Can't get negative calories in MFP app to appear

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lornaloo06
lornaloo06 Posts: 4 Member
edited February 2016 in Getting Started
I went online and selected to enable negative calories in hopes that my adjusted calories would be closer to my goal. So my goal is 1,200 calories a day but with general daily activities my adjusted calories are usually around 1,600 calories a day. I thought enabling negative calories would help keep me closer to 1,200 but I haven't seen a change in-app. I use the garmin vivosmart hr and there is no change there either. What am I doing wrong? I certainly appreciate being shown my adjusted calories, however I don't want to adjust my calories.

Replies

  • rachelr1116
    rachelr1116 Posts: 334 Member
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    I think you're wanting the negative calorie adjustment to do something it isn't intended to do. From what I understand the negative calorie adjustment takes calories away from your calorie goal based on not being as active as MFP assumed you would be. For example, I have negative calorie adjustment turned on and I have my Fitbit synced to MFP. I've told MFP that I'm sedentary but if I don't have enough steps on my Fitbit to even qualify as sedentary then MFP will take calories away from my daily goal. So if my daily goal is 1600 and I don't have enough steps to qualify as sedentary then MFP might lower my goal to 1500 for the day.

    If your goal is 1200 and you are entering excerise that will make your goal go up. Say you did 150 calories worth of exercise, that will increase your goal to 1350. Your general daily activities should already be accounted for when you set up your calorie goal so there would be no adjustments made based on general activities unless you have a fitness tracker synced. Does that make any sense?
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,238 Member
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    I am not saying the numbers are right, but, lets assume for a moment they are, that is, you could eat 1600 calories (the 1200 including the extra calories from your activity) and loss weight. That, by the way, is the way things are supposed to work, the 1200 goal (assuming it was given to you by putting your information into Myfitnesspal) already includes the calorie deficit. If you exercise more that deficit gets too big so you are meant to eat those calories you burned off exercising to keep your deficit in a reasonable and safe range. So assuming those numbers are right, why would you want to eat 1200 calories instead of 1600? Doing so will not improve fat loss, but will make for a far too large calorie deficit that will result in losing a higher percent of lean mass.

    Now some questions:
    1) What are your stats: Height, Weight, Age?
    2) What is a typical day for you like?
    3) How much do you want to lose?
    4) What did you set your weight loss per week goal at?
    5) How carefully do you measure and log your food? Do you weight solids (including grated and ground solids) and use measuring cups and spoons to measure liquids, and do you make and effort to make sure that what you are entering matching with the database entry you are using? Do you log everything you eat and drink?
  • iecreamheadaches
    iecreamheadaches Posts: 441 Member
    edited February 2016
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    rachelr1116 wrote: »
    I think you're wanting the negative calorie adjustment to do something it isn't intended to do. From what I understand the negative calorie adjustment takes calories away from your calorie goal based on not being as active as MFP assumed you would be. For example, I have negative calorie adjustment turned on and I have my Fitbit synced to MFP. I've told MFP that I'm sedentary but if I don't have enough steps on my Fitbit to even qualify as sedentary then MFP will take calories away from my daily goal. So if my daily goal is 1600 and I don't have enough steps to qualify as sedentary then MFP might lower my goal to 1500 for the day.

    If your goal is 1200 and you are entering excerise that will make your goal go up. Say you did 150 calories worth of exercise, that will increase your goal to 1350. Your general daily activities should already be accounted for when you set up your calorie goal so there would be no adjustments made based on general activities unless you have a fitness tracker synced. Does that make any sense?

    I keep my MFP set to sedentary, and use an Up band to track daily activity. When I first started I often was negative but now I'm always positive. I just eat back most or all of those extra cals my adjusment says I earned.

    All the "negative calorie adjustment" does is takes your MFP TDEE (which is gotten from just plugging your numbers into a calculator), vs what ever band you use's TDEE and whatever the difference is, it adjust your calories accordingly. So if my Up says my TDEE is 2500 but my MFP says its 2700, MFP would take away those 200 calories I'm negative. BUT if my Up says my TDEE is 2700 and my MFP says its 2500, I earn those calories back just like plugging in exercise cals.

    to OP i'm not sure why it's not working to cross over. Make sure you're not in too much of a deficit like it sounds like you may be.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    iecreamheadaches wrote: »
    rachelr1116 wrote: »
    I think you're wanting the negative calorie adjustment to do something it isn't intended to do. From what I understand the negative calorie adjustment takes calories away from your calorie goal based on not being as active as MFP assumed you would be. For example, I have negative calorie adjustment turned on and I have my Fitbit synced to MFP. I've told MFP that I'm sedentary but if I don't have enough steps on my Fitbit to even qualify as sedentary then MFP will take calories away from my daily goal. So if my daily goal is 1600 and I don't have enough steps to qualify as sedentary then MFP might lower my goal to 1500 for the day.

