Tracking UP/MFP & Negative Adjustments

The more I look for the answers, the more confused I get. :(

I have been using the UP for a month now, and logging my workouts on the UP and my food on MFP. I don't think I am logging my work outs correctly. I do Jillian Michaels Body Revolution, so I log that as cross training. I don't want to eat too much or too little.

Since I do Jillian Michaels, the calories I burned should NOT be logged manually on MFP, but should be logged on the UP app, which will then sync to MFP eventually right? Do I log my calorie burn manually or let UP do it for me?

I wanted to see how accurate the calorie burn I earned was with the UP, so I wore my Polar HRM with it. It was within 10 calories. I burned 337 calories today, and my diary is only saying that I earned 237 calories from exercise today. Where did my 100 calories go?

Also, should I have my negative adjustments activated?

Replies

  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Yes, you should enable negative calorie adjustments. Do not log step based activity, like walking or running. You can log non-step workouts (like Jillian Michaels) in either UP or MFP. Try it one way for a while then the other, to see which one you prefer. (I find the UP burns more realistic.) When you log in MFP, you're asked for start & ends times so MFP can override your step data during that time.

    If it's been a month, you already know if you're eating too many calories. If you're losing weight, the answer is no. Everybody's different, and weight loss takes trial & error to find what works for you.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    I burned 337 calories today, and my diary is only saying that I earned 237 calories from exercise today. Where did my 100 calories go?
    That's not how calorie adjustments work.

    When you set up your MFP account, you specified an activity level: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided MFP used your answer, plus your age, sex & height, to estimate how many calories you burn every day (not including workouts). Then you set your weight-loss goal, and MFP subtracted the appropriate deficit to calculate your daily calorie goal.

    Once you link an activity tracker to your MFP account (via the "Apps" tab at the top of every page), you start getting calorie adjustments. If your tracker says you burned more calories than MFP estimated, you get a positive adjustment (meaning more calories to eat). If you enable negative calorie adjustments and you burn less than the MFP estimate, you will lose calories. (But negative calorie adjustments will never drop your daily calories below 1,200.)

    It will take trial & error to find what settings work best for you.
  • Jenn_Hann
    Jenn_Hann Posts: 8 Member
    Thanks for the info everyone. I enabled negative adjustments and lost 3 lbs in the first week.