Negative calories on mfp
jkann1
Posts: 10 Member
So I am certain this has been covered but I can't find it so I'm asking.
Yesterday I did a partial fast and didn't eat until 630pm
During the day I hit my goal of 10000 steps, did 40 minutes of boxing, 6 minutes of jumping rope, and 15 minutes on a treadmill.
My fitness pal calculated a negative calorie of -897 So I gained approximately 26 extra calories for the day from the exercise described above.
Please explain how working out and not eating gives me a negative calorie total for my exercise section on mfp
Thanks.
Yesterday I did a partial fast and didn't eat until 630pm
During the day I hit my goal of 10000 steps, did 40 minutes of boxing, 6 minutes of jumping rope, and 15 minutes on a treadmill.
My fitness pal calculated a negative calorie of -897 So I gained approximately 26 extra calories for the day from the exercise described above.
Please explain how working out and not eating gives me a negative calorie total for my exercise section on mfp
Thanks.
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Replies
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I believe it's relative to your activity setting in your profile. MFP is trying to "balance out" your activity setting with your actual activity coming from, I assume, a fitbit or similar activity tracker.0
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Is this very different from what you usually see or have you just started logging in conjunction with a synced fitness tracker?0
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How do you exercise without eating?!? That's not healthy.5
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Iwantahealthierme30 wrote: »How do you exercise without eating?!? That's not healthy.
OP did eat, they simply did their exercise in a fasted state and ate afterwards. Assuming it doesn't cause problems for an individual, it's a perfectly healthful approach. Many use it while training.6 -
Do you already have exercise configured into your settings?0
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Because MFP expects you to eat your calories. Exercising increases your allowance, A negative calorie total means you ate less than MFP thinks you ought to have.
It's a little counter intuitive, IMO.4 -
stanmann571 wrote: »Because MFP expects you to eat your calories. Exercising increases your allowance, A negative calorie total means you ate less than MFP thinks you ought to have.
It's a little counter intuitive, IMO.
No, it means you moved less than MFP thinks and therefore won’t be burning enough calories to meet maintenance. To keep the deficit the same, it takes away the difference between maintenance and the total calories burned.5 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Is this very different from what you usually see or have you just started logging in conjunction with a synced fitness tracker?
Today was different than any other day ive seen. I've been using Mfp synced with a garmin watch for the past 6 weeks. My exercise profile is set at 10000 steps.
Getting negative calories based on too much exercise doesn't make any sense. Guess I wasted the money on this app and need to find something else.
I need something that can accurately track what I'm eating and burning not make up aswrbitrary rules that burning 300 calories and eating none means I am now behind for the day.1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Is this very different from what you usually see or have you just started logging in conjunction with a synced fitness tracker?
Today was different than any other day ive seen. I've been using Mfp synced with a garmin watch for the past 6 weeks. My exercise profile is set at 10000 steps.
Getting negative calories based on too much exercise doesn't make any sense. Guess I wasted the money on this app and need to find something else.
I need something that can accurately track what I'm eating and burning not make up aswrbitrary rules that burning 300 calories and eating none means I am now behind for the day.
What is your activity level set to on MFP? If your activity level is set higher than it needs to be, you'll see negative adjustments even if you're doing exercise during the day.4 -
stanmann571 wrote: »Because MFP expects you to eat your calories. Exercising increases your allowance, A negative calorie total means you ate less than MFP thinks you ought to have.
It's a little counter intuitive, IMO.
No, it means you moved less than MFP thinks and therefore won’t be burning enough calories to meet maintenance. To keep the deficit the same, it takes away the difference between maintenance and the total calories burned.
That's what I thought, too.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Is this very different from what you usually see or have you just started logging in conjunction with a synced fitness tracker?
Today was different than any other day ive seen. I've been using Mfp synced with a garmin watch for the past 6 weeks. My exercise profile is set at 10000 steps.
Getting negative calories based on too much exercise doesn't make any sense. Guess I wasted the money on this app and need to find something else.
I need something that can accurately track what I'm eating and burning not make up aswrbitrary rules that burning 300 calories and eating none means I am now behind for the day.
What is your activity level set to on MFP? If your activity level is set higher than it needs to be, you'll see negative adjustments even if you're doing exercise during the day.
1. This. If you're set to "very active" but don't meet the "very active" requirements, you'll get a negative adjustment. Maybe try setting your profile to "active" and see what that does. I expect for your allowed calories in to decrease but your exercise calories should have an impact that's more in line with what you're expecting to see.
2. You also didn't tell us If you ate more than your allotted calories. You can still overeat, even if you only started eating past 6:30.
3. Keep in mind, too, that some times there are connectivity issues between trackers and MFP. This happens RARELY but some FitBit users have been experiencing problems this week. I don't know if this has been resolved or if it affected Garmin.
