Misfit negative calorie adjustment

siobhanaoife · August 2020

Hi -

I am set to sendentary. I wear a Misfit Ray step tracker. It just tracks steps, not heart rate or other kinds of exercise. I have negative calorie adjustment turned on. This worked fine before the pandemic and wildfires when my primary exercise was hours of walking. Now, since I'm pretty much housebound, I got an elliptical machine. The Misfit doesn't notice the elliptical workout, because it has fixed frame arms, so I just hold the heart rate monitors on the handles the whole time.

I enter the 50 minute workout into MyFitnessPal. Misfit logs that I also took 5000 steps. I get a negative calorie adjustment.

Is this because the Misfit tells MyFitnessPal my total calorie expenditure for the day, which doesn't include the elliptical workout? And MyFitnessPal trusts that number which I know is wrong, because I also did a workout that it couldn't notice?

If so, is the fix for me to tell Misfit about the workout, or to disable negative calorie adjustments, or to stop synching the Misfit and MyFitnessPal?

I want to get docked if my steps don't get me to Sedentary. But I don't want to get docked for working out!

javba2 · August 2020

Hi, I DO NOT have an answer for your question DIRECTLY. However between ALL trackers I've found FitBit to be most consistently effective both in Neg and Pos additions AND regularly syncing to the app. Rest of them all were just NOT doing it automatically. IMO we did not spend this money on these trackers for manual updates and troubleshooting. Just my 2 cents. Even the cheapest FitBit did better at these basic chores - i.e. track and update MFP.

siobhanaoife · August 2020

Thanks, I may upgrade at some point! But since the Misfit does work fine for me as a step tracker, and I already own it, I'd love to see if I can find a way to use it more effectively. Getting an elliptical machine blew my health and fitness budget for the year and then some! At some point I am interested in getting a device that measures more about my exertion, not just my steps, but the money's not there right now.

heybales · August 2020

MFP reads steps from device.

Super rough estimates of calorie burn from those steps.

Your Sedentary activity level has a base number of steps/calories as part of it.

You don't get positive adjustment until you've come above that level.

You enter a workout and say you burned this amount extra above activity level.
But your rough estimate of calorie burn shows you didn't meet it yet.
Negative adjustment.

Like this.
Say MFP estimated your sedentary to be 2500 daily. You have 1000 cal deficit, eating goal 1500, which is bare minimum allowed.

You get some steps and your workout and MFP estimates you got 2800 calories.
That appears to be 2800 - 2500 = 300 adjustment
Base eating goal 1500 + 300 = 1800.

You log a workout of 500 cal.
Now MFP is expecting you burned 2500 + 500 = 3000
Still by steps it appeared 2800 cal.
2800 - 3000 = neg 200

Base eating goal 1500 +500 workout - 200 adj = 1800

Still 1000 deficit.

If you don't have 1000 deficit, it can easily be your overall adjustment is neg because you never got above sedentary even with the workout included.

You can see these figures by pressing and holding on the adjustment line in the exercise diary.
Spells it out kinda.
Not as nicely presented as a linked Fitbit or Garmin account, but still something useful.

siobhanaoife · August 2020

I still think there's a problem where it's looking, not at my steps only from the Misfit, but also at the Misfit's opinion of my calories burned for the day. Which is low my the amount of the elliptical workout because it doesn't register on the Misfit.

The reason I think this is, if I don't sync with the Misfit at all and manually enter a workout, MFP gives me full credit for the workout. If I sync with the Misfit and manually enter a short workout, I get a small number of positive points for the Misfit steps. If I sync with the Misfit and do a long workout I get negative points for the steps from the Misfit. If I don't enter a workout manually at all, and just sync with the Misfit, I get positive calories from the Misfit steps.

Logically, I don't deserve fewer calories on days that I do a longer workout than on days that I do a short workout. The Misfit estimates my total calories burned for the day; obviously this is very wrong if I do a lot of exercise that isn't noticed by the Misfit. I think the problem I described above comes from MFP looking at that total amount of calories for the day from the Misfit as if it is true.

siobhanaoife · August 2020

Thanks very much Haybales for telling me where to find the details. It confirms my suspicion: MFP is calculating that my Sedentary day + my manually entered workout is 3025 calories. Misfit is saying I burned 2923 calories. So MFP is adjusting and saying I should consume 102 fewer calories.

