Too overweight for exercise calories??

elynch96
elynch96 Posts: 15 Member
in Getting Started

MFP doesn’t seem to be adding exercise calories even though I have it connected to my Fitbit and MapMyWalk. I’ve gained a lot of weight over the last two years because of my health but I’m better now and need to lose the weight. Could it possibly be that MFP isn’t adding exercise calories because I’m so overweight that in order to reach my goals, I can’t afford to have any exercise added to my net calories otherwise I won’t lose weight? 😢

Replies

  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited July 2020
    Not the reason.

    It's because you aren't burning more according to Fitbit than MFP already estimated you'd burn based on the activity level you selected.

    If you have a tracker synced, it's recommended to just select Sedentary.

    And if you sync MMW to MFP, it's already getting a workout sent over (I highly doubt it's estimate of calorie burn is better than Fitbit and would be inflated) so there may be no further adjustment if you were not more active outside the workout - and that workout is being sent by MFP over to Fitbit and replacing what it came up with for calorie burn.

    I'd suggest unsync MMW from MFP.

    Not required, and in this case, not useful, and likely bad idea.

    ETA - or there are syncing issues right now and you should see some.

    With a workout from MMW in your exercise diary - your eating goal doesn't go up?

    And absolutely when you do more, you would eat more.
    Same deficit for losing weight would be in there.

    You can take pic of your Exercise Diary to post here.
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    What is your MFP profile set to: Sedentary, lightly active, very active?

    MFP estimates your total daily calorie burn based on your stats & your stated activity level. Fitbit estimates your daily calorie burn based on your movement and those same stats. Your calorie adjustment happens when Fitbit says you burned more than MFP expected.

    *I personally have not used Mapmywalk in eons. Since I use a Fitbit I just let it account for any walking/running based activity. Having multiple devices/sources reporting calories can get confusing.

    So I would conclude that based on your stated activity level, and possibly because you are using multiple apps for 'exercise' - you're not moving enough to get an adjustment.

    Look at your Fitbit prior history - what does it show for calories burned total for prior days? Is that more than what MFP expected? *If you are set to lose 1 pound per week, add 500 to your assigned MFP calorie goal. If your Fitbit shows more than this, you would have an adjustment. BUT using Mapmywalk: I'm not sure where that would factor in.

    Example is that my MFP calories are 1390 daily and I have a 250 deficit. SO MFP expects me to burn 1640. Yesterday shows a +211 Fitbit adjustment because according to Fitbit, I was around 1850.
  • BMcC9
    BMcC9 Posts: 4,451 Member
    There is a Fitbit Users group (this link will take you right there)

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

    There may already be something in their FAQs or other pinned resource about how the interaction between fitbit settings and MFP goal settings / back-and-forth syncing between the two platforms works.

    Hope they can help you solve your tech issue (or at least clear up how to interpret)

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