Understanding "activity" calorie adjustment

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summpear
summpear Posts: 77 Member
edited June 2018 in Health and Weight Loss
I've done a moderate amount of reading about how MFP integrates your steps throughout the day to help track extra calories you can add in based on your activity. If I understand correctly, it's at least a little anticipatory - "if you keep up this level of activity throughout the day, you'll earn xxx calories". So the number shifts and adjusts throughout the day.

Ok. But mine is literally all over the place. I have my account set to "active". I routinely get 12-15k steps a day, and more like 20+ if I run.

Here are some of my calorie adjustments based on my activity level from last week.

6-20 16k steps - 768 cal (did log walking)
6-22 14k steps - 236 cal
6-23 14k steps - 181 cal (did log walking)
6-25 15k steps - 51cal

I didn't log running on any of these days. I did log walking on two of them which gave me their separate calorie adjustment. I walk intentionally quite a bit - my drive is .22 miles, so I take my dog out and frequently do that half mile - but I almost never log it as an exercise with my Garmin because we go slowly and my heart rate doesn't elevate at all.
Edit to clarify: I don't log casual dog walking as exercise even though I do it daily. I do log walking as exercise if I walk 1+ miles briskly, like at the gym.

Yesterday I made food choices based on MFP showing me 3 or 400 calories at 11k steps, and then this morning when it was fully synced, that number had dropped to 50cals even through I was up to 15k steps. I still landed the day in a deficit, but I wouldn't have had that scoop of peanut butter if I'd seen the decrease coming.

All of my activity is based through my Garmin, which I wear 24/7. I also don't even care what my calorie adjustment is, I just want to understand it so I can make choices inside my goals.

Replies

  • rj0150684
    rj0150684 Posts: 227 Member
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    If you have a device linked (in your case, your garmin), you don’t need to log exercise separately. The calorie adjustment that it sends over will have that included. I’m sure there’s a right way to do it, but adding exercise with a device linked always screwed up my calories in MFP.
  • summpear
    summpear Posts: 77 Member
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    Sorry, let me clarify. I'm not logging exercise in MFP - this is all carryover from my Garmin (does that make sense?)

    When I refer to logging walking, I just mean whether I turn my Garmin to the exercise setting or not.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    Sounds like you have negative adjustments enabled. I find that setting really screwy - mine is turned off and I am set to sedentary. I don't actually get step adjustments (Apple Watch, will they ever fix the link?) only exercise cals so I just call it some bonus padding.
  • HeyJudii
    HeyJudii Posts: 264 Member
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    I have negative calorie adjustment turned off and MFP still adds and subtracts calories over the course of the day. It is frustrating, but I don't eat the exercise calories it give me M-Th and only use a portion of them F-Su so I am not overly concerned.
    I don't like that it anticipates my future calorie burn based on what I have done so far, and gives me a calorie increase for what it anticipates I will continue to do - I just want it to calculate based on what I have actually already done, but life is too short for me to keep stressing about it.
  • WholeFoods4Lyfe
    WholeFoods4Lyfe Posts: 1,518 Member
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    I just have MFP set to sedentary and then it only adds calories for actual steps/exercise logged through my FitBit. I very rarely eat the extra calories anyway, but it's nice to have them if I need.
  • PumpkinPeril
    PumpkinPeril Posts: 22 Member
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    My understanding thus far in my journey is that there is a calorie threshold for each activity level beyond BMR.

    I am set to sedentary and see a positive adjustment around 1.5k (a number lower than I see most people report) but I'm 260# so it takes more energy to move. By 4.5k steps I have ~250cal adjustment and by 7k ~500cal adjustment. If I were to adjust my activity level, these numbers would change, but the idea is once I use up the MFP allotted daily activity cals based on data from my fitbit I start seeing an adjustment.

    Did you recently change you activity level? I played around with the idea of adjusting mine, but if I did it mid-day the cals from my fitbit were not seeming to adjust so I put my setting back for now.
  • summpear
    summpear Posts: 77 Member
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    Trying to answer your thoughts/ suggestions:

    1) My negative calories are set to default (on?) That's also what gives me my workout calories, right? I want to leave my workout calories on because that helps guide my eating.

