Calorie Counting

MasterRedLion I'm not familiar with MFP - so is the Goal a goal for active calories only or does it include basal metabolic rate calories?

If the latter then calculation is

Goal Calories - BMR Calories - Active Calories = surplus/deficit

For me this calc would be

1500 - 870 (Resting calories) - 595 (Active) = 35 calories that I still need to burn

As for walking being included in Active - why not that's what I would expect - the BMR or resting calories are exactly that the consumption whilst at rest - any activity will increase that.

Having said all that any attempt to accurately measure calorie input and calorie burn outside of a laboratory situation is likely to be pretty innaccurate.

In MFP, the "goal" is based on BMR. Every consumption will be substracted, every excercise will add into the goal.

Adjusting goal based on exercises, I can get that. But the app also adjust the goal based on resting calories because they considered it as active should be clear and obvious wrong. It makes my calories budget in a day beyond 3000 just by resting (1500 goal + 1500 resting counted as active).

The way MFP calculate it is, [Goal + Exercise - Consumption]. But Garmin calculate [Goal + Rest + Exercise - Consumption].
My resting calorie shouldn't impact my goal (per first equation) or my goal shouldn't be in the equation, [Rest + Exercise + Consumption]. Also, the web got this right. It calculate without the goal in the equation.

Yes, the calorie measure isn't accurate but I don't need a spot on numbers to manage my weight. However, saying I have double the budget like this is making the tool totally useless. And seeing that it has been wrong for 2 years I am using it, I kind of wonder what are the team is doing.

Hi

From Sweden, my english is not the best.

I too find it difficult to understand. In MPF in the settings, Uppdate your diet profile I use the setting sedentery and 0 workouts and lets my garmin do the calculation. I think sedentery is BMR x a factor of 1.2. I also use maintain my weight. In MPF one can alter the goal to only like BMR without the sedentery factor 1.2 or higher https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/my_goals under EDIT Daily Nutrition goal one can change the goal to BMR and let garmin do the job as I understand it.

BMR is like resting sleeping in a coma, just consuming calories when breathing, heart is ticking etc and after that every movement burns more calories, like waving the hand, talking, walking etc. A person that dont excercise can burn more calories than a person that train 5 days a week. Its a about how much one move 24/7. My BMR is about 1600 and I am home and lazy my total will be about 2000 calories (TDEE) but in a active day, I walk to the store, I commute with bike to the work, do my laundry my total will be around 3-4000 calories (TDEE) without training, and that is called the NEAT factor, Non exercise activity thermogenesis ""Non-exercise activity thermogenesis varies widely in a population and by up to 2000 kilocalories day-1 between two individuals of similar size"" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279077/

I am a male 50 year, track my weight, bodyfat, waist almost every day. I am 175cm at 70kg 13% bodyfat. I track al my food, when dieting I eat about 500 calories less than my dayly TDEE from garmin that is about 3-4000 calories a day, when bulking I add about 250 calories above my TDEE. Mostly I eat 3000-3500 calories of whoole food a day and it is a lot:) The garmin and MPF sync is pretty difficult to understand but it works pretty well for me, its not perfect I think.

Hi

Because no other is writing something I will try to help and I am no expert :). At MFP You can ask the experts in this field.

It could also be some problem with Your watch?

I do wear my Garmin Fenix 5X 24/7 except during shower and I charge the watch then.

If I my ask what is your gender, length weight age in metrics please.

I dont use premium account

In MFP my setting is the lowest activity and keep my weight. So when cutting lets say Iam burning 3000 calories that day, I substract 500 calories from that in my head and eat 3000-500= 2500 calories a day or similar. 500 minus calories a day are more on the safe healthy side. So -500 calorie less per day for a week (7 days) will give about 0.5kg weight loss, -1000 calorie less per day for a week (7 days) will give about 1kg weight loss. To little calories will make more loss of muscle mass that burn fat and also it would increase the stress levels on the body, and increase stress hormones like Cortisol, it could give bad mood swings, depression and the lack of power to train. Offen at the weekend I use a refeed day, If I burn 3000 I will eat 3000 calories. I only cut for 1-3 weeks at the time for health reason. My macros are like 40-50% carbs, 20-30% fat, the rest protein. I am always trying to at least have 2g of protein for every kg of bodymass. Som my weight 70kg, 70x2= 140g protein to preserve muscle mass at least.

People recommend never to eat less calories than Your BMR for health reasons https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html

The body consume calories al the time even during sleep and when sedentary, resting etc.

MPF have less of clue how You much you really moves, how much You really burns. The garmin watch do look how much You move and also is looking at Your heart rate. Its not perfect and I think if one is stressed with elevated heart rate Garmin might think one is excercising, but on the other hand when resting one is not moving the hand, I am not sure how Garmin cope with elevated stress and heartbeat and how it affects the calorie burn formula.