What's going on. my fitness pal

Been using my fitnesspal for 10 days now great app ,
But still at the same weight now as then

been out riding the bike every day min one hour. usually more
stuck to the calories the app advises though mostly have calories left over from the exercise added
but can’t seem to get the scales to say a lighter weight .

I feel great and the fitness is returning but would like to see some weight loss

Same here. Been using it a few weeks now. First week I lost 3lbs but reckon that was because I weighed myself late in the day after eating dinner for my initial starting weight.

Since then I put on 1lb after 1 week, then stayed the same this week just gone. Am trying to eat better this week & get more exercise in. Hope to lose a little this week!
Have only set a 1lb/week target, so a bit rubbish not to be achieving it.

I used it for the last 4 days and hadnt kept up with it previously for a few weeks. Yesterday it said I lost 25lb!!! in a week! Somethings wrong with the site

I wonder if it’s too generous on the calories won by cardio as it gave. e back 1075 cal for 100 minutes cycling 10 to12 mph
I only ate back half those last night

Been using since beginning of May and have lost about 1 stone, and at a fairly consistent rate.

I think it is very important to set your personal data very honestly. Mine is set as “sedentary”. TBH, unless engaged in manual work, the old 2,500 kcals per day for men is OTT.

What daily allowance does MFP give?

1075 cal for 100 minutes cycling 10 to12 mph

That’s gotta be one seriously hilly ride surely? Or you weigh quite a lot. According to here[/url] you’d have to be riding ’12-13.9mph’ and weigh about 12 stone to do that.

And don’t forget that you use calories just sitting around, so the number of ‘extra’ calories you burn through exercise is going to be less than the number of calories quoted by this kind of app.

Me too set at sedentary even though I am not sat at a desk ever. (carpet fitter)
allows me 1370 cals plus any winnings from exercise.

an hours walking the dog this morning won me my breakfast of poached eggs on toast.so still got the daily allowance left.

Joe. I am 17 stones. at the moment

Trout, two observations:

1. MFP is a guide not a 100% accurate tool
2. How careful are you with portion sizes?

Keep at it an d good luck. I am in similar position but have had more weight loss luck. But I notice that portions sizes need checking (in both regards ie, me and MFP) and we all know how difficult (sustainable) weight loss actually is!

Nil desperandum!

And don’t forget that you use calories just sitting around, so the number of ‘extra’ calories you burn through exercise is going to be less than the number of calories quoted by this kind of app.

That’s kind of the point I was making above…

Unles doing hard physical work, set your personal settings to “sedentary”. That way, the app calcs a low cal burn for “just sitting around”, and the cals burnt doing exercise (or eaten to fuel exercise) are outside of the general baseline intake / cal burn.

FWIW I started off at 15st, set to 1 lb per week loss, sedentary job, estimated a daily allowance of 1890 kcals.

For additional cal burn through exercise I tend to adjust the MFP estimates by using my own kcal estimate from the bike computer or gym eqpt.

All of the estimates (and they ARE estimates) seem to have balanced out fairly well.

Me too set at sedentary even though I am not sat at a desk ever. (carpet fitter)
allows me 1370 cals plus any winnings from exercise.

Blwdy hell – how come it sets such a low estimate? Is your goal date set for very close in the future, or weekly loss set above 1 lb per week?

I’ve not tried it, keep meaning to get a smartphone and try though.

For the OP, I seem to get a delayed reaction to excercise, I can ride almost every day for 2-3 weeks, lose maybe a lb at most. Then take a week’s break and lose 2kg (as long as I drop the calorie intake by whatever I was riding). Not sure if the science backed it up but I put it down to the excercise burning fat at about the same rate that it builds muscle, and don’t forget that muscles swell up after excercise so if you susddenly ramp it up they’ll take on a lot of water. Then during the week off your metabolism is still sky high from the excericse and if you maintain the calorie deficict that 2-3 weeks weight loss catches up (presumambly a mix of fat loss and the swelling in the muscles going down).

I wonder if it’s too generous on the calories won by cardio as it gave. e back 1075 cal for 100 minutes cycling 10 to12 mph

This!

It reckons my commute is around 700kcals. That seems WAAAAY to generous to me. That would nearly double my calories allowance on days I cycle in and back.

I always edit the amount it suggests to something more reasonable (in my case 480kcal, which is what Endomondo used to reckon my commute burned before it suddenly got very generous too). Even then I usually have some spare.

The trouble is that they just don’t have enough information to calculate calories burned accurately. MFP just use weight, time and rough speed.

To be accurate they’d need heart rate, gradient, bike & cargo weight, rolling resistance (muddy path vs smoooth tarmac) etc etc

Surely:

To be accurate they’d need heart rate, gradient, bike & cargo weight, rolling resistance (muddy path vs smoooth tarmac) etc etc

plus rider weight and duration?

Surely, all the other factors are accounted for by changes in heart rate???

ETA – rider weight makes a huge difference to calorie estimates, even with (esp with?) a HRM.

As my weight has dropped, my estimated calorie burn has really dropped away.

In the gym 15min cardio at 140-150 bpm gave estimated 300 kal burn at 95 kg. Same at a revised 90kg gives about 270-280 cals

Yes gone for 2 lb a week loss and fairly strict on the portion sizes and now I have got used to
small eats I get full feeling after meal .

I did wonder if muscles were building up as fat goes down as I have rather ramped up the biking from none to every day
and hills that were bottom gear and a wheeze are now a couple of gears higher

It reckons my commute is around 700kcals. That seems WAAAAY to generous to me. That would nearly double my calories allowance on days I cycle in and back.

