*still* don't understand calorie adjustment

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ashleesaid
ashleesaid Posts: 50 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I just got my jawbone up move yesterday. Before that I was using my iPhone as my pedometer. When I did that, MFP would give me back calories to eat based on the number of steps I took.

Now that I'm using my jawbone, I've walked more than I did previously but getting zero calories added back for eating. Why is this happening?
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Replies

  • fyoung1111
    fyoung1111 Posts: 109 Member
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    Did you link your jawbone account with MFP? That integration has been working for more than a year now.
  • ashleesaid
    ashleesaid Posts: 50 Member
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    Yes, they're linked. MFP shows the number of steps I've walked but gives me 0 calories back.
  • LAT1963
    LAT1963 Posts: 1,375 Member
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    You have to link accounts.

    Dunno about Jawbone.

    Right now there's an issue with Polar--it reports calories from exercise sessions but not "negative adjustments" if, on a particular day, you are under-active for the baseline fitness you told mfp. Polar link is also not reporting steps. MFP has a note about this in their FAQ area, you could check to see if there's a note about Jawbone interface issues.
  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 609 Member
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    LAT1963 wrote: »
    You have to link accounts.

    Dunno about Jawbone.

    Right now there's an issue with Polar--it reports calories from exercise sessions but not "negative adjustments" if, on a particular day, you are under-active for the baseline fitness you told mfp. Polar link is also not reporting steps. MFP has a note about this in their FAQ area, you could check to see if there's a note about Jawbone interface issues.

    You can get your steps to add by disconnecting and reconnecting the app

    ashleesaid wrote: »
    I just got my jawbone up move yesterday. Before that I was using my iPhone as my pedometer. When I did that, MFP would give me back calories to eat based on the number of steps I took.

    Now that I'm using my jawbone, I've walked more than I did previously but getting zero calories added back for eating. Why is this happening?

    With my polar if I don't burn more calories than mfp projects I don't get credit for them, I will get a negative adjustments.

  • ashleesaid
    ashleesaid Posts: 50 Member
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    I un synced the iPhone and the jawbone is the only source. Update: I've gone over 10k steps and now it's giving me 157 cals back. Still seems like too few...
  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 609 Member
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    What do you have your daily activity set on?
  • ashleesaid
    ashleesaid Posts: 50 Member
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    Sedentary
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    Do you have negative adjustments enabled?
  • DJPM5
    DJPM5 Posts: 8 Member
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    The negative adjustment can be turned on and off at the myfitnesspal website
  • katkins3
    katkins3 Posts: 1,360 Member
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    Calorie adjustments drove me nuts, so I ignor them completely.. I set a calorie goal, which never changes, for me 1500, and concentrate on the basics. If I "earn" exta calories from exercise, I consider that icing on the cake and let it ride.
  • ashleesaid
    ashleesaid Posts: 50 Member
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    I do have negative adjustments enabled but I don't really understand what that means either haha. The FAQ article about it just confuses me and I consider myself to be reasonably smart
  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 609 Member
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    I think negative adjustments mean it use your Jawbone's projected calorie burn for the day instead of MFP
  • boomhower1820
    boomhower1820 Posts: 86 Member
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    I gave up on it. Used a Garmin Vivosmart and the adjustments drove me nuts. Seemed everday it would counteract my workout regardless how much I walked. Whether it was 2,000 or 5,000 steps it would negative adjust almost exact what my workout was measured by my HRM and digifit. I quit wearing the Garmin and leave a couple hundred calories as my workouts are constant cardio so the measured calorie burn is a little high.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
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    ashleesaid wrote: »
    I do have negative adjustments enabled but I don't really understand what that means either haha. The FAQ article about it just confuses me and I consider myself to be reasonably smart
    So your MFP account says sedentary, but is there a similar setting in your Jawbone account?

