“Calories Remaining” Query

Kouyoko
Kouyoko Posts: 1 Member
in Getting Started
Hey all, hoping someone can help me wrap my head around this; why is the MyFitnessPal calorie remaining calculation minus both food and exercise?

Apologies if that’s a dumb question, but surely if you eat you gain calories and if you exercise you lose them, so there should be a plus in there?

Just trying to understand the thing!
Thank you
Shaun

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,826 Member
    Are you looking on the website or on the app?
    On the app it should be minus food and plus exercise. But if you have a device synced and you haven't been as active as the activity level setting you chose on MFP, you'll see a minus for exercise (negative calorie adjustment).
  • moonangel12
    moonangel12 Posts: 971 Member
    I have a Garmin, and the calculations it does make zero sense for exercise adjustments. I am set at sedentary and after a day with 6 miles of hiking and nearly 15k steps it subtracted 10 calories from my daily allotment. Definitely not correct. So keep that in mind and make logical choices with the information given.

    Check your settings, it could be as simple as you ending the day below your activity settings (which is why I set mine to sedentary, less chance of that).
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,826 Member
    moonangel12 wrote: »
    I have a Garmin, and the calculations it does make zero sense for exercise adjustments. I am set at sedentary and after a day with 6 miles of hiking and nearly 15k steps it subtracted 10 calories from my daily allotment. Definitely not correct. So keep that in mind and make logical choices with the information given.

    They do make sense though, in a roundabout way: Garmin sends over gross exercise burns (including BMR) so when the total exercise burns for the day are compared between Garmin and MFP, the BMR calories that got counted in your exercise get subtracted in the calorie adjustment (otherwise you'd get double counted BMR calories).

  • moonangel12
    moonangel12 Posts: 971 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    moonangel12 wrote: »
    I have a Garmin, and the calculations it does make zero sense for exercise adjustments. I am set at sedentary and after a day with 6 miles of hiking and nearly 15k steps it subtracted 10 calories from my daily allotment. Definitely not correct. So keep that in mind and make logical choices with the information given.

    They do make sense though, in a roundabout way: Garmin sends over gross exercise burns (including BMR) so when the total exercise burns for the day are compared between Garmin and MFP, the BMR calories that got counted in your exercise get subtracted in the calorie adjustment (otherwise you'd get double counted BMR calories).

    Except it gives me zero credit for any activity. It’s taking 10 off of my base, sedentary amount (1400 calories). As if I did nothing all day. There’s this weird threshold where if I go on a 4 mile walk I might earn a few, but if I am more active than that it starts deducting. That’s what doesn’t make sense to me. I have posted about it on here and no one could figure out why, contacted Garmin, updated my watch, etc. Still does it 🤷🏻‍♀️
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,826 Member
    moonangel12 wrote: »
    Lietchi wrote: »
    moonangel12 wrote: »
    I have a Garmin, and the calculations it does make zero sense for exercise adjustments. I am set at sedentary and after a day with 6 miles of hiking and nearly 15k steps it subtracted 10 calories from my daily allotment. Definitely not correct. So keep that in mind and make logical choices with the information given.

    They do make sense though, in a roundabout way: Garmin sends over gross exercise burns (including BMR) so when the total exercise burns for the day are compared between Garmin and MFP, the BMR calories that got counted in your exercise get subtracted in the calorie adjustment (otherwise you'd get double counted BMR calories).

    Except it gives me zero credit for any activity. It’s taking 10 off of my base, sedentary amount (1400 calories). As if I did nothing all day. There’s this weird threshold where if I go on a 4 mile walk I might earn a few, but if I am more active than that it starts deducting. That’s what doesn’t make sense to me. I have posted about it on here and no one could figure out why, contacted Garmin, updated my watch, etc. Still does it 🤷🏻‍♀️

    I just noticed I actually commented on several of your threads regarding this issue :smile: Very 'quirky' problem, which must be frustrating, but to be fair it has nothing to do with MFP and everything to do with your Garmin giving you odd numbers.
    Hopefully OP comes back to give more details on her issue, if things are still unclear - hopefully she doesn't have a similar issue as you!
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,941 Member
    What is your activity level in MFP and your daily calorie goal without the watch?
    Hmm.. and related to that: What is your current weight, gender, size and weight loss goal per week? Just a hunch, but I want to check something.

