MFP with BodyMedia HELP (calorie question)

markbbishop · May 2012

I just got the BodyMedia Link armband to help with reaching my goal. Since MFP seems to have a better database of food, I've been logging my food through MFP. Today, I saw somewhere where someone said "The calories burned for the armband include the base calories necessary for your body to function, while the calories that MFP is looking for are the ADDITIONAL calorie value. " I'm not exactly sure what that means or how to calcuate my stuff accurately now.

I've been just adding the calories burned via BodyMedia and adding it to MFP, but from the above that doesn't seem accurate. Can anyone help please?

Starlage · May 2012

i don't quite get your question- sounds like you said you're taking your BMF reading and adding it to MFP as exercise on top of the MFP calorie amount? That'll give you way too many calories- you need to use the BMF as the device to tell you how much to eat, not MFP. Start using MFP purely for it's large database. Your BMF's amount is what you should be shooting for (minus a deficit of course- most people go for 500 calories a day off the BMF burn)

I use my BMF as a guide as far as how much to eat and then use MFP to count calories, then transfer the total calories eaten for the day to BMF in one lump sum (there's a way to add your own food, so I do this each day, changing the name, like "mfp transfer 1, mfp transfer 2)- so say your burn is 2500. you should aim to eat around 2000 to get a 500 deficit (so that you get a 3500 a week deficit off the week's burn). Make sense?

markbbishop · May 2012

Somewhat. I've talked to my doctor and workout trainer about losing more than 2 pounds. While it's not good in the long run, it's ok to do it as long as you're getting nutrients, etc. Since BMF and MFP neither allow you to go above that, I've been doing my own calculations.

What I've been doing for example is:

1) Record my food intake via MFP.
2) Once my day is done, I'll see how many calories I've burned via BMF.
3) I'll go to my MFP app, select walking, and put in minutes until it equals the calories burned given by BMF.

Based on my weight, height, etc. it looks like around 3300 calories is what I need a day to maintain my weight. So if, for example usage only, I consumed 2000 calories via MFP app, and burned 3400 calories via BMF, that would put me at 4700 for the day which would be about 1.3 pounds weight loss that day. I'm not that extreme, by the way, it was just some number throwing to show you what I do.

grimm1974 · May 2012

Ok, so I get what you are asking. Yes, BMF does give you a total calories burned number. It includes the calories that it takes to basically keep you alive (aka your BMR). I cannot say for certain whether or not MFP does or not. In the grand scheme of things, it shouldn't matter. However, if you would like to estimate what the additional calories burned are, you can kinda figure it out like this:

Take your BMR and divide it by 1440 (24 hours * 60 minutes = 1440 minutes in a day). This is your BMR per minute

Take that number and multiply it by the number of minutes you worked out. This is how many calories you would burn while in those minutes if you hadn't worked out or even moved.

Then, take your calories burned during that workout and subtract the previous number you calculated. This will give you the additional calories you burned.

You can then take that number and compare it to the MFP number. If they are closer, then you may be able to assume MFP does only show additional calories burned.l

Starlage · May 2012

no- i see where you're getting confused. The BMF isnt a device that's measuring EXTRA calories burned- it's calculating total calories burned. So it's not to be looked at as adding onto the MFP calcualtion of how much to eat. I think you're viewing the BMF as a kind of pedometer in a way? Like thinking that it's only calculating how much you're burning from steps taken/movement etc? It calculates your entire calorie expedenture for the day- so it's including your BMR- in other words it tells you how much to eat even if you laid in bed all day and didn't move. The best way to do it is to change MFP's calorie limit to something that's close to the average intake you'll be needing and NOT add exercise/eat exercise calories back because the BMF calculates that for you into your total burn for the day. I'm not the best at explaining things, so hopefully that makes sense. In other words, stop the way you're doing it because it sounds wrong. Take the burn from the BMF at face value as far as how many calories you'd need in a day to maintain your current weight at your current activity level. Take the BMF burn, minus 500 and shoot for that each day- use MFP purely as a calorie counter, don't use it's exercise part (unless you want to enter it and ignore it, purely for the social aspect of having your friends see what you've done and cheer you on). Maybe i'm still not understanding the way you use the apps- so here:

My example...

