Garmin and Exercise

I'm not clear what you're saying. Do you have your Garmin synched to MFP? If so, and assuming you also have negative adjustments enabled, it will sort things out for you, based on your Garmin's all-day estimate of calories, and your requested weight loss rate in MFP.

If you don't have your Garmin synched, I think the best route would depend on what your activity setting is (even sedentary assumes some steps) combined with how much walking you're doing.

If you answer those questions, I'm betting someone will help you figure out whether to add your walking calories or not, based on how your total steps/walking compares with your activity level setting. (I'm not the best person to help with that, because I walk very little in daily life, know my maintenance calories, and log all intentional walks as workouts because I know from experience that I need to - I've been tracking for around 5 years, at this point).

Your Garmin will calculate your total calories burned during the day, whether or not your steps are during an intentional workout or just daily steps.

The risk for double counting is having your Garmin synced and logging your walks separately on MFP directly. So just use your Garmin as intended for registering daily activity and intentional walks/exercise.

If you're using MFP as intended, then yes, you should eat back exercise calories.
I've always eaten back all of my exercise calories and I have lost at the rate I wanted. Others recommend only eating back 50-75% of the calories in the beginning (in case the numbers are inflated) and then adjusting after monitoring your weight loss to see if you're losing faster or slower than intended.

Sami1601 wrote: »

It seems quite low 1,210 calories.

Did you enter an aggressive rate of loss in your goals? Your calorie goal is based on how many pounds you told MFP you wanted to lose per week. If you want to eat more, you can always choose a less aggressive goal. Also, the 1,210 is given to you with the intention you'll be eating back exercise calories.

Sami1601 wrote: »

I entered 1lb per week as I have quite a few pounds to loose. Im reading some conflicting information, some say to eat exercise calories back, some say eat 50% some say eat none.

The only option that is definitely wrong is zero!

If you are logging your food correctly, then as I said: just choose to eat back part of your exercise calories (50%, 75%, just choose a number) or even all of them and then monitor your weight loss over 4 to 6 weeks. If you're losing weight more slowly than your chosen weight loss rate, eat back less of your exercise calories. If you're losing faster, eat back more exercise calories.

Sami1601 wrote: »

Yes it seems I'm struggling over the last few days I’ve ate back most or all of my exercise calories.

When set to "lose 1lb a week" and an eating target more than 1200 for a female or 1500 for a male, you're starting with an expected -500 Cal deficit. Provided you log carefully and accurately and that you prove to lose weight as per estimates.

You won't know for a few weeks how "typical" you and your logging assumptions will prove to be.

You're SUPPOSED to eat the exercise calories that you actually burned.
If you end up eating back exercise calories that you shouldn't have, you will be reducing your -500 Cal deficit.

Only when you exceed your maintenance calories you will be in a surplus for the day. Only if you exceed your maintenance calories for the WEEK, will you be in a surplus for the week.

It is better to weather the storm and keep going than to give up because it is too hard!

Don't forget to to and differentiate between hunger, and wanting to eat for reasons other than hunger.

keep on keeping on!

PS: Garmin and exercise walks. As far as I recall Garmin will automatically detect your walking activity, just like Fitbit does. I would **NOT** register the exercise walk on Garmin specifically (or on MFP). i.e. I would not trigger a manual exercise.

A walking motion is something the Garmin can detect quite well and you have the potential complication when you signal an exercise that your Garmin will switch to being increasingly guided by your heart rate, more so than by the movement it detects. While heart rate may be the best available option to capture activity that is not properly detected by your fitness band, when it comes to walking, increased reliance on heart rate is more likely to generate an over-estimate as compared to normal detection methods.

Your eating target depends on your selection of activity level and rate of weight loss. Every 1lb of weight loss per week requires a deficit of 3500 Cal, or 500 Cal a day.

So, if you told MFP that you're sedentary and I want to lose 1lb a week. And if MFP said: "eat 1210", this means MFP thinks that BEFORE ADDITIONAL EXERCISE, you will be spending 1710 to exist at your chosen activity level of sedentary.

And a number of 1710 Cal for maintenance implies someone who is probably female, probably not extremely heavy, probably not very tall, and probably not in their 20s!

If you're heavier, taller, and younger, and get 1210 as your target, there is a chance you've told MFP you want to lose TWO lbs a week. If that's the case, your maintenance calories would be 2210. Only you know what you told MFP!

In any case, the MFP number is based on an ESTIMATE multiplied by a second estimate!

Your resting metabolic rate is estimated from an equation developed from a sample of 498 people which is then multiplied by an activity factor (the second estimate) which represents the activity level you selected.

Garmin ignores the activity level you selected, and instead estimates your activity level for the day based on what it manages to detect (and on any exercise you manually log). It then throws that number to MFP, and through integration magic, MFP corrects your "I am sedentary" estimate with the numbers that Garmin provides.

Because of the nature of statistical estimates, the results will be very close for most people, a little bit off for some, and very inaccurate only for a few.

You log your food consistently (by preference by weight and using correct entries). You review your logs and try to improve the value you derive from the calories you spend. You enter your weight in a weight trend app or web site. And in a few weeks you compare your expected results based on the deficits you've recorded vs your actual results. This gives you an idea of accurately you've been logging and allows you to adjust.