Do you eat back your negative calorie adjustment (Fitbit etc) - super confusing?

Ducks47

I have been walking some 13000 steps a day and jogging 1.75 miles or doing strength training every day. I am experiementing and have been ignoring the exercise calories but today I ate them back. I’m curious for those of you who track your steps (Fitbit etc) do you eat those calories back? It adds a good 500 cal to my allotment just from the steps from my Fitbit zip. I’m really confused because if I ate back the 500 for walking plus 200 frog exercise then I’d be at 1900 which seems too high. So I figured I’d see what other mfp people do.

MikePTY

That is what they are there for. It is the same thing as eating exercise calories in MFP. If you think they are accurate, you should eat them all. If you have concerns about accuracy, you could start by just eating some or most of them. But you shouldn't ignore them or else there's no reason to even have the device hooked up.

meganreid163

Following

PAV8888

What's to follow?

13,000 steps as an activity setting would probably translate in the very active category. If you're not setup as very active you will have an appreciable adjustment at the end of the day.

Because of how MFP and Fitbit interact, an exercise that has been manually entered on MFP will OVER-RIDE whatever your Fitbit detected during the same time frame. This could lead to errors if used when Fitbit had detected your exercise correctly on its own.

If you're entering an exercise that is step based and that your Fitbit would have detected on its own I would suggest that you don't do so.

IF you're entering an exercise such as swimming that would not be captured by your Fitbit, I personally would prefer to enter it directly on Fitbit; but you can also enter it on MFP like you have been doing, as long as your time zones are correctly setup in both Fitbit and MFPs

The adjustment you see (which is finalized at the end of the day at midnight) is an accounting adjustment that passes to MFP the value of your all day caloric burn that your Fitbit detected.

Assuming that food logging is on point, there are many people around who eat most if not all of their adjustments

staticsplit

What PAV said. I have a fitbit and it usually adds at least a couple hundred calories a day. I don't manually enter my walking around or running calories. I will manually add things like yoga or weight lifting, though I usually under report the minutes (e.g. if it's a 90 min yoga class I tend to put 45 min because the warm/up/cool down probably doesn't burn much).

My fitbit is actually pretty accurate--my maintenance calories are 2200-2500 calories and it usually states I burn around that, unless I have a few days where I just sit around, then it dips down to 1900ish. I tend to roughly eat half of my exercise calories if I'm trying to lose fat, as a buffer against logging errors. If I'm maintaining I eat more of them (but I still usually aim to eat around 2000-2100 as a buffer against logging errors (I do a lot of guesstimating as always weighing food gets annoying for me, and I also eat out a few times a week and that's often total guesswork). I make sure I'm within my 5 pound range for maintaining and adjust as needed.

Basically, say you were super active and so your overall calories burned for the day was 2500. If you ate 1900, that's still a deficit of 600 calories.

WinoGelato

PAV covered the reasons why you need to eat back those calories and why you should trust them. I’ve had my FitBit synced with MFP for about 6 years now, and when I first got it I too was surprised to learn that my adjustments were high meaning I was more active than I realized, burned more calories than my stats suggest, and can lose weight eating more than some people think their maintenance calories are.

The diet industry and social media has programmed us to think that dieting is miserable and that in order to be successful we have to cut calories to the lowest possible level. In fact, most people don’t need to go to minimum numbers to be successful, ESPECIALLY if you’re active and ESPECIALLY if you’re logging accurately.

Ducks47

PAV8888 wrote: »

What's to follow?

13,000 steps as an activity setting would probably translate in the very active category. If you're not setup as very active you will have an appreciable adjustment at the end of the day.

Because of how MFP and Fitbit interact, an exercise that has been manually entered on MFP will OVER-RIDE whatever your Fitbit detected during the same time frame. This could lead to errors if used when Fitbit had detected your exercise correctly on its own.

If you're entering an exercise that is step based and that your Fitbit would have detected on its own I would suggest that you don't do so.

