Question on the app - exercise

rperdue2681

Hi everyone

Wanted to ask about this. If I go for a walk and the app says how many steps I got, but no “exercise”
Is recorded, I need to add my walk as exercise. Is that right? Can you all guide me? Thanks!

Lietchi

It depends on what the source for that step count is.
If you're using Fitbit, your exercise (walks or other) is included in your adjusted calorie goal, but you'll never see the individual exercise sessions in your diary.
With any fully synced fitness tracker: if you exceed the activity level chosen on MFP, you will get an adjusted calorie goal (even if you didn't record your walk explicitly as exercise) because your tracker communicatesd to MFP how many calories you've burned in total for the day.
You may get step counts from other sources where there is automatically a calorie adjustment too (I remember using Pacer on my phone without ever adding walks manually in MFP).

frhaberl

The answer will depend on how you have set up your profile and goals, and ultimately on what you find works for you. Here's what I've found works for me, with a couple variations for illustration purposes.

I started with my activity level setting at sedentary because my lifestyle was sedentary. Without intentional exercise I was probably getting 3000-5000 steps a day. I recorded all intentional exercise (recorded on my Apple Watch as exercise sessions and automatically synced to MFP) and ate back all those exercise calories. I lost weight, on average, as would be expected.

A few months in, I was still set at sedentary and still logging all intentional exercise and eating back all exercise calories. I had adjusted my weight in MFP so that my calorie target was reduced due to my lower weight. I was consistently losing MORE than expected. I followed the advice I had read in other posts and figured out what my actual calorie deficit had been based on my weight loss over the previous 6 weeks. Turns out that I was burning an extra 250 calories a day above what MFP was tracking. That made sense when I thought about how much more energy I had and how I am more active, even without the intentional exercise I log. I changed my setting to "lightly active" which increased my target calories by the extra 250/day and continued logging intentional exercise and eating back all my exercise calories.

Some people may have the opposite experience that I had and find that they are losing more slowly than predicted by MFP. I've read that some choose not to eat back exercise calories, or eat back only a portion, and that works for them. If your exercise level is pretty consistent, another approach would be to set your activity level in line with what your standard exercise level supports and not record any exercise sessions.

My advice is to pick an approach and stick with it for at least 4-6 weeks. If you've been logging faithfully and ACCURATELY (weight vs volume or "eyeballing" it and double checking the entries you're using for potentially high calorie foods) then you can do a comparison of MFP estimated weight loss vs actual weight loss and see if there is any driver to modify your settings or how you log exercise or whether you eat back all of the exercise calories.

If you don't have the time or desire to go with that approach and want the "reward" of extra calories for exercise sessions, I'd set your activity level at sedentary in MFP and use a conservative exercise calorie value when you log it. A good rule of thumb is 100 calories per mile walked. If your exercise equipment or fitness watch give you higher values than that, it might be an overestimate (lots of published studies on the inaccuracy of calorie tracking on fitness equipment and watches).

One caution I would give is to remember that the calories burned by intentional exercise are not the biggest benefit you'll get. If you focus just on the calories it can be discouraging how few you are earning or drive you to over exercise to earn more. Exercise boosts mood, improves cardiovascular health, reduces visceral body fat percentages (even without calorie deficit), helps level out insulin levels, and provides a whole host of other health benefits. I've found it helpful to see exercise as something I do for it's own sake, with the slight benefit of having an extra 200-300 calories a day.

mtaratoot

I use a Garmin device. It tracks steps even if I don't do anything. It sends the data to MFP, and MFP uses it as "active calories" to adjust my net calories.

If I tell my Garmin device I'm going for a walk, it collects more information. It runs the GPS. It tracks my pulse. If I tell it I'm hiking, it tracks my ascent/descent. It sends that data to MFP, and MFP uses it as "active calories" to adjust my net calories.

But here's what you may be observing: If I tell my Garmin device I'm going for a walk, MFP does not give me any "credit" for my steps until and unless they surpass some amount that would equal the calorie burn from the walk. This is how it keeps from double-counting.

@rperdue2681 - Does that explain what's going on for you?