Absurd amount of calories burned?

slimmjim78

6'0" tall, 288lb male here.

I did a lot of walking today and a small amount of hiking and wound up with over 18K steps and 26 floors when all was said and done. The fitbit calorie adjustment showing up in MFP is 3144 calories though! Isn't that absurdly high? I have MFP activity level set to sedentary if that matters.

Thanks for any insight.

NancyN795

That does seem high, although the sedentary MFP setting and your gender and size mitigate that somewhat. (A petite woman with MFP set to very active would have a much harder time legitimately getting that sort of adjustment.) Which Fitbit do you have? If you have an HR model, then you might look at your heart rate and see how it correlates with your steps and known activity. Does it seem reasonable? I know that sometimes I've had my Charge HR in my hand or my pocket - so it can't have been getting good HR readings - and it has shown a high heart rate. I think the device has trouble distinguishing between a bad signal and an elevated heart rate. I now try to be careful to turn off the HR function before I take it off and carry it for any length of time.

wolf39us

That does seem a bit high. 18k steps is a lot though, that's 9 miles of walking! I get about 400 in 2.7 miles and I'm 210lbs at 5'10

editorgrrl

Adjustments are the difference between your Fitbit burn (TDEE) and your MFP activity level. Enable negative calorie adjustments and increase your activity level.

Then trust your Fitbit for several weeks, reevaluate your progress, and adjust accordingly.

slimmjim78

Thanks guys! Editorgrrl I didn't know about the negative calorie adjustment setting, and yes it was turned off so I've fixed that and upped my activity level. Thanks for the tips.

I was at a big street faire thus all the walking but I also took in a LOT of calories because of the food there (4,000ish). It still said I was 900 under for the day, but I woke up 3lbs heavier this morning so something is wrong. Though I'm sure that's water weight since the food I ate was high in sodium.

editorgrrl

Weight loss is not linear! Read the Sexypants post: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

NancyN795

No, you didn't gain 3 lbs overnight. When I have an unusual day like that, my weight will jump, too, and may take days to go back down even if I didn't actually overeat.

slimmjim78

Oh, I know. I didn't mean to imply that I thought I had gained 3lbs of fat in a day (lol!). I just meant that the weight gain was most likely water retention due to high sodium foods and other factors.

Getting back to the calorie adjustment, here's my heart rate reading from the day attached. I do keep my Fitbit on all day and night and only remove it to clean it and my arm or for a shower.

editorgrrl

The only way to gauge the accuracy is to trust your Fitbit for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress.

We should all be looking for the maximum number of calories at which we lose—never the minimum.

NancyN795

Well, 7.5 hours in the fat burn zone is a lot, so I suspect that explains why the big adjustment. I suspect the biggest question is whether your heart rate was up because you were truly burning extra calories or if it was up due to other factors (excitement, etc.). For instance, I haven't ridden a roller coaster in years but I would imagine that I'd show an elevated heart rate, and thus, an elevated calorie burn on a good one, even though I didn't actually burn those calories. On the other hand, since this was probably a one-time sort of thing (I assume you don't go to big street fairs every day), it doesn't matter that much if it was accurate. If it is an every day sort of thing, then you need to track it down.

Based purely on your number of steps, your adjustment seems high. Based on your heart rate, it might not be. You say it says you climbed 26 floors. That doesn't affect your calorie count, but if you really did do that much climbing - of hills or stairs - then that argues more for accuracy, but don't trust the floor count. It's notoriously inaccurate. I can get 100 flights of stairs just walking around inside my house on a windy day.

Over the short term, if the adjustment was accurate, then you're good and that 3 pounds is water weight. If the adjustment was high, then you overate.

slimmjim78

Thanks guys!