Disappearing net calorie surplus, WTF!?
Tallulah827
Posts: 27
Anyone have this happen? I "complete" my entry for the day and have 199 net calories left over. I've exercised and done for the day; drink a cup of water and go to bed. I get up and I now have on 6 net calories as a surplus. What gives? Thanks for any insight.
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Replies
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If you have a fitbit synced and have "allow negative calorie adjustments" enabled, that could be your issue. Fitbit was predicting you to move more than you did in the evening and clawed some calories back.0
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That must be it. Is there any downside to disallowing negative calorie adjustments?0
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Do you mean yesterday said you had Net -199 calories and now when you scroll back and look at yesterday, it says +6 Net for yesterday?0
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No, it went from a 199 surplus to just 6. I did go back and look at the net calorie adjustment feature with Fitbit and it is a projection which I have disallowed. Will see what difference that makes. Kind of a kick in the pants to end the day feeling good about coming in under my goal only to see that margin drastically eroded away by morning.0
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Turn off calorie estimation and negative adjustments, and I think things will make more sense.
Honestly, depending on how low your calorie goal is anyway, you probably should not net 200 calories below your goal. If you're going to workout, you should eat enough to fuel those workouts. Eating below your net goal on a regular basis isn't the best idea. That's just my advice for long-term success.
Good luck, though, ok?0 -
Yes, I turned off the negative calorie adjustment and that should help. I was coming in under because I had noticed the surplus erosion a few times so wanted the breathing room. Now that I've solved that mystery, when I've got a surplus I'll feel more comfortable rewarding myself with a few more calories to consume. Thanks for the feedback.0
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Yeah, FitBit adjustments can be depressing sometimes. I routinely wake up with +120 calories, effectively taking away from my calorie allowance for the day. I have both MFP and FitBit set on sedentary, and I have FitBit's calorie estimation turned off. By the end of the day it usually evens out, with FitBit giving me about 20-50 calories less than MFP recommends.
I hate when I wake up to a +120, dropping me down to 1580 for the day. Of COURSE I want those calories back, and then some. So I bust my butt until I work off 300 calories or so, but it only affords me an extra 180 for the day, which ends up getting diminished to 120-130 by midnight if I don't stay somewhat active. /sigh No rest for the wicked, I guess.0 -
Fitbit uses past data to make estimates on your exercise adjustments. If exercise more or less, or get more or fewer steps, by a certain time of day, it will change the way it adds calories back.
For instance, I had a day where I exercised a lot more in the morning than I usually do, but then later in the day I had more sitting around (I think I was watching basketball on TV or something). It had given me a big adjustment at first, but then "took" some of those calories back.
What I do with the extra fitbit calories is save them for the end of the day, after dinner. That way, I don't accidentally overdo it. If it's calories from a known burn (like a run or something), then I go ahead and eat those whenever, but if it's just step calories (from walking more at work, parking at the far end of the parking lot, taking the stairs, that kind of thing), I wait until later in the day to be sure.0 -
Horseback riding is my saving grace at least so if anything, this project is giving me the incentive to ride more. I can burn 300 calories in a good schooling ride which helps, a lot.0
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Which is why I turned it off. I ate at 6:00 pm then at 6:30 went outside to ride and take care of the horses and didn't get back in until about 8:40 and then just relaxed until going to be at 10:30. The only thing I consumed before going to bed was 1 cup of water, and it yanked back 193 calories after that. I have SO turned that feature off!0
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I think this is what happens:
I have MFP set to lightly active. It takes my info, calculates my BMR & activity multiplier, and gets an average per minute I should burn a day. But my activity is not spread out evenly. Once I go to bed, it drops to BMR only. So after my last login for the night, my actual burn is lower than the projected burn.0 -
I finally unsynced my FitBit from my MFP for, in part, that reason. If I do "extra' step-based exercise, I log it separately. The FitBit is still good for motivating me to walk more, and for giving me an idea of calorie burn for the day, but syncing it here was just getting confusing and annoying.0
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Mine is set to inactive since I have a desk job. I am active early mornings and evenings during the week; all day, most days on the weekend.0
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And why won't my ticker show up!?
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It's showing up when I look at your post...And why won't my ticker show up!?0 -
Yes it's back. Yay! I logged out and back in. Thanks.0
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Here's the thing with the Fitbit.
MFP takes the "xxxx calories burned as of xxx PM" number from Fitbit, then estimates how many calories you will burn the rest of the day based on the activity level you set in MFP.
So say you've burned 1800 calories as of 11 PM. There's an hour left in the day. If you have MFP set to "extremely active" it may estimate that you will have burned 200 calories in the next hour, or 2000 calories by midnight.
Now if you actually happen to be asleep during that hour, you may only burn 70 calories during that hour. So MFP will have said you can eat 130 more calories than you really should. See, MFP estimated you will have burned 2000 calories but by the end of the night Fitbit only measured 1870 burned.
However, if you have MFP set to "sedentary" MFP may have taken that "1800 calories burned by 11 PM" and then estimated you will have burned 1880 by midnight, therefore giving you a much lower adjustment.0 -
Got it. Thanks.0
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I like the negative calorie adjustment feature. Well, I wouldn't say that I LIKE it, but I find it useful. Accurate data is a good thing.0
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Except for the end-of the-day calorie yank, I've been very happy with the feedback of the Fitbit synched with MFP. Instant gratification and very motivational.0
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And I may turn it back on but it has made me wary of consuming up to or near my daily net calorie goal for fear I'll wind up going over by the time it's all said and done.0
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Except for the end-of the-day calorie yank, I've been very happy with the feedback of the Fitbit synched with MFP. Instant gratification and very motivational.
