MFP Calories burned oversight?

Avalonis
Avalonis Posts: 1,540 Member
edited September 29 in Health and Weight Loss
So I was doing some analysis, and I think I've discovered an oversight in the way MFP calculates calories burned.

Lets say you have a BMR + Daily activities modifier of 2400 calories a day. Meaning, doing your NORMAL day to day activities, you burn 2400 calories. 2400cals / 24 hours in a day = 100 calories burned/hour.

Now, lets say you enter in a long running, low intensity activity like golf, for 4 hours, which burns ~1200 calories.

MFP will now calculate your calorie goal for the day to be 3600, which is your original 2400 + 1200.

However, just by doing normal daily activities in the 4 hours you were playing golf, you would have burned 400 calories. So I think MFP should be subtracting your Normal daily burn from the Exercise burned to calculate the amount you need to eat. Namely, you should have to eat an ADDITIONAL 800 calories because MFP already gave you 400 of them.

Now, for short things under an hour, I don't think this will make much of a difference. But for long running tasks like golf, cleaning, ect, I think this could significantly slow your rate of loss, because you would actually eat less of a deficit.

Any thoughts on the matter?

Replies

  • HoLLyZ82
    HoLLyZ82 Posts: 467 Member
    ive often wondered about this and it makes perfect sense.
  • Mike523
    Mike523 Posts: 393 Member
    Lots of people on here subtract their hourly TDEE calories from their exercise calories before they enter them. I typically do if my workout is over an hour.
  • AnnaPixie
    AnnaPixie Posts: 7,439 Member
    Yes, you have to subtract your resting calories from your activity. And yes, it makes a difference over hours rather than minutes.

    Well observed Mr Avalonis!

    :flowerforyou:
  • slimdownspicey
    slimdownspicey Posts: 110 Member
    that totally makes sense...i usually use my hrm to input calories burned, i guess i should start subtracting too though.
  • TheKitsune6
    TheKitsune6 Posts: 5,798 Member
    This is why I don't use my BMR - I use my RMR to calculate deficit.
  • binsylad
    binsylad Posts: 99
    Often though the same.....Can we assume the same when using an HRM to calculate the cals?

    Rarely do more than an hour though!!
  • Avalonis
    Avalonis Posts: 1,540 Member
    Often though the same.....Can we assume the same when using an HRM to calculate the cals?

    Rarely do more than an hour though!!

    I used to HRM (Well, BodyMedia FIT full body monitor) to come to these conclusions. So... yes :D
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    It's logical, and I've read this before, but I don't bother!
    I'm convinced that everything I log (food and exercise) is an estimate anyway, and the under-estimations probably cancel out the over-estimations. The worst that will happen is that my deficit is a bit smaller one day and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.
    But, I guess if I was to start logging 6 hours of exercise every day it would be more critical.
  • barbiex3
    barbiex3 Posts: 1,036 Member
    lol yup. i always knew that :P thats why you dont eat ALL them back
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