Apple Watch says I burned XXX calories MFP says XXX

lostgoals
lostgoals Posts: 57 Member
edited April 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
When I started my journey I may have set things up wrong but now MFP just counts the steps from my watch not the actual exercise. Using yesterday as an example..

MFP 1047 calories based on the 17k steps or so

Watch 1604 calories based on the SAME steps but it knew that half of them were jogging a quarter of them were incline walking and the rest were every day steps.


I can go with Sunday

MFP says 557 based on walking 13000 steps

Watch is 1100 knowing I had one 40 minute jog gave 600 calories from that. The rest from my every day steps.

I don't eat back most of my calories by any means, and I do eat when I am hungry. I would just like this to be as accurate as possible. I don't expect anything to be perfect of course but how can I merge MFP and my watch etc closer to the same numbers up or down. Sustainability is more important to me than the quick losses I have been experiencing (perhaps by not eating enough!)



Replies

  • terbusha
    terbusha Posts: 1,483 Member
    I disregard the calories I burn throughout the day. I set me calorie goal based on my progress towards my fitness goal. What I do and what I recommend to people is to eat at a calorie level that allows you to make good progress towards your goal. If you are trying to lose weight, eat so you drop 1-2 lbs/week. This assumes an average calorie burn from you getting in all of your workouts. This will be different for everyone, so you'll have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I'd start ~2200 cal/day. Hit this goal, along with your macros and getting in your workouts, for 2 weeks. If you lose 1-2 lbs/week, you're good to go. If you lose too much, increase your intake and repeat. If you don't lose enough, reduce your intake a bit and repeat. After a few cycles, you'll figure out what works for you in your situation.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    If you have an activity tracker sync'd with MFP make sure you are set to sedentary and eat back the calories...that's the reason for the tracker right?

    If not comfortable with eating all of them try 50%...or 75%.

    I eat up to my limit including my tracker calories sometimes more sometimes a little less depends on hunger.
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
    I feel your pain. I have a Vivofit 2 and it says I have burned alot more than myfitnesspal calculates. I don't know which is correct but I would really like for them to be in sync. If it's any help to you I find myfitnesspal low as well.
  • lostgoals
    lostgoals Posts: 57 Member
    terbusha wrote: »
    I disregard the calories I burn throughout the day. I set me calorie goal based on my progress towards my fitness goal. What I do and what I recommend to people is to eat at a calorie level that allows you to make good progress towards your goal. If you are trying to lose weight, eat so you drop 1-2 lbs/week. This assumes an average calorie burn from you getting in all of your workouts. This will be different for everyone, so you'll have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I'd start ~2200 cal/day. Hit this goal, along with your macros and getting in your workouts, for 2 weeks. If you lose 1-2 lbs/week, you're good to go. If you lose too much, increase your intake and repeat. If you don't lose enough, reduce your intake a bit and repeat. After a few cycles, you'll figure out what works for you in your situation.

    I have lost more than the 1-2 pounds a week consistently but I am trying to eat back more now because I am not in it for a crash diet(40 pounds in 8 weeks) I am in it for sustainable lifestyle.

    If you look at my diary I went from eating 1500 calories consistently up to 1800-2000 in the last few weeks trying to baseline a consistent weight loss. I know trial and error but I was hoping for a method to sync everything into one number so I can adjust based on it :)
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    click the little " i " next to your iOS adjustment in your exercise diary on the website to see the math behind your adjustment

    on the app, tap the exercise adjustment a couple times and it pulls up the math
  • ThunderZtorm
    ThunderZtorm Posts: 27 Member
    Generally, you shouldn't trust these automated "X calorie burned" numbers from fitness apps, as they simply don't have enough data to tell you your exact number.

    For example, I had a bikeride of 70km recently. Endomondo told me 3500 calories burnt. Strava told me 1500. In reality, I was probably closer to around 2k for that ride.

    I'd never eat back all the calories an app tells me I've burnt. Because all the apps tend to massively overestimate the number of calories burnt.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    ThunderZtorm wrote: »
    Generally, you shouldn't trust these automated "X calorie burned" numbers from fitness apps, as they simply don't have enough data to tell you your exact number.

    For example, I had a bikeride of 70km recently. Endomondo told me 3500 calories burnt. Strava told me 1500. In reality, I was probably closer to around 2k for that ride.

    I'd never eat back all the calories an app tells me I've burnt. Because all the apps tend to massively overestimate the number of calories burnt.

    apple watch isn't an app...it's a fitness tracker ...totally different.
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  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    GuitarJerry wrote: »
    Activity tracker are complete bs. Use TDEE. Just eat a consistent level where you achieve your goals. It's very simple. It will take a few months to dial it in. But, soon, you'll just eat 2000 a day and lose according to your goal. This idea of how much you burned on a particular day or on a particular exercise is ridiculous. It's not that accurate. Over weeks or months it matters, but not daily. That's just complete nonsense and a total scam.

    no they aren't.

    I have used mine for over a year and based on my calories in vs burned I have lost weight in line with the burns given by my tracker.

    Lots of people I know use them and have the same outcome.
  • lostgoals
    lostgoals Posts: 57 Member
    I appreciate all the replies :) I was hoping for a way to sync watch/mfp. I will continue to adjust caloric intake accordingly to get from 4/5 pounds a week to 2 pounds so I can maintain this forever :)
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    The Apple watch HRM should be more accurate than MFP. MFP is only uploading your total steps for the day, and making a calories adjustment based on that. (you can see if you click on the "i" next to the ios adjust, as Shadow mentioned above).

