Logging exercise?

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ciscosdad
ciscosdad Posts: 70 Member
in Getting Started
I am just getting back to the gym. When I try to log my exercise it doesn't go to the negative. My pacer info goes in and subtracts from my total but when I add walking from the gym, separate from pacer, it adds. Am I doing something wrong? Does this even make sense? How do I get my exercise to subtract?

Thanks

Replies

  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    I'm not sure what you mean. Could you either open your diary so people could take a look at your exercise or post some screenshots that shows what your confused about?
  • queencol52
    queencol52 Posts: 1 Member
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    My exercise adds the calories too! For example. I ate 1150 calories. I burned 100 through exercise. Now my count shows that I uses 1250 calories. It add them to my used calories rather than subtracting them. Why? and how do i fix this?
  • ciscosdad
    ciscosdad Posts: 70 Member
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    Thank you. You stated that much better than I did. But I would like to fix it a well.
  • itsbasschick
    itsbasschick Posts: 1,584 Member
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    i'm guessing you're logging strength exercises? MFP doesn't give you calories for strength training, only cardio if you have a smart phone, i suggest using endomondo (it's an app), which will report your exercise calories to MFP for you.
  • kenc1971
    kenc1971 Posts: 107 Member
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    ciscosdad - I took a look at the last few days, and it looked normal enough. I'm guessing that your base calorie allowance is 1990 per day. When you exercise, it adds the calories burned to your allowed total, because your base calories are set by what you want your net calories for the day to be.

    So, 1990 calories net per day will allow you to lose (...) lbs per week, using whatever formula you set to reach your goals. If you exercise, it will want you to eat more in order to reach that 1990 net calorie threshold (or just below it). That's why it adds to your daily goal. You'll still be at the same number of calories below TDEE.

    Many people go with the "eat back half of your exercise calories" method, to account for under-estimating food and over-estimating exertion.

    I went with setting my net calorie goal to be my "no exercise" TDEE. So, if I ate the 2100 calories every day, I'd maintain weight. I then don't eat back my exercise calories, so when my exercise calories get added to my goal, I'm under for the day. For instance, today I had a 2100 calorie goal. I burned 298 calories, so my goal went to 2398. I ate 1990, giving me a deficit of 408.

    I hope that made sense!
  • ciscosdad
    ciscosdad Posts: 70 Member
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    it is all in my exercise log.

    eliptical 100
    walking 100
    Pacer pedometer -141
    Total 59

    So the amount that is added to my diary is 59 calories. I'm thinking it should be 341 subtracted from my total consumed for the day. Am I looking at it wrong? guess it doesn't matter that much but I would like to have it recorded correctly. I know 341 calories isn't that much but would like to do this right.
  • zichab
    zichab Posts: 1,446 Member
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    You are a little confused about how MFP works. If your calorie goal, as set by MFP, is 1200 then this is the limit to the calories you can eat in one day and still lose weight. However, if you exercise, you "earn more calories" while still maintaining your deficit. So MFP is correctly adding your exercise calories to your log.

    Using your 341 as an example and continuing with our 1200 calorie person, you can now eat 1541 (1200 calories + your 341 in exercise) and still lose weight. MFP can't subtract your exercise because that would mean you could only eat 859 calories for the day creating a double deficit ( the original deficit you told MFP to give you + your exercise). MFP always adds your exercise calories as you have "earned" more food. That is how it is designed to work. Does that help?
  • scubasuenc
    scubasuenc Posts: 626 Member
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    it is all in my exercise log.

    eliptical 100
    walking 100
    Pacer pedometer -141
    Total 59

    So the amount that is added to my diary is 59 calories. I'm thinking it should be 341 subtracted from my total consumed for the day. Am I looking at it wrong? guess it doesn't matter that much but I would like to have it recorded correctly. I know 341 calories isn't that much but would like to do this right.

    Is your pacer pedometer automatically syncing with MFP? I have a FitBit that syncs with MFP and by default negative calorie adjustments are enabled. Here is what can happen. Even though MFP is giving me a net calorie goal figure behind the scenes it estimates how many calories I burn in a day, for example 1900. My FitBit is also calculating how many calories I burn in a day. If I sit around all day the FitBit might calculate my calorie burn for the day to be 1800 calories. If that is the case, then it will give a -100 calorie adjustment to MFP. If my calorie goal with deficit is 1400 (1lb per week loss), then the -100 calorie adjustment will reduce my goal for the day to 1300.

    Negative calorie adjustments can be disabled by going into Account Settings / Diary Settings and unchecking the Enable Negative Adjustments checkbox. On a day like the one above my calorie goal would remain 1400. This will still allow positive calorie adjustments. For a day where I walk around a lot, the FitBit might calculate my calorie burn for the day to be 2000 calories. If that is the case, then it will give a 100 calorie adjustment to MFP. MFP will now tell me my calorie goal for the day is 1500.

    Any exercise I log into MFP such as riding a stationary bike or swimming is synced to the FitBit so that the extra calories are also added to the FitBit. I will get a positive adjustment from the FitBit if it's total calorie burn estimate is greater than MFP's estimate including exercise.
  • ciscosdad
    ciscosdad Posts: 70 Member
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    Yes I understand. My problem is that pacer is a pedometer app on my phone. it automatically inputs to MFP. As I walk the calories pacer tracks from my steps is deducted from the calories that I have eaten. But when I add my workout calories from the gym they don't deduct like the pacer ones, they add. So in my example from today I end up actually adding 59 calories to what I ate today instead of showing that they were burned. On my exercise log the pacer shows -141, the gym workout is 200 (no -) I end up with only 59 calories added back to the calories left for the day. Shouldn't it be 341 added back to the calories left for the day, my deficit?
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    Yes I understand. My problem is that pacer is a pedometer app on my phone. it automatically inputs to MFP. As I walk the calories pacer tracks from my steps is deducted from the calories that I have eaten. But when I add my workout calories from the gym they don't deduct like the pacer ones, they add. So in my example from today I end up actually adding 59 calories to what I ate today instead of showing that they were burned. On my exercise log the pacer shows -141, the gym workout is 200 (no -) I end up with only 59 calories added back to the calories left for the day. Shouldn't it be 341 added back to the calories left for the day, my deficit?

    try pressing the "i" next to the pacer adjustment. It should show you how it is coming up with a negative 141.

    MFP is designed to where you eat your exercise calories back. So if you log 100 calories burned, then an extra 100 calories is added to your goal for food consumption for the day.

    The pacer adjustment is going to be different. It isn't like normal add ins. However since I'm not sure how it adjust calories it's hard for me to determine why it is taking 100 calories away from what you can eat (aka if your goal is 1500 and you have a -100 in your exercise log then you only get to eat 1400).
  • ciscosdad
    ciscosdad Posts: 70 Member
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    Thanks I got it fixed. thanks for all of your help.
  • dfmenez
    dfmenez Posts: 1 Member
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    I am having the same issue as ciscodad. I do remember checking the Enable Negative Adjustments, however when I go back to Diary Settings that box is no longer there to uncheck, so my exercise from my Jawbone Up is being added to my net calories consumed.

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