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UpDownAround · Aug 19, 2018, 08:30 PM

I found a bunch of info about Pacer and mfp. I changed my mfp settings from an absolute number I set to saying I am lightly active and want to lose 0.5 pounds a week because I felt like it was giving me too many if I said I wanted to maintain. I changed my expected exercise to 0 times per week. I enabled negative adjustments. mfp gave me 1630 calories with these settings. I had been setting 1600 lately and adding anything more than incidental exercise. this actually is pretty close to what Pacer is showing; it says my current basal is 1683 and that I have burned an extra 83 for an allowance of 1766. I think those numbers are a little on the high side but not terribly so. I will let it run with current settings for a few days and maybe set mfp back to maintenance if I am getting numbers I think are below what I should see. Will still use Strava for paddling.

Quote:

Pacer is meant to be an all day tracker that has been designed to keep track of all your activity level for the day, then transfer your total calories burned as you earn them over to MyFitnessPal. The totals are then compared with the calories you have been given to reach your goals on MyFitnessPal, and then provide you with any extra calories via the Cardiovascular section.

When looking at your initial Pacer total, if you consumed what you burned for the entire day, then you would maintain your current weight. In order to meet your goals designated on MyFitnessPal, a calculation is performed behind the scenes to provide you with only what has been earned in addition to what MyFitnessPal has already given you to help you meet your goals.

You should be able to view the Pacer adjustment online, by going to the Exercise Tab, or within the MyFitnessPal app by tapping directly on the Adjustment. Online, under the Cardiovascular section, you should then see a line item from Pacer added, and to the right of that you should see a blue "i’ icon and then either a 0 or a number under Calories Burned.

Click on that blue “i” which will then pull up details from the last sync. Once you pull up the details you should then see a line for Pacer with a projected total for the day (you should also see an instant reading from your last sync from Pacer with a time of sync, but since you are continuously earning calories for the day we base the calculation from a prediction we use of where you are currently at, as the day progresses this projection will become more accurate), you should also see a line from MyfitnessPal and then your adjustment total.

When looking at this information, the simple way to understand how it works is that the total from Pacer must exceed the total from MyFitnessPal. The difference in excess will then be the amount of your adjustment.

If the number from Pacer is less than the number from MyFitnessPal, then there will either be a 0 adjustment or a negative adjustment (if you’ve enabled the negative adjustment option).

To confirm your last sync went through from Pacer look at the line with the time of sync. That number should be the same as the one on your Pacer account, if not, please let us know. The number to the right of that number will actually be a projection for the day based on where you are currently at, but will not be the same as your sync. Again, the projection number will vary through out the course of the day, but at midnight, should match your last sync with Pacer.

If you notice a problem with the sync, please also make sure the time zones, height, weight, and birthday match on both Pacer and your MyFitnessPal account.

To best understand the adjustment, when you first join MyFitnessPal, we ask you for your weight, height, age, gender, and your normally daily activity level. We then use all this information to provide you with your daily goals based on an “average” from the information you provided. Since these goals are based on an “average” activity level, this may vary for each person.

Pacer is designed to give you a more precise account of your entire activity. This is represented as a “total” number for the day. When you originally choose your activity level on MyFitnessPal, you may think you are an “active” person. MyFitnessPal will then automatically give you goals based on what an “average” active person may burn through the course of the day. However, if you are using an all day tracker, such as Pacer, that average may change based on your “actual” activity level. You may not be as active as an “average” person, or you may even be more active.

If you are not as active as the original activity level you chose, then, depending on how you set your tracking device up with MyFitnessPal (MyFitnessPal gives you the option to either show a negative adjustment or only a positive one) either your daily calorie goal will not be effected, adjust up or even go down.

In other words, MyFitnessPal may have given you a daily goal of 1700 calories, based on your profile information, but activity recorded by your device may result in a projection of only a 1600 burn by the end of the day. MyFitnessPal will now either give you no adjustment and keep your calories at 1700, or if you chose to allow negative adjustments, it will sync a -100 calorie adjustment to bring your goal in line with your actual number of 1600.

Depending on when you sync your device, this goal may fluctuate throughout the course of the day. If you sync in the morning, after a work out, you will get an estimate based on that activity level. However, if you sleep the rest of the day, it will adjust again to match your overall day activity. At first, it can be confusing, you could receive a positive number, and then it goes down later in the day.

If you are typically unable to sync your device until late in the day, you may wish to leave negative adjustments “off.” If you want to remove the “negative” adjustment, log in to your account by visiting Free Calorie Counter, Diet & Exercise Journal | MyFitnessPal.com in a web browser, then click “My Home” then “Settings” then “Diary settings” and uncheck the “enable negative adjustments”. Make sure to save your changes.

Also, please remember, though Pacer may show you have burned a high amount of calories for the day, you must still surpass what you need to burn to lose weight, before an “extra” adjustment can be added.

For example, say for the day you have burned 2000 calories, but you only receive an adjustment of 100. This is because, you must also account for not eating back those calories you need to give up in order to lose weight. Basically, if you chose to lose 1 pound per week, this would be an additional 500 calories a day, 2 pounds would be 1000 calories a day. These numbers are represented in the adjustment details from the total from MyFitnessPal.