negative calorie adjustments and macro allotments

scottdeleeuw

If I sign up for MFP Premium, does it allow me to set a specific allotment for certain macros, even with positive and negative adjustments? For example, if I want to hit 170g of protein a day regardless of how little or how much I workout, can I specify that? In the free version it seems to increase or decrease all macros by a percentage.

Here's why I ask.

This working from home thing I think definitely has me in a sedentary category. Sure, I walk the dogs, and do bike rides and row, but for the most part I'm pretty inactive the rest of the time. Totally seem to be getting more fluffy as well, even though my weight isn't really changing.

In the past I've had 2,100 calories as kind of my go to calorie target when wanting to cut fat. I would not eat any calories back from exercise at that target and I would lose a couple pounds a week.

Looking at my TDEE, my sedentary maintenance calories are at about 1,975. Light exercise is 2,263. Moderate is 2,551.

MyFitnessPal will read calories consumed from my Garmin each day and add calories to my target. In this situation that seems like the way to go, I would just need to make sure to log the activities.

I have a power meter for the bike and supposedly calories are way more accurate with that. Walking and rowing are probably fairly accurate with heart rate and correct weight.

Rowing this morning gave me 425C for an hour and 13min.

Biking in an interval workout last night gave me 656C for an hour and 17min. Another easier ride gave me 462C for an hour and 16min. This is all based purely on watts and my weight.

The downside with the approach is two-fold. The first being I can't really plan the calories that well as I need to know what's going to get added back in a workout. The second is that it seems to add a percentage increase to all macros, that's the biggest issue. So if I wanted to always hit 170g of protein no matter what, this approach is going to be problematic, it's bumped me to 204g of protein after the rowing session this morning.

The other issue is I'm just not motivated at all to do any strength training right now. Cardio sure, but strength training I just can't mentally get into it, I'm not sure why. I've loved it in the past.

sijomial

FYI - bike calories using a power meter are very accurate but nothing to do with your weight, it's purely the power you produce and it's a net calorie estimate. A big person or a small person producing the same power are burning the same net calories. Their gross cals are different but that part is already accounted for in your daily goal.

Is your Garmin really using heartrate for walking and not distance? HR is too personally variable to be a good method for low intensity exercise like walking.

When I had a set minimum number of grams for a protein goal I just kept the number in mind and ignored that the number increased when my exercise got logged. On a big cycling day I really didn't want to be eating hundreds and hundreds of grams of protein and was just satisfied that I exceeded my minimum. Never thought premium offered me anything worth paying for, I'm not bothered by a traffic light system on an app.

As for predicting your calorie allowance - over time you will get a good feel for burns per hour. I know that if I'm planning a 2hr ride I'm going to be burning over a 1,000 cals and can plan accordingly. Balancing the calorie books on a weekly basis also helps and is less restrictive than trying to be "perfect" every day.

AnnPT77

If you're rowing on a machine, and the machine is a Concept 2, your better calorie estimate is to take the calories per hour from the machine display or memory, then use the weight adjustment calorie calculator on their web site. (https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/calculators/calorie-calculator). You may find it close to your HRM estimate, or not.

If not a machine, or not a Concept 2, then probably HRM/fitness tracker is next best. (For me, the C2 weight adjusted value correlates differently than my Garmin Vivoactive 3's estimates in varying ways, depending on workout intensity. I could be more specific, but I don't think it would be helpful. IMO, the tracker's variance is going to be different based on a lot of individual, personal factors. Since Garmin and C2 are not usually crazy far off for most machine workouts, I do use the Garmin estimates for on-water rowing . . . close enough. 😉)

Where did you get the TDEE numbers? Is it from your Garmin, and if not, what does Garmin say?

TDEE seems kind of low, for a male. Are you of more slight build, stature, older age?

If machine rowing, I wonder about 425 calories for 1:14, too: Certainly possible, but what was your pace? I'm a li'l ol' lady, pretty small (age 64, 5'5", 128ish pounds) and a recent moderate steady state workout (2:36 per 500m pace) is worth 534 calories/hour at my body weight. I'm not a terrible awful rower, but . . . female, 64, moderate intensity steady state! I'm seeing some of the younger guys hitting 1000/hour.

So freakin' many variables, in all this stuff! 🤣

I have premium. I haven't messed with it, but my belief is that I can set macro goals in grams. (I haven't experimented with it, since my protein goal is 100g, and I got used to just monitoring for that number on free MFP. If I get a mix of red & green totals, I just pretend it's Christmas. 😉)

What I'd suggest you do (if you have enough data) is compare your past experience (calorie intake +/- weight changes assuming 3500 calories/pound) to your Garmin's estimated total daily calories, averaged over a period of 4-6 weeks or so. If that's accurate, synching MFP should work well.

I don't synch my Garmin, though it works for *lots* of other people to do just that. I'm mysteriously a surprisingly good li'l ol' calorie burner, and my Garmin under-estimates my TDEE by 25-30%. (This is unusual!) Some folks here run spreadsheets against their tracker data, food log calories, exercise calories, and weight changes, and get a percentage correction value that works for them. Since I'd already dialed in maintenance calorie needs experientially before getting the Garmin, I haven't bothered. I know how to set my MFP targets for my needs, so the Garmin TDEE is just a source of casual amusement, in my world. It can be more useful than that, for most people.

