Underreporting?

senusenu
senusenu Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
This isn't about calories consumed, this is about exercise!

I have mine set to light activity because work keeps me on my feet (I only sit down during breaks, some of my days involve a lot of light to moderate lifting, otherwise I am constantly moving). I have been walking most nights for a minimum of a mile and a half, sometimes up to three miles, which the program adjusts my calorie intake for.

I had it set for 2 pounds a week, and have been pretty good at keeping everything straight, logging foods, snacks, etc and any exercise I do. I lost 3 pounds, though. I am not upset, of course, but I wonder if this means I am not eating as much as I think (and several of my days I have gone over my calories, one day I had Buffalo Wild Wings and went over by 5-600 calories, but had some bad days before that where I was under by a significant amount, so it should have evened itself out), or maybe I am burning more calories than I think I am. I don't know how to determine that though as I don't have an activity tracker, but I calculate it means I am burning 500 more calories a day than I intended.

I know it could be some water weight, but my fancy scale shows hydration level and it's very close to the same percentage.

Has anyone figured they are exercising more than they thought or that the myfitnesspal program underestimates their bmr?

Replies

  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    I don't enter it.

    If I enter it, MFP changes my allowed calories, so I just don't. I've seen people can enter that they worked the elliptical for 45 minutes and burned 2 calories, though. There must be some way to override the MFP totals. Have to check that out in a few weeks when the humidity starts to break and I can walk.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    First, is this your first week? Remember, its very normal in the beginning, to lose more weight due to water loss. Keep doing what you're doing and after 4-6 weeks, if you see a pattern of extra loss, then you'll know.
  • shabaity
    shabaity Posts: 792 Member
    I mark as lightly active and log exercise elsewhere. When I was waiting tables I logged about half of particularly busy nights, for example one night I didn't get a break for 6 hours I logged 3 and ate back half of what I logged. But if I was cooking I didn't bother to log it no matter how busy we were.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I wouldn't assume anything from one week. I aim for 1.5 lbs, but vary from over 2 to under 1, depending, with no meaningful differences between weeks. When I was aiming for 2, I'd get over 3 on occasion. The question is whether you are averaging out to about your goal. Among other things, I tend to have a monthly pattern.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I've seen people can enter that they worked the elliptical for 45 minutes and burned 2 calories, though. There must be some way to override the MFP totals.

    You can change the calorie estimate to any number of calories you want, so people who do TDEE method (or otherwise don't eat back calories) change it to 1. I do eat back exercise (to some extent), but often modify calorie estimates I don't trust to something more reasonable.
  • senusenu
    senusenu Posts: 6 Member
    I'll just keep an eye on it for the next few weeks and see what my average comes out to. I was doing some walking before I downloaded the MFP app, so that might have effected some of it, but like you say, it is early still.
  • mymodernbabylon
    mymodernbabylon Posts: 1,038 Member
    You might do well in using the TDEE method versus MFP.
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    If you are interested, check out the Eat More To Lose Weight group (also online page with forum).

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