Negative adjustments?

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  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,753 Member
    edited July 2015
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    A digital scale is cheap and can really help with accuracy.

    The grams for fruits, meat and veggies is the most accurate. I keep a conversion chart bookmarked so I can easily convert grams/oz.

    I have measuring spoons, cups and some bowls that I use regularly because I have checked out the accuracy of them. So the liquids are easier to track since I can trust those tools.

    Also looking for usda (name of fruit, veg, seed, nut) helps to log quicker.

    If you have something you tend to eat often make it a My Meal, the my foods function gets messed up too often. I have a problem ticket in with MFP support for my foods, I had one page of info, currently, I have over 450 pages coming up.
  • Angelz23
    Angelz23 Posts: 40 Member
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    This isn't really a thread about how to log foods, I've pretty much got that down, but thanks.
  • tazjosh
    tazjosh Posts: 88 Member
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    I'm still confused on what to do, as I am set at sedentary , and am eating my extra calories. But I've also put it in mfp to gain1lb a week ( I don't wAnt to I just felt I need that so as by my pass weeks without my Fitbit) so why if my mfp is set for 500 kcal a day extra am I not putting on weight?
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    tazjosh wrote: »
    Why if my mfp is set for 500 kcal a day extra am I not putting on weight?

    Open your diary for personalized advice, but you're overestimating your food &/or Fitbit is underestimating your burn.

    Food is fuel, and we should all be looking for the maximum number of calories at which we lose weight, maintain, or gain—never the minimum.
  • tazjosh
    tazjosh Posts: 88 Member
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    editorgrrl wrote: »
    tazjosh wrote: »
    Why if my mfp is set for 500 kcal a day extra am I not putting on weight?

    Open your diary for personalized advice, but you're overestimating your food &/or Fitbit is underestimating your burn.

    Food is fuel, and we should all be looking for the maximum number of calories at which we lose weight, maintain, or gain—never the minimum.

    I'm quite good with food, I log everything and weigh it. So how can Fitbit underestimate my burn? I don't do exercise to log. Just day to day and I do walk a lot so my steps are correct?
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    All the burns & calorie counts are nothing but estimates. That's why it takes trial & error to find what works for you.
  • tazjosh
    tazjosh Posts: 88 Member
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    Ok thanks :) can I ask, you said you do a whole days calories over in a week ( and still not gained) do u do that in one day ( binge day) or over a week?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    tazjosh wrote: »
    I'm still confused on what to do, as I am set at sedentary , and am eating my extra calories. But I've also put it in mfp to gain1lb a week ( I don't wAnt to I just felt I need that so as by my pass weeks without my Fitbit) so why if my mfp is set for 500 kcal a day extra am I not putting on weight?

    You are probably finding like many that go from maintaining to attempted weight gain while lifting.

    They keep increasing calories but not gaining weight - because a healthy body can speed up decently to burn the extra.

    Eventually you'll gain though, just keep it up, since you mention not doing much extra exercise.

    Also, the Fitbit underestimates daily burn for several reasons, so the stat MFP is getting to add 500 to may not be giving you a whole 500 extra anyway.

    Might also confirm you are getting correct calorie burn for the walking.
    Ever tested your stride length by comparing a known distance to Fitbit reported distance, say on treadmill?
    The FAQ in the stickies in this group tells how to do it best.
  • spacepony
    spacepony Posts: 13 Member
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    Let me start off by saying that I did NOT have negative adjustments enabled and I lost 40lbs in 4 months just fine :wink:

    Having that said, I'm in maintenance mode now (I actually lost 10lbs more than I meant to, so I have ample wiggle room) & I decided to experiment with negative adjustments on starting yesterday. It feels like it's giving me too generous a burn for my step activity, but then again it hasn't failed me yet so I have no idea why I'm second guessing it. I suppose maybe now my activity level is really coming into play, huh? I have had it set to Lightly Active, even though TBH I'm pretty straight up Active. Anyone else think that's why it seems high? Or would that not make sense?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Never claimed you wouldn't lose weight, but you might not get the deficit you thought you had, and weight loss would go slower, potentially.

    Enabling negative does nothing to the calorie burn from Fitbit, or calories assigned to steps, or anything like that.

    The ONLY place it comes in to play is if you are less active than the MFP activity level you selected.

    So with default disabled - if MFP thought you'd burn 2000 on non-exercise day and you took 500 deficit, you'd eat 1500.

