Should I put active or total calories into MyFitnessPal? The definitive answer

October 9, 2025 •

5 min read

According to research published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, people who consistently track their food and activity are more successful at losing weight. For those using MyFitnessPal, a critical decision point arises when deciding should I put active or total calories into MyFitnessPal? The answer, which lies in understanding the app's methodology, is key to achieving your nutritional and fitness objectives.

Quick Summary

To track accurately in MyFitnessPal, only input active calories burned during exercise, not total. Logging total calories double-counts your base metabolic rate, which is already included in your initial calorie goal. Aligning your settings correctly ensures your calorie adjustments are precise for effective weight management.

Key Points

Log Active Calories Only: When logging exercise from a fitness tracker, you should only enter active calories, not total, to avoid double-counting your basal metabolic rate (BMR).
Understand Net Calories: MyFitnessPal uses a net calorie system (food minus exercise) and its initial calorie goal already accounts for your baseline activity and BMR.
Start with a Sedentary Setting: For the most accurate tracking, set your MyFitnessPal activity level to 'Sedentary' and allow your synced device to add back any active calories earned from exercise.
Sync for Accuracy: Properly syncing your fitness tracker allows MyFitnessPal to automatically apply a calorie adjustment that accounts for your active burn, which is generally more accurate than manual logging.
Monitor and Adjust: Exercise calorie estimates can be inaccurate; consider being conservative with 'eating back' exercise calories, especially for weight loss, and always adjust based on your body's response.
Enable Negative Adjustments (Advanced): For the most precise daily tracking, enabling negative adjustments on the MyFitnessPal website will deduct calories on less active days.
Prioritize Food Quality: Regardless of your tracking method, focus on consuming nutrient-dense foods to properly fuel your body and support your fitness goals.

Understanding the Core Concepts: BMR, TDEE, and Net Calories

Before diving into the specifics of MyFitnessPal, it's essential to clarify the three main calorie concepts: Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), and Net Calories.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): This is the number of calories your body burns at rest to perform basic, life-sustaining functions like breathing, circulation, and cell production. It is the energy required simply to be alive, and it accounts for the largest portion of your daily energy expenditure.
Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE): This is the total number of calories your body burns in a 24-hour period, including your BMR plus any physical activity. It incorporates both resting calories and active calories. TDEE is influenced by your BMR and your daily activity level, from a desk job to an active construction role. A TDEE calculator multiplies your BMR by an activity multiplier to provide an estimate.
MyFitnessPal's Net Calories: MyFitnessPal operates on a 'Net Calorie' system, defined as Calories Consumed (Food) - Calories Burned (Exercise) = Net Calories. When you set up your profile, the app calculates an initial calorie goal based on your profile and chosen activity level. This target already includes an estimate of your BMR plus your general daily activity. When you log exercise, the app adds those burned calories back to your daily budget, allowing you to consume more food while staying on track with your net goal.

Why You Should Log Active Calories, Not Total

The confusion between active and total calories is common and stems from how modern fitness trackers and MyFitnessPal work together. The definitive answer is to only consider active calories when logging exercise. Logging total calories from a device is a mistake that can derail your progress.

Here’s the breakdown:

Avoid Double-Counting: MyFitnessPal's daily goal is already a representation of your TDEE, factoring in your BMR and a baseline activity level. When you sync a fitness tracker, it might report a 'Total Calories' number for a workout, which includes your resting calorie burn during that time. If you were to manually input that total figure, you would be double-counting the BMR portion, leading to an overestimation of calories burned and a dangerously high, inaccurate calorie budget.
Accuracy and Adjustments: Fitness trackers are getting more sophisticated, and when properly synced, they often have a more accurate picture of your true active calorie burn. The 'calorie adjustment' feature in MyFitnessPal automatically adds back the difference between the tracker's total burn and the app's initial projection, which essentially represents your active calories. By focusing on active calories, you ensure your adjustments are correct.
Simplicity: Focusing on active calories simplifies the process. Your fitness tracker already does the hard work of separating the two. You simply need to ensure your MyFitnessPal settings are configured to receive the correct data from your synced device.

Active Calories vs. Total Calories in MyFitnessPal


Feature	Active Calories	Total Calories
What It Represents	Calories burned from purposeful movement and exercise, above your resting metabolic rate.	Calories burned from exercise plus the energy expended to maintain basic bodily functions (BMR) during that same period.
MyFitnessPal's Use	What you should track. When synced from a fitness tracker, these are added to your daily budget as a 'calorie adjustment'.	Inaccurate to track manually, as it double-counts your BMR. Most fitness apps correctly separate this data for syncing.
Best for Weight Loss	Using active calories is the correct method for creating an accurate calorie deficit. It correctly reflects the additional energy you’ve expended.	Tracking total calories can overestimate your calorie burn, potentially causing you to consume too many calories and stall weight loss progress.
Impact on Budget	Correctly raises your daily calorie budget, allowing for more food consumption on active days.	Inaccurately inflates your daily calorie budget, potentially undermining your deficit.