IF you're entering an exercise such as swimming that would not be captured by your Fitbit, I personally would prefer to enter it directly on Fitbit; but you can also enter it on MFP like you have been doing, as long as your time zones are correctly setup in both Fitbit and MFPs

The adjustment you see (which is finalized at the end of the day at midnight) is an accounting adjustment that passes to MFP the value of your all day caloric burn that your Fitbit detected.

Assuming that food logging is on point, there are many people around who eat most if not all of their adjustments

Hi, thank you for your help! I weigh almost all my food except for veg. I have mfp set to “not very active” because I figured my steps would correct this and tell me how active I really am. I don’t wear my Fitbit while exercising and manually add cardio but get confused on logging strength training because there’s rests and so many different movements. I figure since I only burn like 200 calories on my jog then my strength is probably negligible as well and can serve as a buffer.

Can I ask why you prefer to enter it on exercise on Fitbit ?

Commander_Keen

Ducks47 wrote: »

I have been walking some 13000 steps a day and jogging 1.75 miles or doing strength training every day. I am experiementing and have been ignoring the exercise calories but today I ate them back. I’m curious for those of you who track your steps (Fitbit etc) do you eat those calories back? It adds a good 500 cal to my allotment just from the steps from my Fitbit zip. I’m really confused because if I ate back the 500 for walking plus 200 frog exercise then I’d be at 1900 which seems too high. So I figured I’d see what other mfp people do.

There a few boards with people losing weight left and right.. Ask them, what they did.

Ducks47

Commander_Keen wrote: »

Ducks47 wrote: »

I have been walking some 13000 steps a day and jogging 1.75 miles or doing strength training every day. I am experiementing and have been ignoring the exercise calories but today I ate them back. I’m curious for those of you who track your steps (Fitbit etc) do you eat those calories back? It adds a good 500 cal to my allotment just from the steps from my Fitbit zip. I’m really confused because if I ate back the 500 for walking plus 200 frog exercise then I’d be at 1900 which seems too high. So I figured I’d see what other mfp people do.

There a few boards with people losing weight left and right.. Ask them, what they did.

This is a board... the above is me asking....

Ducks47

staticsplit wrote: »

What PAV said. I have a fitbit and it usually adds at least a couple hundred calories a day. I don't manually enter my walking around or running calories. I will manually add things like yoga or weight lifting, though I usually under report the minutes (e.g. if it's a 90 min yoga class I tend to put 45 min because the warm/up/cool down probably doesn't burn much).

My fitbit is actually pretty accurate--my maintenance calories are 2200-2500 calories and it usually states I burn around that, unless I have a few days where I just sit around, then it dips down to 1900ish. I tend to roughly eat half of my exercise calories if I'm trying to lose fat, as a buffer against logging errors. If I'm maintaining I eat more of them (but I still usually aim to eat around 2000-2100 as a buffer against logging errors (I do a lot of guesstimating as always weighing food gets annoying for me, and I also eat out a few times a week and that's often total guesswork). I make sure I'm within my 5 pound range for maintaining and adjust as needed.

Basically, say you were super active and so your overall calories burned for the day was 2500. If you ate 1900, that's still a deficit of 600 calories.

Thank you!! I think it’s a good idea to underestimate. I like that it changes depended on my activity level. Congrats on maintaining

Ducks47

WinoGelato wrote: »

PAV covered the reasons why you need to eat back those calories and why you should trust them. I’ve had my FitBit synced with MFP for about 6 years now, and when I first got it I too was surprised to learn that my adjustments were high meaning I was more active than I realized, burned more calories than my stats suggest, and can lose weight eating more than some people think their maintenance calories are.

The diet industry and social media has programmed us to think that dieting is miserable and that in order to be successful we have to cut calories to the lowest possible level. In fact, most people don’t need to go to minimum numbers to be successful, ESPECIALLY if you’re active and ESPECIALLY if you’re logging accurately.

