MyFitnessPal, Fitbit, and automatic calorie adjustments based on exercise

Using MyFitnessPal and Fitbit for calorie and exercise tracking to make auto calorie adjustments based on exercise vs sticking to a routine calorie consumption using TDEE? To achieve a goal of losing weight and setting a calorie goal based on TDEE in MyFitnessPal that changes based on activity recorded on FitBit seems like a good idea in theory. However, it is hard to know what to eat and when as the total calories left for consumption change throughout the day based on activity. What is the best way to create a routine and properly track it using MFP and FitBit in regard to this? What are your thoughts?

Answer

In my personal experience with learning about fitness and nutrition over the years, you should just set a macro/calorie goal if you want to track, and disable the feature of having the TDEE added in there. It gets confusing because it does add more calories that you’re “supposed” to be able to eat after burning them off. But realistically, you don’t want to eat back the majority of the calories you’ve burned, unless you’re doing some long distance running or serious weightlifting. It gets misleading because it’s basically saying, “You’ve burned 400 calories, go ahead and eat those back!”So if you have a calorie goal in mind, just stick to that and don’t allow the adjustments throughout the day. :-) Also, make sure you’re not under eating!