Eliminate calorie adjustments
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ankitshah091
Posts: 5 Member
I linked my Fitbit to mfp, just to keep a record of steps I took and that is it. But it is automatically increasing my eating goals, which for me is counter productive and I do not want it to make any adjustments, is there a way to do that? I have already turned off my negative calorie adjustment in the Diary settings.
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Yeah, unsync the two apps. Keep the steps record in Fitbit alone.
The whole point of sycning them is to enable automatic calorie adjustments. If you don't want that, then unlink them.
However, when you say it's "counterproductive", be aware that eating too little is also counterproductive. The way MFP is set up, you absolutely should be eating back your exercise calories -- at least some of them -- to lose weight optimally. Too steep a deficit could lead to all kinds of unwanted side effects, namely muscle loss, fatigue, and inability to sustain the weight loss long term.0 -
Hello segacs, thank you for the response and also the insights on my thought process.
I only said that because the way I have been following (of course I am open to suggestions), there is a certain caloric goal that I need to lose per week through exercise and then the other goal is amount of total calories eaten per week. The reason I did not want it to adjust because if I am losing lets say my goal is 3300 per week through exercise, then that is the only place it should be recorded, right? And, if my weekly caloric intake goal is let's say 10000, then if those exercises adjust every day, then I will end up eating much more than 10000 calories but only exercising about 3300 through exercises. Isn't that going to get me to gain instead of lose weight?
Maybe I am thinking wrong, and not familiar with the intricacies that mfp has to offer, but that is what I had noticed since I synced my Fitbit to mfp. Please let me know your thoughts.
Thank you!0 -
Okay, let me see if I can break it down for you.
If you set up MyFitnessPal to lose, say, 1 pound per week, that will calculate how much it assumes you will burn at your daily activity level (e.g. "lightly active") and then calculate a 1lb/week deficit from that, which assumes a 3500 calorie deficit per week. So, let's say MFP assumes you're going to burn 2500 calories per day if you're lightly active, then it will give you a goal to eat 2000 calories per day, which is a deficit of 500/day or 3500/week.
Now, let's say Fitbit shows that, in reality, you've burned 2700 calories in a day instead of 2500. That's 200 more than MFP thought you'd burn. To stick to the 500-calorie daily deficit, you should really be eating 2200 calories that day, not 2000. So it will give you a calorie adjustment of 200 more calories to eat that day.
On the other hand, let's say you have a fairly sedentary day and Fitbit calculates that you only burn 2300 calories one day instead of 2500. That's where negative calorie adjustments come in: Fitbit will give you an adjustment of -200 for that day, so you'd only eat 1800 to maintain your deficit, not 2000.
To make this work properly, you want to ensure that:
1. MFP and Fitbit are both set up with your proper height, weight, age, etc.
2. As "activity level" you put something in MFP that's fairly close to the amount of activity you get on regular non-workout days, just from things like your job or your day-to-day life. For most people working at a desk job, that would be sedentary or lightly active. If you work at a more active job, you could choose a higher activity level.
3. You set up a reasonable goal in MFP based on your current weight and the amount you're trying to lose. For instance, if you want to lose 25-50 pounds, you should probably go with something like 1lb/week.
4. Enable negative calorie adjustments in Fitbit.
And voila.0 -
Wow, thank you for taking this time and helping me understand what is happening here.
The only question now I have is that maybe I need to change something on my profile to get everything the way you have explained. The reason I say this, I will give you an example, I checked my historic recordings for the past 5-6 days now, my daily eating goals are being adjusted exactly equal to the amount of calories I have burned that day, which should not be the case, according to me.
Currently, my daily goal is to burn 350 calories to keep losing 2 lbs per week, one day I lost 550 calories through Fitbit adjustment, the adjustment was 550 was added to my daily eating goal, but if I have understood correct, only 200 calories should have been added to my daily goal, am I right?
Assume this to be the first day of the week, so the fact that I might have already met my weekly goal is out of question here.
But I do understand completely what you have explained here and I guess I might have to make some changes in my eating overall, but this piece of the puzzle I am unable to join, and I appreciate you taking the time to help me with it.
