MyFitnessPal and "Exercise Calories" confusion!

For instance, today MFP goals look like this, 1500 Goal (my goal calorie intake each day) - 1668 Food (how much I've eaten through out the day)+ 420 Exercise (extra calories MFP is saying I've got to eat from exercise) = 252 Remaining.

CafeRacer808 wrote: »

MFP member SideSteel explains it really well in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67USKg3w_E4

This video was incredibly helpful!!! Thank you very much for that!

My other question is, he mentioned in the video that if you use MFP's default caloric intake/day, then yes, but I do not, nor do I use another calorie calculator, I set the 1500 calories a day goal myself, that wasn't MFP's recommendation. Will the answer still be the same?

Here's another thing I find interesting, yet confusing, according to MFP's default calories, I should be taking 1970 calories per day, and according to the video above, because I'm using the default calories, I should eat those extra calories, or at least 50% of them. Now, if I use this website, http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html?ctype=standard&cage=24&csex=m&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=9&cpound=252&cheightmeter=180&ckg=60&cactivity=1.375&printit=0&x=72&y=14 and put in my information, it says I need 1920 calories/day to lose 2 lb's per week with Lightly Active selected, and in the video he said if you're using an external calculator, he said don't add those calories because it's already done that for you. So that website has me eating 50 less calories, plus I won't be adding my exercise calories to that. Forgive me if this actually just made me a bit more confused, but I'm trying to understand everything the best I can!

CafeRacer808 wrote: »

TwistMotionless wrote: »

My other question is, he mentioned in the video that if you use MFP's default caloric intake/day, then yes, but I do not, nor do I use another calorie calculator, I set the 1500 calories a day goal myself, that wasn't MFP's recommendation. Will the answer still be the same?

That depends. How did you choose 1500 calories as an appropriate calorie goal for yourself?

I just chose that as a number before I knew anything about all this and was trying to lose weight ASAP, I now see that 1500 was a dangerous number to go by because then I'd be losing much more than 2 lb / week. But here, I'll explain my confusion a bit better.

Okay, so according to the default calories of MyFitnessPal, it says I need 1970 calories a day with Light Activity, 5'9 height, and 252 lb's, and according to your video if I understood correctly, while using the default calories, I do need to add the exercise calories or at least 50% of them for extra food intake, here's where my confusion comes in to play, according to other calculators, I need 1920 calories (50 less calories than MFP suggests) and also according to your video, while using external calculators like, the two I used were calculator.net and https://content.tigerfitness.com/tdee-calculator-total-daily-energy-expenditure/ but like you said in your video, if you use the external calculators, you don't add the exercise calories because the calculator has already done that? But according to these calculators, I would be eating marginally less calories according to external calculators than what MFP is telling me to eat. Please help?! Very confused by this and trying to lose weight! (Also when I say "marginally less than what MFP tells me to eat" I mean that because 1920 calories per day for 2 lb/week weight loss, also not adding in those exercise calories, compared to the 1970 calories per day MFP is telling me to do by default, then adding in the roughly 300-400 calories a day I do from going to the gym for exercise, so with MFP I'd be eating roughly 2270 calories.

Now, with that in mind, the external calculators have me eating 1920 calories per day taking account for my exercise, MFP has me taking in 1970 calories, not taking account for my exercise. This is where my confusion comes into play.

CafeRacer808 wrote: »

When you went through MFP's guided setup, did you choose "lightly active" based on the amount of exercise you typically do in a week, or did you choose that because your job has you on your feet all day (ie - waiter/waitress, cashier, etc)?

Also, it's not my video. It's SideSteel's (I want to make sure he gets his due credit because the video is so helpful).

Yes I did choose lightly active on MFP and on all other external calculators.
I understand, I just said yours because I left that same comment on his video, and copied and pasted to this, forgot to change the "yours" XD

CafeRacer808 wrote: »

TwistMotionless wrote: »

CafeRacer808 wrote: »

When you went through MFP's guided setup, did you choose "lightly active" based on the amount of exercise you typically do in a week, or did you choose that because your job has you on your feet all day (ie - waiter/waitress, cashier, etc)?

Also, it's not my video. It's SideSteel's (I want to make sure he gets his due credit because the video is so helpful).

Yes I did choose lightly active on MFP and on all other external calculators.
I understand, I just said yours because I left that same comment on his video, and copied and pasted to this, forgot to change the "yours" XD

On MFP, "activity level" refers to your daily activity level not including exercise. So, it generally refers to your job. If you have a desk job, you would be "sedentary". If you're a waiter or retail worker where you're on your feet all day, you would be "lightly active". If you're on your feet and moving boxes or other heavy items often, you'd be "active", etc.

I chose Lightly Active because I go to the gym 3-4 days per week, should I not choose Lightly Active solely due to that? And choose instead my activity level based on my job? I work at a warehouse, but it's only 2 days per week due to college. But I see how this would make more sense, lol thanks for clearing that up for me!