If you have a fitness tracker synced to MFP ...?
LotusCass
Posts: 145 Member
Do you eat back the calorie adjustment it gives you? I've set my activity level to sedentary and walk about 11000-12000 a day, so my vivofit adjusts adding on around 100 calories extra each day to MFP. I have only been eating back the actual exercise calories and not the adjusted ones from my tracker. I'm still getting my head around all this.
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Replies
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Your tracker estimates your daily TDEE.
Your adjustment reflects a number such that your TDEE as calculated by your tracker, less your chosen deficit = what's left to eat.
if you think that your choice of one of four activity settings is more accurate than your tracker's recording and analysis of your activities throughout the day, then by all means ignore the tracker's estimation of your TDEE and go with the setting that you picked.
otherwise, trust that the tracker you paid some money for will at the very least be able to consistently estimate your activity level more accurately than guessing at a setting on MFP.
Eat most (if not all) the calories it tells you to (the more aggressive your deficit the higher the % of calories I would eat back).
Compare your trending weight results to the results you would expect to get based on your deficit... and adjust based on real life results 4-6 weeks down the road...6 -
I eat back most if not all of my Vivoactive calorie adjustment daily. I walk about the same amount as you daily, sometimes more, and adjusted my activity level to Lightly Active, so I don't get a calorie adjustment until I hit around 5000 steps. Great advice from @PAV8888
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I have my Fitbit synched with MFP, and have my activity level set as sedentary. I eat back around 50% of those exercise-induced 'bonus' calories, leaving the rest on the table (literally!) to compensate for any inaccuracies in my food logging. After two years I continue to manage my weight in a totally predictable manner this way.
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Absolutely. I'm set to lightly active but my job can get pretty active (15,000 steps yesterday). If I didn't eat most of those calories back, I'd be hangry.3
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snickerscharlie wrote: »I have my Fitbit synched with MFP, and have my activity level set as sedentary. I eat back around 50% of those exercise-induced 'bonus' calories, leaving the rest on the table (literally!) to compensate for any inaccuracies in my food logging. After two years I continue to manage my weight in a totally predictable manner this way.
^^ This1 -
I eat when I am hungry...
For example I did not eat them all back yesterday as I wasn't hungry at 8pm(when I finally stopped and had already had dinner)...but I am today so I will eat more today.
Which is usually the way it goes...I am always more hungry on the day after being active (run day yesterday)3 -
I have an apple watch connected, and I eat all mine back. I'm losing an average of 1.5/week, which is what my MFP goal is set at.2
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Yes.
Why would you spend $100+ on something to track your calories throughout the day if you don't use or trust it?2 -
snickerscharlie wrote: »I have my Fitbit synched with MFP, and have my activity level set as sedentary. I eat back around 50% of those exercise-induced 'bonus' calories, leaving the rest on the table (literally!) to compensate for any inaccuracies in my food logging. After two years I continue to manage my weight in a totally predictable manner this way.
Exactly this....2 -
NorthCascades wrote: »Yes.
Why would you spend $100+ on something to track your calories throughout the day if you don't use or trust it?
Not everyone bought it to track calories...some use it as a watch and to track steps...aka ninerbuff...
as for trusting it eh...it's an algorithm that has been proven not to be accurate for all...even with a HRM...
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I use a Vivofit2 with HRM, and have it set to lightly active, while MFP automatically places you as sedentary. I would actually describe myself as fairly active because I go to the gym for one hour or more six days per week, and I take my dog on very long walks on the days I don't go. I always classify these extras as activity by starting the timer on my vivofit--even taking my dog on a 15 minute walk. As a result, my calorie adjustment varies a lot from day to day depending on how active I have been. Some days it will subtract some, some days it will add. In general, I find that the vivofit slightly underestimates calories burned, so if I want them, I eat all of the extra calories it gives me from both the adjustment and my activity back. Some days after a particularly long gym session, however, it will give me more extra calories than I really want to eat in a day. On those days, I don't eat them all back. But I do like to have the option!0
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Do you eat back the calorie adjustment it gives you? I've set my activity level to sedentary and walk about 11000-12000 a day, so my vivofit adjusts adding on around 100 calories extra each day to MFP. I have only been eating back the actual exercise calories and not the adjusted ones from my tracker. I'm still getting my head around all this.
I don't really look at the calories it gives me. I generally eat the same each day unless I have an extra active day, and then I really just eat to manage my hunger, using common sense of course!0 -
NorthCascades wrote: »Yes.
Why would you spend $100+ on something to track your calories throughout the day if you don't use or trust it?
