Need Net Calories!

Trux, thanks for your time responding.

So it appears we agree that Garmin's calorie definitions are not helpful.  Sloppy definitions lead to sloppy logic, which leads to wrong instructions and confused users. Right--why explain Net Calories and not give us that in the Connect?  These inconsistent definitions make me wonder what "Active" really counts.

I wish we could agree that it would be useful to give us a very simple calculation of Calories In minus Calories Out = Calorie surplus or deficit.  I would like that to be the calculation for Net Calories.  I know it would help me, and from my search in the forum, it would help others too.

I understand the logic of the Adjusted Goal and the Remaining. However, Garmin doesn't know me.  I know my history, how my body responds to various levels of calorie intake and exercise, and I know my lifestyle across a week, month, and year.  I have taken all that into account and know that 1900 calories a day will allow me to lose weight slowly while gaining muscle. Garmin's daily "Remaining" does not take any of that into account.

2512469 said:

I wish we could agree that it would be useful to give us a very simple calculation of Calories In minus Calories Out = Calorie surplus or deficit.

That's what the Remaining Calories are. Just with the opposite sign (not Calories In - Calories Out, but oppositely Calories Out - Calories In). Appart of the sign, it is exactly what you are asking for. In case you wish it does not use the Daily Calories Goal, but rather the RMR instead, change the goal to be equal to the RMR.

2512469 said:

I have taken all that into account and know that 1900 calories a day

Does not make much sense to me. In some days you can burn as little as 300 Active Calories, on other days it can be 3,000, so the Calories Consumption Goal must be adjusted to cover the extra energy expenditure.

Garmin's use of the Adjusted Goal is the problem. I think changing my calorie goal to account for Garmin's method is the tail wagging the dog.

I have a whole story about how my trainer arrived at 1900 after measuring my body composition and observing what happens at different calorie intake, but I'll spare you. I could list my calories In for a week compared to the Out and the results.  The fact is, 1900 is what I have to eat to lose, regardless of my exercise. I'll just have to ignore Garmin's calculations.

I'll terminate my query here.  Thanks for your time, trux.  Reading your answers about how the watches work has helped me in other areas. To the gym now.

2512469 said:

The fact is, 1900 is what I have to eat to lose, regardless of my exercise.

In that case I do not understand why you've bought a Garmin watch. If you believe you just need to keep your consumption under 1,900 Calories, regardless whether you burn 300 or 3,000 extra Active Calories above your RMR, then you do not need any fitness device measuring your energy expenditure. 

I try to explain the functionality yet in another way:

The Daily Goal (coming from MFP) represents how many Calories you should consume in order to lose (or gain) the desired weight, when you rest all day. Any Active Calories burn extra energy, and you can eat more. 

So if you already know from your coach that your daily goal is 1,900 Calories when you exercise (that's in fact the Adjusted Daily Goal), you just have to check your stats, and see how many Active Calories you burn daily in average, and deduce that amount from the Daily Goal at MFP.

So for example, let's tell you daily burn in average 600 Active Calories. You know you'd like to have the final daily goal (Adjusted Daily Goal) 1,900 Calories. In that case, set your MFP Daily Goal to 1,900 - 600 = 1,300 Calories. The Adjusted Daily Goal will then show you whether you were exercising enough to burn the Calories defined by your goal. You will see whether you can eat a bit more than the planned 1,900 Calories (when you exercised a lot), or whether you have to do another workout to burn the Calories you already consumed and did not spend.

I really do get the logic that you've explained, and I understand what you wrote in your post after this one.  It's just not useful to me.  First, my body doesn't work that way.  I don't know why and neither does my trainer.  I seem to burn fewer calories than my profile would indicate.  My body is more complex than a calculator and is not exactly like a checkbook.  I'm not going to run to the gym to do another workout after dinner if it turns out I ate too much or didn't expend enough.  I'm not going to add 1000 calories to my dinner if my deficit is too large.  Neither action is practical for me, and I think it's not practical for most people.

Since I think differently than Garmin, I have unlinked MFP from Connect. Now for each day Garmin will tell me my RMR, my Active, and the total.  I will have to compare MFP calories to Garmin's total and do the math. Not hard.  I just wish Garmin would do it. You've said that's what it does. I respectfully disagree. As long as Garmin bases the math on my MFP goal, it's not going to do what I want it to do--just a simple In - Out (or Out - In, I don't care which).

So why buy a Garmin watch?  Weight tracking, Sleep analysis, Body Battery (love this), HRV stats (illuminating!), Heart rate, Stress monitor, Oxygen metrics, Respiration, Blood pressure tracking. I don't care about Steps. There's just one feature I don't need.

Thanks once more for your time, trux. I'm still a fan.

2512469 said:

First, my body doesn't work that way

Everybody's body works in that way. The more work your body does, the more energy it burns. You cannot eat the same way if you stay a month long laying in your bed without moving, as when you do 200 km on a bike every day. That would deny the most fundamental principles of physics. 

Obviously my body obeys Physics.  It may be that my RMR does not match my profile.  I don't know.  Something is off.