Active Calories or Total Burned using iWatch?

jenny4teach
jenny4teach Posts: 56 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Ive always used a fitbit to track my exercises which sync right to MFP. I recently got an iWatch and use the activity app for tracking my exercises. When I am finished, I receive two numbers: "Active Calories" and "Total Burned" Which should I use to track in MFP?

I also wanted to get advice on if I should eat back the calories/how many of them to eat back if I want to lose weight?

I am 5' 8" 204lbs and want to lose 25-30 by my belated honeymoon in June (5 1/2 months)

TIA!

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Do you have your watch linked to MFP? Then let the watch handle everything.

    And ideally you should be eating those calories back. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation
  • fitfoundations
    fitfoundations Posts: 5 Member
    Hi Jenny - I would recommend to just enter the active calories. The extra calories from "total burned" are likely already factored into your BMR (# calories it takes just to breath) in MFP. So adding them in again may seem like you can take in more calories, which actually may not be so accurate.

    Since 3500 calories = 1 lb, it takes a deficit of about 500 calories per day in order to lose 1 lb per week. Since you have roughly 22 weeks until your honeymoon, this might be a reasonable goal for you!

    Hope this makes sense :)
    Good luck!
  • jenny4teach
    jenny4teach Posts: 56 Member


    Thank you so much for this link malibu927! Really helpful video. My watch doesn't link up with the app for some reason, so I have been manually putting in the calories.

    And thank you fitfoundations - that makes a lot of sense since I am working out for about an hour, the difference is explained by my BMR.

    Fingers crossed I can make this goal! I like the idea of looking at it as 22 weeks instead of 5 months. I can set smaller weekly goals instead of huge monthly goals.

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