Best Practices for Calorie Tracking with MyFitnessPal

Adopting the right strategy from the start is critical for consistent progress. Here are a few expert-backed practices:

Set Your Initial Activity Level to Sedentary: When setting up your MyFitnessPal profile, many coaches and long-term users recommend choosing the lowest activity level, such as 'Not Very Active' or 'Sedentary'. This sets a conservative base calorie goal. The calories you burn from additional steps or workouts will then be added on top, making it a more accurate and often more motivating system.
Enable Negative Adjustments (For the Advanced User): By default, MyFitnessPal will only give you a positive calorie adjustment if your tracker data indicates you've burned more calories than the app's initial estimate. To enable negative adjustments, which deduct calories if your day is less active than expected, you must enable it on the MyFitnessPal website. This provides a more precise and honest daily calorie budget.
Consider a Conservative Approach to 'Eating Back' Calories: Exercise calorie estimates from trackers are not perfect and can be off by a significant margin. For weight loss, many find success by only eating back a portion of their exercise calories (e.g., 50%) or not eating them back at all. This maintains a more aggressive calorie deficit and helps mitigate the risk of inaccurate estimates. Monitor your progress and adjust based on your body's response.
Prioritize Food Quality: Regardless of whether you eat back exercise calories, the quality of your food is paramount. Use exercise as a motivation to fuel your body with nutrient-dense foods, like lean protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats, rather than as an excuse for highly processed, high-sugar snacks.

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up MyFitnessPal for Accurate Tracking

Set Profile: Enter your current weight, goal weight, and set your activity level to 'Sedentary' or 'Not Very Active' in your MyFitnessPal settings.
Sync Devices: Link your fitness tracker (Apple Watch, Garmin, Fitbit, etc.) with your MyFitnessPal account via the 'Apps' section.
Log Food: Track all your meals, snacks, and drinks accurately using the food database, barcode scanner, or manual entry.
Allow Adjustments: Let MyFitnessPal automatically sync the active calorie burn from your tracker. You will see a 'calorie adjustment' entry in your exercise diary.
Review Daily Budget: Observe how your remaining calories update throughout the day as you log food and exercise. The app will provide a dynamic daily budget that accounts for your movement.

Conclusion

When it comes to the question of should I put active or total calories into MyFitnessPal, the consensus is clear: opt for active calories. By setting your base activity level conservatively and allowing your fitness tracker to report active calories, you can leverage MyFitnessPal's net calorie model with maximum accuracy. This approach prevents double-counting, provides a more reliable calorie budget, and sets you up for consistent, measurable progress toward your health goals. While calorie tracking is a powerful tool, always listen to your body and focus on the quality of your nutrition for overall well-being. For additional guidance on how MyFitnessPal processes information from connected devices, you can consult their support articles.

Frequently Asked Questions

Active calories are the energy you burn from intentional movement and exercise. Total calories include your active calories plus your basal metabolic rate (BMR), the energy your body burns at rest.

You shouldn't log total calories because your daily calorie goal in MyFitnessPal already includes an estimate of your BMR. Logging total calories would double-count the BMR portion, leading to an inaccurate and inflated daily budget.

MyFitnessPal uses a net calorie model. When you log exercise (or sync a tracker), it adds the burned calories back to your daily budget, allowing you to consume more food while staying within your net calorie goal.

For the most accurate tracking, many experts recommend setting your initial activity level to 'Sedentary' or 'Not Very Active'. This sets a conservative baseline, with any calories from exercise added back as an adjustment from your synced tracker.

Fitness tracker calorie estimates can be inaccurate. For weight loss, it may be beneficial to only eat back a portion of your exercise calories (e.g., 50%) or not at all to ensure you maintain a sufficient calorie deficit.

First, link your device in MyFitnessPal's 'Apps' settings. Then, ensure you are not manually logging exercises that your device already tracks. The app will show a 'calorie adjustment' that reflects the difference between the app's estimate and your tracker's data.

If you don't use a fitness tracker, you can manually log your workouts in MyFitnessPal. The app will then add an estimated calorie burn to your daily budget. However, be aware that these are also estimates, and it's best to observe your progress and adjust accordingly.