Steps - Calories Changes

Options
beccataylor527
beccataylor527 Posts: 1 Member
in Getting Started
Hi,
I’m new here and I have a Garmin that I’ve connected to my app. When i got it switched over it did something strange to my calories and I don’t understand why… Without my garmin I have almost 2000 steps, with 19 calories burned, when I connect it I have 3500 steps but negative 300ish calories. I don’t understand what’s happening. Anyone know what’s going on? a2013fzan6tm.png
mzv4tnm9iftz.png

Best Answer

  • mikeydee135
    mikeydee135 Posts: 1 Member
    Answer ✓
    Options
    i'm similar, recently bought a Garmin and joined MFP... mostly as an interest to see how my lifestyle and eating measures versus my perception... it's eye opening.

    I also sometimes get negative days and the documentation is fairly difficult to follow, and fractured, with bits of info here and bits there.

    what i've pieced together is

    when you setup your weight goals you tell MFP what your lifestyle is (sedentary, kind of active, mega active etc) - using this MFP assumes you will do X steps in a day and, combined with your background calorie burn down your daily calorie burn is Y. dependent on how much/fast you wish to lose/maintain weight it will subtract a bit and this is your calorie target. based on how active you "claim" to be - this is flawed because you might over or under estimate your own activity levels (or they vary per day).

    but big brother is watching, when your Garmin checks in it tells MFP the truth about how active you actually have been so far today... extrapolated to assume what your daily consumption will be. therefore, if you've been less active than you claimed to MFP when setting goals it will give you negative calories.



    this means that negative calories CAN make the figures more accurate and help you reach your goals, but there's a catch (actually 2). if you understand them then you can do some quick rough maths and things line up later.....

    Catch 1. it depends if you're equally active all day long. - i work in an office and become active after work so, through the day i appear to be "falling behind", the negative builds up as i appear to be achieving little today.... until i start to clock up some activity early evening, then i get rewarded with more calorie allowance
    catch 2. this particular part doesn't sync as quickly or as often as other figures. you can tell how far behind it is, if you click the negative value, and then click the title of it again it will show you the breakdown the Garmin predicted daily consumption and the MFP one (therefore WHY there's a negative)... but it'll also tell you how long ago since this synced. it CAN be a few hours, which is annoying but if you get your head round it, understand what you've done today since then it WILL catch up and therefore you know you can flex a little.

    the other approach is to tell MFP you're less active than you think you actually are, then your real activity will count as positive from garmin quicker - neither is perfect.

Categories