Apple Watch total calories vs MFP

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celiah909
celiah909 Posts: 141 Member
edited October 2017 in Health and Weight Loss
What MFP says it gets from Apple Watch for the end of the day vs. what my watch shows are very different. Both images are from today about yesterday’s data- I took my watch off around 9PM. Has any other Apple Watch users noticed this big of a difference? Can anyone explain?

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  • fougamou
    fougamou Posts: 200 Member
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    I think the MFP calories are up to 9 PM and the Apple includes the 9-12PM time period.
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
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    I always go with the Watch instead of MFP. MFP doesn't play nicely with the watch, and doesn't port everything over. MFP has had enough issues over the years with technology, and the Watch is seen as fairly accurate, so I just go off of the Watch and completely ignore MFP's predictions.

    (Also why I started going with TDEE instead, and don't do anything with exercise calories.)
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    edited January 2018
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    I've had good luck going with my Apple Watch so far. At least one study said it was the most accurate of a number of fitness monitors at measuring heart-rate and energy expenditure, but it also noted that none of the monitors were all that accurate at measuring energy expenditure (http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/7/2/3/htm). Just pick a plan and stick with it for a few weeks. If you're losing too fast, eat more, and vice versa. It's all just a big game of educated guessing, and it's your results that really matter.

    ETA: Checking my numbers, I started using the watch at the beginning of October and my monthly loss rate slightly increased around that time. Maybe coincidence, maybe not. Using its numbers certainly didn't hurt, though.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    Where do you find that data on MFP? I just searched around for it and can't locate it in my app. I have some comments but would like to math first :smile:
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
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    MelanieCN77 wrote: »
    Where do you find that data on MFP? I just searched around for it and can't locate it in my app. I have some comments but would like to math first :smile:

    Click on your calorie adjustment in either the MFP app or website and that first window will pop up (there's a duplicate window on the app to click through).
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    Yes ok! I wanted to add the numbers up to see if it matched what I thought, and it does.

    First thing to keep in mind is that silly MFP/Apple bug that erases your casual step calorie adjustments if you log a workout.

    So taking 1/22 as an example, Apple gave me a total expenditure of 2555 and MFP gave me 2280. MFP's 2280 pretty much matches up with the 1610 it gives me for my sedentary maintenance cals + 675 exercise cals logged. Apple gets up to the the 2555 because it includes more NEAT type calories that are erased with the bug I mentioned.

    Now this is where I allow a little fuzzy math. I set to sedentary and allow the erasure of those extra casual calories because if I log weights with the Apple Watch using "other" I think it will veer a little high, and these two amounts seem to cancel each other out for me.

    I do have some confusion still over how the numbers map over each other, to be honest, but in short I'd say MFP's maintenance cals are right on for me and the AW can come in a little generous with active and resting cals. There's an app called CaliCalo that uses the Apple suite to give you a calorie count, if you wanted to try fully relying on the Apple numbers, but you will still have to use a third party app to log food.

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