All day trackers - discrepancy

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simonncooper
simonncooper Posts: 4 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hi, due to technical issues (with the app) I had to switch from my Withings Pulse tracker to the iPhone but since doing this my daily calories are skewed from what I am used to and not sure what to do as I was happy with what I was doing before.

I'm not sure what is going on - can someone help explain?



I have been maintaining weight for a few months, but now with the switch to iPhone traking it is saying I can eat another 200-300 kcals a day ... this can't be correct, I'll end up putting all the weight back on surely as I am not doing more excercise or changed my weight??

My daily routine is pretty stable, walking to work and back and walking to get lunch - amounts to about 8Km per day on average according to the all day tracker.

Under the 'old' system, 1750 kcal daily food allowance .. Withings pulse adjustment in my diary, generally negative adjustment of about -150Kcal until around lunch time when had walked 4 Kilometers, then it goes above 0 giving me a positive adjustment of about +100 by the end of the day.

Under the 'new' system, 1750 kcal daily food allowance .. MFP adjustment starts as soon as I begin walking, so this morning I walked to work and am already +50Kcal, and +200Kcal adjustment by the end of the day.

So the question is, when MFP asks for the level of activity, I put sedentary, and it seems to have already added in assumed calories for the day - therefore is it double counting when it also gets the real caolries as it is adding them on top.

My basal rate is calculated at 1360kcal - so I would have expected to see any walking I do during the day to be on top of 1360, not on top of 1750 ?

I've never had to get that deep into the math or theory before, just following the app - but now I am questioning it.

Replies

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,624 Member
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    Short answer:
    Set yourself as active in MFP, enable positive adjustments, and make sure you keep to your steps.
    If you fail to make your steps more than a couple of times a week, set yourself as lightly active and repeat.
    Negative adjustments just make it harder to plan your meals if your routine is fairly stable.

    Longer answer:
    simonncooper wrote: »
    I have been maintaining weight for a few months, but now with the switch to iPhone traking it is saying I can eat another 200-300 kcals a day ... this can't be correct, I'll end up putting all the weight back on surely as I am not doing more excercise or changed my weight?
    Be very careful: if your routine has been stable increasing calories may well increase your weight. The effects on your body are the only data that are not guesses!
    simonncooper wrote: »
    My daily routine is pretty stable, walking to work and back and walking to get lunch - amounts to about 8Km per day on average according to the all day tracker.
    sounds around 12,000 steps. you might benefit from setting yourself up as "active" and dealing with a smaller, or no adjustment.
    simonncooper wrote: »
    Under the 'old' system, 1750 kcal daily food allowance .. Withings pulse adjustment in my diary, generally negative adjustment of about -150Kcal until around lunch time when had walked 4 Kilometers, then it goes above 0 giving me a positive adjustment of about +100 by the end of the day.
    Under the 'new' system, 1750 kcal daily food allowance .. MFP adjustment starts as soon as I begin walking, so this morning I walked to work and am already +50Kcal, and +200Kcal adjustment by the end of the day.
    Confused by your numbers here. Are you having an issue because the adjustment doesn't work the same way? You state the same amount of base calories.
    simonncooper wrote: »
    So the question is, when MFP asks for the level of activity, I put sedentary, and it seems to have already added in assumed calories for the day - therefore is it double counting when it also gets the real caolries as it is adding them on top.
    Covered in: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/PAV8888/view/exercise-do-i-enter-it-in-my-all-day-activity-tracker-in-mfp-or-both-741788 Some of the other blog articles there might be worth a read for you too. No double counting takes place.
    simonncooper wrote: »
    My basal rate is calculated at 1360kcal - so I would have expected to see any walking I do during the day to be on top of 1360, not on top of 1750 ?
    A basic amount of activity is included in the sedentary setting. Your confusion stems from your assumption that you are getting walking calories as an adjustment. You are comparing TDEE's and going with the larger one. It so happens to be larger because you are only including your walking in one of the two TDEEs.

    MFP is actually comparing your TDEE as calculated by the activity tracker app to the TDEE estimated by MFP (your original NEAT + any exercise you enter), and giving you an adjustment when the tracker calculated TDEE is larger.