    Basically if you told jawbone your activity level was Wonder Woman active, it'll wait till you accomplish that activity for the day before it starts giving you extra calories, possibly deducting calories at the end of the day if you don't hit that goal, whatever it might be. It could be that for what your activity level is set in Jawbone, it doesn't start giving you more extra calories to eat until you exceed, say, 7500 steps

    You should peruse your jawbone account to see if there's any settings to be tweaked

  • kk_inprogress
    kk_inprogress Posts: 3,077 Member
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    ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »
    I think negative adjustments mean it use your Jawbone's projected calorie burn for the day instead of MFP

    No, negative adjustments mean if you don't take enough steps to meet the activity level (sedentary, active, etc) that you set on MFP, it will deduct calories until you achieve that level.
  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 609 Member
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    kkenseth wrote: »
    ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »
    I think negative adjustments mean it use your Jawbone's projected calorie burn for the day instead of MFP

    No, negative adjustments mean if you don't take enough steps to meet the activity level (sedentary, active, etc) that you set on MFP, it will deduct calories until you achieve that level.

    MFP has made negative adjustments for me with 20000 steps, and mine is set to active. I very rarely get a positive adjustment. Yesterday with 15000 steps I got a negative adjustment of -670 from polar because after walking 5 miles yesterday morning and having a positive calorie burn of 569 I didn't do much of anything else the rest of the day, so I still ended up with a negative for the day.

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    edited August 2015
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    ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »
    kkenseth wrote: »
    ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »
    I think negative adjustments mean it use your Jawbone's projected calorie burn for the day instead of MFP

    No, negative adjustments mean if you don't take enough steps to meet the activity level (sedentary, active, etc) that you set on MFP, it will deduct calories until you achieve that level.

    MFP has made negative adjustments for me with 20000 steps, and mine is set to active. I very rarely get a positive adjustment. Yesterday with 15000 steps I got a negative adjustment of -670 from polar because after walking 5 miles yesterday morning and having a positive calorie burn of 569 I didn't do much of anything else the rest of the day, so I still ended up with a negative for the day.

    Holy crap! How many steps do you have to do to have a positive adjustment at the end of the day?

    I'm set to lightly active, and I don't get out of the negative until around 3,000 steps. But I walk all day, on and off. So I always end up in the positive at the end of the day.
    I aim for 20,000-25,000 steps a day "most" days.

  • MysticRealm
    MysticRealm Posts: 1,264 Member
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    ashleesaid wrote: »
    I un synced the iPhone and the jawbone is the only source. Update: I've gone over 10k steps and now it's giving me 157 cals back. Still seems like too few...

    That sounds pretty correct to me.
    I ran a 5km obstacle course race today which had me climbing up and down hills and over walls, and such the entire time resulting in 70 'floors' and 12000 steps and I got 400 extra cals for that I believe. 10,000 steps isn't that much.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    ashleesaid wrote: »
    I just got my jawbone up move yesterday. Before that I was using my iPhone as my pedometer. When I did that, MFP would give me back calories to eat based on the number of steps I took.

    Now that I'm using my jawbone, I've walked more than I did previously but getting zero calories added back for eating. Why is this happening?

    Adjustments are the difference between your UP total burn (which is TDEE) and your MFP activity level. Click on the adjustment in your diary to see the math MFP used to calculate it, but you've burned fewer calories than your activity level.

    Enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 609 Member
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    christinev297 wrote: »
    ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »
    kkenseth wrote: »
    ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »
    I think negative adjustments mean it use your Jawbone's projected calorie burn for the day instead of MFP

    No, negative adjustments mean if you don't take enough steps to meet the activity level (sedentary, active, etc) that you set on MFP, it will deduct calories until you achieve that level.

    MFP has made negative adjustments for me with 20000 steps, and mine is set to active. I very rarely get a positive adjustment. Yesterday with 15000 steps I got a negative adjustment of -670 from polar because after walking 5 miles yesterday morning and having a positive calorie burn of 569 I didn't do much of anything else the rest of the day, so I still ended up with a negative for the day.

    Holy crap! How many steps do you have to do to have a positive adjustment at the end of the day?

    I'm set to lightly active, and I don't get out of the negative until around 3,000 steps. But I walk all day, on and off. So I always end up in the positive at the end of the day.
    I aim for 20,000-25,000 steps a day "most" days.

    I'm at 25500 right now, with a calorie burn 2500 for the day. BMR is 1470, usually has to get to 1600 before I get a positive adjustment for the day.

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