Garmin Connect Calorie Adjustment & Weight Loss

superbexy
superbexy Posts: 6 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi there!
I've been studiously logging my food for a couple of weeks on MFP, however am slightly confused about the amount of calories my Garmin FR 735XT adds for "Garmin Connect Calorie Adjustment".
I've attached a photo of today's calories etc so you can see what I mean - so far Garmin has added ~400 calories. Does anyone have experience with weight loss incorporating these calories?
So far I haven't lost any weight, but unsure if that's to do with this or not!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
Thank you ☺️

Replies

  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    It gave you calories for over 8000 steps. Was that your total step count for the day, or was that intentional exercise?
  • superbexy
    superbexy Posts: 6 Member
    I try to go on 2-3 mile walk every day to get out of the house (currently recovering from surgery so the only exercise I can do!) - so I guess it's intentional? Without actively going for a walk I'd only do between 1-2k steps....
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,589 MFP Moderator
    I use a vivoactive3. So far I am losing using Garmins calorie estimate, so I generally trust it.

    How long is "a couple weeks"? What rate of loss are you shooting for? Are you accurately logging what you eat using MFP and a food scale?

  • superbexy
    superbexy Posts: 6 Member
    Yes, completely accurate with a digital food scale, and tracking all liquids too!
    I started about twelve days ago (weigh-ins on Thursdays).
    So if you were me, then would you be eating the ~400 calories it shows?
    Thank you 🙂
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,589 MFP Moderator
    edited September 2020
    superbexy wrote: »
    Yes, completely accurate with a digital food scale, and tracking all liquids too!
    I started about twelve days ago (weigh-ins on Thursdays).
    So if you were me, then would you be eating the ~400 calories it shows?
    Thank you 🙂

    Sorry, I should have thought through my initial response a little bit better.

    Open your garmin app on your phone, hit the menu button (top right), health stats, calories (just calories, not the calories in/out). Click on yesterday (since today isn't completed yet it wont make that much sense).

    The active calories (green circle to the right) should be the same as the extra calories you were given in MFP yesterday. The resting calories (blue circle to the left) should be roughly your TDEE if you are sedentary. Hopefully your daily calorie goal in MFP = resting calories in Garmin - desired daily deficit.

    These numbers may be slightly different if you used the MFP guided setup to set your goal, but they should be close. If they are not, the easiest way to get the two apps on the same page is to manually set your MFP goal so that MFP goal = resting calories in Garmin - desired daily deficit.

    If the goals seems to line up properly I would eat some or all of your extra calories depending on if you are hungry or not. Not eating all of them is fine if you can't, but too large of a deficit can lead to burn out, getting overly hungry and binging, fatigue, and other symptoms so its worth trying to avoid.

    Hopefully that made some sense. If you have any questions about it please ask away!
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,923 Member
    I have a Garmin vivoactive 4 and I'm losing fine while eating those extra calories.
    For me today, that's 390 calories for 10000 steps (slightly higher than usual, I must admit, but I did do an awful lot of stairs today too).
    I'm female, 5ft5 and 72kg/160lbs.

    I would like to add though that 1200 is the lowest calorie goal that MFP will give to a woman, so that might not correspond to the weight loss rate you selected.
  • superbexy
    superbexy Posts: 6 Member
    4legsRbetterthan2 wrote: »
    superbexy wrote: »
    Yes, completely accurate with a digital food scale, and tracking all liquids too!
    I started about twelve days ago (weigh-ins on Thursdays).
    So if you were me, then would you be eating the ~400 calories it shows?
    Thank you 🙂

    Sorry, I should have thought through my initial response a little bit better.

    Open your garmin app on your phone, hit the menu button (top right), health stats, calories (just calories, not the calories in/out). Click on yesterday (since today isn't completed yet it wont make that much sense).

    The active calories (green circle to the right) should be the same as the extra calories you were given in MFP yesterday. The resting calories (blue circle to the left) should be roughly your TDEE if you are sedentary. Hopefully your daily calorie goal in MFP = resting calories in Garmin - desired daily deficit.

    These numbers may be slightly different if you used the MFP guided setup to set your goal, but they should be close. If they are not, the easiest way to get the two apps on the same page is to manually set your MFP goal so that MFP goal = resting calories in Garmin - desired daily deficit.

    If the goals seems to line up properly I would eat some or all of your extra calories depending on if you are hungry or not. Not eating all of them is fine if you can't, but too large of a deficit can lead to burn out, getting overly hungry and binging, fatigue, and other symptoms so its worth trying to avoid.

    Hopefully that made some sense. If you have any questions about it please ask away!

    This has helped so much, thank you! My MFP goal is 1200, and resting calories at 1806 on Garmin. The exercise sort of tallies up between the two apps (slightly lower on MFP).
    Thank you so much for the in depth answer, I'll be open to using my exercise calories!
    Have a lovely day 🙂
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