MFP vs Garmin

ShrinkingDucky

I wear a Garmin watch that I have linked to MFP, but the calorie burns from them are rather different. The burns are based on my step count.


Today, the Garmin app shows I have earned 222 calories from exercise but once synced to MFP, this has dropped to 188. While not drastically different, if this was extrapolated to an entire day then it would be really different! Today I have walked about half the distance I typically would (7 day average is just over 19,000 per day, today I hit 10,000 because I have a cold and can't be bothered!)

Which algorithm is generally considered more accurate?

NorthCascades

This sounds like an activity level thing. Especially given the difference at the beginning of the day. Both companies agree pretty closely on the basics but dole BMR calories out on different schedules. As you get closer to the end of the day, they come into agreement.

AnnPT77

Your exercise/activity calories on Garmin - depending on what number you're looking at - can be gross (i.e., include BMR/RMR) rather than net. On top of that, what NorthCascades said: The adjustment from the synch is an adjustment between what MFP expects you to burn for the day based on activity level (1.x times RMR/BMR, with x depending on activity level setting), and what Garmin estimates you burn based on the movement it sees.

PAV8888

The MFP "exercise adjustment" created by the synchronization between Garmin and MFP is NOT DIRECTLY REFLECTING YOUR EXERCISES for the day.

It SHOULD, have been called "ACCOUNTING", or "EQUALIZATION", or "TRACKER SYNCHRONIZATION" adjustment and then there would have been, perhaps, less confusion.

MFP uses four manually selected activity levels and your manually entered exercise to estimate your caloric burn.

Your tracker starts from the same basic RMR equations but with no preconception of your activity level. Based on detection it eventually comes up with your whole day burn

Since you wear your tracker all day MFP defers to the tracker's estimates.

Thus, MFPs goal is to "equalize" your "calories spent" for the day between MFP and the tracker AT MIDNIGHT.

The exercise adjustment you see is whatever number MFP needs to plug in so that your TDEE at midnight will be the same between MFP and Garmin. The number has nothing to do with any actual exercise you've logged.

cwolfman13

ShrinkingDucky wrote: »

I wear a Garmin watch that I have linked to MFP, but the calorie burns from them are rather different. The burns are based on my step count.


Today, the Garmin app shows I have earned 222 calories from exercise but once synced to MFP, this has dropped to 188. While not drastically different, if this was extrapolated to an entire day then it would be really different! Today I have walked about half the distance I typically would (7 day average is just over 19,000 per day, today I hit 10,000 because I have a cold and can't be bothered!)

Which algorithm is generally considered more accurate?

The synch isn't giving you the calories specifically for those steps. It's a reconciliation adjustment based on what activity level you selected in MFP and your actual activity level per your device. This is just to avoid double dipping. The activity level you selected in MFP already accounts for some movement...even sedentary accounts for somewhere between 3K and 5K steps in a day.

So you might have an activity level in MFP set to sedentary...but then you're doing stuff and your device is giving you an activity level that is beyond sedentary...so when it synchs, MFP says, "ahhh...per this persons device it looks like they might be light active...so MFP makes a calorie adjustment.