    2) i hate the predictive/ assumptive calories too.

    3) i haven't recently changed activity levels. My workouts have been consistent since January ish, and I've been 12-20k steps since the weather warmed up in April or so.

    4) i don't see how any underlying cadence/ tempo/ elevation gives me more than a 700 calorie swing between 15k and 16k steps. I'm not putting laundry away at a jog one day and a crawl the next :smiley:
  • HeyJudii
    HeyJudii Posts: 264 Member
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    I just have MFP set to sedentary and then it only adds calories for actual steps/exercise logged through my FitBit. I very rarely eat the extra calories anyway, but it's nice to have them if I need.

    I changed it back to "Sedentary" on MFP and hope this makes a difference. I don't have it set to anything on the Fitbit site, because I have the amount of calories I get each day fixed. I don't want Fitbit making any assumptions either. (I am slowly increasing my calories to the maintenance level. I base my calorie burn goal on CICO, not on some assumption/anticipation. If I am going to eat 1800 calories/day, then I darn well better be moving myself around enough that I don't gain weight on that amount.)
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,728 Member
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    summpear wrote: »
    Trying to answer your thoughts/ suggestions:

    1) My negative calories are set to default (on?) That's also what gives me my workout calories, right? I want to leave my workout calories on because that helps guide my eating.

    2) i hate the predictive/ assumptive calories too.

    3) i haven't recently changed activity levels. My workouts have been consistent since January ish, and I've been 12-20k steps since the weather warmed up in April or so.

    4) i don't see how any underlying cadence/ tempo/ elevation gives me more than a 700 calorie swing between 15k and 16k steps. I'm not putting laundry away at a jog one day and a crawl the next :smiley:

    4) but you may be moving more or less continuously vs making periodic stops of 30-60 seconds. I agree that's a huge swing between 6-20 and 6-25.
  • summpear
    summpear Posts: 77 Member
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    4) but you may be moving more or less continuously vs making periodic stops of 30-60 seconds. I agree that's a huge swing between 6-20 and 6-25.


    I hadn't considered this and i don't give a lot of thought to how consistently I'm moving through the day.
    The strangest thing about the 25th was when it synced at 11k steps i had maybe 300cal with it? So i had a 200 cal snack to not have too big a deficit. Then when I checked this morning, it updated to show that I'd gotten 15k steps... but cut the allowance to 50cal. I wouldn't have had the *kitten* snack if I'd seen that coming - I wasn't particularly hungry but I try, especially on rest days, to get close to my calorie allowance.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
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    Are the calorie adjustment amounts you’re listing here your total exercise calories for the day, or just the amount that shows on the Garmin Connect calorie adjustment line in your diary?

    Garmin sends over your workout details and those should post in your diary as individual workouts.

    The Garmin Connect calorie adjustment line reflects the difference between what your Garmin has recorded as your TDEE and what Mfp calculates as your TDEE.

    Your total exercise calories will be the total of your workouts and the adjustment line.

    While there’s definitely something a little funky between the 20th and the 25th, but are the numbers listed just your Garmin Connect calorie adjustment or total exercise calories?

    And can you click the little i next to the adjustment line in your diary? That will give you the amounts that Garmin Connect sent as your TDEE and what Mfp calculated as your TDEE.
  • summpear
    summpear Posts: 77 Member
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    I don't have an "i" next to the exercise. Is that a Premium feature?

    No, my workouts are separate. For instance:
    Wed 6-20 I had strength training for 390 cal, walking for 165, and then the step adjustment of 778. Monday 6-25 I had yoga for 164 and step adjustment of 50.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    edited June 2018
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    Are you on the app or the website? I should have been more clear. The i is on the website. On the app, you can click on the Garmin Connect adjustment entry in your diary, then click on the “extra calories burned” and that will show you the calculation.

    Your “step adjustment” isn’t so much for steps per se, it’s the difference between what Garmin says you burned all day (your TDEE) and what Mfp thinks you burned all day (which is whatever your burn rate is for whatever activity level you set in Mfp, plus whatever workouts are entered-whether they come from over Garmin or are entered in Mfp). So you could very different adjustment amounts for days with nearly identical activity-but the total exercise calories should be about the same.