I agree with sijomial that if you have a predictable set of workout types, you get a feel for calorie burns that's decent-ish for planning purpose. Keep in mind that you need not be spot-on day by day. Personally, I like to bank some calories (eat a little under known maintenance) most days, indulge a bit on less-frequent occasions. Balancing over a week is another thing some people like to do, and you can get weekly number from the Android/iOS apps, if you use one of those.

Best wishes!

scottdeleeuw

Thanks for the responses!

sijomial:
Garmin walking I was just using the step counter, but if I wanted to track it closer I was thinking about using the Walk activity. I assumed it was going by distance and then my heart rate for its calorie calculations. I hesitate because it's not like I want every dog walking activity showing up on my feed.

I've done balancing the calorie books in the past and it's worked well. I just kind of feel like this working from home thing I should track it a little closer since my activity is way less. Premium doesn't seem to offer what I need. Mentally I can keep the protein number I want in my head and balance it out with what MFP says like you suggested, that seems the best approach at this point.

AnnPT77:
I'm actually rowing on the water. 425C seemed very low to me, but I was casually rowing for the most part vs really getting after it. It was about 8,730 meters in that time, in a Maas. I'm rowing with a forearm strap so HR should be accurate. YOu can see the activity here. https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/5476116575

I got TDEE from https://tdeecalculator.net/

48 yrs old
176#
5' 10"
I put bodyfat as 26%, who knows what it is as scales are so inaccurate, my scale says 19%, I'm usually fairly lean at 165# so 12# fluffy at the moment

For that it gives me:
Basal Metabolic Rate 1,646 calories per day
Sedentary 1,975 calories per day
Light Exercise 2,263 calories per day
Moderate Exercise 2,551 calories per day
Heavy Exercise 2,839 calories per day
Athlete 3,127 calories per day

Can I get a TDEE from Garmin? Where is that?

I guess I'm not as concerned about knowing the calories from workouts ahead of time, I know they're going to be around 400-700 an hour depending on how hard I push it. I'm more concerned about getting my maintenance calories figured out being a slug at home. The 2,100 calories a day goal that has always worked for me in the past probably won't work if my sedentary maintenance is 1,975 calories and the extent of my activity is taking the dogs for a walk and sitting on the back patio after work having a beer while I throw the ball for the dog.

That said, yesterday I ate about 2,100 calories. I rowed in the AM (425C it said) and did a half hour bike ride after work (264C by watts). So about 700C from working out, I lost a little from the day before (and I know it's tracked over time and can vary day to day) so 1,975C for maintenance could be accurate. Take out the workouts and that sits around 1,400C which would be a sharp cut, but about what you'd expect. I guess if I consistently track for a few weeks and see how the calorie allotments line up with my weight and activity that should tell me what I need to know.

scottdeleeuw

Oh, and I guess with Premium it does look like you can assign exercise calories to macros by a daily percentage or a custom percentage, so I could go with a sedentary calorie goal, set macros and then assign any exercise calories back to carbs. I just don't know if the $50 a year is worth it just to do that.

AnnPT77

OK, 425 for on-water in a Maas probably isn't unreasonable for a bit over an hour, for a recreational row at that kind of pace, with some water breaks and turns and things in there. (Though I'm much lighter now, I rowed for around a decade regularly at a weight in the low 180s, which should be close enough to have some intuitive similarities.)

Possible that if it's one of the slightly wider vs. skinnier Maases (like Aero vs. 24) you might get a slight overstate from a HRM because it's got a little more strength-related HR increase in the mix (as opposed to oxygen transport increase), but NBD, not a big enough issue to worry about IMO. I usually row a club rec single (Aero or Alden Star) a few times at the start of the season before hopping in my Peinert 26, and use the Garmin estimate for both. (Mostly, I row a double, and do the same with that.)

I don't know what kind of Garmin you're using, so don't know for sure about TDEE. I use a Vivoactive 3 (with chest belt when rowing). With that, I get a daily estimated calorie total on the watch (accumulates as the day goes on) and it uploads to Connect, giving me a 7-day average and graphs and whatnot. But it's not clear to me whether you're using an all-day device like that, vs. just during exercise. I'd caution that it's still just an estimate, not a measurement of course: The VA3 is reported as accurate by a large number of people here, but as I mentioned it underestimates me by around the same 25-30% as MFP does, as compared with 5+ years of calorie tracking experience. (Such a big difference is a rare outcome, but it can happen). The fitness tracker numbers would be expected to be close, for most people. As with any statistical estimate, there are gonna be a few people out on the tails of the bell curve. For a lot of people, a good brand tracker, synched to MFP, works very well.

*Best* way to figure out maintenance calories? Track carefully for a while, see how weight responds. Since you're male, 4-6 weeks ought to be plenty, to get a decent idea. I admit it's complicated when daily life calories change. If a fitness tracker were close for you, that might be useful. (I know more or less how my calorie needs behave, but from the long logging experience.)

I think free MFP is fine, in most scenarios. I can see some advantages for someone with more complicated macro goals, or on the other end of the experiential scale for people very new to weight loss and fitness. Many of us are in the middle, and free MFP is adequate. Long story, but I have premium on a temporary basis for free (not via any standard offer), but haven't experimented a lot with it.