Math behind "Goals" seems wrong

androidmatt
androidmatt Posts: 6
in Getting Started
Hi,

I'm trying to get started here, and I am rather confused about the way that things are presented in the Goals section after you provide the necessary details. If I put no weight change as the goal, and no exercise as my activity level, then the net calories consumed makes sense, i.e. it equals the calories required to maintain weight (2450 in my case).

However, adding any amount of exercise makes no difference to the fat/protien/carbs amounts presented. e.g. If I add 7 days of 1 hour activity to the exercise section of Goals, then that shows up as 3080 cal/week...and the net calories consumed remains exactly the same (as expected, since this calculation is always going to just give us our base calorie consumption), but the total calories consumed is hidden from us (the actually useful number). The gram quantities of fat/protien/carbs is calculated based on the net calories, which makes no sense at all since we need to eat our total calories, not our net calories, in order to hit our goal.

This is quite dangerous in my opinion. When you set all your goals, it is presented as if the exercise calories are taken into account, but if I've not gone mad, then it really looks like they are not being included in the calorie goals for the diet. e.g. If I have a daily calorie requirement of 2450, burn 440 calories a day exercising, and have a weight loss goal of 2lbs a week (1000 cal deficit a day), then MFP tells me I only need to eat 1450 calories a day...which is actually puts me at a 1440 calorie deficit, rather than 1000, every day.

What is the deal here? Is this a well known issue with Myfitnesspal? Are the fitness goals entirely seperate from the nutrition goals? This seems so odd, that I really suspect I must be missing something.

Matt

Replies

  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
    http://fit101.org/the-step-by-step-guide-to-losing-weight-with-myfitnesspal/

    try this; it is also the first post the top of the threads under Getting Started.
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
    I guess I'm not quite sure I understand where the confusion is.

    I can only guess it's an issue of the exercise calories. The idea is that you're supposed to log, and eat back, your exercise calories since the deficit is worked into your goal.

    EDIT:
    If I have a daily calorie requirement of 2450, burn 440 calories a day exercising, and have a weight loss goal of 2lbs a week (1000 cal deficit a day), then MFP tells me I only need to eat 1450 calories a day...which is actually puts me at a 1440 calorie deficit, rather than 1000, every day.

    In this example you would log your 440 calories burned (just as you would log your food) and your goal for that day would increase by 440.
  • unapologetically_crystal
    unapologetically_crystal Posts: 278 Member
    as said above.. mfp is designed that you eat your calorie goal AND exercise calories.
  • ActuarialChef
    ActuarialChef Posts: 1,413 Member
    I think the OP is talking about when you click "change goals" on this page: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/my_goals and then click "Custom"

    OP - if this is what you're referring to then the fitness "goal" here is only used so that it shows up on your Exercise diary as a goal to hit. It doesn't have any affect on your calories, because you may or may not make that goal each day or each week. It is simply so you can say "Hey, self, I want to get in 30 min of exercise per day" and then when you go to enter your exercise you can see that you've reached x minutes of your goal.

    In order for the expected exercise to increase your calorie goal, you need to adjust the Net Calories Consumed box on the upper left. The last time I did this, the gram amounts of the macros changed as I changed the calorie amount. However it appears that the gram amounts are not changing on that page. They will change if you click submit and check your diary.
  • davert123
    davert123 Posts: 1,568 Member
    yep , best not to look at MFP's calories as normal and exercise - they are all just energy expenditure, some from exercise, others from your body working. MFP tracks total energy expenditure and gets you to eat your total expenditure less a predefined amount which will cause you to burn fat to meet the some of the needs of your energy expenditure.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    The initial calorie goal does not include the exercise. When you do, and log, the exercise, it will be included.

    I think they ask you about it initially so you can see how it will affect your eventual goal. Since lots of people plan to do exercise and don't, I can see why they only count exercise actually done.

    The wrinkle here is that you end up eating more on days you exercise rather than averaging it out over the week. I liked that when I first started and don't anymore, so it just depends on what works for you. You can always add extra calories for the planned exercise by doing a custom goal and then not log the exercise.
  • androidmatt
    androidmatt Posts: 6
    I think I see where my confusion was at. I knew that we should be eating calories burned through exercise, but I had thought the exercise calories being calculated in the goals section was actually a part of the net calories equation (assumed since the equation was displayed on the same screen). Because of that I had expected that it was going to count my calorie goals based on the amount of exercise I had historically been doing, but I understand now that it is logged exercise that gets those calories added to the equation.

    Thanks everyone,

    Matt
  • androidmatt
    androidmatt Posts: 6
    as said above.. mfp is designed that you eat your calorie goal AND exercise calories.

    Thanks, I was aware of that, I was just misunderstanding how MFP dealt with exercise calories on the goals page.
  • androidmatt
    androidmatt Posts: 6
    http://fit101.org/the-step-by-step-guide-to-losing-weight-with-myfitnesspal/

    try this; it is also the first post the top of the threads under Getting Started.

    Thanks, I'll take a look.
  • androidmatt
    androidmatt Posts: 6
    I guess I'm not quite sure I understand where the confusion is.

    I can only guess it's an issue of the exercise calories. The idea is that you're supposed to log, and eat back, your exercise calories since the deficit is worked into your goal.

    EDIT:
    If I have a daily calorie requirement of 2450, burn 440 calories a day exercising, and have a weight loss goal of 2lbs a week (1000 cal deficit a day), then MFP tells me I only need to eat 1450 calories a day...which is actually puts me at a 1440 calorie deficit, rather than 1000, every day.

    In this example you would log your 440 calories burned (just as you would log your food) and your goal for that day would increase by 440.

    Thanks, it was the difference between logging and predicting exercise calories in the MFP calcs that I wasn't aware of.
  • androidmatt
    androidmatt Posts: 6
    The initial calorie goal does not include the exercise. When you do, and log, the exercise, it will be included.

    I think they ask you about it initially so you can see how it will affect your eventual goal. Since lots of people plan to do exercise and don't, I can see why they only count exercise actually done.

    The wrinkle here is that you end up eating more on days you exercise rather than averaging it out over the week. I liked that when I first started and don't anymore, so it just depends on what works for you. You can always add extra calories for the planned exercise by doing a custom goal and then not log the exercise.

    Cheers, I have gone ahead with your suggestion for a custom goal, since I already know what exercise I will be doing. I think that will work better for me.
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
    I think the OP is talking about when you click "change goals" on this page: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/my_goals and then click "Custom"

    OP - if this is what you're referring to then the fitness "goal" here is only used so that it shows up on your Exercise diary as a goal to hit. It doesn't have any affect on your calories, because you may or may not make that goal each day or each week. It is simply so you can say "Hey, self, I want to get in 30 min of exercise per day" and then when you go to enter your exercise you can see that you've reached x minutes of your goal.

    In order for the expected exercise to increase your calorie goal, you need to adjust the Net Calories Consumed box on the upper left. The last time I did this, the gram amounts of the macros changed as I changed the calorie amount. However it appears that the gram amounts are not changing on that page. They will change if you click submit and check your diary.

    If the OP, or anyone else goes to the link I provided in the first post it explains "change goals" and how to customize.
  • Joanne_Moniz
    Joanne_Moniz Posts: 347 Member
    Yes; I was a bit confused about it at first too. They do not account for exercise because they don't know if you exercise until after you do it.

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