Stuck - really need some help/advice...

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trashs
trashs Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all -

I have read, re-read and re-re-read the explanation of how to use MyFitnessPal (as well as the many people asking similar questions) and I am still not getting it.

Yes – I understand what Net Calories means as a definition and I also understand how exercise and eating alters this figure. However what I don't get is how I should be using the actual figure I end up with.

As a practical example: here are taken from my Net Calories report from the last 7 days (I'm using MFP integrated with Fitbit which I have had for 7 days now).

-900 +300 -10 +900 +900 -550 -10


My Net Calorie figure assigned to me by MFP is 1200 (my BMR comes out at about 1440)

I realise they are wildly erratic but that is partly because I am not sure if I should be making sure that I eat up to 1200 each day or making sure that I am always eating under that amount.

The days that I have negative values are days where I did a large amount of physical activity. But is a negative value a bad thing? Should I have tried to eat more calories on those days to avoid a negative Net Calorie result?


Many thanks for any help/comments on how I should be using this and what I am doing wrong, would be really much appreciated.

Thank you for reading

Best wishes all…


P.S. As an additional comment – perhaps the fact that this type of question gets asked so often should be taken by the MFP team that perhaps they need to put some clearer explanations out there…. just a thought ;-)

Replies

  • davegruper
    davegruper Posts: 68 Member
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    My understanding is that myfitnesspal calculates your target calories based on your desired weight loss and the amount of calories burned in a normal day. For example: There are 3,500 calories in a pound and myfitnesspal estimates that I burn 2690 in a normal day (I am a big guy with a sedentary lifestyle). I would like to lose two pounds per week.

    In order to lose two pounds, I need to burn 7,000 more calories than I consume during the week (or 1,000 calories/day). Therefore, my daily calorie target is 1,690 (2,690-1,000). Theoretically, If I consume less than 1,690/day I would lose more than 2 pounds/week.

    Also, I earn more calories when I work out. Sometimes I eat them and sometimes I don't, but I usually try to eat at least half of my workout calories because I have heard that your body will lower its metabolism if it doesn't get enough net calories in a day (ie. starvation mode). I have also found that drinking lots of water helps with weight loss, but I don't understand why yet.

    Good luck on your journey!
  • trashs
    trashs Posts: 3 Member
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    Hi Dave -

    Many thanks for the response. I *think* it's a bit clearer but not totally... :-(

    I am assuming therefore that the large negative values in my report are not a good thing and I should try to eat closer to the MFP allocated amount of 1200 per day.

    Another question for any anyone reading:

    I have a desk job so I tend to be seated most of the day. I therefore set my profile as 'Sedentary'. However I walk to work and back which means I pretty much always exceed 10,000 steps a day. I also take the stairs rather than the lift/elevator - as I work on the 3rd floor thats quite few stairs and I regularly exceed 20 floors per day.

    Should I therefore set a more active profile even though most of my activity is at the start and end of the working day?

    Thanks again and sorry for all the questions...

    Cheers!
  • jewelswye
    jewelswye Posts: 49 Member
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    if you walk to work and use the stairs every day then increase ur activity level up a level but dont log as exercise calories and this will have already been taken into account xx
  • trashs
    trashs Posts: 3 Member
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    Hi Jewelswye -

    When you say "don't log as exercise calories" I presume you mean don't start and stop the fitbit stopwatch during my walks to and from work and when I am taking the stairs. If so then yes, I don't currently log these as exercise activities - I consider them as part of my daily routine. I only actually log my visits to the Gym as separate activities.

    Many thanks for the response - I'll try raising my activity profile to the one above sedentary.

    Cheers

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