I think you are right, cut the cals down a bit on what they give you for cycling and it might just start to work.

Surely, all the other factors are accounted for by changes in heart rate???

No idea to be honest. All I know is I looked at quite a few sites to try and get an accurate estimate of my calories burnt on my commute (specifically for MFP) and I got a huge range of answers and possible formulae.

Here’s the wiki formula:

Where P is in watts, g is Earth’s gravity, Vg is ground speed (m/s), m is bike/rider mass in kg, s is the grade (m/m), and V_a is the rider’s speed through the air (m/s). K_1 is a lumped constant for all frictional losses (tires, bearings, chain), and is generally reported with a value of 0.0053. K_2 is a lumped constant for aerodynamic drag and is generally reported with a value of 0.185 kg/m.

— http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_performance#Power_required

That’s what Cycle Streets uses, with a few of assumed constants. 😀

The CTC also have a nice geeky spreadsheet which take into account Transmission Efficiency.

Is everyone logging the amout of water they drink daily too?

Forgot to do that at first, not sure if that makes a difference?

Is everyone logging the amout of water they drink daily too?

Nope. Don’t think it makes any difference – just a reminder to drink more.

I get through loads of water, especially now I’ve started drinking flavoured water instead of soft drinks at work, so I’m not fussed.

Mine’s reckoning on 1580 cals/day for 1lb/wk loss & I don’t count X amount of calories burnt through exercise as ‘extra food opportunity’.

Did 26 miles or so on the bike on Monday, went for a brisk 30 min walk last night and am riding this evening (probably 15-18 miles). Am aiming for a long, slower ride at the weekend too so hope to have lost something on Sunday’s weigh in!

I don’t count X amount of calories burnt through exercise as ‘extra food opportunity’.

You should – if you’re following the “one true MFP way”

It actually tells you off if you are under your calories goal too often as they reckon you body will slow your metabolism to cope, making it harder to lose weight. So they recommend eating your exercise calories.

But at it’s simplest, power = work done / time

All of those other factors – gradient, wind resistance etc would influence the amount of rider effort, and be reflected in the rider’s heart rate?

ETA, getting OT…
Some exercises MFP seems to over-estimate calories, others it seems to under-estimate. Anything with a HRM input would be a better estimate, but again, provided the inputs are properly set up

All of those other factors – gradient, wind resistance etc would influence the amount of rider effort, and be reflected in the rider’s heart rate?

Dunno. And I dunno if heart rate is directly correlated to calorie burn either. Is it?

Most people don’t have HRM hence why they rely on formulae. If you’ve got one then I’d use the figures from that as it would at least be a better guess. (MFP lets you edit the calorie figure that it suggests)

Also meant to say that I generally find that the cycling speed below the one I was actually riding at tallies quite closely with my Garmin (with HRM). I suspect that is still overestimating though.

Looking at Mondays ride; 1288 cals in 100 mins seems quite far fetched, but does tally with what I used to burn on the exercise bikes at the gym – generally about 12 cals/min.
Perhaps they all use the same over-optimistic calculation?

GrahamS – I did wonder about whether I should be eating my exercise calories to avoid my body thinking I’d been banned from the local Tesco!

I’ve a problem with editing the reward calories. I’ve no more accurate a way of identifying this value than they do, so who’s right?

I used to be 17 stone, cycle 34 miles a day at an average of 16mph (road) and if I added about 2400 cals a day to my diet in coffee, cake and nibbles I would stay at about the same weight over a 4 month period. That was the only time I felt I had enough data to identify how much energy I was burning on that ride, at that time and weight. Didn’t apply to any other ride though?

As already suggested, its best used as a guide. If you dont see the results you want, adjust your calorie intake accordingly and carry on logging food/macros against new target.

What’s going on. my fitness pal

I don’t think you can blame myfirnesspal for you under estimating your calories consumed.

1288 cals in 100 mins

Yes that does seem a lot. On my 70 minute commute this morning 681c according to my Garmin 500. On Sundays 140 minute ride I burned 1380, 35miles 2700ft of climbing.

48 minute commute today – estimated at 540 cals using Garmin 500 (the figure I have used) and 780 cals using MFP (ignored)

48 minute commute today – estimated at 540 cals using Garmin 500 (the figure I have used)

Sounds comparable to mine. What weight are you (if you don’t mind me asking) and roughly how long is the commute?

I’m about 96kg at the moment (dropping slowly thanks to MFP), my commute is 18km (bridleway and cycle paths, couple of small hills but nothing huge) and I do it in roughly 50 minutes. I award myself 486kcals for that.

By road – 22km, normally about 50 mins
Off-road – 20km, 55-60 mins

90kg rider weight, about 300m climbing

Yes,, my experience is that MFP overstates calories burned, so I manually overide with my Polar guesstimate instead with the exception of swimming where I go with MFP but discount the minutes swum to compensate.

Thanks rkk01 – sounds like my best guess is roughly in line with yours (given you are lighter and faster) 😀

Might try and borrow a heart rate monitor off someone for a couple of days. I’m doing the same commute all the time so I just need an accurate measure of it once.

someone commented on a previous thread about 30 cals per mile
so for me last night that would have been 600 won cals so nearly half the MFP quote
will give 30 cals a mile a go for a few days and see how it goes.

someone commented on a previous thread about 30 cals per mile

Sadly it is far too dependent on rider (and bike/cargo) weight for a straight rule-of-thumb figure to be of any real use.

e.g. A 30-stone biffer would burn more calories than that finding the keys to the bike shed. 😀