I just can't wrap my head around the negative calorie adjustment!
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gofaulk28
Posts: 21 Member
I just got a Versa for xmas so I'm new at this. I have my settings to sendetary, to lose .5 lbs a week. (I'm short and almost at goal weight) so I only get 1200 calories. What do I make of this?? I'm over 15000 steps for the day, why is my negative calorie adjustment so high? I don't get it at all.
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I went for two walks today, one alone and one with the dogs. Instead of earning 426 exercise calories like I usually would, I am only getting 281. Does this figure change as the day progresses? If so, I'm disabling it! I like to know how many calories I have for the whole day after my morning jog/walk so that I can plan meals and snacks. I guess I just don't get how someone considered sedentary can walk over 15,000 steps and still be in the hole. I did read through some of the posts on here about it, but I'm still confused as hell!
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Because you've manually entered exercise that Fitbit recorded anyway, it makes an adjustment so it doesn't credit you with the walking twice.
If you don't want to see negative adjustments, record your activity in Fitbit instead of mfp.0 -
Thanks for your reply, but I'm still confused. The exercise calories were from runkeeper. I figured all 3 apps worked together. By the time I went to bed fitbit took away 295 cal. So for a day of having 16,000 steps I only earned 177 calories. I was doing light chores around the house all evening , I would have thought I would have earned a few more calories back, not have even more taken away as the night progressed! I think I will disable negative calories. I only have 1200 to begin with. If I walk almost 6 brisk miles I need the all the extra calories I can get, and not a lousy 177.0
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MFP does adjustments based on what it knows - and what it knows the other side should know.
So MFP knows it received workouts from RK, and it would have sent them to Fitbit to replace whatever Fitbit came up with for same workout (bad idea BTW, RK known to inflate calorie burn).
Fitbit sends MFP total daily calorie burn.
Fitbit minus whatever MFP estimated you'd burn as sedentary would be the adjustment.
But MFP knows about workouts it sent to Fitbit - so those must be accounted for too.
It means that with your workouts - you were less than sedentary outside of them, so burned less than expected.
Click on that Fitbit Calorie Adjustment (which isn't from Fitbit, but rather MFP math) to see the details of what was sent, and math done.
The eating goal remains the same no matter if MFP knows of the workout or not. Though in this case I'd wager the Fitbit calorie burn for the workout was smaller, so overall smaller eating goal.
The 1200 is only correct if your day exactly matched what you picked - sedentary.
You obviously aren't though.
Relook at your eating goal - it would have gone up by the amount of the workouts, and then less by the adjustment.
The adjustment isn't taken off the 1200, the total exercise diary is added to the eating goal.
It could be less on some days - but not that day.1 -
I'll add - it's like someone could have a really hard workout - but then it wipes them out so much they sleep for a much bigger chunk of the day and actually get no positive adjustment.
Or no workouts but so active you get a big adjustment.
And to your point of wanting to plan the day - you'll learn about roughly what the day will end up at - and final adjustments at dinner will allow a little more side dish, or perhaps dessert, or snack into the evening.
You'll learn what that amount is.
If workouts are in the morning, MFP estimates rest of the day at your selected activity level - sedentary.
If more than sedentary in reality, adjustment keeps increasing, if less, it'll go down. Or you exactly match it.
Sedentary for most is upwards of 4000 steps on it's own.
But that obviously can't count steps as part of those workouts already accounted for.0 -
Thank you so much, heybales! I appreciate all your knowledge, as well as your informative explanations. I just chose sedentary because I work 3 days a week and that is strictly a desk job with no additional exercise, so I wanted to err on the safe side. I am probably lightly active the other 4 days. And regarding RunKeeper, is their burn really that inflated? That scares me because I have been using it for years. It usually gives me around 70ish calories burned per mile, which I thought seemed reasonable.0
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Many people with desk jobs but a home and family responsibilities discover when they got a tracker that they get above 4K steps easily - and get adjustments above sedentary easily on non-workout days - they were lightly active on work days - never mind a weekend increasing the average.
You are probably easily lightly-active all the time outside exercise.
But all that would change is the amount of the adjustment, but increase the base level - the eating goal at the end of the day would be the same.
And after a few days you'll know roughly what the total and meal sizes need to be.
RK for many is inflated - might test here if you trust their distance given:
https://exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs
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Ok one more question then I'm done. Would it be accurate if I disconnected Runkeeper from everything, turned off negative calorie adjustment, and just let the Fitbit do its thing? TIA.0
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You want to leave Negative enabled.
Some days you may be less active than you told MFP. But still may want to keep your desired deficit.
Then again - you may know you need to eat some minimum amount or you'll binge anyway - in which case for a really slow day you want to eat normal anyway - in which case do indeed disable it.
We don't require the same deficit daily, those may just be the break days needed with smaller deficit.
I would disconnect it - if it's accurate distance though you feel - you can correct the Fitbit Activity Record or at least note it.1 -
Listen to heybales1
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Agree with heybale!!
1.) FitBit takes into account the intensity of your movements (during that workout time).
2.) The Manual entries (or entries from other applications like MapMyFitness (MMF) when not using GPS use a standard # per minute calorie burn (less accurate).... therefor the adjustment.
Same thing happens to me when I use MapMyFitness (MMF) to log my workouts. I don't hold my phone or use GPS during the workouts, unless I go for walks outside. I use it for accountability and consistency because of *** the calendar view *** of completed workouts is AMAZING!!
When I select a workout it has a built in Calories Burned per minute auto set for any workout. This calories burned does not take into account breaks or burst of jogging or running. Its just a set (Example) 4 calories burned per minute. FitBit Rules all when it comes to total burned per day. If you click on the fitbit exercise log there will be a ! icon you can click on that will show the calculations.0 -
Thanks everyone for all the useful info, I appreciate it!
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