Negative calories on mfp
Replies
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Catawampous wrote: »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?
No what you are doing is fine, and probably what everyone should be doing by default so that you dont get those negative adjustments. AFAIK, it wont show you any negatives (outside of just eating a lot more than you have the goal set) unless what activity level you achieve is UNDER your baseline setting, so by setting your level to sedentary, you'd probably have to sit and lay around all day to get a negative adjustment. Which is why I said he must have set himself at a very high activity level originally to get a negative still after exercising.
As I understand Garmin to be working with MFP, it really doesn't make much sense to set your activity level high, since Garmin does that adjustment for you anyways. If it sees you exercised more it will do a positive adjustment to your calories, giving you more to eat. I think it may be discouraging to have negatives and make it hard to plan your meals, unless maybe you like getting negative adjustments for an extra push to exercise more...?0 -
SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish wrote: »Catawampous wrote: »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?
No what you are doing is fine, and probably what everyone should be doing by default so that you dont get those negative adjustments. AFAIK, it wont show you any negatives (outside of just eating a lot more than you have the goal set) unless what activity level you achieve is UNDER your baseline setting, so by setting your level to sedentary, you'd probably have to sit and lay around all day to get a negative adjustment. Which is why I said he must have set himself at a very high activity level originally to get a negative still after exercising.
As I understand Garmin to be working with MFP, it really doesn't make much sense to set your activity level high, since Garmin does that adjustment for you anyways. If it sees you exercised more it will do a positive adjustment to your calories, giving you more to eat. I think it may be discouraging to have negatives and make it hard to plan your meals, unless maybe you like getting negative adjustments for an extra push to exercise more...?
OP said that he's set on SEDENTARY.0 -
You could also just make your diary public temporarily so people could see it if you can't post a screenshot.0
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SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish wrote: »Catawampous wrote: »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?
No what you are doing is fine, and probably what everyone should be doing by default so that you dont get those negative adjustments. AFAIK, it wont show you any negatives (outside of just eating a lot more than you have the goal set) unless what activity level you achieve is UNDER your baseline setting, so by setting your level to sedentary, you'd probably have to sit and lay around all day to get a negative adjustment. Which is why I said he must have set himself at a very high activity level originally to get a negative still after exercising.
As I understand Garmin to be working with MFP, it really doesn't make much sense to set your activity level high, since Garmin does that adjustment for you anyways. If it sees you exercised more it will do a positive adjustment to your calories, giving you more to eat. I think it may be discouraging to have negatives and make it hard to plan your meals, unless maybe you like getting negative adjustments for an extra push to exercise more...?
OP said that he's set on SEDENTARY.
That's true, but something is off and since there are few ways to get negative numbers, activity level is most likely for someone fasting, it should be double checked on BOTH Garmin and MFP and make sure they are not different. I know mine works, I've logged 1000++ calories in exercise fine some days. So something off in the settings for exercise/activity level seems most likely.
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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!
Thank you. I made the diary public.0 -
I use the web page and not the app but you can turn off "negative adjustments". If you're set to sedentary you shouldn't even have this checked. Go to www.myfitnesspal.com (I couldn't find the check box on the app) go to settings and then to Diary Settings. You will see a checkbox under Calorie Adjustments. Uncheck it. You should be good to go after that.0
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eliciaobrien1 wrote: »I use the web page and not the app but you can turn off "negative adjustments". If you're set to sedentary you shouldn't even have this checked. Go to www.myfitnesspal.com (I couldn't find the check box on the app) go to settings and then to Diary Settings. You will see a checkbox under Calorie Adjustments. Uncheck it. You should be good to go after that.
This isn’t true. Even on sedentary, unless you’re at the minimum calories, you should still have negative adjustments enabled in case you have a day where you’re sick or lazy. Sedentary still accounts for a few thousand steps.1 -
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!
Thank you. I made the diary public.
