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Active Calories Way Overestimated to MFP

I am not sure if it started with the firmware or what, but this is making MFP scream at me constantly to eat more. My BMR is 1240 ish. MFP starts me at 1200 a day. Today I went to the gym and ran 4 miles on the treadmill and Garmin gave me 414 calories. Cool. Then I did 20 minutes of circuit training. Garmin gave me 165 calories. Probably high, but oh, well. But my active calories pushing to MFP is 778. And I have a total of 8217 steps for the day. So I got an additional 200 calories for, well, what, exactly? I have a Vivoactive HR. Got it for Christmas. LOVE the device overall (it's not pushing notifications during activities lately -- I know, another section and another thread) but this active calorie thing is making me nuts. I want to get another 5 pounds off and when I get to maintenance, it's going to drive me bonkers.

Any insight on what's going on? And if this is right, can you please help me understand how?

TIA!

L

0 billhart46 over 8 years ago

I am not saying that your numbers are right or wrong.

But the way that Garmin shows the numbers can be a little confusing, BTDT.

First BMR only covers the energy needed by the body when it is completely at rest, IE couch potato.

Just getting up to get a class of water will burn a few more calories.

If you look at the daily-summary, activities page you will see calories from (timed) Activities, such as your treadmill workout.
But also from "steps". If you put the cursor over the question mark it explains that it is not just steps, but accounts for all of the activity above BMR, except for those during timed Activities. It is calculated, at least in part, based on HR.

The sum of your Timed Activities and your non-time activity ("steps") is your activity calories.

0 LAURELTN over 8 years ago

Thanks so much for replying! Yes, I read up on the BMR when I first started noticing these big Activity adjustments going over to MFP. But I guess I just still don't think they make any sense. :confused:

Here's my Activities panel as of now. I've got a total of 11586 steps today. Probably at least 8200 of them are the run, so that leaves the rest from just walking around. Why does it give me 331 calories for the 1 mile of steps? I have to run 3 to get that in an activity. Does it just dump what it perceives is the rest of my BMR in that column? And if it sends all this over to MFP, do you know if it has a detrimental effect on the allotted calories for my weight-loss goal that normally MFP keeps protected? I'm just getting back to losing the 8 or 10 pounds I gained over the last year or two of not paying attention and not running enough, so I want to be sure I do this right!

Time of Day Active Calories Duration Distance Activity Type Activity Name
8:25 AM 414 42:01 4.01 mi Treadmill Running Treadmill Running
9:13 AM 165 20:58 0.00 mi Strength Training Weights
Daily Steps 331 -- 1.06 mi -- --
Totals 910 1:02:59 5.06 mi -- --