Not everyone bought it to track calories...some use it as a watch and to track steps...aka ninerbuff...
as for trusting it eh...it's an algorithm that has been proven not to be accurate for all...even with a HRM...
I don't understand that at all. Guess I don't have to, each to their own. But it's not worth $100 to me to know if I walked 9,608 or 11,493 steps today.0 -
NorthCascades wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Yes.
Why would you spend $100+ on something to track your calories throughout the day if you don't use or trust it?
Not everyone bought it to track calories...some use it as a watch and to track steps...aka ninerbuff...
as for trusting it eh...it's an algorithm that has been proven not to be accurate for all...even with a HRM...
I don't understand that at all. Guess I don't have to, each to their own. But it's not worth $100 to me to know if I walked 9,608 or 11,493 steps today.
That's because its not worth it for that. But knowing that I walked 10k vs 2500. That's worth knowing. And the buzz reminding me that I've been staring at my computer for an hour is additional value added5 -
As an experiment I have worn both my Apple Watch and the Fitbit I was replacing. There's a MFP/AW bug that removes all step calories if a workout is ported from the AW to MFP, even when the workout and the walking were separate things. As such the Fitbit app gives me a good deal more cals to eat than MFP and AW. I eat my workout cals back but I never use the higher Fitbit number with the step cals and I am maintaining, for what that's worth. However that's an imperfect comparison because Fitbit calculates the allowance differently than MFP might and they are not hooked up.0
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NorthCascades wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Yes.
Why would you spend $100+ on something to track your calories throughout the day if you don't use or trust it?
Not everyone bought it to track calories...some use it as a watch and to track steps...aka ninerbuff...
as for trusting it eh...it's an algorithm that has been proven not to be accurate for all...even with a HRM...
I don't understand that at all. Guess I don't have to, each to their own. But it's not worth $100 to me to know if I walked 9,608 or 11,493 steps today.
sometimes it's not just about steps as well.
I mean lets be honest here...the algorithm on most trackers is not accurate for most people so the calories it shows burned has to be taken with a grain of salt. It takes time to figure out just how accurate it is for you.
And Take me for example I have the Fitbit Charge 2 HRM...just got it in March...it still is getting used to my stride length as I don't run/walk outside except from May to Sept due to weather.
It tracks my sleep (REM, Deep and light) , floors climbed, miles, active minutes, calories burned, how many days I've exercised, it has RHR...active HR, current weight, water drank, if I have moved at least 250 steps every hour plus it has a silent alarm that wakes me nicely...and it has reminders to move.
So if 1/13 items isn't as accurate as it could be so what..the 100+ spent on it was worth it...never mind the challenages it offers...2 -
I have map my walk syched with mfp. My 2 mile walk apparently burned well over 400cal, which I'm highly skeptical for. I anticipate it was only half that... Since I've got a lot of weight I still need to lose and such, and because I'm wary of how accurate exercise burn is, I tend not to. Now, if I had a goal of 1200-1300, I may rethink eating back a portion of my calories. Again, I've still got a bit to go and I'm not missing out if I don't eat them back (my goal is currently just over 1800 per day).0
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stanmann571 wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Yes.
Why would you spend $100+ on something to track your calories throughout the day if you don't use or trust it?
Not everyone bought it to track calories...some use it as a watch and to track steps...aka ninerbuff...
as for trusting it eh...it's an algorithm that has been proven not to be accurate for all...even with a HRM...
I don't understand that at all. Guess I don't have to, each to their own. But it's not worth $100 to me to know if I walked 9,608 or 11,493 steps today.
That's because its not worth it for that. But knowing that I walked 10k vs 2500. That's worth knowing. And the buzz reminding me that I've been staring at my computer for an hour is additional value added
I feel like I already know if I walked very little vs a lot without one though.
Plus, what do those numbers actually mean? Sunday I walked about 2,500 steps but I biked 40 miles on a mountain road - was that a bad day?0 -
NorthCascades wrote: »stanmann571 wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Yes.
Why would you spend $100+ on something to track your calories throughout the day if you don't use or trust it?
Not everyone bought it to track calories...some use it as a watch and to track steps...aka ninerbuff...
as for trusting it eh...it's an algorithm that has been proven not to be accurate for all...even with a HRM...
I don't understand that at all. Guess I don't have to, each to their own. But it's not worth $100 to me to know if I walked 9,608 or 11,493 steps today.
That's because its not worth it for that. But knowing that I walked 10k vs 2500. That's worth knowing. And the buzz reminding me that I've been staring at my computer for an hour is additional value added
I feel like I already know if I walked very little vs a lot without one though.