It's not showing up for me0 -
Are you talking about the negative net calories? Because you have days where your logged intake is less than your remaining number of calories. You are risking some serious harm, if you numbers are accurate.1
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What I've seen is time being important. If I log my exercise at a time my tracker says I'm walking, I don't get the right count. Same as if I log my exercises (multiple) all at once at the end, they cancel each other out unless you define the start times1
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The only day I see a negative calorie adjustment at the end of the day is yesterday. Was the issue just for one weird day, or do you feel your numbers are off all the time?
Double check that your activity setting and time zone is correct and the same for both MFP and your tracker. I know that sounds silly, but I didn't realize my time zones were off, and some trackers determine how much of your activity should have happened already based on time of day.
If you are logging exercise that your tracker doesn't automatically pick up, log it on your tracker, not on MFP.
The actual number of calories being deducted or added comes from your tracker, not MFP. That's why I allow the adjustments from my Fitbit, I find the numbers are more accurate than MFP for exercise. It has nothing to do with MFP, free or premium. If you get a negative calorie adjustment, it's your tracker telling MFP that you don't have enough calories burned yet and might fall short. If the tracker is new, some of them take a week or two to "learn" from your daily activity pattern.0 -
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.
It adjusted to match the total exercise calories to what the tracker's server specifies as total calories - if you added exercise separately to MFP, it will be negated. If you logged it via the tracker server, but it doesn't compute those calories (things like cycling, for instance will burn more calories than a step tracker is going to estimate), it will also not be counted.0 -
You can see Garmin's math for the total calories burned on their server under Daily Summary: Activities.
It looks like this:
(Note on this day: Because I manually enter the strength training calories from a formula, the step tracker didn't count them, and thus the total is less than the weight training session, and I would have a negative adjustment if those were enabled. Mine is set to sedentary (with no negative adjustments), which would typically result in ~48 calories for those 2.56 miles were no other activities listed. I tracked long enough to realize the trends and approximate formulas, and back before I switched to TDEE method, I would manually add an estimate for steps if it was a day with a lot of miscellaneous walking (things like street festivals, etc), since the weight training and dancing calories would otherwise negate them). (on the dancing calories: I rarely wear my watch when dancing- it gets in the way of arm slides and grabs and certain other moves. and In close embrace dances, very few steps are likely to register (unless you are really bad at it)).0 -
If you are logging exercise that your tracker doesn't automatically pick up, log it on your tracker, not on MFP.
The actual number of calories being deducted or added comes from your tracker, not MFP. .
For the Garmin's, note that manually added activities will be negated whether added to Garmin's server or to MFP.0 -
The only day I see a negative calorie adjustment at the end of the day is yesterday. Was the issue just for one weird day, or do you feel your numbers are off all the time?
Double check that your activity setting and time zone is correct and the same for both MFP and your tracker. I know that sounds silly, but I didn't realize my time zones were off, and some trackers determine how much of your activity should have happened already based on time of day.
If you are logging exercise that your tracker doesn't automatically pick up, log it on your tracker, not on MFP.
The actual number of calories being deducted or added comes from your tracker, not MFP. That's why I allow the adjustments from my Fitbit, I find the numbers are more accurate than MFP for exercise. It has nothing to do with MFP, free or premium. If you get a negative calorie adjustment, it's your tracker telling MFP that you don't have enough calories burned yet and might fall short. If the tracker is new, some of them take a week or two to "learn" from your daily activity pattern.
It's done it everyday this week whenever I do any exercise above the steps. It makes the steps into negative calories. Usually a very high number of negative calories which wipes out any additional calories I should have gained by exercising.0 -
The only day I see a negative calorie adjustment at the end of the day is yesterday. Was the issue just for one weird day, or do you feel your numbers are off all the time?
Double check that your activity setting and time zone is correct and the same for both MFP and your tracker. I know that sounds silly, but I didn't realize my time zones were off, and some trackers determine how much of your activity should have happened already based on time of day.
If you are logging exercise that your tracker doesn't automatically pick up, log it on your tracker, not on MFP.
The actual number of calories being deducted or added comes from your tracker, not MFP. That's why I allow the adjustments from my Fitbit, I find the numbers are more accurate than MFP for exercise. It has nothing to do with MFP, free or premium. If you get a negative calorie adjustment, it's your tracker telling MFP that you don't have enough calories burned yet and might fall short. If the tracker is new, some of them take a week or two to "learn" from your daily activity pattern.
