Change in syncing calories earned

Something definitely changed. In my case, the calories earned has stayed at 0. I had over 11,000 steps one day recently which usually would get me something over 100 calories but it's stayed at 0. The step count transfers from FitBit to MFP, it just doesn't give calories. I also haven't been able to even submit a request about it, I get an error. I'm on Android.

I have just noticed my 'MyfitnessPal' Calories Burned (in calorie adjustment figure) has increased from 1534 to 1718, this changed on the 20th Nov. I haven't change any goals.

So if my Fitbit says I have burned 1,800, MFP only now gives a calorie adjustment of 82 calories when previously it would have shown 266 calories extra being burned.

I have no idea why MFP Calories Burned has been increased.

Glad it's not just me. Have tried to change it back to no avail.

@durden The fact that several of us are reporting the same change since last Thursday (11/20) leads me to think something changed. My biggest step count day since then was a day with over 11,000 steps which in the past would have given me exercise calories but that day gave me 0. In my case, my step count comes over properly from Fitbit but the calorie computation stays 0. Which app, MFP or Fitbit, is the one that does this calculation?

We are reporting something thay used to show something and now something else.

This is a bug!

Open the app after an exercise, we used to get extra calories showing under exercise.

Now we get this number still but it is wrong, and then keeps dropping even without us doing any changes

so open the app shows 100, close re-open again, still in same spot, you didnt do anything extra and it shows 0!!!

so a minute was 100!!

Hope this explains it

BTW, I just managed to report this by doing so via the Chrome browser on my phone instead of getting the reporting screen through the MFP app.

Other people should also look at the "MyFitnessPal calories burned" (it's tricky to find) and see if it used to be the same number daily before Nov 20 and then started varying (more for more steps). In my case it was always 1426 before Nov 20.

I do appreciate that you looked into this, but there is definitely some kind of unwelcome change. I personally go by calories burned, NOT my step count.

In my many years with Fitbit and MFP, I have created a system that adjusts the consistent inconsistencies. This system has worked for years now:

For me, my MyFitnessPal's calories burned begins to report above 0 when Fitbit has a TDEE calculation of my Calories In + 500 calories. For example, if I ate 2000 calories and Fitbit reports a TDEE of 2500, MFP calculates 0 extra calories. If instead my Fitbit TDEE was 2600 calories, MFP calculates 100 extra calories. 2800 calories, +300 to my diary, and so on and so forth. This pattern has been pretty reliable +/- 50 calories.

Just this week I noticed the difference is now off by hundreds of calories. Yesterday should've been a 726 calorie deficit, which means that MFP should've reported 226 calories. Instead, it reported 38 calories :/

How can we go back to whatever was happening previously?

Something with the calculation definitely seems off lately. Im very active and mine lately has been reporting way less calories earned than it had previously. I saw a comment on Reddit today from MyFitnessPal where a change was made to the calculations

"Apologies for any confusion this caused. If you’re noticing that your calorie adjustment is different then what it was before with a similar amount of steps and/or activity, or your Daily Goal looks a bit different, we can provide some insight into why that is.

In short: We resolved an issue that was causing the app to underestimate how many calories you might burn in a day. So we were over reporting the calories you were burning via steps and activity. 

For additional context: To better estimate your total energy needs, MyFitnessPal recently updated the Physical Activity Levels in accordance with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics findings. Estimating total energy needs involves multiplying the resting metabolic rate (RMR) by one of the following physical activity factors:

• Sedentary / Not Very Active: 1.4  
• Low / Lightly Active: 1.6  
• Active: 1.8  
• Very Active: 2

Some recent user accounts, however, were using the outdated calculations when it came time to calculate how your steps and activity affected your daily goal.

We pushed an update to our server side calculations so that your calculations are back inline with what’s expected. So you might see that you are being granted less calories to your Daily Goal based on your activity then you were before.

If you have recently changed, or will change, your activity level or updated your current weight via the Goals section of the app, this would trigger an update to your calorie goals using the updated factors. You can read more about how we calculate calorie goals in this article."

Is it possible an error was made when making this change?

I see that prior to Nov 20th, my "MyFitnessPal Calories Burned" was always 1,426. Starting that day, it changed to 1,630. So my MFP baseline is now 200 calories more than before meaning I have to burn more calories from exercise so my FitBit calories used when taking exercise into account has to be 200 calories higher before I start seeing any exercise adjustment in mfp.

Why is it that MFP is announcing this change on Reddit? Is it explained by them here on the MFP site, as it should be?

So fitbit seems back to more normal today giving me the correct step count and distance for my run. And MFP gave me correct calories. Could this have been a glitch which is now resolved. We shall see.

I am not exactly understanding why MFP would give a lower exercise calorie adjustment from steps with fitbit based on the changes made. Those seem like they would only change the amount of calories is allocated to you for your goals. For me I am always at 1200 per the system calc because I am short, old and lightweight so for me changing how many calories it allocated due to adjustment to TDEE is invisible. 1200 is 1200 .

Sorry Durden, but the IS something wrong! This is obvious because the step count/calories given record is not consistent. I did 7, 500 steps yesterday. No calories given . 10,813 Wed, 485 calories, yet previously 9,609 82 steps given, 9275 , 0 steps, yet, 7088 steps ,135 calories given. |No consistency!