Calorie Adjustment Going Insane.

laureltn
laureltn Posts: 87 Member
edited January 2017 in Social Groups
I figured out this started on Saturday the 14th. It is giving me my calories burned for activities logged on my Vivoactive HR, but then also giving me a calorie adjustment for all the steps/etc. that are in those activities. I've deleted this one twice already and it just keeps coming back! I also unlinked the accounts on both MFP and Garmin, but it's still determined to give me a bazillion calories for basically breathing. I'll just keep deleting it and eating what I know I should be eating, I guess! (And I did post it as a question in the technical support)



Your Exercise Diary for:
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Cardiovascular Minutes Calories Burned
Running (jogging), 5.2 mph (11.5 min mile) 20 190
Strength training (weight lifting, weight training) 16 126
Walking, 3.0 mph, mod. pace 89 433
Garmin Connect calorie adjustment Ic_i N/A 400
Add Exercise Quick Tools

Replies

  • MnMicrobiologist
    MnMicrobiologist Posts: 3 Member
    I've had the same issue - any luck figuring it out? This happened on the 18th for me... I kept seeing the same run over and over - to the point where it said I burned 15,000 calories...
  • laureltn
    laureltn Posts: 87 Member
    No, I haven't been able to really make sense of it. My BMR is like 1243. I want to lose a pound a week ,but MFP says I can't go below 1200 so it says more like 3/4th of a pound a week. BUT then Garmin comes in and slaps all these extra active calories in along with my workout calories. MFP keeps screaming at me to eat, but if I ate what all they're saying I not only wouldn't lose any weight, I'd gain it. I don't recall having it be this complicated when I was using my FitBit for steps. I'd get calories for runs with my Garmin and then steps for everything else. Just seems like the active calories are really high, especially because Garmin doesn't have anywhere to set whether you want to gain/lose/or maintain your weight. It's just pushing its data over to MFP. Today I haven't actually worked out at all. I've got a little over 8100 steps and it's sending 419 calories to MFP for activity/exercise. That's about right, I suppose, for a 4-mile walk for me, I guess. I don't know. It just seems like the deficits are way higher with Garmin tracking steps than FitBit.
  • tmoneyag99
    tmoneyag99 Posts: 480 Member
    Same here. Yesterday Garmin said i burned 250 during aerobic activity and MFP slapped on 800 extra calorie burn.

    I've unlinked them and just keep a spreadsheet with calories in (from MFP) totals netted against calories out totals (From Garmin) It kind of makes choosing a fitness watch based on it's ability to link pointless.
  • laureltn
    laureltn Posts: 87 Member
    Today it's pushing 698 active calories over. I ran 3.1 on a treadmill and did about 30 minutes of circuit training. It awarded 180 calories for the strength training and 314 for the run. It's then given me another 200 calories to sit at my desk the rest of the day apparently, though.
  • laureltn
    laureltn Posts: 87 Member
    Good grief. Went to gym today. 4 miles on treadmill, 414. Yeah, that's right. 20 minutes of circuit training, 165 calories. I think that's high, but whatever. Active calories going over to MFP? 778. I had like 700 steps when I left for the gym and have done nothing but come home and shower. So I get another 200 calories just because I'm so fabulous. ARGH!!!!
  • jonchew
    jonchew Posts: 239 Member
    Did this issue ever get resolved?

    I had a day (4/16/17) where I biked for 36 mins (559 cals), and walked for 9785 steps, but "burned/adjusted" over 5300 active calories for the day. I disconnected from MFP after that one!

    Does this just happen occasionally, or what?
  • lumenosis
    lumenosis Posts: 66 Member
    I am having this problem, Garmin and MFP are not playing nice. MFP is telling me I have a crazy amount of calories for today like 2,850. My total burn for today is 3602, that is not a 1000 calorie deficit as it should be. Does anyone know how to fix this?
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,130 Member
    lumenosis wrote: »
    I am having this problem, Garmin and MFP are not playing nice. MFP is telling me I have a crazy amount of calories for today like 2,850. My total burn for today is 3602, that is not a 1000 calorie deficit as it should be. Does anyone know how to fix this?

    Has this only happened today (i.e. you had a much lower adjustment for similar exercise previously)? The calculation of your total burn is different in MFP than it is in Garmin so the adjustment, as they use different methods. 2850 may not be as crazy as you think depending on what your activity was and what your stats are.

    and

    Was this your end of day adjustment, because it adjusts throughout the day based on your level of exercise, if you have done a lot of working out in the morning it may assume that level of activity for the whole day and only adjust down later in the day.

    A couple of things to check:
    • Are your stats correct in Garmin, if your height or weight is off, it may be calculating your calories incorrectly
    • Are your exercises double logging from another app as well (Strava, C25K, etc)
    • Check your activity level in MFP is correct

  • rlesc1985
    rlesc1985 Posts: 22 Member
    Activity level plays a huge part in this, the lower your activity level the crazier this goes. Garmin is likely picking up the calories from your heart rate being elevated even after you are done the excercise.

    My solution on this was I changed my status to active in MFP, and then enabled a negative calorie adjustment (has to be done on the website). Leaves the floor of your calories a little less obvious but I get a lot less in the way of huge calorie adjustments. I also just dont eat back my calorie adjustment, only the excersice ones if it was a big burn.
  • laureltn
    laureltn Posts: 87 Member
    The last two days mine is going crazy again and not sure why. And I'm rehabbing a tweaked posterior tibial tendon so I am confined to a stationary bike and the elliptical. I have gotten to where when it seems so ridiculous like this, I just ignore it. MFP shrieks that I am starving and death is imminent, but I just use common sense on what exercise calories are warranted to eat back.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    I'm having the opposite problem now, and I can see clearly what has happened, though sometimes it corrects at midnight - which isn't really useful for easy math earlier to meet goals.

