some movement in.

Mezzie1024

That sounds like an extreme overestimation from your Garmin for walking. Why not see what MFP estimates for your walking? A lot of people think it overestimates, too, but I doubt it will be in the 4,000 range! Also, if the walking was just incidental, it might be covered in your calculation (lightly active, active, etc.).

cwolfman13

Something is off with your device...you aren't burning 4K calories walking 11K steps.

I'm an avid cycling enthusiast and I would have to ride about 120 miles at a vigorous effort to achieve that...10K steps is about 5 miles...walking a tad over 5 miles isn't going to burn 4K calories.

jennybearlv

Double check your stats in Connect. 4000 exercise calories for 11000 steps would be impossible. I'm assuming you are referring to MFP's exercise calories, not Garmin's total daily burn, right? Are you adding any other exercise to Connect, MFP, or any apps that link to them? Maybe you could be getting double counting somewhere. How long have you had the Vivofit and have you connected it to a PC and updated through Garmin Express? It could be an issue with the device or software.

jkleidon27

This is the tale of the tape from yesterday. According to my Garmin app for the numbers from yesterday, my resting calories were 2673 and my active calories were 4069 for a total burn of 6742.

It's even higher on the Garmin app than on the MyFitnessPal app.

Something is definitely not right.

I am referring to the MyFitnessPal app numbers that get synced from the Garmin app. There is no other exercise that I've added and I regularly get updates on my watch.

I have no clue what could be going on. I wish I did. This could make getting healthy for me pretty challenging.

MiViVe

Perhaps your weight is set way too high? I'm not sure if that's even an option in the Garmin app, but if for example you were 300 pounds and you entered 3000 pounds, then the calories could be way off.

TeaBea

Mezzie1024 wrote: »

That sounds like an extreme overestimation from your Garmin for walking. Why not see what MFP estimates for your walking? A lot of people think it overestimates, too, but I doubt it will be in the 4,000 range! Also, if the walking was just incidental, it might be covered in your calculation (lightly active, active, etc.).

If you are just walking, and it's 10,000 steps - try changing your calorie goal in MFP to active. That will give you more calories......but no where near an extra 4,000

http://www.fitnessforweightloss.com/rate-your-activity-level-based-on-steps-per-day/

Double check your Garmin settings, try disconnecting and re-syncing, etc......something is off.

MommaGem2017

Don't worry, it takes a little while to get all the apps synced and working together nicely. I would just eat your MFP calories for now until you figure out what's going on with garmin. I typically get 500-800 calories for 10k+ steps. I'm smaller than you so you may get a bigger burn, but not 4000cal.

DX2JX2

Honestly, that amount of walking would probably only burn about 500 calories or thereabouts. That said, this goes contrary to the general advice on this board but I wouldn't worry about eating back the exercise calories until you know if you need them. Your pre-exercise target of 2300 is already plenty of food and walking isn't the most stressful exercise in the world. You'll have plenty of lead time to know if you're running out of energy and need to up your calories.

Meelisv

My Garmin watch estimates between 200-250 kcal for ~ 10 000 steps, which seems logical. That amount is also automatically corrected downwards if I do any other moving activity like running.

Something must be very wrong with your Garmin tracker.

jkleidon27

Thank you so much everybody. You are all so kind.

Something is definitely wrong with my watch.

I just got over 10,000 steps and the exercise calories are at 1,400 plus.

It's a shame that I can't have my watch be reliable in measuring how I am doing fitness wise.

One thing that I'm learning is if you think too much, your going to freak yourself out.

I have to believe that if I stay around the 2240 calorie goal and I move 10000 steps a day and just have a goal of getting my heart rate up by moving, good things are going to eventually happen.

My portions are already way down by measuring and my food choices are getting better. I will take any non scale victory.

I'm just trying to keep things simple and not think too much.

Meelisv

Overthinking it is a real issue. Try to keep it as simple as possible. Also use a kitchen scale and weigh EVERYTHING.
Since you probably don't do any other training except walking, it makes sense to set your activity on MFP to sedentary and add 100-200 kcal to that result which walking burns, if you feel hungry.

When I started my weight was 150 kg (~330 lbs) and I also ate 2400 kcl at first.

Check your Garmin connect settings carefully, perhaps there is some mistake in your stats there. If not, in case it is still under warranty exchange it. Garmin devices are known for their good accuracy compared to several others.