But that 2923 doesn't include my workout, only my steps. So I either have to figure out a way to add the workout to the Misfit's record for the day, or disable negative calorie adjustments. Hmm. Thank you.

heybales · August 2020

Yes - MFP when only getting a step count has no way of knowing if the steps seen were part of a workout logged.
It's assumed yes - so to prevent double counting - you get the effect seen.

Just to be clear though, and a screen shot might confirm it - does the calorie burn associated to the Misfit in those extra adjustment details actually equal what the device is showing as daily calorie burn?

If so they may be syncing accounts now, not merely getting a step count.
In which case are you sure you are active enough to reach sedentary?
That can be roughly 3-5K steps depending on distance and calorie burn for them.

That changes the math - depending if it's done correctly (Fitbit, Garmin) or not (Apple, Samsung Health, GoogleFit).

I'm curious now.

This Misfit is only using steps to estimate calorie burn - no HR?
Putting on body may allow it to see "steps" though the distance will be wrong due to lessened impact.
No way to add the workout manually to Misfit account?

siobhanaoife · August 2020

Misfit lets me manually add exercises but only for a small list of predefined activities at low/med/high intensity. Nothing matches the elliptical machine, and no way to put in the specific amount of calories burned in the not-tracked elliptical workout. I am fairly confident in the elliptical's estimate of my calories burned because it knows my weight and age and gender, etc, and it is measuring my heart rate, which is super high because I am enormous, obese, and out of shape. Plus, it's only half of the calories that MFP gives for elliptical workouts, so it seems sane

I could put the Misfit on my ankle or sneaker, and then it would count me as walking or running during the elliptical workout, but I doubt it would be particularly accurate as it doesn't know resistance, heart rate, etc. It's basically a fancy-damn pedometer, it doesn't track heart rate or respiration or anything like that.

I typically get about 5000 steps a day, which is why I picked sedentary. When I don't log any exercises at all in MFP, and just sync my step tracker, I get a small bump up in calories on a 5000 step day. So it seems that I'm not coming in below "sedentary", like I would if I was in bed all day. I'm just trying to square up tracking steps (because they do vary depending on whether I go out or not) and tracking the elliptical workouts that are invisible to my step tracker. Maybe I should not sync with MFP and just manually enter the step count and the elliptical. Or maybe just not sync and just eyeball it, and make sure I cut down calories any day I fall short of 5000 steps.

heybales · August 2020

I'd say with those limitations your device can be used to help you pick the right activity level in MFP.

Or actually, keep an ongoing average of your typical days, and if the workout is unseen enough to not effect it then great, you are still get an avg NEAT daily burn to you track.

Take 500 off, or whatever is reasonable now, and manually make that your eating goal in MFP for your base.

If it happens to be less than sedentary - than you are accounting for that fact with your manual goal.

Then when you do a workout, log that better estimate of calories on MFP and enjoy the extra food since you are doing extra.

Instead of a weekly average TDEE method, you are doing a weekly average NEAT method manually instead of the 4 rough levels MFP has.

You are right the calculation of calories from walking/running distance would not translate well from elliptical "steps" and "distance" seen.

That way you aren't basing it on steps, but Misfit's likely better estimate of calories based on actual distance it thinks the steps took you.

Oh - there have been no studies that have found a good formula for elliptical because of the very different form that can be used on it, very much effecting the calorie burn. Unlike treadmill or resistance bike with watts that have been used in studies for decades and have excellent formulas.

An elliptical could get watt's from a motor it uses for resistance (if that's it's method), but the efficiency of the person and their method of using it can make that totally a very rough estimate.

It's using weight maybe gender for calories.

Age is almost certainly to create HR zones for 220-age for any HR-based programs or just to display what HR zone you are currently in.

If you have a treadmill available just once - get your pace up on it so you have the same HR as on the elliptical.
Note the pace and incline needed to accomplish that same level of work, or calorie burn.
Now use this to get Net calories per min - and use that for similar workouts on elliptical. Maybe they match!!!
Need to update as you lose weight, or become more fit - maybe every 2 - 3 weeks.

https://exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs

Misfit negative calorie adjustment

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