Calories adjusted for excercise... I don't understand it...

razorree

So my calories daily goal is ~2052kcal.

today I did a ride:

So I'd assume that my daily goal today is 2052 (base from myfitnesspal) + 2063 active kcal (resting are included in daily goal already) = 4115 kcal

But why there is that strange calorie adjustment ?

from that ^^ picture, I understand my goal should be 2069+4388-2319=4138kcal, right?

(BTW, why MFP added my excercise twice? and had to do -2319 adjustment?)

and at the end, MFP shows:

|| || |Your Daily Goal|2,077|

WTF? I don't understand it at all.... doing >2000kcal extra excercise increases my daily goal by ~30kcal ....??

samgettingfit25

Wow, I can't even imagine getting an estimated workout burn of 2000+, as a short woman, my total is 2000 on a very active day if I am lucky. Back on topic… I don't have a Garmin, but I use a different device that syncs with MFP.

Do you wear the Garmin all day? (If not, it might look like you were completely sedentary other than your workout.) Are your stats the same on both your Garmin and MFP (height, weight, age, and gender)?

MFP compares your estimated TDEE plus logged exercise with your total Garmin burn. The MFP TDEE is your BMR (based on stats) multiplied by the actiivty level you selected (sedentary, lightly active, etc). Such a large negative implies your activity level might be set too high compared to your actual activity outside of exercise.

Anyway, that's how it should work when it syncs well (sometimes my device doesn't sync with MFP or is a little late to sync). Assuming all is well, it sounds like you were just less active outside your bike ride compared to what MFP expected for your selected activity level. I could see that happening if you set your level on MFP to active, but were pretty much sedentary outside your workout (or only wore your watch part of the day).

I actually have my activity level set to include most of my exercise, so I can plan more easily. In my case, I am happy with a negative adjustment as long as it is 100 calories or less. (That's just the margin I am comfortable with from personal trial and error).

razorree

Hi :)

I have Garmin Fenix and I don't wear it always (sometimes yes, sometimes not), today I didn't do any other excercises. (And didn't wear Fenix for half a day at least). and yes, in fact I was sedentary the rest of the day.

this is data from Garmin Connect (food not synced back from MFP - thus 0kcal). daily goal in both apps is similar ~2050kcal.

I didn't set any activity profile in MFP, because I believe it should get real data from Garmin, right ?

It was always like this (when I used MFP 2y ago), and I still don't understand why, the numbers and calculations displayed by MFP don't make any sense.

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48822975#Comment_48822975

MFP wouldn't have given you a calorie goal unless you gave it an activity level setting. Even the lowest setting, sedentary/not very active, assumes some daily life movement. That daily life movement, on the Garmin side, is part of your active calories.

MFP's base calorie setting is BMR/RMR plus an estimate of daily life movement calories based on the activity level setting in MFP. Garmin's resting calories are equivalent to BMR/RMR. The active calories include both daily life movement and intentional exercise. It's not just going to take Garmin's active calories and add them to MFP's base calories. That would double count the daily life activity calories, or at least as many of them as were already included in MFP's base estimate.

(If you're thinking you "didn't set any activity profile" in MFP because you put zeros in the number/duration of exercise sessions per week, you're misunderstanding the MFP settings. The number/duration of exercise sessions input to MFP in your profile don't affect the calorie goal. They're just there for giving you messages about your exercise compared to your exercise plan, pretty much.)

If you sync your Garmin but don't wear it close to full time, you're going to get incomplete all-day calorie burn data coming from Garmin. That will mess up the comparison of MFP's estimated TDEE to Garmin's estimated total calorie burn for the day (today's TDEE) and result in calorie adjustments that aren't correct.

razorree

I set activity level in MFP to Sedentary - my base goal is 1830kcal.

Garmin set base goal to around 2000kcal.

 It's not just going to take Garmin's active calories and add them to MFP's base calories. That would double count the daily life activity calories, or at least as many of them as were already included in MFP's base estimate.

well… how would this double my calories? how MFP would know about my 2300kcal ride if NOT from Garmin ? (maybe it should just calculate the difference? like 2300 active from Garmin - 200 from my lazy profile).

What if I don't wear garmin watch at all (like I don't have it for example) ? is it ok then ? will it take my active calories correctly and won't mess up cuz lack of all-day calorie burn data from Garmin ?

razorree

ok, so this is smth that could mess up, as you said.

