Workouts and calories

angelatrevivian

Do you always add exercise that you did that day? I exercise most days and I do daily walks, shouldn't put both of those in my daily diary? Thanks

nighthawk584

I add any set workout that is over and beyond my normal daily activities. Strictly count your calories and always measure your weight from week to week and adjust accordingly to coincide with your plan.

spiriteagle99

I log every workout, including walking the dog. (He gets 2-3 miles every day, spread over 2-3 walks.) The only time I wouldn't log something is if it was less than 15 minutes, as the calorie count would be low. For me, the exercise calories given by MFP work, but I also burn high for my age and size.

kshama2001

Unlike other sites which use TDEE calculators, MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated for them and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.

https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

I'm set at Sedentary and eat a little less than 100% of my exercise calories back. I get mostly get them from MFP, but sometimes make custom entries. For example, unless I am digging with a shovel "Gardening" is too high. The MFP Tai Chi entry seems more geared towards an athletic martial arts style than what I do. I go a lot slower on the elliptical than is normal, so made a custom entry for that.

I believe MFP's "walking, 3MPH" entry is accurate for me and use it to reality check other entries. I ask myself this question, "If this is how I feel after an hour of walking, does this calorie burn for this other activity feel accurate to me?"

Also, I do not count the first mile I walk, hour I cook, or half hour I clean. MFP's "Sedentary" is not as sedentary as is possible

AnnPT77

Our MFP activity level, even at sedentary or not very active, includes some calories for basic daily life functions, like home chores and such. That lowest activity level setting is roughly maybe 3000-5000 steps or equivalent other movement.

We ought to log any exercise above our activity level setting.

Since this is all estimate-y, make your best guess to start, follow the recommended calorie level for 4-6 weeks (whole menstrual cycles if you have them), then adjust based on your actual results if necessary. That should work.

Best wishes!

ETA P.S.: I've eaten every carefully estimated exercise calorie all through a year of loss and around 8 years of successful maintenance since, after that initial experiment/adjust experiment. It has worked great, for me.

DozzFit

My problem with mfp is ill do a 350+ calorie burn workout in the gym and the if i walk half an hour it adds twice as many caloris burned which is just not accurate imo.( No way im burning more in a brief walk)
So currently i have negative calories off because of this. A few years back i had edumundo and it was much more accurate and would syncy my gym workouts. Id eat them mostly back and i still.lost weight. but im at a loss with how it is now. I mean maybe the solution is to just manually add a gym workout (pit a little less than fitbitbsays it was maybe) let that count and not.count the other calories at all.
Kind of a pain though...any other exercise apps that can sync workouts only.?( i use my fitbit mostly to keep my minn activity of walking in check for myself and also to track my HR for during work outs.
Ty

jamesscriven1

I think the science shows that low intensity cardio burns more calories than weightlifting. There's lots of YouTube videos on how good walking is for weight loss

westrich20940

MFP is meant for you to log your intentional exercise --- When I was actively losing weight I'd log any hike or run I did - or any cardio I did at the gym.

If I went on a regular walk around my neighborhood and didn't burn more than like 100 calories, I did not log it. If you are walking at a level, pace, or length that burns more than that I'd consider that an intentional workout and log it.

DozzFit

Yes I think you are right about weightlifting alone. But to clarify, a gym session for me is strength training for about 40min and 15 mintes cardio.
In contrast...
If I walk to the grocery store (im in a metroploitan area) and buy some groceries..and come back I somehow have burned more or similar calories via fitbit.
I would like to have only exercises imported to MFP . I used to use the now defunct Edumundo and I cannot.seem to find anything comperable that syncs with MFP.

On the other hand im gonna try the whole calorie combo thing that MFP now uses with negative adjustments I just dont wear my fitbit all the time so I dunno how accurate.

PAV8888

You should not be surprised if 30 min or an hour of low intensity steady state cardio burns more than a bursty gym session if correctly captured

Correct capture is an issue Fitbit samples heart rate does not continuously monitor

Samples more frequently during an exercise than during non exercise so depends too on auto detection vs trigger

Also Fitbit is overwritten by exercise entered on MFP.

With negative adjustments your Cal will decrease when you become inactive at night. The math does work that way because of the starting allocation of calories by MFP

You can keep guessing and estimated or automate


I decided to automate, trust the machines with no input from me whatsoever and just adjust based on actual vs expected results of my weight trend over time

Using more than 60 day averages I've yet to have more than a 5% of tdee variation during the past 8+ years when I've been logging diligently. Year long variations have ranged from zero to less than 4%

You may notice the caveats

It's a tool that can be made to be useful but not if you expect 100% accuracy for a specific activity

Only on aggregate IMHO

tomcustombuilder

Do whatever equation you want however the proof will surface in a month or so about how accurate it all was. Adjust at that time, usually people figure too high in calories burned and too low in calories consumed and the results will illustrate that. If you were one of those that did things correctly then you’re one of the few so congrats.

bex1086

My watch automatically syncs to my diary for running and daily steps and I put the weight training in which I get from Google fit. I don't use it to eat back the calories though, it's just a useful record of what I've done when.

Hobartlemagne

I sometimes eat back exercise calories, but only up to 50%. That helps counteract any errors in the data.

csplatt

It depends on how you’ve set your activity level. If your walks already contribute to the activity level you set up, don’t double dip! I set mine to sedentary then log most movement like walks. If it wasn’t set to sedentary, I might not add walks.