I exercise 3-5 days a week, i'm 5'1" and 150ish lbs.

MFP originally had my calorie level at 1380ish. Once I got the BMF I realized my burns varied from 2100-3100 depending on the day/whether I exercised or not, so I definitely wasn't eating enough. You never want to eat below your BMR and I defnitely was. I wore the BMF for a whole week to get a week's worth of burns that I could add together to get my weekly TDEE and take 3500 off of that (3500 deficit in one week = 1 lb lost) and then took that number and averaged it out over a week so that I could change my MFP diary to reflect something closer to the calorie amount I need each day according to my BMF results (ex sun 2600 mon 2700 tue 3000 wed 2900 thu 2800 fri 2900 sat 2100 = week's TDEE of 19000. 19000 - 3500 = 15500 divided by 7 days in a week = 2214 calories a day.) So my MFP diary is set to 2250 calories a day and I eat more or less depending on my BMF burn (say I exercise, i'll go ahead and enter the exercise so that it re-averages out my macros)- or if I don't feel like eating more I just stay at 2250 since I know that according to my estimated calculations eating 2250 a day will end me at around 3500 deficit off my average week's total burns.

Sarauk2sf · May 2012

no- i see where you're getting confused. The BMF isnt a device that's measuring EXTRA calories burned- it's calculating total calories burned. So it's not to be looked at as adding onto the MFP calcualtion of how much to eat. I think you're viewing the BMF as a kind of pedometer in a way? Like thinking that it's only calculating how much you're burning from steps taken/movement etc? It calculates your entire calorie expedenture for the day- so it's including your BMR- in other words it tells you how much to eat even if you laid in bed all day and didn't move. The best way to do it is to change MFP's calorie limit to something that's close to the average intake you'll be needing and NOT add exercise/eat exercise calories back because the BMF calculates that for you into your total burn for the day. I'm not the best at explaining things, so hopefully that makes sense. In other words, stop the way you're doing it because it sounds wrong. Take the burn from the BMF at face value as far as how many calories you'd need in a day to maintain your current weight at your current activity level. Take the BMF burn, minus 500 and shoot for that each day- use MFP purely as a calorie counter, don't use it's exercise part (unless you want to enter it and ignore it, purely for the social aspect of having your friends see what you've done and cheer you on). Maybe i'm still not understanding the way you use the apps- so here:

My example...

I exercise 3-5 days a week, i'm 5'1" and 150ish lbs.

MFP originally had my calorie level at 1380ish. Once I got the BMF I realized my burns varied from 2100-3100 depending on the day/whether I exercised or not, so I definitely wasn't eating enough. You never want to eat below your BMR and I defnitely was. I wore the BMF for a whole week to get a week's worth of burns that I could add together to get my weekly TDEE and take 3500 off of that (3500 deficit in one week = 1 lb lost) and then took that number and averaged it out over a week so that I could change my MFP diary to reflect something closer to the calorie amount I need each day according to my BMF results (ex sun 2600 mon 2700 tue 3000 wed 2900 thu 2800 fri 2900 sat 2100 = week's TDEE of 19000. 19000 - 3500 = 15500 divided by 7 days in a week = 2214 calories a day.) So my MFP diary is set to 2250 calories a day and I eat more or less depending on my BMF burn (say I exercise, i'll go ahead and enter the exercise so that it re-averages out my macros)- or if I don't feel like eating more I just stay at 2250 since I know that according to my estimated calculations eating 2250 a day will end me at around 3500 deficit off my average week's total burns.

I do it this way also - calculate a static number based on averages (and deducting for a reasonable deficit) - over-ride MFP target calories with that number, and then eat to that number each day (no eating back of exercise calories as they are already included) . Reassess periodically to make sure you do not need to tweak it, especially if your activity levels change.

JhKd · May 2012

Basically the same as what everyone is saying. My BMF will show that I burn about 3300 calories on a day where I don't do anything (i.e. a lazy Sunday) and about 3800-4000 calories on a day when I workout.