4. My Fitness Pal can be used for free, and is most useful for the calorie tracking aspect. The premium version allows you to set your own macro goals (and a couple more perks).
5. Don't get frustrated, if you've just now started using the app. If you changed the defaults in any way, it'll take a minute for you to figure out how to read it. The default is usually set to sedentary and then exercise calories are just a bonus. Setting yourself as anything other than that just gives you a "GOAL" to work towards. In this case, you're 300 calories below your activity goal, which *could* be made up for by reducing your calorie intake.1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Is this very different from what you usually see or have you just started logging in conjunction with a synced fitness tracker?
Today was different than any other day ive seen. I've been using Mfp synced with a garmin watch for the past 6 weeks. My exercise profile is set at 10000 steps.
Getting negative calories based on too much exercise doesn't make any sense. Guess I wasted the money on this app and need to find something else.
I need something that can accurately track what I'm eating and burning not make up aswrbitrary rules that burning 300 calories and eating none means I am now behind for the day.
What is your activity level set to on MFP? If your activity level is set higher than it needs to be, you'll see negative adjustments even if you're doing exercise during the day.
1. This. If you're set to "very active" but don't meet the "very active" requirements, you'll get a negative adjustment. Maybe try setting your profile to "active" and see what that does. I expect for your allowed calories in to decrease but your exercise calories should have an impact that's more in line with what you're expecting to see.
2. You also didn't tell us If you ate more than your allotted calories. You can still overeat, even if you only started eating past 6:30.
3. Keep in mind, too, that some times there are connectivity issues between trackers and MFP. This happens RARELY but some FitBit users have been experiencing problems this week. I don't know if this has been resolved or if it affected Garmin.
4. My Fitness Pal can be used for free, and is most useful for the calorie tracking aspect. The premium version allows you to set your own macro goals (and a couple more perks).
5. Don't get frustrated, if you've just now started using the app. If you changed the defaults in any way, it'll take a minute for you to figure out how to read it. The default is usually set to sedentary and then exercise calories are just a bonus. Setting yourself as anything other than that just gives you a "GOAL" to work towards. In this case, you're 300 calories below your activity goal, which *could* be made up for by reducing your calorie intake.
Thanks for the reply. My level is set to sedentary. I ate a total of 650 calories for the day for dinner. My normal calorie intake is closer to 1450 and my mfp allotment is 1780. I have the premium version but I am disappointed with this aspect of this program for sure. The connectivity seems fine, it shows my total steps and it's matching my garmin right up to when it changes to a negative calorie allotment.
It did it again tonight. I burned 950 calories through exercise according to mfp then it gave me a negative calorie adjustment on my steps of 875 although I'm over the step goal for the day.
I just don't understand.1 -
stanmann571 wrote: »Because MFP expects you to eat your calories. Exercising increases your allowance, A negative calorie total means you ate less than MFP thinks you ought to have.
It's a little counter intuitive, IMO.
No, it means you moved less than MFP thinks and therefore won’t be burning enough calories to meet maintenance. To keep the deficit the same, it takes away the difference between maintenance and the total calories burned.
That's what I thought, too.
So I burned 950 more calories than I did the day before according to mfp the day before I did 11000 steps, that's all the exercise I did and I got a positive 135 calorie adjustment. When I burn an additional 950 calories plus meet my step goal I'm penalized in the app by a negative calorie adjustment of 875? By what kind of logic does that make even a remote bit of sense?0 -
Are you logging exercise in addition to having your Garmin connected?
Also as a male you should be hitting a net calorie goal of 1500 minimum, if not the amount given to you by MFP.0 -
I have a Garmin too. What MFP and Garmin do is they give you a calorie goal to eat, and as you eat or "use up" those calories, the number goes down. It goes negative when you ate MORE than your allowance for the day, it is positive when you do not eat some of the calories it figures you should for the day or your "allowance". Now, if you have a goal set for your calculations for exercise already included into this set amount of calories, and you did not meet this goal for the day, since the number of calories that you should have eaten takes this exercise into account, it would give you a negative number for exercise if you did not meet that level. So its sounding like you have things set up way too high level of exercise for you, you really shouldn't have a negative level that high for the day in any case. The other way you could get a negative number is if you have logged that many calories more than your "allowance for the day", or somehow the baseline calories for the day you set is very low...what do you see when you log in before you log anything in the morning? Also, what are you calling the "exercise section on MFP" exactly?0
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Hmmmm ... now I am a little confused too. Maybe this will help OR I am about to throw a wrench into this without realizing it! I am new to this aspect of MFP myself so if I am wrong someone please correct me!
My Garmin is 2 weeks old. When I got it and set it up I enabled negative calorie adjustments and set MFP from lightly active to sedentary. I synced up my Garmin to MFP and let it do its thing. I have *yet* to get a negative calorie adjustment. My daily steps average around 16k and my running/cycling are logged seperate from that. Strength is not added in unless I manually do it which I don't. I am not eating up to what the Garmin tells me just yet because I am understanding it may take a few weeks to settle into what is normal for me and I am seeing a downward trend in calories overall ATM.
