Food Diary "Your Daily Goal" Keeps Getting Lower

HeyJudii
HeyJudii Posts: 267 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I have MFP synced to my Fitbit account but go by MFP for my exercise calories earned. For some reason, today, the more calories I burn, the lower "Your Daily Goal" gets!

This has never happened before. In the past, the more calories I burned, the higher "Your Daily Goal" would get.

Thank goodness I didn't eat them all because between 5pm and 10 pm it dropped by 1000 calories!

Edit: My calories burned are higher today than they were all week, so if MFP is estimating based on prior performance, why start high and then keep decreasing "Your Daily Goal"?

Replies

  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    Are they both set to the correct time zone?

  • HeyJudii
    HeyJudii Posts: 267 Member
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »
    Are they both set to the correct time zone?

    Nothing has changed that I am aware of.
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    An update might have ran that changed a time zone. Check the time in both app settings.
  • HeyJudii
    HeyJudii Posts: 267 Member
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »
    An update might have ran that changed a time zone. Check the time in both app settings.

    Just did and they are both still the same.
  • PokeyBug
    PokeyBug Posts: 482 Member
    Sounds like a programming bug. I'm guessing Fitbit or MFP changed something in how the two programs interface, causing an error. Report it to both, hopefully they'll get it sorted out soon!
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    Is your profile set to something above "sedentary"?
    Is 'negative calorie adjustment' enabled?

    If you have it set to 'active', and then fitbit tells MFP that you're not meeting that level of activity, MFP will adjust down as the day goes along.
  • FlyingMolly
    FlyingMolly Posts: 490 Member
    What was your activity level between 5-10pm? It sounds like it was revising your caloric needs downward after you were sedentary for a while, which does happen if you’ve set a higher activity level in MFP. 1000 calories is a pretty big adjustment, though—I’m set to active and I usually only lose a couple hundred in the evenings.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    This is why I keep everything set to sedentary. I'm an early riser and go to bed early and I hated what happened to my calorie adjustment at night.

    You can set both MFP and Fitbit to sedentary and it usually solves this.
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »
    This is why I keep everything set to sedentary. I'm an early riser and go to bed early and I hated what happened to my calorie adjustment at night.

    You can set both MFP and Fitbit to sedentary and it usually solves this.

    This^^^ MFP will adjust up this way...
  • HeyJudii
    HeyJudii Posts: 267 Member
    edited May 2018
    Fitbit is set to "Sedentary" and when I lost weight and had MFP recalculate, I set MFP to lightly active, although according to charts, I am "Highly Active". This is the first time this has ever happened and my days start and end at roughly the same time consistently. MyFitnessPal has never, since I started in late January, ever decreased my daily calorie goal after setting it at a higher level, even the weekend I was sick and barely got out of bed.
    I put in a support request as someone suggested.

    I thought by only using MFP to get exercise calories burned I wouldn't have to deal with "predictions based on what is assumed I will do throughout the day" but what I actually already did. That was why I stopped using the Fitbit calorie adjustment which fluctuated constantly, as it tried to predict based on previous days activity levels.

    What is the point of eating exercise calories back if they are based on predictive assumptions and not actual exercise? I don't think I will be eating exercise calories anymore, this is just too random and frustrating.
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    so set it to 'sedentary', and you won't have this problem.
  • HeyJudii
    HeyJudii Posts: 267 Member
    annaskiski wrote: »
    so set it to 'sedentary', and you won't have this problem.

    Wouldn't it still be predicting my exercise calories? So, I eat what I think I have, and then, OOPS! I'm over. I think it would be far easier on my sanity to just stick to my base calorie goal, and leave the exercise calories alone. No wonder there is so much debate about whether to eat them or not.
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    no, it will not
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    edited May 2018
    The debate about eating exercise calories is more about trying to determine how many calories you actually burned during the exercise. (this is obviously highly dependent on many factors, such as body composition, fitness, intensity, etc.)

    Also, often people may unconsciously drop their NEAT for the rest of the day (or even a few hours) after exercise.

    In one study, subjects performed 400 calories per day of exercise but only increased daily energy expenditure by 250 calories due to a reduction in NEAT at other times of the day (26).

    Lyle McDonald. The Women's Book (Kindle Locations 3202-3203). Lyle McDonald.

    This effect tends to go away as fitness improves and the exercise isn't as fatiguing but this actually makes a case for lower intensity activity being a better choice in many circumstances. So consider the situation where a dieter performs a hard 400 calorie workout which causes them to reduce NEAT later in the day by 150 calories for a net 250 calorie increase. Compare that to a dieter who performs a more moderate 250 calorie workout who sees no reduction in NEAT. Both have burned the same 250 extra calories per day but the second achieved it with a much more enjoyable and sustainable approach.

    Lyle McDonald. The Women's Book (Kindle Locations 3205-3209). Lyle McDonald.

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