I set MFP to 2375 calories, which is above my calculated BMR, and just shoot for 2375 calories regardless of if I'm working out or not. On a day when I don't do much, I'll have a deficit of about 900 calories, and 1400-1600 calories on a day when I do more. On those days, I know I have some room to eat a bit more.

I don't log any excercise in MFP. I calculate my calorie intake at MFP and transfer that total over to the BMF site.

markbbishop · May 2012

Thanks for everyones input!

kcarlson22 · May 2012

This would give you a 1400 calorie deficit ...not quite 0.5 lb per day loss. If you log those calories eaten into the BMF activity manager it will calculate your deficit for you...

markbbishop · May 2012

Ok, I think I'm back confused on my math.

I logged my calorie intake yesterday. It was 2491.
I again added my calorie burn for the day to equal what my BMF said I burned, which was 3839.
This led a 1348 -net.
When I divide 1348/3500, I got 0.385. So by that calculation, about 2.7 pounds a week or 13.4 pounds in 5 weeks.
When I record the same information in MFP, and click 'complete this entry', it says I'd weigh 284.7 pounds if I did that everyday.
Why is my calculation different from MFP?

huntindawg1962 · May 2012

Because MFP is still thinking that your daily TDEE number (the number that you are reading off your BMF) is going to be different (whether higher or lower) than what you are really seeing on the BMF device. It is only looking at what you put in for your settings numbers and has no idea on your real historical burn rates.

Use the BMF number and eat less than that - and add back only based on the overall day number. You also will need to look over the long haul. The body is way too complex for it to just work out every day with a .375 lb reduction on the scale based on what you did yesterday. It will work over the long haul though.

Starlage · May 2012

I agree with the above. you basically need to ignore MFP and their calculations/predictions/"net"calories- you're now choosing to follow bodymedia's calculations etc and are now only using MFP for it's food diary database (as am I)- It's a matter of changing the way you think of things. Don't think in terms of "netting" a certain amount anymore- think in terms of maintaining whatever deficit you choose to have (3500 deficit in a week is a pound, that's the healthiest to start with- but if you're larger you could easily shoot for 7000 a week/ 1000 a day).

So, you either need to ignore MFP's calorie goal for you or go in a manually change it to something closer to what you'll be shooting for. I imagine by now you have an average range that you're eating daily.

Again though- don't enter your BMF burn into MFP as exercise. Your MFP burn is basically your BMR and then MFP has you enter exercise as additional calories. BMF has ALL of that already calculated into your daily burn- so don't look at your BMF as additional calories to add onto what MFP tells you to eat- you'll get the math all screwy trying to do it that way.

Run a report from the bodymedia website from an average week of burns- what does it tell you your average daily burn is? That may be a good number to change your food diary in MFP to- this is PURELY for vanity purposes/ so your MFP friends aren't seeing you in red daily- you're not changing it in MFP so that you can use both system's processes simultaneously. If BMF had the amazing food database and community and MFP has I'd be using BMF solely but I love the huge easy datebase and the friends I've made here so I can't part with it. Learn to ignore MFP stuff as far as recommendations though, just use the calorie counter part and change it to your goal per BMF and don't log exercise at all- you'll just confuse yourself I think.

markbbishop · May 2012

Gotcha. I'm not sure I'm familiar with bodymedia exactly yet. I just got it a week ago. Is there a way to tell it you want to go for 1000 deficient a day?

Starlage · May 2012

hmm.... maybe explore your settings? I remember choosing that when i first started it, there's got to be a way to change it though- you'll have to play around with it a little.

huntindawg1962 · May 2012

Exactly what Starlage said. I use the BMF as the true indicator of what My TDEE is, on average, and set my deficit based off that. I know on average what I should consume. If I have a really good day of burn - which I know it as it is happening, I will allow extra for the day if I feel like it. Otherwise I will just enjoy the extra benefit of a bigger deficit for that day.

I use the MFP for a calorie consumption tracking tool as the one that BodyMedia has is no where near as nice or easy.

MFP with BodyMedia HELP (calorie question)

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