Negative calorie adjustment.

angierena4332

What is the negative calorie adjustment in MFP and should I set it up?

shadow2soul

The negative calorie adjustment is so that a linked activity tracker can lower your calories if you don’t burn as much as MFP thought you would. MFP won’t drop the calories below 1200 regardless of what the tracker says.

When I first started using my Fitbit, I was so inactive that I would lose calories despite being set to Sedentary. I didn’t like losing calories that I could eat, so I increased my activity.

Now I am set to lightly active on MFP. I start the day with a negative adjustment, but my goal is to be active enough that my adjustment is either 0 or a positive. It’s what helps me stay active, because I still don’t like seeing negative. :laugh:

For example:

MFP estimates a calorie burn of 1900 based on my stats at lightly active. This gives me a calorie goal of 1400 for 1 lb per week loss.

On Saturday I wasn’t feeling well and my Fitbit reported calorie burn was 1800 for the day.

1800 Fitbit - 1900 MFP = -100 adjustment

So to keep my 500 calorie deficit, based on what Fitbit tracked, I need to eat 100 calories less than what MFP had originally given me.
**If I am not feeling well, I ignore the negative adjustment. I only actually pay attention to it if I have actually been a lazy couch potato.***

Hopefully that makes sense. I’m not really good at explaining things.

angierena4332

Awesome explanation! Greatly appreciated. I just was not sure if I needed to turn that on. MFP was not showing any exercise. If I ran 3 miles it still shows exercise at 0. So I turned on negative cal adjust and it showed 280 exercise. Maybe there is an issue in MFP? Thanks for commenting.

Tacklewasher

angierena4332 wrote: »

Awesome explanation! Greatly appreciated. I just was not sure if I needed to turn that on. MFP was not showing any exercise. If I ran 3 miles it still shows exercise at 0. So I turned on negative cal adjust and it showed 280 exercise. Maybe there is an issue in MFP? Thanks for commenting.

Yeah that's not right. What tracker are you using?

Dilvish

MFP should be used as a guide only and a way to track what you eat. I have found that using it religiously helps but it isn't truly accurate because everything is based on "average" models and has restrictions that simply don't apply to every size and shape.
My suggestion is to use common sense first and then the tracker!

One example is the "if everyday were like today...." tag line when you complete a daily entry. It is total nonsense but they use it as a motivator to try to keep people from giving up. Ultimately the 5 week weight loss number that it gives is based on averages and assumptions.

Duck_Puddle

angierena4332 wrote: »

Awesome explanation! Greatly appreciated. I just was not sure if I needed to turn that on. MFP was not showing any exercise. If I ran 3 miles it still shows exercise at 0. So I turned on negative cal adjust and it showed 280 exercise. Maybe there is an issue in MFP? Thanks for commenting.

What is your activity level setting in mfp? If you’re set as very active (or whatever the highest ones are), it’s very possible that you won’t earn any extra calories from just a 3 mile run.

A high activity setting assumes a lot of activity. If you’re not actually that active (yet) and you do a 3 mile run, that might not be enough cumulative activity to earn an additional adjustment (yet). I know it wouldn’t be for me.

I’m quite sedentary and the difference between sedentary and very active for me is 600 or 700 calories. I burn 300 on a 3 mile run. If I were set as highly active, I would still be 300-400 calories short of what mfp assumes I would burn with normal activity-so I would also be getting a 300-400 calorie negative adjustment at that point.

Random/fake/made up numbers:

Mfp assumes I’m going to burn 2300 (without exercise-based on my “highly active” activity setting)

Before I go for a run, my tracker thinks I’m going to burn 1700 for the day (which is about right).

My exercise adjustment would be -600 (mfp would take off 600 calories from my goal since my trackers says I’m only going to burn 1700-2300 that mfp thinks).

I go for a 3 mile run. My tracker now says I’m going to burn 2000 today.

My exercise adjustment is now -300. Same as before only it’s now 2000-2300.

It’s possible that you have a negative adjustment (mfp taking calories away) after exercise if your activity setting on mfp is much higher than your actual.

angierena4332

I have the Fitbit Ionic. I had my excersise level set to very active, but I put it on just slightly active and now I see where it is showing my steps, etc. I am on my feet all day getting in over 10,000 steps then come home and run 3 to 5 miles. I think it may have just been a fluke with MFP. I made some adjustments with all you guys feed back and it seems to be doing fine now. Big thanks to you all!