It's done it everyday this week whenever I do any exercise above the steps. It makes the steps into negative calories. Usually a very high number of negative calories which wipes out any additional calories I should have gained by exercising.
That's exactly what it's supposed to do.
As others have said, If you're using a tracker, it's accounting for your daily activity. So the tracker passes over that you've done 300 extra calories. You enter that you did a 30 minute workout that netted 400 calories. MFP takes those two numbers and give you a net negative 100 calories from the two entries.
If you turn off "negative adjustments" in MFP, then your step tracker will show 0 until it exceeds the 400 you've recorded.
The most likely cause of this is overestimating calories.
This can be partly resolved by entering the activity into your tracker instead of MFP(as a couple of others have suggested)
Additionally, it's probable that you're overestimating your burn(since in your example you estimated 913 calories for an hour of boxing/jumprope/treadmill)0 -
The only day I see a negative calorie adjustment at the end of the day is yesterday. Was the issue just for one weird day, or do you feel your numbers are off all the time?
Double check that your activity setting and time zone is correct and the same for both MFP and your tracker. I know that sounds silly, but I didn't realize my time zones were off, and some trackers determine how much of your activity should have happened already based on time of day.
If you are logging exercise that your tracker doesn't automatically pick up, log it on your tracker, not on MFP.
The actual number of calories being deducted or added comes from your tracker, not MFP. That's why I allow the adjustments from my Fitbit, I find the numbers are more accurate than MFP for exercise. It has nothing to do with MFP, free or premium. If you get a negative calorie adjustment, it's your tracker telling MFP that you don't have enough calories burned yet and might fall short. If the tracker is new, some of them take a week or two to "learn" from your daily activity pattern.
It's done it everyday this week whenever I do any exercise above the steps. It makes the steps into negative calories. Usually a very high number of negative calories which wipes out any additional calories I should have gained by exercising.
Have you checked to see if the negative adjustment goes away over the course of the day? I usually work out in the morning and my Apple Watch generally gives me a big giant negative adjustment when it first syncs (anywhere from -200 to -900 calories, ouch!). However within an hour or so of normal activity that number quickly adjusts down to something that makes more sense. I've noticed this happening later in the day as well, but again, it tends to sort itself out. I think it's just something to do with adjusting the step counter to avoid double-dipping calories, as others have noted, combined with the fact that the device is trying to estimate your entire day based on the activity you've done so far.
ETA: I've also erased the giant negative entry manually and had a more reasonable one show up within an hour or so. But generally I just leave it alone.0 -
A typical day in my MFP diary is "2000 - food calorie intake +- exercise calories = remaining calories". Almost always "exercise calories" is a positive (+) number. On days when I exercise a lot, "exercise calories" is higher than norm, this I have understood is accounting for the extra calories I burned in exercise that are off setting my calorie goal of "2000".
Yesterday, inspite of 57 minutes of Apple Watch exercise, my MFP "exercise calories" came in at "- 800", "2000 - 2016 - 800 = -816".
This is wrong. I attribute the "-800" to be some sort of syncing error.
This has happened 3 or 4 times in 5 years. Never have been able to get to the bottom of it.0 -
A typical day in my MFP diary is "2000 - food calorie intake +- exercise calories = remaining calories". Almost always "exercise calories" is a positive (+) number. On days when I exercise a lot, "exercise calories" is higher than norm, this I have understood is accounting for the extra calories I burned in exercise that are off setting my calorie goal of "2000".
Yesterday, inspite of 57 minutes of Apple Watch exercise, my MFP "exercise calories" came in at "- 800", "2000 - 2016 - 800 = -816".
This is wrong. I attribute the "-800" to be some sort of syncing error.
This has happened 3 or 4 times in 5 years. Never have been able to get to the bottom of it.
Apple doesn't play well with MFP, never has really.0 -
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.
I disabled the negative calorie adjustment. The information I get makes more sense to me. I also have a Garmin synced to MFP
Oops. Just noticed that this is a necro thread. Oh well, the info still stands0
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