    In other words MFP starts: Jim is sedentary he will only burn 1700 Calories today.
    Tracker says: Hey I've been tracking Jim all day and he burned 2000 calories.
    MFP says: 2000 calories? Wow! Well Jim didn't tell me anything about any exercise he did, and I only thought he was going to spend 1700 calories... better give him an extra 300 credit!
    OR
    MFP says: 2000 calories? Wow! Jim said he did a 200 calories walk, together with my original guess of 1700 this comes to 1900. Tracker says 2000. Give him an extra 100 Cal credit.
    OR possibly
    MFP says: 2000 calories? Wow! Jim said he did a 500 zoomba class today, together with my original 1700 guess that comes to 2200. Tracker says 2000. Well the tracker didn't give Jim extra calories, negative adjustments are not enabled, we are staying with the 2200.

    As discussed in http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/PAV8888/view/negative-adjustments-741838, enabling negative adjustments basically removes MFP from the equation and just ties you 100% to whatever your tracker says you've done at any point of time. This can lead to large ups and downs throughout the day.

    And as discussed in the first blog post I refer you to, you should NOT enter some activity in MFP and some in the tracker. Activity should be in either just the tracker, or in both MFP and the tracker. Otherwise some activity will end up never getting counted.
  • catedesimone
    catedesimone Posts: 25 Member
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    It's early in the morning so if I read it wrong, I'm sorry, but did you say you're now using the iPhone to track your steps and having that problem? Mine is linked to MFP and starts adding calories right away as well. I'm already set at lightly active, but by the end of the day, it has added 200-300 more calories. I've been at a loss about it myself.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    edited April 2015
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    The new tracking system may be more generous in calories it thinks you earned. If your activity hasn't changed and what you've been eating is working for you, then keep eating as you have been. Judge by results. Check your weight every so often.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    I have a fitbit zip and an iPhone. The iPhone gives me a lot more steps. I've been maintaining eating exercise calories with the zip for several years. I'm going with that.
  • simonncooper
    simonncooper Posts: 4 Member
    edited May 2015
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    Still a little confused:
    If I put "Sedentary" then it gives me:
    1470 goal
    -828 food
    +258 exercise
    900 remaining

    If I put "lightly active" then it gives me:
    1680 goal
    -828 food
    +258 exercise
    1110 remaining

    I said I'm "sedentary" and the iPhone is tracking my steps and saw how much my "real" activity is - so it decided to adjust by +258 for my exercise,

    but, what I don't get, is that when I said I'm "lighty active" MFP still decides to adjust by +258 and has given me a bigger goal, and more calories.

    If I switch back to counting activity using Withings steps tracker which I keep on me all the time, then it gives the following:

    1470 goal
    -828 food
    +18 exercise
    660 remaining

    Quite a big gap between 900 remaining using iPhone steps, and 660 remaining using Withings - difference of 240 calories.

    And even worse if I set to "lightly active" there is a difference of 450 calories (1110-660.)

    To put it into context, I was working to a deficit of 250-500 calories a day when I wanted to lose weight, and keeping to these new values for a couple of weeks has made put on a couple of pounds - not the end of the world, but also I don't want this to continue.

    A 5Km run would burn 240 calories (given my weight) and a 5Km bike ride 100 calories.

    The sync issue has been resolved, so I have gone back to using Withings for step tracking.

    Another issue I am having is that I have for the past two days decided to cycle 10Km a day to work - but when I log this in MFP the calories are not calculated correctly, it is giving me a deficit of -500 (approx) ?

    Does anyone know what is going on and how to get the best out of these tools?

    Thanks! :)




  • simonncooper
    simonncooper Posts: 4 Member
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    I guess I just need a few recommendations on how to figure out how many calories I can eat back ... previously I found it was giving me too much, so I told it I wanted to lose 1lb even though I want to maintain the weight and those figures were working for me.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,624 Member
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    sounds like something is not counting right. support issue?

    Don't seem to have the same issue on fitbit adjustments. Adjustment from sedentary is much greater than from active, for example.
  • szecsenyi
    szecsenyi Posts: 17 Member
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    If I drive with car, bus, or ride a bike, I always have to turn off the iPhone step tracker, because it doesnt stop tracking, it thinks that I walk. And later I see this plus calories in myfitnesspall. You can disable it in Setup/Privacy menu.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    My sister got a huge number of steps because she drove up a mountain and it thought she was climbing steps.

    Also, is it synced? For example, with fitbit (which is what I use), you need to set to sedentary and it adds your steps to MFP and adds calories. If you do additional exercise - like I mucked out my chickens for two hours Sunday and did yoga, I logged those exercises - which don't count well as steps - into MFP. You put in the time and MFP tells fitbit to discount all your steps during the time you said you were exercising. Otherwise it would double count.

    This is why I stopped using Track My Run. Unless I was very careful with how I set it up, it would put in double steps. The instructions for syncing are good, but you have to read them very carefully and follow their rules.

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