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BMF or MFP Calories

Guamybear
Guamybear Posts: 1,061 Member
in Social Groups
Should I go by the calories BMF recommends to eat or should I go by MFP..

I know I can adjust them to make them match but I am more curious as to which ones I should follow and which one would be more beneficial.

Replies

  • MrsLannister
    MrsLannister Posts: 347 Member
    For me, BMF is more accurate. MFP overestimates my burn by about 300 calories a day. I let MFP set my calories goals and then turned on negative calorie adjustment. That allowed MFP and BMF to sync up and have similar numbers.
  • lisab64mfp
    lisab64mfp Posts: 89 Member
    (for most people) The BMF is more accurate for your calorie burn - it knows what you did/do for the day. MFP only knows what you tell it (ie activity level and any added exercise). I have negative adjustments enabled also but most days MFP underestimates my calories burned.
  • Guamybear
    Guamybear Posts: 1,061 Member
    Sorry, I meant Calories allowed for food.

    I am not to worried about the burn..I will go with what BMF says since it tracks all day.. but BMF says to eat 1900 cals a day
    and MFP 1600... plus whatever adjustment there is which ends up being over 1900 cals..

    I just don't want to over eat even though I suspect I have been undereating since I seem to burn more than expected.
  • lisab64mfp
    lisab64mfp Posts: 89 Member
    The whole net calories thing w/MFP confuses the heck out of me so................I just set my "goal" as maintain weight. Actually I set it the same way in BMF (mostly cuz I've been at goal for almost 3 years). For those times when I need to lose a few pounds (like right now after the holidays) I just subtract the deficit I want (shooting for 500/day this week) from the calories I burned.
  • insane5150
    insane5150 Posts: 93 Member
    BMF doesn't have you eat back exercise calories. The amount of calories you're allotted through BMF is based on the information you put in. Sedentary, Lightly Active, Moderately Active, etc.

    MFP has you eat back calories, therefore 1600 calories + workout calories.

    I personally use MFP to log and count calories, but eat at BMF suggested calories. In the end they kind of average out. BMF has me at 1700 calories, MFP has me at 1200 calories (net), but if I add my workout to that, it gets me to about 1700 calories.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    Ditto for me. I sync BM with MFP, but never eat back all my exercise calories that MFP says I have.

    My MFP calories allotment is 1200, my BM allotment is 1500. I usually stay between the two, depending on my BM calorie burn for the day.

    Compared to my HRM, MFP overestimated my calories burn by quite a bit.
  • AHASRADA
    AHASRADA Posts: 88 Member
    You know, BMF lets you adjust your calorie intake goal based on your burn goal. So, if you choose a 500 cal. deficit, you can slide both your intake and burn goals up and down in order to meet that deficit. If you want to eat more, you have to burn more, and vice versa. After a few weeks of using BMF, I knew what a fairly easily attainable average burn goal was, and set my eating goal accordingly. If I burn more on some days, I consider those calories "banked" for a slower day or a day I might *gasp* eat over my calorie goal :)

    I set MFP to a setting (lightly active or active, I can't remember) that expects me to burn about the same amount as my BMF goal (both of which are a bit lower than my actual average, to give me a "calorie cushion" ). No matter what either BMF or MFP says I burned, I always shoot for my BMF calorie intake goal. But, if I go over a bit sometimes, I have that cushion.
  • SewSweets
    SewSweets Posts: 26 Member
    I think the way BMF figures out your calorie goal makes more sense then MFP. I knew that right away when MFP tells me 1200 was what I should be eating daily - - - ummm no. BMF put me at 1500 which is STILL putting me at a 1000 deficit if I reach my burn of 2500 which is usually pretty easy to do with a bit of effort. So I manually edited my MFP goal settings to read 1500 calories rather than 1200.

    What is most important for loss is the deficit. Just remember that a 500 deficit per day for a week will give you 1lb of weight lost in a week. A 1000 deficit per day will give you a 2lb weight loss in a week. So I just try to make sure I am eating within a sensible range and that I have anywhere BETWEEN a 500 and 1000 deficit each day. I don't try to make myself hit an exact number - I'd go crazy with it. Its supposed to be long term anyway right? So I'm trying to make it as easy as possible on myself so I don't get burned out. I'm really in it for long term this time.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    Today at the gym, the Precor (interesting machine that's a cross between an elliptical and a star climber) said I burned 665 calories during my hour-long workout. My HRM said I burned 382.

    I believe the HRM. :)
  • lisab64mfp
    lisab64mfp Posts: 89 Member
    What did you BMF say? Usually mine says I burned less than my HRM said. Which is usually alot less than what the piece of equipment said (even though I push it {average HR 80% of max or higher) during most workouts). I still use my HRM (and input it's data into the exercise category - have negative adjustments enabled for BMF adjusts both ways) cuz it's nice knowing immediately (w/out having to mess around online) how my workout was (some days feel easier than others).
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    BMF just gives me the total burn for the day, though BMF listed the actual activity as going between moderate and vigorous. I use a polar hrm so i can't import into BMF.
  • Depictureboy
    Depictureboy Posts: 38 Member
    you can track your workout on BMF by starting a workout for the time period you are on the equipment. I have been doing that to verify the accuracy of my BMF.

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