Body Media help

cocolo89
cocolo89 Posts: 1,169 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
hey so I have a question. I just got a body media and I'm trying to figure this thing out. I synched it with MFP and I haven't done any exercise today, its telling me I have an extra 200 calories already. How do you set your MFP calories? DO I set it to sedentary and let the bodybugg make up the calorie difference or do I set it to the bodybugg recommended calories (1500 for me) also when you work out, do you take the bodybug off and use your HRM?

Replies

  • cocolo89
    cocolo89 Posts: 1,169 Member
    bump, anyone ?
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
    I don't think it matters what setting you put your activity at in MFP, unless you set it for something much higher than you're actually performing.

    The Body Media device is just looking at your activity and making it's own estimation about what you're going to burn for the day based on what you enter there (height, weight, age, etc). MFP does something similar. By syncing the accounts, you're just having the Body Media account give MFP what it believes you're going to burn for the day. MFP takes that number and compares it to what it believes you're going to burn for the day. The difference between the two is your exercise calories. Obviously, as you exercise more during the day, that number will continue to adjust.

    If you set your activity in MFP as sedentary, and you exercised a lot, you'd have a lot of exercise calories.
    If you set your activity in MFP as very active, and you exercised a lot, you'd have comparatively fewer exercise calories, but your total goal beforehand would be higher. Either way, you're eating a similar amount of food.

    And there should be no reason to take off your body media device while exercising unless you believe it's not accurate, which sort of defeats the purpose of using it and linking the accounts in the first place.
  • cuinboston2014
    cuinboston2014 Posts: 848 Member
    I have a body media as well and when I clicked to have it sync with MFP it calculated everything for me. I think that's what the "enable negative...." (something) option does.

    Therefore, it seems that my activity level is normally set at sedentary. A regular non exercise day for me still includes regular walking around the office... pacing in my office.... and a one hour walk at lunch - usually pretty leisurely.

    Since mine is synced through MFP it seems that my regular day will still give me an extra couple hundred calories based on my regular movements. The only time it DIDN'T do this was when I literally laid in bed almost entire days recovering from surgery. So, yes, I have it set to sedentary and let the Body media do the work. HOWEVER, if you work out in the morning, MFP may give you an inflated estimation of calories (i.e. it might say you earned an extra 900 calories) and then half way through the day when you've been more sedentary that number may drop (i.e. you earned an extra 600 calories).

    I could be wrong, but I *think* at the beginning of the day it might estimate your calorie burn based on your past activity.

    I do always double check my numbers in both the Body Media app and MFP to make sure I'm not eating too much! i hope that helps.... at least a little bit
  • cocolo89
    cocolo89 Posts: 1,169 Member
    ya I just uploaded the new information and its giving me 411 calories. This just seems too much. Maybe like you said it will level out at the end of the day. I have my calories set to 1300 on MFP but on bodymedia they set it to 1450. I don't know if they need to be at the same number or what?
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
    ya I just uploaded the new information and its giving me 411 calories. This just seems too much. Maybe like you said it will level out at the end of the day. I have my calories set to 1300 on MFP but on bodymedia they set it to 1450. I don't know if they need to be at the same number or what?

    I don't see why it should matter. I'm not sure what your weight loss goal is, but I'll just assume it's to lose 1lb/week for sake of discussion. That means that before extra exercise, MFP thinks you're burning 1800 calories (1300+500 calories to lose 1lb/week) in a day. If the body media device says you actually burned 2200 calories at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what your goal started at. All MFP knows is that:

    -Body media said you burned 2200 calories
    -You have a daily deficit of 500 calories (again, just assuming)

    So it's going to give you an adjusted goal of 1700 calories to eat total for the day; representing the original goal and 400 exercise calories. The breakdown of how much of that is the original goal (1300) and how much of that is exercise calories doesn't seem super important since you're exceeding it anyway.
  • SPNLuver83
    SPNLuver83 Posts: 2,050 Member
    When you use the body media you are using it's calorie goals, not MFP. So pay no attention to what MFP tells you to eat. Just use it to log your food.
  • AdventureFreak
    AdventureFreak Posts: 236 Member
    I use my HRM for actual exercise and my body media device for everything else. I will wear them simultaneously at times to check accuracy. If you enter exercise manually from your HRM feedback MFP will deduct that from the body media sync data in your exercise log.
  • dinosnopro
    dinosnopro Posts: 2,177 Member
    When you use the body media you are using it's calorie goals, not MFP. So pay no attention to what MFP tells you to eat. Just use it to log your food.


    This is what I did^^^
  • Fullsterkur_woman
    Fullsterkur_woman Posts: 2,712 Member
    You just got it, so it'll take a while to get an idea of how accurate the band is for you. Mine overestimates my burn by about 5%, based on my logged intake and weight change results (or lack thereof).

    Just stick to eating what you're eating and don't worry about the adjustment for now. Once you have, oh, say, 30 consecutive days of accurately logged weight and food intake and bodymedia data, you can compare the results on the scale with your calories eaten to see what your deficit average was during that period and compare that to what your armband is telling you what your deficit is.

    You can then adjust MFP goals up or down as desired.

    I have my MFP goals set to 1800, and when I'm actively trying to lose weight, I just shoot for that, no matter what the calorie adjustment tells me to do, because I already know that 1800 is a deficit from my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).

    The Body Media gives you interesting information, but it's not like a Star Trek medical scanner that can give you a magic exact number that is how many calories you need to eat to lose x amount of weight. Only accurate logging and patience can give you that.
  • tambam69
    tambam69 Posts: 270 Member
    Also if you don't sync until close to the end of the day, it will not give you those extra calories. I sync just before I get ready to go to bed and that way no extra calories are added until I have earned them already.
  • cocolo89
    cocolo89 Posts: 1,169 Member
    lots of good information up in this thread! thank you! so basically just pay attention to body media deficit rather than mfp? I'm just bothered by seeing all these extra numbers in my diary. Lol I used an HRM up until now. I'm at about 5100 steps so far for the day @4pm. I'm on my feet practically all day (I have 2 small kids) I will take the advice and just sync it at the end of the night. I just get curious to see if the numbers will go down, but they haven't yet. I guess this is a good way to figure out my TDEE

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