Also, one more scenario, lets say, at the start of the week, my daily eating goal is 1600 calories/day, and burning goal is 350 per day, but instead for 2 days straight I burn 650 per day, which leaves me 600 over my target for 2 days, so on the 3rd day, when I start recording, my intake goal should be setup automatically to 1600+600=2200, instead of 1600, as per the totality of adjustments, right?0 -
I think you're confusing total burn with exercise burn.
Whatever you state on your MFP profile as your goal for exercise (e.g. 2 times per week) is totally irrelevant and isn't factored in by MFP or Fitbit in any calculations. You can leave that blank.
What Fitbit is measuring is your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) which takes into account the calories you burn through exercise, and also the calories you burn through normal daily activity and just through breathing and being alive. In total, that will be much more than 350. For a 25-year-old guy, it should be well over 2000, maybe more like 2500 or 3000 depending on your height and weight.
Your calorie adjustment will be the difference between that *total* burn and what MFP assumes is your burn without exercise, minus your deficit.
So you need to ignore the "burning goal" 'cause that's irrelevant info that's just confusing you. The numbers you should focus on are the total amount MFP assumed you burned, and the total amount that Fitbit said you burned. The difference between the two will be your calorie adjustment.0 -
Perfect! So maybe one last question then, where do I or can I see the amount that MFP assumed I will burn?
And you are absolutely right, it is much higher than 350, I looked through my Fitbit profile and it comes out to be about 1500 average, but yeah now I am curious to know the measurement that MFP has assumed.
Thanks for being so resilient with this and patient with me, now I have a much better perspective on this.
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The amount MFP assumes you'll burn in a day depends on your height, weight, age, gender, and the activity level you input. There used to be a spot on the "goals" section where it would explicitly show you this number. That seems to have been removed, but you can figure it out easily by taking the base calories that MFP gives you (before exercise / Fitbit adjustments) and adding back your calorie deficit to it:
- For 0.5lbs/week, add 250 calories
- For 1lb/week, add 500 calories
- For 1.5lbs/week, add 750 calories
- For 2lbs/week, add 1000 calories
So for example: If MFP gives you a default food goal of 1510 calories, and you have it set to lose 1 lb/week, your assumed calorie burn is 1510+500 = 2010.
That's the number MFP assumes you'll burn in an average day, including normal daily activity but excluding workouts.
If Fitbit says your actual calorie burn was higher than that, it will award you the difference as exercise calories. If it tracks your actual burn as lower, it will subtract them (provided you've enabled negative calories). So that way, assuming your goal is 1lb/week, you're always going to be targeting a 500-calorie daily deficit.
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But, if you've linked the two, isn't it better to set your activity level at sedentary and then let your fitbit make all the needed adjustments?0
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The other place you can see it is by going to your exercise diary on MFP and clicking the little info icon next to the Fitbit Calorie Adjustment. You should see a pop-in like this:
The first number (in the above example, 1643) is the number of calories Fitbit says I'll burn today. This number will update multiple times throughout the day, each time you sync, using actual data at the time of the sync and projected data for the rest of the day.
The second number (in the above example, 1565) is the number of calories that MFP assumes I'll burn each day from normal daily activity.
The calorie adjustment is the difference between the two numbers.0 -
But, if you've linked the two, isn't it better to set your activity level at sedentary and then let your fitbit make all the needed adjustments?
Some people prefer to just set it to sedentary, yeah. I think that works fine if you have a desk job and want to make sure that you won't see negative calorie adjustments.
I prefer to set MFP to lightly active, because, from experience, I know I tend to burn at least that many calories every day. I like to pre-plan my meals, and I don't want to be planning to eat too little and then end up with all these surplus calories to eat at the end of the day. I prefer to choose a number that's closer to my actual activity level, albeit on the low end.
It doesn't really matter what you choose, though -- that's all personal preference. Once it syncs, it should adjust to the right number either way.0 -
I set my activity to lightly active partly to motivate myself to get out of the negative numbers, but also because at the end of the day, I really am genuinely at least lightly active. Most days I get an additional 200-400 calories. In the roughly month I've had my charge HR, I've been as low as 7 extra calories and as high as 676 extra. If I happen to do my exercise later in the day, I really don't want to be looking at 1000 calories left after dinner. I'm trying to maintain (and trying not to lose any more, so extra calories really hurt in that).0
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But, if you've linked the two, isn't it better to set your activity level at sedentary and then let your fitbit make all the needed adjustments?