    If Fitbit corrected MFP to an actual 2500 burned, then less 500 is 2000 eating goal.

    But if Fitbit reported you burned 1800, MFP would stick with 2000 less 500 is 1500 eating goal.
    But in actuality you only had a 300 cal deficit.

    With negative enabled, MFP would correct to 1800 less 500 makes 1300 eating goal - same deficit.

    So either you never had enough days of being less active than MFP first estimated, or you had enough balance between days it didn't matter, or you never had the full deficit but of course weight loss happens anyway.

    And of course the calorie adjustment is going to be higher if you decrease the activity level.
  • JMC3Terp
    JMC3Terp Posts: 2,803 Member
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    I have negative adjustments enabled and I do like it. I guess my only concern is that with non-HR systems, when lifting, you get almost nothing from fitbit. So when I log my activities and fitbit deducts that from its adjustment measurement, it is adjusting to something it never counted in the first place. Or am I wrong about this? I use it anyways because I'd rather my estimate of calories burned be low rather than high, but was curious if I had the wrong impression.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    JMC3Terp wrote: »
    I have negative adjustments enabled and I do like it. I guess my only concern is that with non-HR systems, when lifting, you get almost nothing from fitbit. So when I log my activities and fitbit deducts that from its adjustment measurement, it is adjusting to something it never counted in the first place. Or am I wrong about this? I use it anyways because I'd rather my estimate of calories burned be low rather than high, but was curious if I had the wrong impression.

    That is correct effect, and wrong impression.

    Log your lifting - because ya - you are burning a whole lot more than sleeping calorie burn rate which you are getting for all the non-steps seen.

    But Fitbit doesn't do the adjustment - MFP does. Fitbit merely reports total daily calorie burn for that math to MFP - that's all.

    Fitbit underestimates anyway - don't make it worse by thinking you are playing it on the safe side.
  • tazjosh
    tazjosh Posts: 88 Member
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    T
    heybales wrote: »
    tazjosh wrote: »
    I'm still confused on what to do, as I am set at sedentary , and am eating my extra calories. But I've also put it in mfp to gain1lb a week ( I don't wAnt to I just felt I need that so as by my pass weeks without my Fitbit) so why if my mfp is set for 500 kcal a day extra am I not putting on weight?

    You are probably finding like many that go from maintaining to attempted weight gain while lifting.

    They keep increasing calories but not gaining weight - because a healthy body can speed up decently to burn the extra.

    Eventually you'll gain though, just keep it up, since you mention not doing much extra exercise.

    Also, the Fitbit underestimates daily burn for several reasons, so the stat MFP is getting to add 500 to may not be giving you a whole 500 extra anyway.

    Might also confirm you are getting correct calorie burn for the walking.
    Ever tested your stride length by comparing a known distance to Fitbit reported distance, say on treadmill?
    The FAQ in the stickies in this group tells how to do it best.

    Thankyou
  • tazjosh
    tazjosh Posts: 88 Member
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    heybales wrote: »
    JMC3Terp wrote: »
    I have negative adjustments enabled and I do like it. I guess my only concern is that with non-HR systems, when lifting, you get almost nothing from fitbit. So when I log my activities and fitbit deducts that from its adjustment measurement, it is adjusting to something it never counted in the first place. Or am I wrong about this? I use it anyways because I'd rather my estimate of calories burned be low rather than high, but was curious if I had the wrong impression.

    That is correct effect, and wrong impression.

    Log your lifting - because ya - you are burning a whole lot more than sleeping calorie burn rate which you are getting for all the non-steps seen.

    But Fitbit doesn't do the adjustment - MFP does. Fitbit merely reports total daily calorie burn for that math to MFP - that's all.

    Fitbit underestimates anyway - don't make it worse by thinking you are playing it on the safe side.

    Maybe that's also a thing effecting my calorie burn estimate. I push a heavy wheelchair when at work sometimes for long periods of time. But my fit bit zip only counts the steps, but I can't log it as an exercise either
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    tazjosh wrote: »
    heybales wrote: »
    JMC3Terp wrote: »
    I have negative adjustments enabled and I do like it. I guess my only concern is that with non-HR systems, when lifting, you get almost nothing from fitbit. So when I log my activities and fitbit deducts that from its adjustment measurement, it is adjusting to something it never counted in the first place. Or am I wrong about this? I use it anyways because I'd rather my estimate of calories burned be low rather than high, but was curious if I had the wrong impression.