Plus, what do those numbers actually mean? Sunday I walked about 2,500 steps but I biked 40 miles on a mountain road - was that a bad day?
My fitbit would track that bike ride with GPS...so I would have it tracked...
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NorthCascades wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Yes.
Why would you spend $100+ on something to track your calories throughout the day if you don't use or trust it?
Not everyone bought it to track calories...some use it as a watch and to track steps...aka ninerbuff...
as for trusting it eh...it's an algorithm that has been proven not to be accurate for all...even with a HRM...
I don't understand that at all. Guess I don't have to, each to their own. But it's not worth $100 to me to know if I walked 9,608 or 11,493 steps today.
For some of us, it's a motivational tool. That was the original reason that I bought it. I have a personal goal of 10k steps a day. However, my employer now has a health insurance program that awards points/$ for certain step levels, towards our premium. So it actually IS worth my time to track it. To each their own, for sure.1 -
NorthCascades wrote: »I feel like I already know if I walked very little vs a lot without one though.
Plus, what do those numbers actually mean? Sunday I walked about 2,500 steps but I biked 40 miles on a mountain road - was that a bad day?
In what respect? If you mean, a bad day, exercise-wise, certainly not. But if you are doing a step challenge where you get awarded $ for step totals, then in that respect, yes. All depends on what you are using it for!0 -
NorthCascades wrote: »Yes.
Why would you spend $100+ on something to track your calories throughout the day if you don't use or trust it?
When I got the vivofit it wasn't with the intention of helping me lose weight, so I didn't really look into calories as part of it. I've only recently synced it to MFP and I'm still confused about how it all works which is why I asked the question. I wasn't saying I didn't plan to use it to track calories, I was just ineterested in what others did and how it all works.0 -
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I've been curious about that as well. For example my goal is 2240 I consumed 1921 burnt approximately 755 and have 1074 remaining. That seems like a lot of extra food. I set my goal at active being that I run 20 to 30 miles per week and walk an average of 13k steps at work. Still seems steep. Thoughts?0
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Do you eat back the calorie adjustment it gives you? I've set my activity level to sedentary and walk about 11000-12000 a day, so my vivofit adjusts adding on around 100 calories extra each day to MFP. I have only been eating back the actual exercise calories and not the adjusted ones from my tracker. I'm still getting my head around all this.
I have a fitbit Blaze and I eat back the calorie adjustment it gives me. I'm currently eating at a 1000 calorie deficit according to the fitbit data and logging. For me that is around a 750 calorie actual deficit according to results on the scale. It is very consistent for me, so even though it is not exact, it is consistent enough to let me eat in a way where I lose weight and am not starving.
Like PAV8888 said, you will want to be consistent for at least 4 weeks.
If you use a site like trendweight and weigh regularly, you should be able to see a trend and adjust from there.1 -
But do yall eat the green number???0
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cndkendrick wrote: »
I'm not sure what you mean by "green number". I eat to my set calorie goal (1410), plus the number MFP calculates that I have earned from exercise (which for today was only 70). Today I went a little over, but yesterday I was under.1 -
cndkendrick wrote: »But do yall eat the green number???
If you mean the number the arrow is pointing at, then yes.
However, some caveats, activity trackers are not accurate for everyone and can be off quite a bit for some people.
I log everything I eat and weigh in daily and log all my weights into a site called Trendweight. After a few weeks, it tells you what your actual deficit was based on your results on the scale. Then, you can compare that to what you ate and what your activity tracker told you that you burned and adjust accordingly.
According to my fitbit data, I'm eating at a 1000 calorie deficit which on the scale only proves out to be a 750 calorie deficit. Still, plenty for me.
So, yes, you can probably eat that green number for a month and just see where you end up to see if that's the right choice for you. There's a bit of experimentation involved. 1 -
jenniferinfl wrote: »cndkendrick wrote: »But do yall eat the green number???
If you mean the number the arrow is pointing at, then yes.
However, some caveats, activity trackers are not accurate for everyone and can be off quite a bit for some people.
I log everything I eat and weigh in daily and log all my weights into a site called Trendweight. After a few weeks, it tells you what your actual deficit was based on your results on the scale. Then, you can compare that to what you ate and what your activity tracker told you that you burned and adjust accordingly.
According to my fitbit data, I'm eating at a 1000 calorie deficit which on the scale only proves out to be a 750 calorie deficit. Still, plenty for me.
So, yes, you can probably eat that green number for a month and just see where you end up to see if that's the right choice for you. There's a bit of experimentation involved.
Oh, I see now, what the poster mean by green number-- duh. Yes, that is the number I eat, too.
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