Thank you for the reply!! It’s been quite a shock ! In the winter I walk about 7500 steps and then in the summer much more. So the caloric jump being so big was a surprise. I’m definitely not trying to starve myself. I love food too much for that. Just looking for balance

heybales

Ducks47 wrote: »

PAV8888 wrote: »

What's to follow?

13,000 steps as an activity setting would probably translate in the very active category. If you're not setup as very active you will have an appreciable adjustment at the end of the day.

Because of how MFP and Fitbit interact, an exercise that has been manually entered on MFP will OVER-RIDE whatever your Fitbit detected during the same time frame. This could lead to errors if used when Fitbit had detected your exercise correctly on its own.

If you're entering an exercise that is step based and that your Fitbit would have detected on its own I would suggest that you don't do so.

IF you're entering an exercise such as swimming that would not be captured by your Fitbit, I personally would prefer to enter it directly on Fitbit; but you can also enter it on MFP like you have been doing, as long as your time zones are correctly setup in both Fitbit and MFPs

The adjustment you see (which is finalized at the end of the day at midnight) is an accounting adjustment that passes to MFP the value of your all day caloric burn that your Fitbit detected.

Assuming that food logging is on point, there are many people around who eat most if not all of their adjustments

Hi, thank you for your help! I weigh almost all my food except for veg. I have mfp set to “not very active” because I figured my steps would correct this and tell me how active I really am. I don’t wear my Fitbit while exercising and manually add cardio but get confused on logging strength training because there’s rests and so many different movements. I figure since I only burn like 200 calories on my jog then my strength is probably negligible as well and can serve as a buffer.

Can I ask why you prefer to enter it on exercise on Fitbit ?

The way Fitbit uses their database lends to better estimate - they have some workouts with finer intensity levels compared to MFP - and with sync issues not uncommon it cuts down on 2 of them - Fitbit exercise diary much more useful to use than MFP.

Why don't use wear the Fitbit for workouts?
Lifting you'd want to replace anyway, since neither step-based nor HR-based calorie burn is best estimate.
But jogging is right up it's alley, though several reasons why HR-based for it isn't as good as just distance and time entry - which Fitbit allows directly, unlike MFP zones.

Weights is database entry for lifting with 2-4 min rests expected, sets and 5-15 reps. While it may be small it does count - besides nice to review notes later if you include any.

CindyJNC1963

I am trying to lose weight so I do not eat back my exercise calories. I generally eat about 1350 calories a day regardless of how many steps I walk a day. I do this under the advisement of my weight loss physician. So far I've lost 70 lbs in 7 months but that has slowed down considerably in the last 2 months, which is to be expected. I still need to lose about 65 more lbs.

heybales

CindyJNC1963 wrote: »

I am trying to lose weight so I do not eat back my exercise calories. I generally eat about 1350 calories a day regardless of how many steps I walk a day. I do this under the advisement of my weight loss physician. So far I've lost 70 lbs in 7 months but that has slowed down considerably in the last 2 months, which is to be expected. I still need to lose about 65 more lbs.

Just for others reading - you lose weight when you do eat back exercise calories too.
Just to clarify "trying to lose weight so I do not" - as if that's a requirement to lose weight. Not the MFP method.
Great results and perseverance.

Not eating back exercise just creates a bigger deficit - which at some point the body won't be happy with.
If still that much to lose and loss has slowed down considerably - sadly that's the effect of an adapting body.
Usually it's better to purposely slow your rate of loss down, rather than the body get stressed out enough it does it automatically.
A stressed out body isn't a good thing.

Might be time to not create more than a 1000 deficit for 2lb weekly - 65 left is about that range where that's still reasonable. It's not expected to slow down that much from 2.5 weekly you averaged.
If that started out as 4 lbs and has moved into the 1 lb weekly range - talk to your Dr about body adapting already - have him research diet breaks in case they haven't kept up with newer research studies.