How could I have eaten -600 calories?

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vatblack
vatblack Posts: 221 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I was looking at the bar graph of my food for the last 7 days. The 5/26 one goes under 0 to - 600 calories. 5/25 doesn't show up at all. Can anyone even eat minus calories. This just does not make any sense to me.

Please help me understand what I'm looking at!

Replies

  • Ariberri9
    Ariberri9 Posts: 206 Member
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    Can you open up for diary? Maybe I can take a look for you. :smile:
  • kayemme
    kayemme Posts: 1,782 Member
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    did you exercise a lot that day?
  • vatblack
    vatblack Posts: 221 Member
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    sure, just a minute.
  • xcrunnergirl13
    xcrunnergirl13 Posts: 67 Member
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    Maybe if you burned more than your bmr and activity level calories it might show up negative
  • kayleesays
    kayleesays Posts: 564 Member
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    Mine does that, too. Some days show up with nothing.
  • Rayman79
    Rayman79 Posts: 2,009 Member
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    ate a little, exercised a lot. Simple as that.

    Oh and as a solution... EAT MORE! :)
  • vatblack
    vatblack Posts: 221 Member
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    It is open now.
  • kayleesays
    kayleesays Posts: 564 Member
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    I don't think exercising more than she ate is the issue, because the same thing has happened to me. My graph shows some days as completely empty.
  • vatblack
    vatblack Posts: 221 Member
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    He-he, I doubt this girl here, EVER would eat less than I'm supposed to. Yeah a 100 or 200 here and there... but not ever -600!
  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
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    You are looking at net calories, not total calories. Net calories are how many calories you have eaten minus how many calories you have burned through exercise. So, if you ate 1200 calories one day, but burned 1800, you would have a net calorie consumption of -600.

    MFP tries to keep your net calorie consumption above your basal metabolic rate (i.e. the amount of energy your body needs to keep functioning normally).
  • natesangel
    natesangel Posts: 210 Member
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    last time i saw that on mine, i had forgotten to 'complete this entry' the last time i made changes to the day.
  • btanton27
    btanton27 Posts: 186 Member
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    i've had mine do that to the first day or two on the bar graph. sometimes if i reload the page it fixes itself, other times it doesnt... cant help you on that one!!!
  • htolen
    htolen Posts: 28
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    I have had this problem with MFP a couple times, too, where my diary shows a net intake of like 1,200 calories for the day but the bar graph shows a super upside-down number... If you know your net calories were on track for the day, then it's just a glitch in the system. It might be related to logging after the day has ended (i.e. after midnight)? I'm not sure what causes it, but I've had the same problem and I just have to ignore that bar on the graph. Maybe contact the MFP site manager with feedback so they can look into the issue...
  • iwantahealthierme13
    iwantahealthierme13 Posts: 337 Member
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    I looked and you ate over 2000 calories that day and burned a bit over 400... I think it's a glitch.
  • jayayach
    jayayach Posts: 178 Member
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    You are looking at net calories, not total calories. Net calories are how many calories you have eaten minus how many calories you have burned through exercise. So, if you ate 1200 calories one day, but burned 1800, you would have a net calorie consumption of -600.

    MFP tries to keep your net calorie consumption above your basal metabolic rate (i.e. the amount of energy your body needs to keep functioning normally).

    This is not necessarily true. On 5/25, mine shows -500 for my net. I get 1660/day. I exercised enough to bump it up to 2488 and ate 2440. This left me with 48 unused calories plus my built-in deficit. It had nothing to with burning more than I ate. While that is possible, that is not true in my case. I think maybe it is some sort of glitch that occurs if you don't close out the day or something else like that.
  • vatblack
    vatblack Posts: 221 Member
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    last time i saw that on mine, i had forgotten to 'complete this entry' the last time i made changes to the day.

    I'm so sorry, I tried to reply to you and accidentally reported you! I'm sure if they read the report they'd notice it was meant to be a reply, but if you get any action from a moderator, please refer them here! Sorry.

    I was saying that what you say makes sense. I did change my activity level 3 days into MFP to reflect my lifestyle more accurately. So, maybe that is why it is "confused". I only didn't eat about 200 calories that day.
  • Athena98501
    Athena98501 Posts: 716 Member
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    I looked and didn't see what you saw. Neither day showed up blank, and the only negative I saw was in the calories remaining row.
  • EstherE123
    EstherE123 Posts: 12 Member
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    I think it is just a problem with MFP because when I go to reports and net calories, it shows up with a negative number for 5/26, but when I look in my food jounal, I am way over, even with exercise.
  • devonette
    devonette Posts: 263 Member
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    I'm pretty sure its an MFP bug with the graph report. When you pull up the 7 day report, the first 1 or two days show negative. If you pull up the 30 day report, those dates show the correct level, but the first day or two of the 30 days show as negative. Those graphs are pretty useless anyhow. Don't worry about it, your diary is showing the correct numbers.

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