This is why when we work with any clients, we will calculate the potential overall energy expenditure for them, including exercise over the course of the week and make allowances for this in our calorie allocation. That’s a big gap when focusing on creating a calorie deficit for fat loss. So if your tracker is telling you that you burnt 600 kcal in your spinning class – in theory, that number could be 360 kcal. Although some of these devices show good accuracy for areas like heart rate regarding energy expenditure, you would be foolish to take the readings as Gospel. Several studies have been conducted on these devices showing an overestimation of energy expenditure from 16-40% during activities. I am sad to say your activity tracker is also likely overestimating the number of calories you’ve burned. Eating 2700 kcal versus the initial target of 2000 kcal could be the difference from being in a deficit to bringing you back to maintenance or even a surplus, which can put a real spanner in the works for any of you looking to lose body fat. MyFitnessPal will show you this and essentially tell you that you have an additional 700kcal to consume. You may be working towards a target of 2000 calories, and you burn 700 calories through exercise. Syncing your trackers with something like MyFitnessPal will then allow you to “win you back calories”. You may be working towards a calorie target that has considered your daily or weekly activity levels. This would be a fantastic addition if we could rely on a high degree of accuracy on these devices. However, MyFitnessPal can also sync with these trackers to give you the calories expended during exercise. MyFitnessPal can designate and allocate net calories per day, almost like providing a daily budget of calories to spend.

Although the app can have a certain level of inaccuracy, it can be quite a useful tool for those looking to track their calorie intake or get an insight into the number of calories in their food. MyFitnessPal is one such app – popular for those looking to track the calorie intake of their food. As the technology has advanced, it has allowed cross integration between these devices and fitness apps. Fitness trackers are all the rage these days and can provide some fantastic insights into daily activity levels.

Myfitnesspal adjust calories