Help: negative calorie adjustment mistake?

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SelinaB99
SelinaB99 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I don’t understand the numbers for the negative calorie adjustment.
wr5z1qafxo18.jpeg
MFP deducted the exact amount of calories that I burned during exercise. Also, I walked around 1000 steps MORE than yesterday where MFP gave me extra calories due to how many steps I walked.
That doesn’t make any sense to me..
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Replies

  • KarenSmith2018
    KarenSmith2018 Posts: 302 Member
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    do you have an activity tracker linked?
    With mine (Garmin) the device will sync with MFP throughout the day and depending on what my garmin thinks i will burn compared to what my goal is in MFP it will give positive or negative adjustments. It goes against steps but it doesn't really have any relation to the steps taken.
    Its how the activity tracker and MFP balance out differences. So with this, to stop double counting, it will take away the calories earned from running, because the tracker has added your run. Mine often does this.
    once your tracker has calculated you will burn calories in addition to the MFP calorie allowance including the exercise cals it will add these in as a positive.
  • dulinh
    dulinh Posts: 99 Member
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    Not sure if this is a manual entry or not but it looks to me like 9 point eight steps was entered vs 9 thousand eight hundred steps. Can you edit the decimal out of the entry?
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,728 Member
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    dulinh wrote: »
    Not sure if this is a manual entry or not but it looks to me like 9 point eight steps was entered vs 9 thousand eight hundred steps. Can you edit the decimal out of the entry?

    OP is not in the US. Decimals are used instead of commas.

    It appears that apple health or Samsung health and the phone's accelerometer are being used to calculate calories. Several other folks have mentioned issues with phone accelerometer calculated calories in the last few weeks.
  • tirowow12385
    tirowow12385 Posts: 698 Member
    edited March 2018
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    From what I read in the definition, MFP has a daily projection of how many calories you will burn daily, if you set your activity level as highly active then it will be a high number, let's just say it's 3000 for demonstrative purposes.

    The step tracker you synced with MFP also has a daily projected calorie burned that is not shown but it combines with the calories you burned walking and compares it with MFP.

    The negative adjustment you see is the walking app having lower projected daily calorie burn compared to MFP base on their own calculation like how much calories you burned per day plus calories you burned walking.

    So let's go back to the 3000 number again, since your negative adjustment is -231, that means the walking app projected that you will or have burned 2769 calories by the time it becomes midnight while MFP projects you will burn 3000 for the day.

    MFP always defers to the calculation of the apps you sync to.

    I could be wrong though, the definition was long and confusing to begin with.
  • boehle
    boehle Posts: 5,062 Member
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    I only track everything in my fitbit and let it move it to the app
    If you track via your device and add in the app too.. its going to remove the amounts because you have negative deductions. Just track everything in your device.
    If you want to everyone to see you worked out.. just state you burned so many calories doing yadda but dont actually log it in MFP as your tracker already did.
  • SelinaB99
    SelinaB99 Posts: 5 Member
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    I track my steps using my iPhone but I don't have any additional apps or devices to track my activity (such as running, etc.) that could interfere with the calorie count and my iPhone definitely wasn't measuring the steps while I was running because I ran at the gym and my phone was sitting on the machine (->wasn't moving).

    I found this when I clicked on the information button:
    2fx861okr25f.png

    I don't understand the part where it says "Your adjustment has been reduced to keep your goal above our 1200 calorie minimum"?
  • tirowow12385
    tirowow12385 Posts: 698 Member
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    SelinaB99 wrote: »
    I track my steps using my iPhone but I don't have any additional apps or devices to track my activity (such as running, etc.) that could interfere with the calorie count and my iPhone definitely wasn't measuring the steps while I was running because I ran at the gym and my phone was sitting on the machine (->wasn't moving).

    I found this when I clicked on the information button:
    2fx861okr25f.png

    I don't understand the part where it says "Your adjustment has been reduced to keep your goal above our 1200 calorie minimum"?

    I don't think it was reduce, that fine print is kind of just.. there but if say you were on a 1200 calorie budget then MFP will reduce the negative adjustment and make it zero instead of -232 just so you won't eat below 1200 or 1200-232.
  • SelinaB99
    SelinaB99 Posts: 5 Member
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    tirowow12385 wrote: »
    SelinaB99 wrote: »
    I track my steps using my iPhone but I don't have any additional apps or devices to track my activity (such as running, etc.) that could interfere with the calorie count and my iPhone definitely wasn't measuring the steps while I was running because I ran at the gym and my phone was sitting on the machine (->wasn't moving).

    I found this when I clicked on the information button:
    2fx861okr25f.png

    I don't understand the part where it says "Your adjustment has been reduced to keep your goal above our 1200 calorie minimum"?

    I don't think it was reduce, that fine print is kind of just.. there but if say you were on a 1200 calorie budget then MFP will reduce the negative adjustment and make it zero instead of -232 just so you won't eat below 1200 or 1200-232.

