Apple Watch - Active Calories

Naruya wrote: »

It's not a bug, it's that MFP uses a different number than the Apple Watch. The active calories on your Apple Watch are purely active calories, added to your BMR for a total number of calories burned that day. MFP has your TDEE set based on your activity level, which includes some normal activity like walking around and doing chores. So your Apple Watch adjustment won't start kicking in untill an x amount of calories burned. How much depends on your settings and stats. If you were to eat back all active calories your AW is awarding you you will be overeating, because MFP already accounts for some of those calories. Keep that in mind

I am definitely experiencing some kind of a bug. The alogorithim is supposed to work by taking the projected total calories burned for the day (TDEE) based on your fitness tracker data (this is the MFP iOS Calories Burned figure on teh Calorie Adjustment calculation page), and subtracting from that the TDEE that MFP initially estimates you will lose (i.e "MyFitnessPal Calories Burned" value in the Calorie Adjustment calculation page.) So for me right at this moment my projected TDEE from my Apple Watch is 1847, and my MFP TDEE estimate is 1832. So I'm projected to burn 15 more calories than MFP initially assumed, and I'm getting a credit of 15 calories. This all makes sense so far.

Here's the problem when I set my goals I said to use a "Sedentary" activity level and a weight loss of goal of 0.5 lb/week (i.e. 250 calorie deficit per day.) If MFP thinks my TDEE is going to be 1832 then the calories goal it should have for me is 1582, but it's giving me a calorie goal of 1390. I'm trying to target a deficit of 250, and it's giving me a deficit of 442. No wonder I'm so damn hungry.

Oddly when I change my activity level to "Lightly Active" my daily calorie goal bumps up to 1580, but the TDEE that MFP is using to calculate my "exercise" calories from my apple watch stays the same at 1832. I tried changing myself to "Very Active" and same situation, my calorie goal for the day adjusts correctly, but the number used to calculate my exercise calories doesn't. Based on other online TDEE calculators it appears a TDEE of 1832 (what MFP is using regardless of what I tell it to use) is consistent with a "Lightly Active" level for me.

So my conclusion is the exercise adjustment for the fitness tracker (at least for the apple watch) uses a "Lightly Active" level (regardless of what you may have used for your goal), so unless your calorie goal is set using "Lightly Active" your exercise adjustment will be off.

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

lindamc925 wrote: »

Naruya wrote: »

It's not a bug, it's that MFP uses a different number than the Apple Watch. The active calories on your Apple Watch are purely active calories, added to your BMR for a total number of calories burned that day. MFP has your TDEE set based on your activity level, which includes some normal activity like walking around and doing chores. So your Apple Watch adjustment won't start kicking in untill an x amount of calories burned. How much depends on your settings and stats. If you were to eat back all active calories your AW is awarding you you will be overeating, because MFP already accounts for some of those calories. Keep that in mind

I am definitely experiencing some kind of a bug. The alogorithim is supposed to work by taking the projected total calories burned for the day (TDEE) based on your fitness tracker data (this is the MFP iOS Calories Burned figure on teh Calorie Adjustment calculation page), and subtracting from that the TDEE that MFP initially estimates you will lose (i.e "MyFitnessPal Calories Burned" value in the Calorie Adjustment calculation page.) So for me right at this moment my projected TDEE from my Apple Watch is 1847, and my MFP TDEE estimate is 1832. So I'm projected to burn 15 more calories than MFP initially assumed, and I'm getting a credit of 15 calories. This all makes sense so far.

Here's the problem when I set my goals I said to use a "Sedentary" activity level and a weight loss of goal of 0.5 lb/week (i.e. 250 calorie deficit per day.) If MFP thinks my TDEE is going to be 1832 then the calories goal it should have for me is 1582, but it's giving me a calorie goal of 1390. I'm trying to target a deficit of 250, and it's giving me a deficit of 442. No wonder I'm so damn hungry.

Oddly when I change my activity level to "Lightly Active" my daily calorie goal bumps up to 1580, but the TDEE that MFP is using to calculate my "exercise" calories from my apple watch stays the same at 1832. I tried changing myself to "Very Active" and same situation, my calorie goal for the day adjusts correctly, but the number used to calculate my exercise calories doesn't. Based on other online TDEE calculators it appears a TDEE of 1832 (what MFP is using regardless of what I tell it to use) is consistent with a "Lightly Active" level for me.

So my conclusion is the exercise adjustment for the fitness tracker (at least for the apple watch) uses a "Lightly Active" level (regardless of what you may have used for your goal), so unless your calorie goal is set using "Lightly Active" your exercise adjustment will be off.

First, thanks for bumping this, because I just started using the Apple Watch last week and could not figure out why steps but not workouts were synching (duh, because I linked the iPhone via steps but not Health via apps). Second, I'm trying to figure out the glitch you're seeing. I'm set to active on MFP, so right now my TDEE is 2514. My watch synch is showing projected 2529 so a 15 calorie positive adjustment, which seems on track. When I turned on negative adjustments, though, the 2529 and 2514 numbers stayed the same, but now I'm showing a -560 adjustment. When I changed my setting to lightly active, I'm still seeing a -560 adjustment. Is that the glitch, and does that mean my standard adjustment on active is incorrect? And shouldn't I be seeing a zero adjustment when I disable negative adjustments? Sorry if I'm not totally following - I'm new to both the watch and negative adjustments

ETA: my watch just synced and now it’s showing a positive 17 adjustment, so that’s probably what was going on there. Oops!

