Setting up MyFitnessPal

[popeye1293]

Hi guys,

I have a question that I'd like to ask and I'd be very grateful for any support.

I haven't yet paired my Apple watch to my iPhone and I havent been tracking steps or anything like that yet. It's just that when I set up MyFitnessPal it asks for my activity level and I'm not sure if I should enter not active or active? Today I just set it to the least setting and I found it was hard enough (not impossible) to stay under/reach my goal for cutting.

I'm confused because I also see the formula there is
Goal - food + exercise = remaining

I would like to leave it up to my watch to calculate the "exercise" part (steps, workouts etc) and I will be getting out alot for walks etc but I'm sure if I'm doubling up here by setting my activity level to active? It's a bit confusing...

[SuffolkPunch]

The only use for myfitnesspal is calculating what calories and macros are in the foods you eat. The rest is pretty much just mental masturbation. The errors involved in estimating calories expended during exercise and through the day are very high.

In practical terms, your results will be the same and you will have less time spent worrying about things that don't matter if you simply keep your calorie intake the same everyday - and monitor the long term trend in your bodyweight and general strength levels.

[popeye1293]

The only use for myfitnesspal is calculating what calories and macros are in the foods you eat. The rest is pretty much just mental masturbation. The errors involved in estimating calories expended during exercise and through the day are very high.

In practical terms, your results will be the same and you will have less time spent worrying about things that don't matter if you simply keep your calorie intake the same everyday - and monitor the long term trend in your bodyweight and general strength levels.

Hi Suffolkpunch,

Thanks for the response. I thought a bit about what you said and I think I understand where you are coming from. You are not the first experienced person to suggest that I basically just focus on a certain caloric intake number every day.

However, I think my concern here has arisen from the fact that I have been very sedendary and sitting around the house most of the day. I have had a very bad routine.

However I've been becoming more active everyday, starting doing more walking and I can see myself starting to run again too. I think I could easily get in 10,000 steps a day. I think getting out and about everyday improves my mood etc.

The reason why I was concerned was that I might end up having really active days, for example, nearly a whole day hiking, or putting in a run or two a day, and I don't think that would be a bad thing for my health but I am sure my appetite will be much stronger on these days. I wouldn't want to resort to eating the wrong kind of foods on these days by snacking etc...

I guess it's easier to calculate that ideal "calorie goal" for the deficit when you have a bit of a routine, both work wise and activity/sports/hobby wise. However, if you've had no routine at all and you're basically ramping up with everything exercise wise, I think finding a happy medium of exercise is your best bet. From there, you calculate you could tailor your calorie intake and exercise level to lose or add weight accordingly.

Do you agree?

I'd be interested to know as well where you think the inaccuracies in calorie expenditure come from? I understand weight lifting is probably hard to account for accurately depending on the variables of intensity, reps, weight etc but I imagine the GPS tracking system for walking/running etc is generally accurate enough.

[SuffolkPunch]

No, I still don't agree with trying to micromanage calories. It's a long term thing. Your body can easily deal with day to day fluctuations. What you eat over the long term matters - what you do day to day can stay the same, otherwise it's just a needless complication which removes focus from things that really matter.

Where you said that you don't want to eat the wrong thing on days when you exercise, that doesn't really make much sense because your diet counts everyday. If you only make effort to stick to a calorie target on some days, you will naturally compensate on others. Consistency is key.

At least you acknowledge that the views of more than 1 experienced person matter. Too often we get people who ask lots of questions but then stubbornly stick to their own ideas - even when those who have already made all the same mistakes are telling them not to... better to learn from those who have already been through it.

[John Prophet]

I dont think one can micromanage calories and/or exercise beyond a certain point. So in my case I "track" everything I eat but how do I KNOW that the labeling on the package is exact? Well in fact I KNOW that it isnt lol. for instance if i eat at subway.....is the sub the exact same size everyday?? of course not. is my scoop of protein the EXACT same size every day? nope

calculators are notoriously unreliable because they are all about averages etc when in fact everyone is different.


I dont think anyone on Earth can tell us factually things like what is the perfect calorie defecit, how many calories do we actually burn, how many sets do we need etc etc. ALL of it is at best only educated guesswork.

heck, there is no reliable way to know EXACTLY how much muscle or fat we have

I use MFP every day but just to track calories. I am currently weighing 227.6lbs this morning. When i enter my last calories at the end of the day, the MFP calculator will tell me that i will weigh 200lbs in 5 weeks lol. Which I know aint true

in the end, its probably best to just use weekly averages. Like I just restarted my cut this week after a 2 week break. On the 2 week break I tracked all my calories but i didnt add them up for a weekly avg. Shoot, on some eat out meals I just tried to guess something in the ballpark. During the break i loosened up and ate some fun stuff and didnt worry too much. At the end of the break I had gained like 4 ounces lol.

On my first week back I just went back to round about where I had been but I did try to "backtrack" a little bit. in other words i was aiming to eat more calories than I did the week before the break. that was the whole point of the break. So i tracked calories this past week of course but I didnt have any exact calorie goal. I was just going for a certain ballpark and i ended up at 2578 avg calories for the week and I lost 1.6lbs. Mission accomplished. some days might have been 3000. No big deal. Weekly averages are micro management enough