Calories

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mom22lappys1
mom22lappys1 Posts: 27 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So confused with how the calories are calculated and exercise calories calculated 🙁

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  • mom22lappys1
    mom22lappys1 Posts: 27 Member
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    Why it says I have 700 calories burned when I did no exercise
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited September 2018
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    mom22lappys1 wrote: »
    Why it says I have 700 calories burned when I did no exercise
    Do you have an activity tracker linked?

    If you have linked an activity tracker or app that syncs step data, than it is saying that your activity level is actually higher than what you told MFP and as a result it made an adjustment in the exercise portion to account for that difference.
  • mom22lappys1
    mom22lappys1 Posts: 27 Member
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    I do have my fitbit synced
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    mom22lappys1 wrote: »
    I do have my fitbit synced

    Ta da!!!
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,944 Member
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    Here, everything you want to know about FitBit and this site:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • mom22lappys1
    mom22lappys1 Posts: 27 Member
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    So is it accurate?
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited September 2018
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    mom22lappys1 wrote: »
    So is it accurate?

    It’s hard to say. Everyone is different in that respect and logging accuracy can make it seem wrong as well.

    Well what is your activity level set to and how many steps do you typically get?

    For me:

    Fitbit’s without HRM (Zip, Flex, Flex2) underestimated my daily calorie burn by 250 calories a day on average.

    Fitbit’s with a HRM (Surge, Blaze, Ionic) are closer in accuracy. Though here recently I am thinking my Ionic might be giving me a lower calorie burn than the Blaze did (so it might be underestimating slightly). One of these days I need to tighten my logging up a bit and do the math.
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    edited September 2018
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    mom22lappys1 wrote: »
    So is it accurate?

    Possibly. There is some varience either direction. What I find that works is to start with eating back 50-75% of the calories MFP says you've burned. Then track for a good month. If you find yourself losing faster than expected, eat back more of your exercise calories. If you find yourself losing slower than expected, eat back less.

    I have a Garmin and based on my own results I find it very accurate to what I am burning through workouts and steps taken.
  • FlyingMolly
    FlyingMolly Posts: 490 Member
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    Accuracy for fitness trackers depends on what you do. If you spend 8 hours a day driving on bumpy roads your burn estimate will be too high; if you spend the same amount of time cycling on a smooth, flat road it will be too low. If you mostly walk around and do pretty normal daily tasks, it’ll be very accurate.

    My Fitbit underestimates my burn a bit, but I find it really useful overall. I have very different activity levels on different days, and I can just eat what it tells me to eat without trying to figure it all out myself. If you do the same for a few weeks, you’ll start to get a sense of how accurate yours is for you. 🙂
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,055 Member
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    FlyingMolly wrote: »
    Accuracy for fitness trackers depends on what you do. If you spend 8 hours a day driving on bumpy roads your burn estimate will be too high; if you spend the same amount of time cycling on a smooth, flat road it will be too low. If you mostly walk around and do pretty normal daily tasks, it’ll be very accurate.

    My Fitbit underestimates my burn a bit, but I find it really useful overall. I have very different activity levels on different days, and I can just eat what it tells me to eat without trying to figure it all out myself. If you do the same for a few weeks, you’ll start to get a sense of how accurate yours is for you. 🙂

    Trackers, like online calculators (such as the one built into MFP) produce estimates, based on statistically-based formulas from careful scientific research and the best insights the algorithym-creating humans can conceive. They're still estimates. They're still statistical.

    They'll be accurate for most people, or close enough. They'll be inaccurate for a few. They'll be very, very inaccurate for a very, very few.

    My Garmin Vivoactive 3 (with HRM) underestimates my daily calorie burn by several hundred calories (25-30%-ish), just like MFP (and most other calculators). I have no idea why. But, since I understand statistics, I don't worry about it. (I also don't sync my Garmin to MFP - LOL! Don't need to be losing fast in maintenance.).

    It's important to understand that trackers measure things like movements, distance, altitude, heart rate, etc. From that, they estimate distance, steps, calorie burn, etc. Measurement is (potentially) accurate. Estimation is statistical, subject to greater error.

    Everyone need to monitor and adjust based on his/her actual experience.

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