Personally I had to turn off negative adjustments. I have the lowest activity level set on MFP but when I turned on negative adjustments my steps were ALWAYS negative if I did a workout that day so the more Steps I took on my workout days the less calories MFP gave me.

Also, ~10,000 steps on non workout days gives me roughly 92 calories. I’m short, but not short enough to account for that discrepancy compared to Fitbit users.

I like it, personally, a kind of built in calorie buffer, but I’m trying to lose, not maintaining. It would make me crazy trying to maintain with MFP/Apple Watch sync.

The issue is that even when your Apple Watch syncs workouts and steps to MFP, it doesn’t sync to the negative calories. The negative calorie adjustment only pulls from the phone. So for example today I did a step class. I had my watch on but not my phone. The exercise carried over to MFP but I didn’t get any extra calories for 60 mins of working out. When I click on the negative calories for an explanation, it shows zero calories burned from my iPhone hence the negative calorie adjustment. It’s clearly a bug.

ryenday wrote: »

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

lindamc925 wrote: »

Naruya wrote: »

It's not a bug, it's that MFP uses a different number than the Apple Watch. The active calories on your Apple Watch are purely active calories, added to your BMR for a total number of calories burned that day. MFP has your TDEE set based on your activity level, which includes some normal activity like walking around and doing chores. So your Apple Watch adjustment won't start kicking in untill an x amount of calories burned. How much depends on your settings and stats. If you were to eat back all active calories your AW is awarding you you will be overeating, because MFP already accounts for some of those calories. Keep that in mind

I am definitely experiencing some kind of a bug. The alogorithim is supposed to work by taking the projected total calories burned for the day (TDEE) based on your fitness tracker data (this is the MFP iOS Calories Burned figure on teh Calorie Adjustment calculation page), and subtracting from that the TDEE that MFP initially estimates you will lose (i.e "MyFitnessPal Calories Burned" value in the Calorie Adjustment calculation page.) So for me right at this moment my projected TDEE from my Apple Watch is 1847, and my MFP TDEE estimate is 1832. So I'm projected to burn 15 more calories than MFP initially assumed, and I'm getting a credit of 15 calories. This all makes sense so far.

Here's the problem when I set my goals I said to use a "Sedentary" activity level and a weight loss of goal of 0.5 lb/week (i.e. 250 calorie deficit per day.) If MFP thinks my TDEE is going to be 1832 then the calories goal it should have for me is 1582, but it's giving me a calorie goal of 1390. I'm trying to target a deficit of 250, and it's giving me a deficit of 442. No wonder I'm so damn hungry.

Oddly when I change my activity level to "Lightly Active" my daily calorie goal bumps up to 1580, but the TDEE that MFP is using to calculate my "exercise" calories from my apple watch stays the same at 1832. I tried changing myself to "Very Active" and same situation, my calorie goal for the day adjusts correctly, but the number used to calculate my exercise calories doesn't. Based on other online TDEE calculators it appears a TDEE of 1832 (what MFP is using regardless of what I tell it to use) is consistent with a "Lightly Active" level for me.

So my conclusion is the exercise adjustment for the fitness tracker (at least for the apple watch) uses a "Lightly Active" level (regardless of what you may have used for your goal), so unless your calorie goal is set using "Lightly Active" your exercise adjustment will be off.

First, thanks for bumping this, because I just started using the Apple Watch last week and could not figure out why steps but not workouts were synching (duh, because I linked the iPhone via steps but not Health via apps). Second, I'm trying to figure out the glitch you're seeing. I'm set to active on MFP, so right now my TDEE is 2514. My watch synch is showing projected 2529 so a 15 calorie positive adjustment, which seems on track. When I turned on negative adjustments, though, the 2529 and 2514 numbers stayed the same, but now I'm showing a -560 adjustment. When I changed my setting to lightly active, I'm still seeing a -560 adjustment. Is that the glitch, and does that mean my standard adjustment on active is incorrect? And shouldn't I be seeing a zero adjustment when I disable negative adjustments? Sorry if I'm not totally following - I'm new to both the watch and negative adjustments

ETA: my watch just synced and now it’s showing a positive 17 adjustment, so that’s probably what was going on there. Oops!

Personally I had to turn off negative adjustments. I have the lowest activity level set on MFP but when I turned on negative adjustments my steps were ALWAYS negative if I did a workout that day so the more Steps I took on my workout days the less calories MFP gave me.

Also, ~10,000 steps on non workout days gives me roughly 92 calories. I’m short, but not short enough to account for that discrepancy compared to Fitbit users.

I like it, personally, a kind of built in calorie buffer, but I’m trying to lose, not maintaining. It would make me crazy trying to maintain with MFP/Apple Watch sync.

I've had the same behaviour, no way I can make the negative adjustments look sensible. Would really appreciate if anyone has any suggestion for making the Apple Watch total calories match MFP. Btw found the following which could be useful.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Components-of-total-daily-energy-expenditure-TDEEBMRbasal-metabolic-rate_fig1_260397860