Some people prefer to just set it to sedentary, yeah. I think that works fine if you have a desk job and want to make sure that you won't see negative calorie adjustments.
I prefer to set MFP to lightly active, because, from experience, I know I tend to burn at least that many calories every day. I like to pre-plan my meals, and I don't want to be planning to eat too little and then end up with all these surplus calories to eat at the end of the day. I prefer to choose a number that's closer to my actual activity level, albeit on the low end.
It doesn't really matter what you choose, though -- that's all personal preference. Once it syncs, it should adjust to the right number either way.
Yep, it's definitely user preference. For me, I prefer to set mine at sedentary and then add on from there, like you (not who I quoted, the poster before) described. However, that's because I know that, for me personally, I will once in awhile have a day where I truly am sedentary - if I'm really busy at work, for example, I might get to the office at 8am, sit down at my desk, get up 2 or 3 times to grab my lunch from the fridge and use the restroom, and other than that not get up again until 6:30 or 7pm, at which time I go home and move around a bit but rarely enough to get me significantly out of that "sedentary" range. Those days are generally rare, but it works for me to pre-plan my day at the bare minimum that I will be able to eat and then add, like, an extra snack or serving at dinner or something as I go if possible. I generally have a good idea of how my day is going with enough time to incorporate that stuff without having a bunch of calories left at the end of the day, and if for some reason I have a giant positive adjustment I like to mentally "bank" some of those for a treat on the weekends anyway, margaritas or something. The longer you use a Fitbit, the better of an idea you'll have for what works for you.0 -
Can I ask with regards the activity level on MFP - I have a desk job, but go to the gym once a day Monday-Friday and burn approx. 400 calories, so should I stick to sedentary or move to Lightly active (Sed states 1490 calories, and lightly active is 1680 calories per day) - I always hit 2000 calories burnt at end of each day on FitBit0
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Do you actually plan your daily food through the whole day by what your adjustment is on MFP?
Then having the least adjustment, and having your Activity level higher to include exercise almost always done - would be better.
If you are going to eat a certain amount for breakfast and lunch and snack, and probably dinner too - and just need to know some tweaks to hit your goal by end of day - then sedentary would be just fine and help with accuracy at end of day.
Because the higher your activity level is set, the more calories per min MFP is estimating you burn.
But if you got to bed, or plop on couch for end of day calming down at say 9 pm - you have 3 hrs of below Sedentary calorie burn (almost BMR, sedentary is 1.25 x BMR rate), but MFP will be estimating say Lightly Active level of calorie burn (1.4 x BMR).
If you attempt to meet your eating goal by 10 pm with snacks - you'll find the next morning on first sync that the prior day was adjusted to the fact of NOT being Lightly Active from 10 - 12, but BMR level calorie burn - and you'll be over goal by 100-200 calories perhaps.
It'll always be the same - so you can easily always adjust, but as long as aware.0 -
Not 100% sure what a lot of that means...I don't really plan what meals I eat, I usually have a rough idea of Breakfast & Lunch but dinner can vary.
Yes I did find a couple of times that I've gone over my goal the next morning, even though it was under before I went to bed at 10pm. I'm usually sat down from 9pm, then in bed by 10pm as I get up at 5am
Should I change it back to sedentary and have the lesser calorie goal?0 -
The point is, it's really personal preference.
If you set it to sedentary, you can pretty much guarantee that you'll never have fewer calories than you've planned to eat. On the other hand, you could be left with a pretty big evening adjustment upwards, which could mean having a bunch of calories to spare. If you're the type to spend them all on snacks and you want to encourage yourself to use them for meals instead, you may not enjoy that.
If you set it to a higher activity level, you'll be closer to accurate on most days, which will make it easier to pre-plan your meals to hit your calorie target. On the other hand, if you have a stretch of less active days, you could end up with some negative calorie adjustments.
There's no "better" or "worse" way to do it. Try it both ways, see which you prefer.0 -
bump -- good explanation, thanks!0
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Testing 1 2 30
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Thanks!!! That's a big help. Will stick to lightly active as I'm forever up and down from my desk these days and I am far more active than I was when I started a year ago so should change my level0
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my activity level is closer to active, however I have MFP set to sedentary because I go into sloth mode at 5-6pm and am in bed by 8 most nights. If you're set to lightly active or Active then mfp expects you to maintain that level until midnight .0