    If your goal is 1200 and you are entering excerise that will make your goal go up. Say you did 150 calories worth of exercise, that will increase your goal to 1350. Your general daily activities should already be accounted for when you set up your calorie goal so there would be no adjustments made based on general activities unless you have a fitness tracker synced. Does that make any sense?

    I keep my MFP set to sedentary, and use an Up band to track daily activity. When I first started I often was negative but now I'm always positive. I just eat back most or all of those extra cals my adjusment says I earned.

    All the "negative calorie adjustment" does is takes your MFP TDEE (which is gotten from just plugging your numbers into a calculator), vs what ever band you use's TDEE and whatever the difference is, it adjust your calories accordingly. So if my Up says my TDEE is 2500 but my MFP says its 2700, MFP would take away those 200 calories I'm negative. BUT if my Up says my TDEE is 2700 and my MFP says its 2500, I earn those calories back just like plugging in exercise cals.

    to OP i'm not sure why it's not working to cross over. Make sure you're not in too much of a deficit like it sounds like you may be.

    MFP runs off of NEAT, not TDEE.

    OP, what the negative calories adjustment does is ensure that you aren't overeating on a less active day. If MFP looks at your sync with Garmin and thinks you aren't going to hit what it believes are your maintenance calories, then it will take calories away. However, 1200 is the absolute minimum MFP will give, so it won't adjust below that.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    If you don't want to see the adjusted calories then disconnect the device from MFP.

    Enabling negative adjustments does not change anything if you're always moving enough to earn 'extra' calories. It will mean that on days where you don't move much, instead of seeing 0 you'll see a negative number. BUT if you're at 1200 it won't go below that anyhow.
  • lornaloo06
    lornaloo06 Posts: 4 Member
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    Thanks for all the responses, everyone! I did in fact have the wrong idea about what negative calories did. I log anywhere between 3,000 and 8,000 steps a day, but I don't do a lot of actual exercise (i.e. I don't log many intensity minutes, my HR never gets high enough). I'm working up to starting a good exercise regimen by starting small and holding myself accountable for calories and steps.

    I think what I'll do is wait to sync my steps at the end of the day in an effort to stay near my calorie goal.

    To answer @rileysowner :
    1. 5'2", 110 lbs, 27 y/o
    2. Typical day varies, I'm a personal assistant, but I average 5,000 steps/day.
    3. I'd like to lose 10 lbs. I have a petite frame but carry extra weight all over. I have a "soft" physique.
    4. I think I set my goal at 1lb/week.
    5. I'm pretty good about scanning bar codes and looking up restaurant facts. I do estimate measurements from time to time, but I do my best to be honest about my estimates.

    Thanks again for the responses and clarifications. Garmin and MFP websites weren't helpful and are often, for me, difficult to navigate. I appreciate the input and advice!
  • hazleyes81
    hazleyes81 Posts: 296 Member
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    Is your Garmin even syncing to mfp? Mine has not been for quite a while. I even disconnected them and tried reconnecting them. So that may be the problem. Plus you will only get a negative adjustment if your activity is less than your activity level setting.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
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    TL;DR in case others had this question

    MFP won't allow you to go below 1200 EVER. Period. So having negative adjustments enabled would fall under the category of EVER. It's not gonna reduce you below 1200.

    If you were at, say, 1400, it would work, because MFP can go below 1400, until it reaches 1200, then it won't go lower then either.
  • NinaSharp
    NinaSharp Posts: 101 Member
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    rachelr1116 wrote: »
    I think you're wanting the negative calorie adjustment to do something it isn't intended to do. From what I understand the negative calorie adjustment takes calories away from your calorie goal based on not being as active as MFP assumed you would be. For example, I have negative calorie adjustment turned on and I have my Fitbit synced to MFP. I've told MFP that I'm sedentary but if I don't have enough steps on my Fitbit to even qualify as sedentary then MFP will take calories away from my daily goal. So if my daily goal is 1600 and I don't have enough steps to qualify as sedentary then MFP might lower my goal to 1500 for the day.

    If your goal is 1200 and you are entering excerise that will make your goal go up. Say you did 150 calories worth of exercise, that will increase your goal to 1350. Your general daily activities should already be accounted for when you set up your calorie goal so there would be no adjustments made based on general activities unless you have a fitness tracker synced. Does that make any sense?

    This!

    It doesn't do what you think it would do. It simply allows MFP to take away the extra calories that you said you were going to earn. So if you predicted that you would walk for 30 minutes and burn 150 calories, but your fitbit says you didn't actually burn that much, it takes it away from you.

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