Maintenance Calories Accuracy In MFP

Mine's basically accurate. I use it as a baseline assuming no exercise that day, and then add exercise separately. That's what I did while I was losing, so I've just continued doing it.

It's about 150 calories too low for me.

stej5639 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Strange how its so different for so many people. I think ill try eating slightly under and see how it goes then tweak it if i need to. Do you eat all exercise calories, as they seem to be really high?
Thanks.

They're all just estimates and are going to vary from person to person.

As far as exercise calories go, they again are all just estimates. For some, they're very inflated, for others, they are pretty close. You have to go off actual personal results. I started with eating 50-75% back and evaluated my progress and how I felt after about 4-6 weeks then adjusted accordingly. I know what I burn now and eat them all which helps me with my workouts and never kept me from losing at the rate I wanted.

stej5639 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Strange how its so different for so many people. I think ill try eating slightly under and see how it goes then tweak it if i need to. Do you eat all exercise calories, as they seem to be really high?
Thanks.

Low calorie burn activities done for long periods may be accurate (walking for instance) as far as calories burned during that chunk of time goes - but because of the fact MFP already accounted for some level of calorie burn - those appear the most inaccurate and are inflated.
That's also for level walking, did you have inclines and really keep the stated pace on average for whole time?

Other database entries have no intensity level - Spinning - did you do it the same level? Were you honest on time spent, ect.

I think mine are 100 - 200 calories low. I set it as sedatary because I have a desk job, but I try to get up and move and take stairs when possible. I use the calorie level MFP sets so I can be a little sloppy with logging when I eat at a restaurant and am just guessing about the calories in the food. I’m not gaining and trending down slightly so that’s why I think it’s a little low. I don’t use MFP for my exercise calories, I use the Apple Watch for that and eat most of those calories back. It could be my AW is low.

well I have mine set to active @2900 cals. Actual measured calorie overage for last 6 months during bulk is 85 cals, current intake on average has been 3260. Average calorie adjustment based solely on walking is 340, I do not log weight lifting.... so really.. pretty kitten close I guess. slightly high I guess. Though adjustments can be slightly inflated.

I have never used MFP for anything other than logging and tracking my food and exercise cals.

Used online TDEE calculators, when starting out (all of which were on the high side BTW) to establish a base and then made adjustments as needed to first lose weigh and then to maintain it over the past 2 years.

CarvedTones wrote: »

It always strikes me as odd that we go to great lengths to get the calories in food as close as we can, weighing down to the gram and looking for verified product or USDA entries. Then we total them up and compare them to a number we got off a Ouija board...

True... I have been thinking that most of us are kinda a strange lot. Well, speaking for myself. I think sometime a motto. "The counters, the the strange, the exercisers, we are the hopeful maintainers." Lol

I found I could eat more and maintain, I've since realized That I hadn't been using the correct activity level, so I think mfp had it right, I just had no idea my step count was so high.

I guess it all boils down to this - if the scale and/or tape reads more or less than you want then you need to eat less or more respectively. You won't really know if you are eating more or less unless you have a reasonable idea of what you have been eating and also know when to ignore a big surplus in calories because of a corresponding large expenditure of energy.

MFP's estimate is several hundred calories low for me, and I do eat back all exercise (after estimating it as meticulously as I can). My own loss-rate data from the latter stages of weight loss was a pretty accurate guide to what my maintenance calories would be, though.

I do not use it. I understand how MFP does things and find that it is indeed very modular (which can be a good thing). However, I much prefer to use an on-line TDEE Calculator (there are many...I tend to use the one at https://tdeecalculator.net).

I find that works much better for me. And, here is why:

1. I find that using the MFP database for the caloric values for 'food eaten' is a total crap shot. I just do not trust this "user-created" database. Just don't. People are - generally speaking - not very mindful.
2. I find that using MFP for "exercise calories" is 'less than'. And this is not a criticism of MFP. I just find - generally speaking - that the number of calories burned for "XYZ" activity that people log is absolutely WAY TOO high. Often, it is borderline absurd.
3. To clarify #1, I do find that using the labels from the food directly or that using the "manufacturer's web site" or some third party web sites (thinking https://www.nutritionix.com and https://www.fatsecret.com) really help with ensuring some consistency and accuracy.
4. To clarify #2, I do find that using common sense and critical thinking does help to mitigate that issue. For example, on most treadmill machines I have found - based on my own research - that most outputs are 125% of a more accurate number. Meaning, if you do 25 minutes of LISS on a treadmill and it spits out that you burned 125 calories in those 25 minutes then you likely burned 100 calories.

I just much prefer to use things that I have created for this sort of thing. And, it works well for me.

And, the key is to use what works well for you. We are all different. There are lots and lots and lots of people who use MFP and have a ton of success!

@LiftHeavyThings27105 - I set my base calories by hand and then use mfp for calories, trying to find USDA and/or verified entries for food and either using integrated apps or the mfp database for exercise. I do adjust exercise calories, editing them after they are posted. I think a lot of it is just having an inventory to look at and see that I am not eating absurd amounts of food and I am getting reasonable amounts of exercise. I watch the scale and adjust my base and/or how heavy handed I am with edits to exercise calories based on the trend. It's inexact, but working. It got me to goal and has kept me below.

CarvedTones wrote: »

@LiftHeavyThings27105 - I set my base calories by hand and then use mfp for calories, trying to find USDA and/or verified entries for food and either using integrated apps or the mfp database for exercise. I do adjust exercise calories, editing them after they are posted. I think a lot of it is just having an inventory to look at and see that I am not eating absurd amounts of food and I am getting reasonable amounts of exercise. I watch the scale and adjust my base and/or how heavy handed I am with edits to exercise calories based on the trend. It's inexact, but working. It got me to goal and has kept me below.

Hey! Hey! Thanks for the input. I keep on trying to use this tool....I honestly do. I have no problem creating the foods that I eat from scratch....this tool just does not seem to compute (to my messedd up brain, at least). I know that it works well for a lot of people....thank the good Lord above, right? It just does not work well for "this guy" (how cheesey was that? AWESOME! I was going for that!!!!).

I just use Notepad and my e-mail for calorie | macro tracking. For some reason this just works for me. I use Excel for my training sessions. I am running my own program now....generally not recommended, I know...but I do a pretty good job. Now that the concept of "de-load" is firmly implanted into my brain.