I think I understand what's happening, MFP wants to get all day calories from Garmin, but I don't wear garmin watch all day (or someties at all) so it messes it up MFP. (but my resting calories in garmin don't change if I wear a watch or not, it's always ~2000kcal, so MFP %$%# things up somehow … this is a bug)

I'll try to disable negative adjustments

https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032272152-Should-I-turn-on-Negative-Calorie-Adjustments

AnnPT77

I wouldn't turn off negative adjustments if I had weight management goals (which I do, maintenance). Turning off negative adjustments also has down-sides.

One option would be to wear the Garmin as close to full time as humanly possible, and sync it to MFP. Syncing Garmin to MFP can't do what you want it to do if you don't wear the Garmin most of the time, no matter what settings you change.

Yeah, if you understood the estimating models really well on both sides, you could probably do a bunch of arithmetic manually to get adjustment numbers and implement those adjustments manually, but that would be a freakin' big amount of daily work, I think.

Another option would be to un-sync Garmin and log exercise manually, using the active calories component of the exercise calories when available from Garmin. That would still in effect double-count the daily activity calories MFP estimates during the exercise duration and includes in your base goal, but those generally aren't a huge number of calories if set at sedentary/not very active and doing normal durations of exercise. If that's a worry, it's possible to find MFP's BMR estimate for you and back out the estimated daily life activity calories from that time period when manually logging exercise.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like you're trying to use Garmin+MFP in a different way than they are designed to work together, not fully understanding the details on each side, then just trying to find some setting you can change to make the software work in a way differently from how it's designed to function. If so, that's not going to work.

An additional important consideration is to recognize that both sides of this - MFP and Garmin - are estimating calories, not measuring them. There are lots of variables in the mix. Most of them, both sides are assuming you're statistically average. Most people are close. A few are noticeably far off, high or low. A rare few are surprisingly far off those averages.

I see you've had this MFP account since 2019, but you mention that you used MFP, stopped, and restarted. I don't know how long you tracked calories/weight consistently during those usage intervals. Do you know that Garmin's all-day estimate - even the base estimate - for you? MFP's estimate?

I have a Garmin, wear it as close to as occasional charging will allow, and still don't sync it to MFP. Why? Because I've been tracking with MFP consistently for over a decade, and wearing a Garmin (couple different models) consistently for many of those same years. I've also logged my weight (not just in MFP, but in other tools, too) the whole time, daily weigh-ins when not traveling.

With a few weeks of consistently doing all of that, it became obvious that both Garmin and MFP's estimates are wildly far off for me, 25-30% off, hundreds of calories daily off daily, when I set each of them accurately in user settings. That includes Garmin knowing a tested HRmax that's 21% above Garmin's age estimate, which I have to believe affects exercise calorie estimates. Yes, it's rare to be that far off . . . but possible. The "why" may not be obvious.

Why am I telling you this? Because it's important to realize that you're working with estimates in all ways here. Even the most meticulous food logging is an estimate.

If you haven't already done this: Pick a sound method to estimate calorie needs. Heck, even use a TDEE calculator like Sailrabbit, average in your usual exercise, get a calorie goal, eat that many calories every day for 4-6 weeks (whole menstrual cycles for women, where relevant). Look at the average weekly weight change. Does it validate the calorie estimate in context of your logging habits? Does it validate Garmin's estimate? Does it validate MFP's estimate if you add Garmin exercise into the mix?

I feel like there's no point in jumping through hoops with software settings without knowing if any of the estimates are close in the first place. If you were wearing Garmin nearly 24x7, syncing that would be the simplest way to do the 4-6 week experiment. If you can't do that - can't wear it on the job or something - there are other ways.

razorree

ok, so I guess MFP wants to adjust daily goals from wearing Garmin, but sometimes I don't wear it at all (or only at night).

What I want: log food in MFP and use base daily goal (let's say ~2000kcal - most systems give that number for my weight and height) and then add calories from my excercises, so I can see increased daily calories burn (maybe not "goal" anymore, cuz you don't have to eat 5000kcal if you burn it during an activity).

yes, I know what "estimation" means :) and also that even nutritions table/facts on products/packaging can be 20% off

the easiest option will be to add manually burnt calories to MFP (without garmin sync, or maybe just without garmin synced activities)

the rest of my garmin options should be pretty good (As close as possible without a laboratory), HRMax, rest HR and also burnt calories (calculated from spent/produced energy)

AnnPT77

If you don't have a tested HRmax, and your device doesn't provide a personalized estimate of it from longish term observation, there are various reasonably manageable self-tests or partner tests than can be used to get a personalized estimate that's potentially better than the age estimate. I wouldn't recommend trying those tests until the person has reasonable base aerobic fitness and conditioning in the activity that will be tested.

razorree

as I wrote, my data is pretty sorted. HRMax (for running and for cycling - many times "tested"), HR rest, FTP etc.