Does this help? Or am I actually doing it wrong?0 -
Perhaps if you shared a screenshot of what you're seeing it would help1
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Have you tried clicking the adjustment to see where it's getting the numbers?0
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stanmann571 wrote: »Perhaps if you shared a screenshot of what you're seeing it would help
This because what you seem to be saying doesn't make sense given how my Garmin works with MFP.
Maybe try disconnecting them and reconnecting them?0 -
Your garmin and MFP maintenance calories should align. Do the calories match up between the two I.e. garmin total calories burned and MFP allocated cals plus exercise cals?0
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I don't see a way to add a screenshot to this thread.0
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Tacklewasher wrote: »stanmann571 wrote: »Perhaps if you shared a screenshot of what you're seeing it would help
This because what you seem to be saying doesn't make sense given how my Garmin works with MFP.
Maybe try disconnecting them and reconnecting them?
It doesn't make sense to me either
I guess that's how it's suppossed to work though.0 -
SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish wrote: »I have a Garmin too. What MFP and Garmin do is they give you a calorie goal to eat, and as you eat or "use up" those calories, the number goes down. It goes negative when you ate MORE than your allowance for the day, it is positive when you do not eat some of the calories it figures you should for the day or your "allowance". Now, if you have a goal set for your calculations for exercise already included into this set amount of calories, and you did not meet this goal for the day, since the number of calories that you should have eaten takes this exercise into account, it would give you a negative number for exercise if you did not meet that level. So its sounding like you have things set up way too high level of exercise for you, you really shouldn't have a negative level that high for the day in any case. The other way you could get a negative number is if you have logged that many calories more than your "allowance for the day", or somehow the baseline calories for the day you set is very low...what do you see when you log in before you log anything in the morning? Also, what are you calling the "exercise section on MFP" exactly?
The "exercise" section is underneath snacks on mfp.0 -
When I wake up I have 1780 calories available for the day.0
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My understanding is that it works like this -
- You setup your MFP profile with all your info, your weight loss goal per week, and your activity level.
- MFP takes all that info and calculates a daily calorie goal.
- When you sync an activity tracker to MFP, 2 things can happen
- when your device syncs an activity/workout, those calories are added to your calorie goal. This is correct and intentional, though often times a source of confusion.
- when your device syncs steps, MFP will try to balance those steps (actual activity) with the activity level you set in your profile. If your steps for the day are different from what MFP has calculate (again, based on your activity level), MFP will adjust accordingly, either giving you additional cals if you've been more active, or taking cals away if you've been less active (and have negative calorie adjustments enabled.
Full disclosure - I haven't had my trackers linked to my MFP account for a loooong time now, so things could have changed, or I could simply be mistaken base on memory/old person problems.0 -
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When I wake up I have 1780 calories available for the day.
Awesome!
1.Now go into MFP and make sure you're at sedentary.
2. Go into the Garmin app, make sure you're sedentary.
3. Make sure that both have the same weight loss pounds/week goal.
4. Make sure that they both give you roughly the same calorie allotment.
5. Log all your food but maybe don't log exercise.
6. Open your diary so that we can see the numbers too.
Here are the instructions on how to do number 6:
https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/201687-how-do-i-make-my-diary-visible-to-other-users-
Let's see what the day gives you. Something isn't set up right, but we'll work through it!0 -
I once had a negative calorie reading when I ate breakfast and then worked out, it gave me a negative number because I had burned more calories then I had eaten, the negative number went away as I ate more, I don't use any other device. Isn't it just that she burned more calories then she consumed?1
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Log your specific exercise routines into your Garmin account, not MFP. Use MFP for your calorie counting only.
From what I am reading you are having a portion of your steps counted as part of your logged exercise in an attempt to negate double dipping.
Enter the times you exercise as well as duration otherwise the steps may be counted as part of your exercise.
Also the having 10000 steps as your goal in MFP or Garmin is just an incentive. Sedentary on MFP is equal to around 3500 steps, anything more than that gets calorie credit. IE: you do 10000 steps, MFP will add calories for 7500 of those steps.
(NB: there is no actual MFP step per activity level equivalent and some say it is 5000 steps so you would then get credited 5000 step calories for the 10000 taken)
@Tacklewasher could you maybe chime in and say how you log your exercise. I'm pretty sure you are Garmin.
Cheers, h.2 -
livenfree45 wrote: »I once had a negative calorie reading when I ate breakfast and then worked out, it gave me a negative number because I had burned more calories then I had eaten, the negative number went away as I ate more, I don't use any other device. Isn't it just that she burned more calories then she consumed?
Should be the other way. Should be a HIGHER positive number.0
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