    But it’s the exact opposite. It reduced the calories I was allowed to eat by 232 instead of giving me an extra 232 to stay above 1200 calories - which I always do btw.
  • Flopoe22
    Flopoe22 Posts: 5 Member
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    I think there might have been a glitch on the app yesterday, as I was shown a -232 calories adjustment as well. It went back to normal later that day. (Pretty odd that we had exactly the same number!)
  • poeciliareticulata
    poeciliareticulata Posts: 110 Member
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    This sort of thing has happened to me a few times - I use Fitbit to track steps. There seem to be two reasons:
    1. I add an additional exercise because I am not wearing my Fitbit at the time (usually swimming or stationary bike). MFP assumes I was wearing it, and so subtracts those 'extra' calories from my Fitbit adjustment. I can usually get round this one if I make sure the start and end times fall within the period my Fitbit was not moving. It looks like here you've added 'running' as extra in this way.
    2. If your requested deficit is higher than the maximum MFP allows, it will start subtracting activity calories to get you to your requested deficit without putting you under 1200. So if your maintenance was 1800, and you request 2lb a week loss, it will only give you a 600 deficit to keep you above 1200. If you have negative adjustments enabled, it will keep adjusting your calories downwards until you burn more than 400, because you've asked for a 1000 calorie deficit (I think it does this, I could be wrong).
    Could it be either of those?
  • SelinaB99
    SelinaB99 Posts: 5 Member
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    poeciliareticulata wrote: »
    This sort of thing has happened to me a few times - I use Fitbit to track steps. There seem to be two reasons:
    1. I add an additional exercise because I am not wearing my Fitbit at the time (usually swimming or stationary bike). MFP assumes I was wearing it, and so subtracts those 'extra' calories from my Fitbit adjustment. I can usually get round this one if I make sure the start and end times fall within the period my Fitbit was not moving. It looks like here you've added 'running' as extra in this way.
    2. If your requested deficit is higher than the maximum MFP allows, it will start subtracting activity calories to get you to your requested deficit without putting you under 1200. So if your maintenance was 1800, and you request 2lb a week loss, it will only give you a 600 deficit to keep you above 1200. If you have negative adjustments enabled, it will keep adjusting your calories downwards until you burn more than 400, because you've asked for a 1000 calorie deficit (I think it does this, I could be wrong).
    Could it be either of those?

    Thanks so much! I've never even given any thought to putting the exact start/end times in order for the exercise to not overlap with any other activity my phone is tracking! I'll definitely check if being more precise changes anything!
    As for #2, I have requested a 1lb/week loss (which MFP recommended) and MFP has given me 1200 calories a day but I'm not sure if they had to adjust the deficit in order to keep me above 1200.
  • SelinaB99
    SelinaB99 Posts: 5 Member
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    PAV8888 wrote: »
    To the person with the IOS adjustment above.

    You have a double issue.

    #1 based on the numbers as given in the picture you should be getting a 34 Calorie POSITIVE adjustment, not a negative adjustment. So integration is screwing up by 232 Calories somewhere.

    I **SUSPECT** due to the amounts in question being identical that the issue came about because you pushed a 232 Calorie exercise out of MFP.

    My strong recommendation is that it would be just WAY simpler for people to NOT enter their exercise on MFP when using an outside tracker.

    When using an outside tracker enter all your calorie burning activities (i.e. your exercise) on the outside tracker.

    Basically Calories out on one device (the tracker). Calories In (the food) on MFP.

    #2 The second issue is that now MFP has decided (for whatever reason and in error) to reduce your calories by MORE than 232 Calories. But reducing them by more than 232 would bring your total below 1200. Thus they "limit" the reduction to the number that will bring you to 1200. Ergo they reduce by 232.

    So you have multiple problems but I suspect that the easiest solution is to only input exercise on one device.

    I also note, as has been mentioned above, that synchronization problems with apple and gear watches seem to abound. I've never thought to say that Fitbit integration is the most robust one given the number of problems it has had over the years... but there you go: currently this seems to be the case.

    Thank you so, so much! It all makes sense to me now! I'll be taking your advice and only input exercise on my iPhone as they don't seem to work well together.
  • MikeFenton37
    MikeFenton37 Posts: 1 Member
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    Well, this is a weird one. I’m lightly active but I’m getting this after taking a dog for a walk. lrzv4my7fpyd.png
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
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    I think there is a bug in the MFP code.

    Every time I do some sort of logged exercise (e.g. my Strava uploads a cycling session) it wipes out my calories gained from steps (just like above). Then after a while the system seems to right itself and add the step calories back correctly.

    I tend to just ignore it now since I know that eventually it will come good.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,940 Member
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    I can't answer re: potential code bugs. But i would definitely suggest that I've found it easier (i.e. less potential for errors) to NOT manually add step based exercise or activities, such as a dog walk, if there exists a connected step counting device.
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
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    PAV8888 wrote: »
    I can't answer re: potential code bugs. But i would definitely suggest that I've found it easier (i.e. less potential for errors) to NOT manually add step based exercise or activities, such as a dog walk, if there exists a connected step counting device.

    Oh I agree with that. Walking is walking whether it's walking round the office, walking to the store or 'going for a walk' as exercise. It's all just tracked with the pedometer.
  • TommyWillWright
    TommyWillWright Posts: 6 Member
    edited June 2019
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    This is so simple it's actually childishly Dumb.

    Your tracker (Fitbit) registers the exercise as a Minus figures E.G. -232

    Myfitnesspal registers Calories burned in Positive figures +232

    So in MPF when FitBit links it shows as a Negative number ( As fitbit stores it ) and Myfitness Pal then dies this calculation.

    Calories Eaten - Calories Burned = x

    MFP
    1200 - +232 = 968


    Fitbit sync
    1200 - -232 = 1432

    So in Myfitnesspal it says you have essentially exersized yourself fatter PMSL.


    Oh but it gets better. Fitbit and the like sync correctly from myfitnesspal, in the sense that they convert the positive into a minus... So when you manually insert a figure into MFP it will sync to Fitbit, convert to a minus and then sync back to MFP as an additional minus.

    So in essense it's like you haven't added anything at all because they cancel each other out everytime

    TL:DR hilariously bad coding.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,108 Member
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    When you have an activity tracker synced you are not supposed to also manually add exercises here. That would create a double adjustment if the site allowed both. When you manually logged the burn the site adjusted out the tracker log for the same earned calories.

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