Burned calories from exercise

mhfw26grm6

I’m fairy new on this app and noticed that my daily calorie is adjusted every day with burned calories from exercise. No wonder I haven’t lost any weight! In order to loose weight, I don’t want to add the calories I burned on my daily calories. How can I set my daily goal calories without exercise?

ChadDresnick

I do not have my Fitbit connected to MFP so I am not sure how to do this. I find it is simpler to not connect to avoid the issue.

yirara

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10935970/burned-calories-from-exercise

The way MFP works is that you chose an activity level that does not include exercise. Thus the calorie deficit you chose should in theory be the same on days where you don't exercise, and on days where you do and eat back those exercise calories. However, exercise calories are often overstated, and starting with eating back half of them for at least 4-6 week, or a whole menstrual cycle is a good idea. Then compare and adjust.

Much more important is measuring and logging correctly and consistently. If you're just eyeballing then you're likely eating a lot more than you think. A foodscale, set to grams is a lot more precise. Also, checking database entries for accuracy is always a good idea as much of the database has been added by users.

bright2020

Hi there, I had the same problem there’s actually a setting to turn off that feature if you look into that :)

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48550645#Comment_48550645

Only in premium MFP, not free MFP.

That doesn't make not adding them a good idea . . . or a bad idea, for that matter.

Yirara is right about how MFP is designed.

If a person isn't losing at all, and has stuck with the calorie goal for 4-6 weeks or one whole menstrual cycle, and has logged the whole time, they can use their experience data to fine-tune their calorie goal to about the loss rate they want. That's the best possible way to get a calorie estimate.

Any less time than that, high odds of over-reacting to perfectly normal day to day multi-pound fluctuation in water retention and digestive waste still in transit, which tends to hide the more gradual fat loss over shorter time periods. Over-reacting quickly to water/waste distortions on the scale seems to be a common thing that makes people give up, or eventually cut calories so far they can't stick with it long enough to lose a meaningful total amount of weight.

Logging exercise separately the MFP way, or averaging exercise into daily calorie burn - either of those can work fine. It's just a difference in how to do the accounting.

Either way, eat fewer calories than we burn, and we lose weight. It doesn't matter whether those calories are burned during exercise, home chores, on the job, tooth-brushing, chasing the neighbors' dog out of our yard, or any other way.

Add the exercise separately or don't, we still burned those calories, and the exercise calories aren't that special. MFP treats them differently because for most of us, intentional exercise is the main source of day-to-day variation in calorie needs. Adding them separately teaches the useful principle that when we move more, we can/should eat more; move less, eat less.

I've eaten back every carefully estimated exercise calorie - logged separately - all through losing from obese to a healthy weight, and for more than nine years of successful weight maintenance since. I've gone for weeks at a time with no exercise, and other weeks with multiple hours of exercise daily (yes, really). My weight has behaved as expected. It's not the only calorie accounting method that works, but it's for sure one way that works.

ccoope564

totally agree with you, I’ve been busting my butt in the gym, and eating those extra calories thinking I have more I can eat. Still loosing weight but slower than I want. Just turned off the added cals today. Instantly went from having 50 extra cals to over eating 400. I’m keeping it off and going to cut some more cals!