    That is correct effect, and wrong impression.

    Log your lifting - because ya - you are burning a whole lot more than sleeping calorie burn rate which you are getting for all the non-steps seen.

    But Fitbit doesn't do the adjustment - MFP does. Fitbit merely reports total daily calorie burn for that math to MFP - that's all.

    Fitbit underestimates anyway - don't make it worse by thinking you are playing it on the safe side.

    Maybe that's also a thing effecting my calorie burn estimate. I push a heavy wheelchair when at work sometimes for long periods of time. But my fit bit zip only counts the steps, but I can't log it as an exercise either

    You are absolutely correct that the extra effort will be missed.

    Now - flat surface at slower speeds and low rolling resistance (unless feet are hanging dragging) - I don't think you are missing out on too much.

    Now, baby stroller up and down hills fast for an hour daily - ya, that's missing a lot.
  • tazjosh
    tazjosh Posts: 88 Member
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    heybales wrote: »
    tazjosh wrote: »
    heybales wrote: »
    JMC3Terp wrote: »
    I have negative adjustments enabled and I do like it. I guess my only concern is that with non-HR systems, when lifting, you get almost nothing from fitbit. So when I log my activities and fitbit deducts that from its adjustment measurement, it is adjusting to something it never counted in the first place. Or am I wrong about this? I use it anyways because I'd rather my estimate of calories burned be low rather than high, but was curious if I had the wrong impression.

    That is correct effect, and wrong impression.

    Log your lifting - because ya - you are burning a whole lot more than sleeping calorie burn rate which you are getting for all the non-steps seen.

    But Fitbit doesn't do the adjustment - MFP does. Fitbit merely reports total daily calorie burn for that math to MFP - that's all.

    Fitbit underestimates anyway - don't make it worse by thinking you are playing it on the safe side.

    Maybe that's also a thing effecting my calorie burn estimate. I push a heavy wheelchair when at work sometimes for long periods of time. But my fit bit zip only counts the steps, but I can't log it as an exercise either

    You are absolutely correct that the extra effort will be missed.

    Now - flat surface at slower speeds and low rolling resistance (unless feet are hanging dragging) - I don't think you are missing out on too much.

    Now, baby stroller up and down hills fast for an hour daily - ya, that's missing a lot.
    Mmmm maybe I shud find a way to add it as an exercise
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Got a HRM for exercise use?

    Use it one day and during an example pushing time see what the avgHR is, especially compared to normal walking around time without wheelchair.

    If above 90, then do a treadmill test sometime and see what flat pace is required to hit the same HR.

    Also some average day, use a stopwatch to time all the sessions of that pushing that you do, to see just how long it is.

    So now you have average time, and average effort.

    Use this calculator, which is using same formula that Fitbit uses with pace and weight.
    But select the Gross option, because you are going to replace what Fitbit came up with.
    http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs.html

    Now, the kicker will be - how do you log this during the day when you must pick a start and duration time?

    I don't think you'll even want to attempt replacing the calorie burn for all the separate moments it happened - so I'd say pick a chunk of time that starts around time of first pushing and just replace a chunk.

    Then again, you may discover the amount of time isn't that great in total, combined with not much difference in calorie burn over what is being seen already. Or HR never gets above 90 so no valid walk test possible.
  • tazjosh
    tazjosh Posts: 88 Member
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    heybales wrote: »
    Got a HRM for exercise use?

    Use it one day and during an example pushing time see what the avgHR is, especially compared to normal walking around time without wheelchair.

    If above 90, then do a treadmill test sometime and see what flat pace is required to hit the same HR.

    Also some average day, use a stopwatch to time all the sessions of that pushing that you do, to see just how long it is.

    So now you have average time, and average effort.

    Use this calculator, which is using same formula that Fitbit uses with pace and weight.
    But select the Gross option, because you are going to replace what Fitbit came up with.
    http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs.html

    Now, the kicker will be - how do you log this during the day when you must pick a start and duration time?

    I don't think you'll even want to attempt replacing the calorie burn for all the separate moments it happened - so I'd say pick a chunk of time that starts around time of first pushing and just replace a chunk.

    Then again, you may discover the amount of time isn't that great in total, combined with not much difference in calorie burn over what is being seen already. Or HR never gets above 90 so no valid walk test possible.

    No hrm. :(. Well at moment :(, just a zip