question.

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Brandon_Groft17
Brandon_Groft17 Posts: 6 Member
in Getting Started
basically i have a simple question. how do i read the calorie tracker. it starts off about 2,300 - food + exercise = 2,150 (example) but i dont understand what the end value means like how many i need left to burn?

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  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    The starting value is how many calories you have. That's 2,300.

    The second is how many you've already eaten. The exercise, the third value, is how many additional calories you've burned over what MFP estimated you would burn. Those are more calories you can eat.

    The final number is how much you have left to eat for the day given your initial goal, what you've already eaten, and your additional calories burn through exercise.

    So if I start the day at 1,500, eat 300, and then burn 400, my new value is 1,600. I have 1,600 calories left that I can eat today.
  • Capeya
    Capeya Posts: 7 Member
    edited October 2017
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    Easy.
    a - b + c = d
    a is your target (Calorie wise)
    b is what you ate (Calorie wise)
    c is extra calories to back up exercises
    d is calories that remain to be eaten

    You can either set the target (a) manually or let the app calculate it for you.

    All good ?
  • Brandon_Groft17
    Brandon_Groft17 Posts: 6 Member
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    so say i wanted to lose weight. i would want to increase my end value number?
  • aeloine
    aeloine Posts: 2,163 Member
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    Brandon_Groft17 wrote: »
    so say i wanted to lose weight. i would want to increase my end value number?

    Technically you'd want it to be ZERO.

    But yes, a positive number at the end will give you a bigger deficit.
  • Brandon_Groft17
    Brandon_Groft17 Posts: 6 Member
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    whats the difference if the number is zero compared to say if you end the day with it at 100?
  • Capeya
    Capeya Posts: 7 Member
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    If losing weight is being caloric deficit then Yes.
    You want to increase (d) which is actually a shortage in the amount of calories required (a) + (c) for maintenance of current body weight.
  • aeloine
    aeloine Posts: 2,163 Member
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    Capeya wrote: »
    My personal advice would be to avoid too great a shortage but to eat well twice a day (Breakfast + Lunch + little Snack) to let your body the time to burn fat (2nd) vs glucose that you intake (1st). If you don't stop eating (Even small quantities) then you won't burn fat. Another advice is to get some exercise (Musculation ?). 3rd one is eating well... Meaning healthy food (Not refined ones) or let them be exceptions.

    Good luck ;)

    Eat whatever makes you happy and fits into your calories, split up in any way you want.
  • aeloine
    aeloine Posts: 2,163 Member
    edited October 2017
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    Capeya wrote: »
    If losing weight is being caloric deficit then Yes.
    You want to increase (d) which is actually a shortage in the amount of calories required (a) + (c) for maintenance of current body weight.

    No. Not if your starting calories given to you by MFP are already meant to encompass a deficit.

    If you set your goal to lose weight, "A" will already be low. We suggest eating some of your exercise calories back (C), but usually not all, because exercise calories are just estimates.
    Brandon_Groft17 wrote: »
    whats the difference if the number is zero compared to say if you end the day with it at 100?

    There is very little difference in ending on 0 or 100 except your hunger level and ability to sustain the diet. It will add up to an extra pound of weight lost every 35 DAYS, so it's totally up to you.

  • Brandon_Groft17
    Brandon_Groft17 Posts: 6 Member
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    okay so wanna get as close to zero as i can, dont eat constantly, and keep myslef move. its my first day on this app and reading that was all i had trouble with
  • aeloine
    aeloine Posts: 2,163 Member
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    Brandon_Groft17 wrote: »
    okay so wanna get as close to zero as i can, dont eat constantly, and keep myslef move. its my first day on this app and reading that was all i had trouble with

    Yes!

    Just to double check, you DID set your goal to lose/gain, right? Otherwise it's just maintenance.

    Check your goal and MFP will do the rest.

    I'd also suggest re-setting your goals every 10 pounds or so to update the calorie goals given by MFP, but that's a bit down the line.
  • Brandon_Groft17
    Brandon_Groft17 Posts: 6 Member
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    its set to lose/gain for sure. thanks for the help but one last thing i wanna ask is how many hours would you recommend i have my meal/snack before i go to bed?
  • aeloine
    aeloine Posts: 2,163 Member
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    Brandon_Groft17 wrote: »
    its set to lose/gain for sure. thanks for the help but one last thing i wanna ask is how many hours would you recommend i have my meal/snack before i go to bed?

    Mathematically, it does not matter. It really doesn't. I know that there's a lot of voodoo science about not eating right before bed, but it's going to average out over the course of your diet, so just stay in your calories and you'll be fine.
  • Rickster1967
    Rickster1967 Posts: 485 Member
    edited October 2017
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    @ Brandon

    I've been on this app 84 days and I'd never done anything like it

    it really works

    Need to weigh everything accurately
  • Brandon_Groft17
    Brandon_Groft17 Posts: 6 Member
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    thanks i didnt know if that made a difference or not
  • joseccastaneda
    joseccastaneda Posts: 267 Member
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    Brandon_Groft17 wrote: »
    thanks i didnt know if that made a difference or not

    It doesn't. One of the biggest thing you have to do while here is not believe all of the hubbub, fad diet lingo, etc. Its kind of hard to sort through all of it sometimes, but you will get there.
  • Barfly57
    Barfly57 Posts: 333 Member
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    Also, since conventional wisdom here on the boards suggests eating only half of your exercise calories, d should be one-half of c at the end of the day (in the equation a-b+c=d).

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