    That doesn’t really explain the difference between the 20th and the 25th unless that was some extreme yoga though (which it doesn’t appear to be since it was 164 calories).
  • summpear
    summpear Posts: 77 Member
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    Your “step adjustment” isn’t so much for steps per se, it’s the difference between what Garmin says you burned all day (your TDEE) and what Mfp thinks you burned all day (which is whatever your burn rate is for whatever activity level you set in Mfp, plus whatever workouts are entered-whether they come from over Garmin or are entered in Mfp). So you could very different adjustment amounts for days with nearly identical activity-but the total exercise calories should be about the same.


    I'm not very knowledgeable about TDEE (basic knowledge, but I do my calories more by NEAT). But... would the 700cal on the 20th be because of how hard I worked in the morning with my strength training? Is it giving me that magical "burn calories all day from strength training" idea, so bumping the activity calories for the remainder of the day? If so, is that remotely accurate?
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
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    Your TDEE is your NEAT plus what you burn through exercise. Describing it that way is going to be a bit confusing with a linked activity tracker and mfp terminology.

    TDEE is total daily energy expenditure. That’s how many calories you burn all day. Your calories consumed needs to be less than this number of you want to lose weight.

    Mfp uses NEAT - non-exercise something or other to calculate your calorie goal. It’s how many calories you burn in a day doing your normal every day activities but NOT including exercise.

    If you do no exercise, your NEAT is your TDEE. If you do exercise, you log that into mfp and the calories are added to your goal. This keeps your deficit at the same amount (since your deficit is really off your TDEE) by adjusting your goal based on how much exercise you do.

    When you log exercise, it’s listed as “exercise calories” on Mfp-which makes sense.

    When you have an activity tracker, it’s tracking all the activity you do-whether you were putzing around the house or taking the dog for a walk or doing a purposeful workout. When that activity tracker is linked to mfp, the basic adjustment line is going to be what that tracker says you burned (for your TDEE) minus whatever mfp says you burned (for your TDEE-which will be your NEAT plus whatever workouts show in Mfp). That adjustment amount (along with any workouts) all shows under exercise calories.

    The 778 calories on the 20th is because the number of calories Garmin says you burned that day for your TDEE is 778 more than what mfp thinks you burned that day (which includes your NEAT of ???? plus your 390 for strength & 165 for your walk).

    You can get your TDEE from Garmin Connect under “health stats” then calories (not calories in/out) then scroll to the date and look at the number in the “total” circle at the top. Then look at your mfp diary-click on the Garmin Connect adjustment line as I mentioned before and you’ll see how the calculation is done.

    Sadly-the amounts you might burn after doing a workout (“afterburn”) is fairly negligible and nowhere near 778 calories. It might be 8 of those 778 though. It’s probably a little more but not significant.

  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
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    Here are a couple of days where I had nearly identical step counts-one with a workout, one without, and how the calculation was done, how it shows in my diary. I don’t know if that helps at all.


    2m2csvr.jpg

    2wqye4z.jpg

    Something seems wonky with your 20th and 25th, but it really depends on what the numbers are that are used to do the calculations. And you need to get that from the detail in your mfp diary and/or Garmin Connect.
  • summpear
    summpear Posts: 77 Member
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    Sadly-the amounts you might burn after doing a workout (“afterburn”) is fairly negligible and nowhere near 778 calories. It might be 8 of those 778 though. It’s probably a little more but not significant.

    That's what I thought... but my Garmin is confusing me.

    Thanks for the NEAT/TDEE synopsis. I knew MFP uses NEAT, so that is what I do too. I see some people with pretty even daily/weekly TDEE use that average for their daily calorie goals and eat about the same calories every day regardless of workout, but mine varies too much day to day (plus I'm often hungrier day of or day after heavy workouts - I like having daily variations in how much I eat).

    Thank you for helping me with things calorie variation. I really appreciate it.

  • strongwouldbenice
    strongwouldbenice Posts: 153 Member
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    It might be that you have quite a high heart rate and so when you worked out your watch thought you were burning crazy amounts of calories. Or it's just taking a little time to adjust to you.
    The prediction annoys me so I have one of my meals called "tomorrow", and in the morning I'll log some of my breakfast on yesterday with whatever calories I have leftover.