Yeah, same here. The Fitbit is the best $100 I've ever spent in my life.
You can actually calculate how many calories per hour you "lose" by sitting on your butt. Go to Home -> Goals and see what MFP estimates you'll burn in a typical day, then divide by 24. For me, MFP estimates I burn 84.5 calories per hour.
Now go to Fitbit and add a 1-hour activity record while you were asleep. For me, Fitbit estimates I burn 68 calories per hour while not moving.
The difference is 16.5 calories per hour. In other words, my MFP estimate will decrease by 16.5 calories per hour for every hour I don't move.
Knowing this, I can plan ahead better.0 -
And I may turn it back on but it has made me wary of consuming up to or near my daily net calorie goal for fear I'll wind up going over by the time it's all said and done.
You should feel free to consume anything left at the end of one day on the next. That way it averages out over time, which is really what matters.0 -
I dont think negative calories is your issue, I think its with the FB settings.
Check these settings on FB site:
If you go to the FB settings (upper right hand side, looks like a gear - pick setting) about half way down on the screen you can turn off calorie estimation. This might help because calorie estimation is giving you more calories than you burn when you are not moving because it may think that you are not wearing the FB. It used past activity to give this number. When midnight comes around and its less, then it takes the calories away.
This is the one I think causes the biggest problems though: on the FB site in the food plan area (click log and stay on the food log page - look in the food plan box) there is a blue gear. If you have not changed it, its set to personalized. I would set it to Sedentary because then FB is giving you a calorie estimation based on what you burned, not a estimation on what it thinks you burned based on past records.
With these two changes made, I only get a 30-40 calorie loss between dinner and midnight when I would get over 100 cals lost during that same time. I have these settings made as well as negative calorie estimation turned on. I like the negative calorie estimation on because there are days where I am lazy and need to have calories taken away that I did not earn so I dont over eat.
If you wake up with negative calories, then its great motivation to keep going. I almost always get in the positive within 2 hours of waking up (not including exercise) because of my morning routine.0 -
I dont think negative calories is your issue, I think its with the FB settings.
Check these settings on FB site:
If you go to the FB settings (upper right hand side, looks like a gear - pick setting) about half way down on the screen you can turn off calorie estimation. This might help because calorie estimation is giving you more calories than you burn when you are not moving because it may think that you are not wearing the FB. It used past activity to give this number. When midnight comes around and its less, then it takes the calories away.
This is the one I think causes the biggest problems though: on the FB site in the food plan area (click log and stay on the food log page - look in the food plan box) there is a blue gear. If you have not changed it, its set to personalized. I would set it to Sedentary because then FB is giving you a calorie estimation based on what you burned, not a estimation on what it thinks you burned based on past records.
With these two changes made, I only get a 30-40 calorie loss between dinner and midnight when I would get over 100 cals lost during that same time. I have these settings made as well as negative calorie estimation turned on. I like the negative calorie estimation on because there are days where I am lazy and need to have calories taken away that I did not earn so I dont over eat.
If you wake up with negative calories, then its great motivation to keep going. I almost always get in the positive within 2 hours of waking up (not including exercise) because of my morning routine.
Those settings don't affect MFP. MFP only works with the actual data recorded by the Fitbit and does not use the Fitbit.com projection/estimation settings.0 -
I dont think negative calories is your issue, I think its with the FB settings.
Check these settings on FB site:
If you go to the FB settings (upper right hand side, looks like a gear - pick setting) about half way down on the screen you can turn off calorie estimation. This might help because calorie estimation is giving you more calories than you burn when you are not moving because it may think that you are not wearing the FB. It used past activity to give this number. When midnight comes around and its less, then it takes the calories away.
This is the one I think causes the biggest problems though: on the FB site in the food plan area (click log and stay on the food log page - look in the food plan box) there is a blue gear. If you have not changed it, its set to personalized. I would set it to Sedentary because then FB is giving you a calorie estimation based on what you burned, not a estimation on what it thinks you burned based on past records.
I've always had calorie estimation off and do not utilize the food plan option so I don't think that's it.0 -
The FitBit calorie adjustments were driving me crazy so I ended up just setting MFP to maintain my current weight (even though I want to lose weight) and set my MFP calorie goal to my Fitbit TDEE minus 20%. They're still synced so my calories eaten goes into Fitbit, but I only log activity in Fitbit and now no adjustments come through on MFP. Makes it soooooo much easier.0
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You guys might be tight that the fb settings don't affect mfp but from my experience one I changed these, mfp and fb ended up more in line with each other than before.
I can't imagine how it does not affect things since fb is telling mfp what your full day projection is while taking into calls actually burned this far. If it's estimating things in anyway, it would have a bearing on the number it sends to mfp.
Ymmv but that's what worked for me and things have been pretty accurate since
I do agree with jonnythan's other point though... the fb is the best money I have spent on fitness/weight loss ever.0 -
It's not the Fitbit negative calorie adjustment as I turned that off yesterday. I went to bed again with a 12 calorie surplus and woke up again with a approx. 200 calorie deficit which is INFURIATING! It apparently has something to do with how MFP is projecting my calorie burn and how FB is recording it, and it's tripping me up to consume more than I should. So, yes, it's back to undercutting my calorie consumption by 200 just to be on the safe side of this crap. I'm not even using MFP to record calorie burn anyway, so I'm not clear why it's having an impact in the calculation. If someone can explain that, I'd love to hear it. I'll try to research it more when I can take the time to do that which isn't this morning.0
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MFP has a Fitbit Users group: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/1307-fitbit-users0
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