Exercise Calories Subtracted

HezzyMom
HezzyMom Posts: 2 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Why does the free app subtract calories the more exercise I do? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Replies

  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    No, it shouldn't.

    When you setup your MFP profile (age, height, weight, goals, etc), it calculates the number of calories you need to eat to achieve that goal. Period. That's it. MFP doesn't assume that you're going to exercise (this is intentional, and there's a reason for it).

    If/when you exercise, you change the formula a bit, so MFP adjusts your calorie goal accordingly.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    As above. MFP uses the NEAT method, so gives you a goal based on day to day normal activity (step count). When you exercise those calories are not being accounted for until you add them to your day. This incentivises exercise for a lot of people which is no bad thing. You do have to exercise caution with the numbers and adjust according to results over time but not eating the exercise calories can lead to under eating.
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
    On your main home page MFP takes the food you eat (ex.1500 cal) and then subtracts the exercise you did (ex. 200 cal) to create a net calorie intake (ex. 1300 cal) and compares that to your goal calories.

    So, it's subtracting your exercise from your logged food, not subtracting it from your goal amount.

    Hope that makes sense.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    It depends on which Dashboard you are looking at.

    Calories earned from Exercise get added to your Goal on the mobile app Dashboard. The result of the equation is Calories Remaining.

    Calories earned from Exercise get subtracted from your Food on the web version Dashboard. The result of the equation is Net Calories. On the web version, the Calories Remaining number is the large number above the equation.
  • amgavlas
    amgavlas Posts: 1 Member
    Nope. The app is wrong. If I have 1500 calories remaining and I exercise 300 calories it should ADD them to what I have remaining. I can now consume 1800 calories. Instead in deducts from the number of calories I have remaining.... so now I can only consume 1200 calories bc I exercised. I used this app over a year ago... and just came back to it. It is incredible that the makers of the app have not fixed this issue yet. I will say that sometimes it does register correctly, but then for some unknown reason it decides to subtract the exercise calories .
  • miller4ya
    miller4ya Posts: 1 Member
    I just started using it again too. You enable negative calories in your online profile. Mine was doing this too and it didn’t make sense. But it made me realize my Fitbit wasn’t syncing to my phone. So after a workout it still showed negative calories. MFP assumes you do a certain amount of movement each day depending on the activity level you set (in your profile). So each day exercise will show negative calories until you move enough to reach zero or be positive.

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