    The HRM for cardio should be correct...
  • JeepHair77
    JeepHair77 Posts: 1,291 Member
    Yes, MFP uses your flat stepcount to calculate calories, and it seems to assume that your steps are all at kind of a casual pace. If you want credit for a run, or a brisk walk, or incline walking - you have to input that separately.

    I think it's sort of true what @GuitarJerry says that it's not "that" accurate. No fitness tracker can give you perfect accuracy in calories burned. But it's a hell of a lot more accurate than strict guesswork, no?
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    Well, even HRM use a formula based on the 'average' male/female burn for activities.
    Most of us are not dead on average. But it should be pretty accurate for most purposes...
  • AlphaCajun
    AlphaCajun Posts: 290 Member
    edited April 2016
    GuitarJerry wrote: »
    Activity tracker are complete bs. Use TDEE. Just eat a consistent level where you achieve your goals. It's very simple. It will take a few months to dial it in. But, soon, you'll just eat 2000 a day and lose according to your goal. This idea of how much you burned on a particular day or on a particular exercise is ridiculous. It's not that accurate. Over weeks or months it matters, but not daily. That's just complete nonsense and a total scam.

    "Over weeks or months it matters, but not daily."

    I'm certain you understand weeks and months are literally multiple days in a series, right...

    Also, do it your way if you like but suggesting they're a scam or complete bs is beyond ignorant. Months to dial it in? Why not dial it in at the end of the first day?
  • thunder1982
    thunder1982 Posts: 280 Member
    I dont have an apple watch but I was wondering one is showing you net calories and one is gross.

    What I mean here is you mentioned you got 600 calories from a 40 min jog. That 600 might include your BMR calories (the amount of calories you would have burnt sitting on the couch for 40 mins). MFP has already taken into account those calories so its adjustment will only be the extra calories burnt by jogging.
  • lostgoals
    lostgoals Posts: 57 Member
    thunder1982 wrote: »
    I dont have an apple watch but I was wondering one is showing you net calories and one is gross.

    What I mean here is you mentioned you got 600 calories from a 40 min jog. That 600 might include your BMR calories (the amount of calories you would have burnt sitting on the couch for 40 mins). MFP has already taken into account those calories so its adjustment will only be the extra calories burnt by jogging.


    That's what I thought when I first started paying attention to the activity charts but like today my watch recorded

    1079 activity calories
    3577 total calories

    Mfp gave me my 13k steps for 600 calories.


    I am not upset by any means at losing so much weight quickly but I DO need to find a sustainable method and I know 1-2 pounds is the most I should be shooting for. So I'm going to increase my activity level in mfp to lightly active and maybe those extra calories will give me a more realistic long term weight loss method.
  • pebble4321
    pebble4321 Posts: 1,132 Member
    I have my activity level set at sedentary and allow MFP to make adjustments based on my activity during the day.
    I don't enter any other exercise as it's already included in the data from my Apple watch.

    I just checked this morning's walk/run by adding it manually from MFP and it came up at about 367 when the watch adjustment in MFP added about 372. So, for me, it's pretty close.

    I don't actually understand what's happening when you say the MFP gives you x calories for x steps - are you adding them manually?
  • Melanie858
    Melanie858 Posts: 19 Member
    I just got an Apple Watch myself and I found a way to get exercise synced to MFP as well as just steps. In the Health App on the iPhone under sources --> click My fitness pal and make sure all categories are "on" to ensure exercise is properly shared with MFP. This then includes steps and exercise in MFP. It cleverly doesn't double count calories as it accounts for what time exercise was completed compared to steps taken. Hope this is making sense!!
  • RosieRose7673
    RosieRose7673 Posts: 438 Member
    Up until this weekend, my Apple Watch was syncing steps and listing workouts. The calories worked out on MFP to be pretty spot on. The calories from both steps and exercise always added up to be about 150-200 calories less than the active calories from my Apple Watch. But... Doing the math, everything added up to be almost identical on both the Apple Watch and MFP. I think this is because on MFP, sedentary still assumes you burn SOME extra calories.

    But! Some reason after this weekend, the "step" count only started showing up for my calorie adjustments on MFP (correct steps but not listing my runs). Those calories were exactly what they would have been if both had been listed on MFP. There's no difference. I'm not entirely sure how that happens but it worked out just fine. Maybe an update or something?

    I have mine set to lose one lb a week. Then added the calorie adjustment. So yesterday, my calorie adjustment was around 800. So that made 2000 calories total to eat on MFP. Then add the 500 calorie deficit already added in and it was about 2500. Looking at my total calories yesterday, it matches. Hope that helps!
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    thunder1982 wrote: »
    I dont have an apple watch but I was wondering one is showing you net calories and one is gross.

    What I mean here is you mentioned you got 600 calories from a 40 min jog. That 600 might include your BMR calories (the amount of calories you would have burnt sitting on the couch for 40 mins). MFP has already taken into account those calories so its adjustment will only be the extra calories burnt by jogging.

    @thunder1982

    The Apple watch reports both 'active' calories (the extra you burned not sitting in front of the computer) and 'total' calories.

    Honestly, I don't think MFP does that. When I compare the calories that MFP would give me for a half hour run, its typically what my watch reports as 'total', which would be incorrect. I think the watch is more accurate.
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    pebble4321 wrote: »
    I don't actually understand what's happening when you say the MFP gives you x calories for x steps - are you adding them manually?

    No, if you look under your exercise calendar, there is an entry for ios adjust. This is using your steps from your phone/watch.

    If you turn on an exercise mode in your watch, is this reflecting exactly the activite calories into your MFP app? I think at least a few months ago, MFP was just importing the steps, not calories.

    >>>I just looked at some recent entries though and can see that it imported my workout calories from the watch, so I think this has been fixed.


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