    Garmin's side doesn't increase the daily burn by the amount of a manually added or corrected workout.

    Therefore it sends to MFP a daily burn lower than reality.

    But it still sends the workout data - which MFP correctly removes from the daily so as not to double-count it.

    Except in this case Garmin never had it included - so I'm getting an adjustment that has the workouts removed twice before the math is done.

    So yesterday I have a neg 303 adjustment, which it should have been over by some 500 cal.

    At least I can take peek at Garmin CI/CO chart and see the difference instantly and math it.
    Though I'm still trying to figure out the usefulness of the Net value they give. (when RMR doesn't mean what they say they use it as).
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    So some experiments.

    If device is synced with Garmin Connect first, with a workout from the device, the daily burn on GC is correct and goes over to MFP correct, with workout included.

    If that workout is corrected for calorie burn, it does not (at least in 4 hrs and 2 more syncs off device and totals over to MFP) correct the entry on MFP - must manually correct that.

    MFP needs some time to decide to use the new number in it's math, as shown on the Adjustment more Info screen.

    If a workout is manually entered or synced off other Garmin device, it takes a few updates to refresh Garmin's own math for new total.
    It does correctly replace, not add to, the existing distance and calorie burn.

    Even if the workout is added first, and device syncs 2nd, the math is done correctly.
    Once GC update's it's own figures.

    Then those sync over to MFP.
    Problem is the initial incorrect figures can sync across, and then it may take awhile for new ones to be accepted.

    Generally, 3rd party accounts only send a sync that is 100 calories higher than prior sync, so if correction to a workout causes a lowering of calories, it may take awhile.

    So my normal late in evening sync is a killer, when correction to bike ride is lowering 200 calories.
  • kristinamajsec
    kristinamajsec Posts: 9 Member
    edited December 2018
    Hi all,
    not sure if this is the right place to post, but I am also quite confused with how MFP/GC interact to give a calorie estimate.

    I have recently migrated from Fitbit Flex2, which is such a simple device, yet was very good in tracking all sorts of activities. I wasn't taking Fitbit total daily burn estimates as gospel, but I was relying on it to be somewhat accurate, and have lost quite a few pounds in the last year this way (maintaining deficit under Fitbit estimate).

    Now, Garmin Vivoactive 3 not only shows a ridiculous amount of total daily burned calories, but the number is buried somewhere in the sidebar of the app, instead of being on My Day tab. Calories In/Out on My Day tab are even higher estimates.

    For a short woman my BMR is quite low (around 1350), and I would gain fast all those pounds that I have worked so hard to lose if I were to follow Garmin numbers. So far, it seems to have my BMR about 250 cals higher than it should be, and on top of that gives active calories. The active calories alone seem to be ok, but the starting BMR is high. This is in the "Calories" part of the app.

    At Calories In/Out part Garmin app appears to take my MFP goal as a starting point and adds active calories on top of that - resulting in an even higher total daily cals (like 2900 this Sunday!). I have my MFP settings on "Active" and then -250 deficit, maybe I should switch to Sedentary (although that is way off mark) and then Garmin would estimate lower?

    How do you people cope with that? Does it improve in accuracy over time? Did you change some settings to make it more accurate? Or is this just my device... I have had Garmin less than a week, still thinking about returning it and buying Charge 3 from Fitbit instead. People claim Garmin's are much more superior devices, which might be true but...I noticed Fitbit has a much larger community here on MFP and seems to work smoothly with MFP.

    Confused and slightly dissapointed new Garmin user here :(
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Improvements can be made by getting the stride length correct.
    If you run of course the running stride.

    But walking is sometimes very needed.

    Walk a known distance of at least 1/2, but better a mile, like a track.
    Walk at 2 mph, which is not grocery store shuffle or exercise level pace, hopefully right in middle. About avg daily pace.

    That way dynamic distance can be corrected best chance either direction, from distance and time and weight comes calorie burn calc, pretty accurate if distance is good.

    That's probably a huge part of the problem if you have a lot of daily steps.

    Your MFP activity setting has no bearing on Garmin calories being reported back to MFP. Merely changes the amount of adjustment.
    From Active to Sedentary would cause the same goal of eating by the end of the day - merely from larger adjustment being done, that's all.

    Garmin gets no calorie info from MFP - it merely uses similar formula to arrive at the same BMR figure.

    What did you do on Sunday - how many steps? How much distance? What workouts?
  • kristinamajsec
    kristinamajsec Posts: 9 Member
    Hi heybales and thank you for answering!
    I played a bit with my new watch and discovered more things in the app and I think I'm figuring it out.
    The activity calories don't seem very off, I think. I went for a first few walks with the GPS on, to help establish stride length. Otherwise, most of my activities are indoors now.

    But what I thought was BMR is definitely higher than any calculator out there, and after some reading on Garmin forums it seems this is intentional. What Garmin Connect reports under "resting" calories is not BMR but more on the level of sedentary TDEE (around 1600 for me)

    On the calories In/Out GC app does seem to take MFP numbers but I will just ignore those.

    The most important thing for me is that in the end of the day GC sends to MFP reasonable numbers, actually. I have gotten too confused with all the different calorie numbers in the GC apo that I failed to realize this at first.

    So all good, false alarm!

    Sunday I walked a lot, getting stuff done, but there was little intentional exercise (short treadmill run and few laps in the pool) so most of those active calories came from huge number of steps.
    GC said around 1000 active cals and in one part of the app added that to 1900 saying that was MFP daily goal, calculating adjusted goal to 2900 - but as I've said above I will ignore Cals In/Out part of the GC app because it actually sends lower numbers for total daily calories to MFP.