    How many calories does Garmin give you for a 4 mile walk?
    Have you switched on negative calorie adjustment?
  • moonangel12
    moonangel12 Posts: 971 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    moonangel12 wrote: »
    Lietchi wrote: »
    moonangel12 wrote: »
    I have a Garmin, and the calculations it does make zero sense for exercise adjustments. I am set at sedentary and after a day with 6 miles of hiking and nearly 15k steps it subtracted 10 calories from my daily allotment. Definitely not correct. So keep that in mind and make logical choices with the information given.

    They do make sense though, in a roundabout way: Garmin sends over gross exercise burns (including BMR) so when the total exercise burns for the day are compared between Garmin and MFP, the BMR calories that got counted in your exercise get subtracted in the calorie adjustment (otherwise you'd get double counted BMR calories).

    Except it gives me zero credit for any activity. It’s taking 10 off of my base, sedentary amount (1400 calories). As if I did nothing all day. There’s this weird threshold where if I go on a 4 mile walk I might earn a few, but if I am more active than that it starts deducting. That’s what doesn’t make sense to me. I have posted about it on here and no one could figure out why, contacted Garmin, updated my watch, etc. Still does it 🤷🏻‍♀️

    I just noticed I actually commented on several of your threads regarding this issue :smile: Very 'quirky' problem, which must be frustrating, but to be fair it has nothing to do with MFP and everything to do with your Garmin giving you odd numbers.
    Hopefully OP comes back to give more details on her issue, if things are still unclear - hopefully she doesn't have a similar issue as you!
    It is definitely weird! Which is why I threw it out there, just in case there was a glitch… but hopefully just a settings issue that can be tweaked!
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,826 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    What is your activity level in MFP and your daily calorie goal without the watch?
    Hmm.. and related to that: What is your current weight, gender, size and weight loss goal per week? Just a hunch, but I want to check something.

    How many calories does Garmin give you for a 4 mile walk?
    Have you switched on negative calorie adjustment?

    I suggest reading this first for context: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10811863/help-me-understand-this-calorie-adjustment
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    moonangel12 wrote: »
    I have a Garmin, and the calculations it does make zero sense for exercise adjustments. I am set at sedentary and after a day with 6 miles of hiking and nearly 15k steps it subtracted 10 calories from my daily allotment. Definitely not correct. So keep that in mind and make logical choices with the information given.

    Check your settings, it could be as simple as you ending the day below your activity settings (which is why I set mine to sedentary, less chance of that).

    You mean the Garmin Adjustment is neg 10.
    But then you have a workout in the list too for the 6 mile hike of how many calories?

    And your total Exercise calories is still negative?
    As view in your Exercise diary, not the silly 1 liner of math.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,941 Member
    Hmm.. seriously mysterious. I only saw one occasion where Garmin would give me too few steps despite having done steps: when I reset my watch yesterday. I had walked 8200 steps, then reset the watch and put a backup from the morning back. I went to the bins getting 1500 additional steps. Looked in app, steps still on 8200. But on the watch it was only 1500 steps. Though that still would not make sense as the data gets transferred to MFP via Garmin Connect I think. Thus even if TO did a watch reset before both threads this would not explain things. I think....
  • moonangel12
    moonangel12 Posts: 971 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    moonangel12 wrote: »
    I have a Garmin, and the calculations it does make zero sense for exercise adjustments. I am set at sedentary and after a day with 6 miles of hiking and nearly 15k steps it subtracted 10 calories from my daily allotment. Definitely not correct. So keep that in mind and make logical choices with the information given.

    Check your settings, it could be as simple as you ending the day below your activity settings (which is why I set mine to sedentary, less chance of that).

    You mean the Garmin Adjustment is neg 10.
    But then you have a workout in the list too for the 6 mile hike of how many calories?

    And your total Exercise calories is still negative?
    As view in your Exercise diary, not the silly 1 liner of math.
    @Lietchi posted the link above the the issue I have with mine… still ongoing despite updates, resets, etc. Screenshots available. I just ignore the adjustment when I know it’s wrong and eat accordingly.

    (Original thread: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10811863/help-me-understand-this-calorie-adjustment )

    Didn’t mean to hijack discussion with my glitchy Garmin, hopefully the OP has a more straight forward solution!

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