Confused about active calories...

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mrabia786
mrabia786 Posts: 3 Member
in Getting Started
Hello everybody. I am 5’6”, weigh 137 lbs. Trying to get down to 125. When setting up my profile, I put that I am sedentary. In reality, I work in retail so I’m on my feet 12 hours a day and walk around, and I work 3-4 days per week. The goal it set for me is 1200 calories. My only confusion is... do I add back the “active calories” (from my apple watch) I burn throughout the day, or do I just keep it at 1200 calories per day?

I also workout a few days a week; cardio for about 350 calories which I add back whenever I do it. I have disabled the steps counter from the app so I don’t accidentally double dip.

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  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,595 Member
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    To amplify what @heybales said, you have a few problems with your setup

    The first and most important one is incorrect goal setting. You probably should not be trying to lose at the rate of 2 pounds a week.

    You then compound this by ignoring the way the tool you're using is set up to be used and entering an obviously artificially lowered activity setting trying to create an artificially large and long-term potentially counterproductive deficit.

    The last issue is that the direct integration between Apple watch and mfp seems to not be working very well for most people. synchronizing using an intermediary app such as Pacer appears to work much more consistently and it's probably the way to go
  • mrabia786
    mrabia786 Posts: 3 Member
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    So if I change my activity level to lightly active, and I workout at the gym, do I add those calories from the gym back as well?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    mrabia786 wrote: »
    So if I change my activity level to lightly active, and I workout at the gym, do I add those calories from the gym back as well?

    Not a part of your normal active daily life that you just set MFP for - so yes it counts when you do it.

    What type of workout - you do want to pick the right thing and be honest with it?

    Like if a 5 min warm-up walk to something that is very different for 30-45 min - no need to count that walk.
  • mrabia786
    mrabia786 Posts: 3 Member
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    heybales wrote: »
    mrabia786 wrote: »
    So if I change my activity level to lightly active, and I workout at the gym, do I add those calories from the gym back as well?

    Not a part of your normal active daily life that you just set MFP for - so yes it counts when you do it.

    What type of workout - you do want to pick the right thing and be honest with it?

    Like if a 5 min warm-up walk to something that is very different for 30-45 min - no need to count that walk.

    I usually do an hour of cardio when I workout at the gym. I toggle between running and fast walking, burning about 350 calories. Also, if my apple watch says I burned 400 calories throughout the day and I set MFP to lightly active already - do I still add those 400 calories back?
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
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    Experiment and adjust.

    Are you losing weight faster than you expected but you're hungry all the time? Eat more. Either increase your activity level to allow for more daily calories or start to eat more of your exercise calories.

    Are you losing weight at the expected rate but you're struggling? Look for ways to make things easier on yourself. Change up the food you're eating so that it's more physically and mentally satisfying. Try looking at your meal times, meal frequency and eating pattern to see if there might be a better way.

    Make any changes, give those changes about a month to take effect then check in again to see how you're going and make any further adjustments you feel you need.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    mrabia786 wrote: »
    heybales wrote: »
    mrabia786 wrote: »
    So if I change my activity level to lightly active, and I workout at the gym, do I add those calories from the gym back as well?

    Not a part of your normal active daily life that you just set MFP for - so yes it counts when you do it.

    What type of workout - you do want to pick the right thing and be honest with it?

    Like if a 5 min warm-up walk to something that is very different for 30-45 min - no need to count that walk.

    I usually do an hour of cardio when I workout at the gym. I toggle between running and fast walking, burning about 350 calories. Also, if my apple watch says I burned 400 calories throughout the day and I set MFP to lightly active already - do I still add those 400 calories back?

    That's part of the problem with what you are attempting to do - Apple doesn't supply the correct figure to MFP to do math with unless you use Pacer as go-between.

    And it's move calories are those over a sedentary figure. So some of those are accounted for already within a Lightly-Active level. BMR x 1.4 is Lightly Active.

    If you don't want to sync to handle it automatically - then just note your base + move calories for past 3 weeks, probably spreadsheet it, and set your eating goal to the 250 less than say a 3 week moving average.
    Then add your workouts when done.

    That way as seasons or work amount changes in a major way, your eating goal will adjust appropriately, and workouts are always added when done.

    But it really will work better when synced correctly.

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