Recommend enabling or disabling negative calories?

Well it depends.

I currently have it turned on because I do the bulk of my exercise in the morning, and i only have a 250 deficit, so I use it to make sure I don't eat too much too early. By the end of the day I may have a positive adjustment, or I might not.

It works because MFP just adds on tracked exercise to your current total, but that may not actually be what you end up burning.

So example, I go for a 10k run in the morning, and burn 600 calories. MFP just adds that on, so say I have set to 1500 calories goal. That's gives me 2100 calories. But say I sit around and do nothing the rest of the day, and actually only burn a total of 1900 calories. If I eat the 1800 MFP gives me, I'll only end up with a deficit of 150 calories for the day. If I stay active, walking a lot I could end up burning the 2100, or even more.

I also have my activity level set to sedentary to compensate for this as well, I usually end up with a positive adjustment, unless I'm really lazy.

I have mine enabled. It's much more accurate and I also find it motivating. I have my fitbit synced and am set to "lightly active." I find that I get a negative adjustment if I don't get up to at least 7500 steps for the day. I definitely don't want to lose calories so it's very motivating to me to get at least that amount of steps- no lazy days here!

Previously when I didn't have them enabled I didn't realize just how big of a difference getting very few steps for the day makes. I'm active during my regular work day (pre-pandemic, anyway) but on weekends if I don't do a ton of intentional walking I get hardly any steps, even if I'm out and about.

It also makes sure there aren't big inaccuracies with MFP trying to predict throughout the day how active you're doing to be. I found that sometimes when I went out dancing and got a few thousand steps after midnight, MFP would assume I was going to be super active the rest of the day and give me tons and tons of extra calories that weren't really accurate. Having the negative adjustments enabled means you get the exact correct adjustment at the end of the day.

The integration between apple watch and MFP is buggy.

Disconnect the two. Connect apple watch to Pacer app, or similar supported app of your choice, connect app to MFP

algrif37 wrote: »

Ok I’m going to give this a try. Let’s see if I can figure it out! Then I enable negative calories on MFP? And pacer will track my calorie burn like the Apple Watch? Just through the pacer app? Sorry I’m a bit tech slow!

Apple reports incorrect info directly to MFP when linked.

When Apple is linked to Pacer, and Pacer to MFP - MFP ends up with good figures you'll get good math with.

That being said, some people know they want to eat a minimum amount daily, even if they had a really slow day.
Perhaps they know they better eat at least 1300 and that's where the MFP math for eating goal landed close to.

They are willing to take less of a deficit on those non-active days.
They have Neg Adj disabled.

Others as described above want that consistent deficit, same amount daily.
Or they plan on eating to a certain number anyway - they just want to see the effects of their very inactive day in their figures down the road on review.
They have Neg Adj enabled.

I like having the negative adjustment enabled, mostly because seeing it gives me motivation to get active so I can eat my original goal. I like to eat, and the adjustment is a good black-and-white reminder that I need to move for both the calories burned and for my general physical and mental wellbeing.