Garmin Calories In/Out

Ajh8710
Ajh8710 Posts: 1 Member
edited December 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
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Hi MFP community! I am new to this and just linked my Garmin to MFP. I have had a quick look at other discussions and cannot see the answer to my enquiry - apologies if there is one out there and I have missed it!

As you will see from the images - in MFP I currently have a +730 calories for exercise but in my Garmin it only takes into account my Active Calories burnt (which is what I want it to do!). How do I get MFP to do this too?

MFP: 1,210 (goal) - 661 (food) + 730 (exercise) = 1,279 (remaining)
Garmin: 1,200* (goal) - 660 (food) + 180 (active) = 720 (remaining)
* I think Garmin rounds up/down to the nearest zero

Any help/ tips much appreciated!

Replies

  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    What exercise / activity have you done that MFP is estimating 730 cal for? Based on my own experience MFP wildly exaggerates exercise calories hence my reliance on my Garmin for tracking steady state aerobic activities.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    This is what is confusing about having a Garmin connected to mfp.

    The calories in/out on Garmin connect shows your mfp calorie goal plus whatever Garmin connect has recorded as your “active calories” for the day. So Garmin says your “active calories” are 180. You don’t really went to use this part of Garmin Connect for calorie guidance.

    If you go to the calories (not calories in/out) section of health in Garmin connect, you’ll see your resting calories and total calories. Your “resting” calories are determined by what you set your activity level to on Garmin Connect (there are 10 levels to choose from).

    Mfp is a little different.

    When you set up mfp, you choose one of 3 or 4 activity levels (not including exercise). I’m thinking you chose sedentary - which makes sense given that you have a linked tracker. Mfp assumes you will burn however many calories a day (not including activity or exercise over the sedentary level). For example-I burn 1600 calories a day without exercise (or activity over sedentary).

    Garmin sends the actual number of calories you’ve burned over to mfp. It will also log any workouts you may have recorded on your Garmin. Your exercise calories on mfp will be the difference between whatever Garmin says you’ve burned today (Or estimates to be your total by the end of the day) minus whatever mfp thinks you’d burn being sedentary and any workouts entered.

    The calories remaining on mfp are what you want to pay attention to.


    Some numbers to help maybe make some sense:

    Mfp:
    Calories burned without exercise: 1600
    5 mile run: 400
    Mfp total expected burn: 2000

    My mfp calorie goal is 1200. I’ve eaten 1600

    Garmin:
    Total calories burned: 2100
    Resting calories: 1400
    Active calories: 700

    My Garmin “adjustment” is 100. Total exercise calories on mfp is 500

    Garmin connect calories in/out:

    1200 -1600 + 700 = 300 remaining.


    Mfp shows:

    1200 - 1600 + 500 = 100 remaining.

    I burned a total of 2100 calories for the day. I ate 1600. That’s a 500 calorie deficit for the day (1 pound per week).

    Garmin connect’s calories in/out is meshing 2 systems and the number of gives is not correct. If I ate the Additional 300 Calories, I would eat 1900 and have only a 200 calorie deficit for the day (less than 1/2 pound a week).

    Stick with MFP’s calories in/out. Let Garmin measure your activity and workouts-it’s very good at that.

  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    BrianSharpe wrote: »
    What exercise / activity have you done that MFP is estimating 730 cal for? Based on my own experience MFP wildly exaggerates exercise calories hence my reliance on my Garmin for tracking steady state aerobic activities.

    OP has a linked tracker. Op probably has mfp set to sedentary (which is the most logical with a linked tracker). The 730 is going to include all calories burned over and above the sedentary setting-so workouts plus all the regular activity. If OP has a linked Garmin, the workout entries on mfp are coming directly from Garmin.

  • matt264
    matt264 Posts: 1 Member
    I have the same issue with Garmin sending the *total* calories burnt from a workout to MPF, when I think it should be sending only the *active* calories. This leads to two different views of what my remaining calories are.

    Further, the Garmin Connect calorie adjustment shown in MFP is always zero. Whereas in Garmin, it additionally includes some active calories that aren't workout related.

    Seems odd?

  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    matt264 wrote: »
    I have the same issue with Garmin sending the *total* calories burnt from a workout to MPF, when I think it should be sending only the *active* calories. This leads to two different views of what my remaining calories are.

    Further, the Garmin Connect calorie adjustment shown in MFP is always zero. Whereas in Garmin, it additionally includes some active calories that aren't workout related.

    Seems odd?

    Garmin sends the workout data over to mfp. That includes the calories burned during the workout. Garmin doesn’t record active vs total calories separately as part of the workout activity. It’s just one calories burned. That is what Shows as your calories burned in the workout entry it transfers to mfp.

    Your calorie adjustment (the amount that shows on the mfp diary entry with the step count) is the total calories Garmin thinks you’ve burned for the day, minus what mfp thinks you would have burned for the day (which includes whatever you would burn for your activity setting plus any workouts).

    If your adjustment is always 0-then you are not burning more calories in your day (in total) than what mfp expects you to burn.

    You may have your activity level set too high on mfp to see an adjustment (it should be whatever your activity level is without exercise). I am a long distance runner and Run/workout a combined total of 10-15 hours a week. I am set to sedentary on mfp because I work a desk job in my house and don’t really move much except for exercise.

    Any and all calorie calculations showing in Garmin connect (the calories in/out, “active” calories, etc) will not ever correlate to anything on mfp because they are different systems using different calculations. Especially avoid the in/out part of Garmin connect because that tries to combine the two systems and makes things even more confusing.

    The bottom line is that how many calories you eat needs to be factored off your total calories burned. That is how the mfp integration is designed to work (calculating off total calories).
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