The Limitations of Myfitnesspal

I spent the afternoon outside walking around, and I hit over 16,000 steps on my Fitbit, which is a great accomplishment! My Fitbit is synced to Myfitnesspal account, and it is telling me that I "earned" an additional 1,151 calories from exercise today!!! How absurd. That really sounds like an overestimation to me. I can see why people struggle to lose weight when they listen to this kind of nonsense. Don't eat back all of the calories you burn from exercise!

That's what I don't like about MFP as well. It sounds as if you earn the right to overeat!

I agree.  Their calories burned estimates are from some other planet with a much higher gravity than on Earth.  And of course you can't turn off that feature with the free version.  You have to upgrade for that.

I have a personal complaint with Myfitnesspal in that it won't let you set goals lower than 1200 calories per day and still be able to close out the day.  They say its because they don't want to encourage "unsafe" weight loss.  I contacted them and said that there are many people under medical supervision who safely lose weight on less than 1200 calories.  "Sorry, that's the way it is" was the basic response I got.

Mathew

That is why I just don't close out my days. I don't care to receive the stupid you aren't eating enough message. I refuse to pay for the premium version, so I guess I'll just keep dealing with it.

Me too.  Even with the premium version you can't set your calorie goals lower and close out your day. 

I'm like you...I just don't close out the day.  Big deal.

You can adjust your daily calorie goal by changing the settings.  You  can also adjust the percentages of protein, fat and carbs to anything you like. 

Ignore the "you're not eating enough" boilerplate. It doesn't apply.

One of the many reasons I don't increase my calories at all to take into account exercise.  

You have the right idea. Myfitnesspal does it automatically, and it won't let you turn it off without paying for premium. I just ignore it. I could unsync the two, but then my calorie count wouldn't transfer to my fitbit.

Most of us long term successful vets never eat back extra calories. MFP tells you how many calories you eat. When I am trying to lose a few, I stop when I have consumed 1500. Period.

Some of my friends track their exercise there to keep a record of it, but change the calories burned to "1" so it does not affect their calorie count.

I once saw someone on MFP that had recorded activity for 4 hours of "moving furniture," and counted it as having burned 4,100 calories. You wouldn't burn that many calories rolling a boulder up a mountain.