Should I log all calories burned or just exercise calories?

W_Stewart
W_Stewart Posts: 237 Member
edited November 2024 in Getting Started
I am using MFP to track all calories I eat. I then enter specific exercise activities performed (walking and stair climbing) and MFP adjusts my daily calorie goals. Wonderful.

Right now I am only entering calories burned from specific workouts (like a morning and afternoon walk). Should I also deduct a certain amount of calorie burn from non-workout activities like the moderate home/office activity and casual errands? In essence this is what these Fitbit like tools must be doing so I am trying to decide if I should be deducting all calories burned or just exercise calories?

Replies

  • Chrysalid2014
    Chrysalid2014 Posts: 1,038 Member
    edited April 2015
    Just enter exercise calories. The calories burned from daily activity are already allowed for in your daily target (remember you chose 'sedentary' or 'active' or whatever, when you set up your profile).
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Your activity level accounts for work/errands/watching the kids/cooking/socializing...everything that is not exercise, which is all you should be logging.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    I have an activity tracker so I know I get on average 10k steps without exercise a day...so I set my activity level in MFP accordingly...you should do the same.

    If you are lightly active without exercise set it as such.

    My activity tracker will give me extra calories to eat...for example yesterday I got in 10387 steps and did a lifting workout....it gave me an extra 73 calories to eat on MFP..
  • W_Stewart
    W_Stewart Posts: 237 Member
    If I only need to log exercise, then using something like a Fitbit HR would log all my activity and overcompensate, correct?
  • Debmal77
    Debmal77 Posts: 4,770 Member
    Chrysalid2014 wrote: »
    Just enter exercise calories. The calories burned from daily activity are already allowed for in your daily target (remember you chose 'sedentary' or 'active' or whatever, when you set up your profile).

    This.
  • suruda
    suruda Posts: 1,233 Member
    I think only log those things that are not part of your typical day...to me things like cooking, cleaning, or moving for work are part of our normal routine. Extras like workouts, intense yardwork sessions, those things I don't do on a daily basis are things that I log.
  • futuremanda
    futuremanda Posts: 816 Member
    wahoowad wrote: »
    If I only need to log exercise, then using something like a Fitbit HR would log all my activity and overcompensate, correct?

    No. If you sync them, the data from the Fitbit will be compared to the estimation MFP makes, and an adjustment will be made. (I think it's called negative adjustments? Not sure.)

    MFP does this: BMR (calories burned existing, not moving) + Lifestyle (calories burned from general movements -- a given allotment based on an estimate you made when you set it up) + Exercise (calories burned from logged exercise)

    Fitbit does this: BMR (a guess/calculation, just like MFP) + Lifestyle (measured by the band) + Exercise (may be measured by the band, may have to have an input from you, depending on if your exercise is easily and adequately measured by "steps", and most exercises are not)

    So MFP expects a certain amount of calories burned through lifestyle. Say this is roughly equivalent to 10k steps. On a day that your Fitbit registers you only took 5k, MFP will subtract calories (because it gave you your target with the assumption that you would take 10k). On a day that your Fitbit registers you took 15k, you'll get more.

    However, not everyone likes the syncing, and you may find you get calories added or subtracted at inconvenient times for you. Some people use their Fitbits just to keep an eye on their activity, and allow MFP to have a flat estimate.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    No.

    If you use a tracker & connect it to MFP, MFP would get data from the tracker and compare your ACTUAL activity level & calories burned to your STATED activity level and expected burn. You'd know if the activity level you chose (sedentary, lightly active, etc.) was accurate.
    wahoowad wrote: »
    If I only need to log exercise, then using something like a Fitbit HR would log all my activity and overcompensate, correct?

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