Calories added for steps

cbowman1114

hi everyone! I've used mfp before but it didn't track your steps the last time I've used it. I'm starting my weight loss journey, and I was curious if other people eat their calories that they've burned? I weigh 240 pounds and I've almost walked my 10,000 steps for the day. And it is saying I get to eat 500 extra calories, but I'm not sure that is the best thing to do for weight loss. Any advice??

ClicquotBubbles

I dont eat back my calories but use the calories burned as a safety net. So if I go over by a few calories ( say 45) its not a big thing. However I have found, and I may be wrong, better progress not eating the extra.

cwolfman13

some of those steps are already included in your activity level...even if you put your activity level to sedentary, that accounts for up to 5,000 steps per day...so if you counted all of those calories, you'd be double dipping.

mfp is designed to eat back calories from deliberate exercise for which walking is one of those things...but you only want to account for activity that is not included in your activity level.

cbowman1114

cwolfman13 wrote: »

some of those steps are already included in your activity level...even if you put your activity level to sedentary, that accounts for up to 5,000 steps per day...so if you counted all of those calories, you'd be double dipping.

mfp is designed to eat back calories from deliberate exercise for which walking is one of those things...but you only want to account for activity that is not included in your activity level.

I'm sorry you kinda confused me. I did put my activity level at sedentary but wasn't planning on taking into account any calories burned from just walking. I plan on working out 3-5 days a week. So I guess maybe I just shouldn't pay attention to it, and I'm wondering how accurate the steps are anyway.

cwolfman13

cbowman1114 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

some of those steps are already included in your activity level...even if you put your activity level to sedentary, that accounts for up to 5,000 steps per day...so if you counted all of those calories, you'd be double dipping.

mfp is designed to eat back calories from deliberate exercise for which walking is one of those things...but you only want to account for activity that is not included in your activity level.

I'm sorry you kinda confused me. I did put my activity level at sedentary but wasn't planning on taking into account any calories burned from just walking. I plan on working out 3-5 days a week. So I guess maybe I just shouldn't pay attention to it, and I'm wondering how accurate the steps are anyway.

I wouldn't personally worry about the walking...if anything, if I were walking around that much to get to 10,000 steps I would just up my activity level setting to account for it or I'd just ignore it.

More intense exercise activity should be accounted for and MFP is designed for you to eat exercise calories back in order to account for that activity (with an allowance for estimation error)...it is important to recovery and your fitness to fuel exercise activity...the more intense this activity is, the more important this becomes.

cbowman1114

Thanks for the info!

MKEgal

If I log my everyday steps (looking at my pedometer or fitbit), I enter them as 2mph
and take [1/3 x 0.1] of the number as minutes.
So if there's 6000 steps, that's 200 minutes.
6000 / 3 = 2000 / 10 = 200.

If I've actually gone for a measured / timed walk, I enter that for what it is:
1 hour at 3 mph outside on a nice day
45 minutes climbing hills (that's how I log the interval program on the treadmill)

And no, don't "eat back" calories, at least not as a regular practice.
My doctor (endocrinologist specializing in weight loss issues) & dietician had never heard of such a thing.
First, you're probably eating more than you think.
Second, machines are inaccurate as to how much you've burned, usually going high.
For most people, most of the time, those cancel out.
Exercise helps your health, and is a bonus toward weight loss.
Once in a while, if you're really hungry at the end of the day, have 1/3 of your estimated calories as a snack.

cbowman1114

Is there a way to take off the extra calories it adds? I still want it to count my steps but not add the calories I've "burned"

xKoalaBearx

There isn't unless you pay for the premium service. I just ignore it. I try and match my "Goal" and my "Food" numbers and ignore the "Exercise" and "Remaining" numbers.

jessiruthica

When I started about a year and a half ago, weighing in at 235, I bought a FitBit and synced it with MFP. I set MFP activity level to sedentary and let FitBit calculate "extra" calories over the MFP setting. I logged specific exercise that the FitBit didn't record but let it manage anything step-related (walking, running, etc). I ate ALL of the calories the MFP said I could, because it was doing all of the calculations. Following that pattern I lost a total of about 75 pounds in about a year.

If you set your activity level to sedentary, MFP expects you to eat back any exercise calories that you accumulate. While it is certainly true that many of the activities listed in MFP have over-estimated calorie burns, I found that the FitBit did a good job of working out what I was actually burning.

Many recommend eating back just half of the exercise calories that you "earn", but I wouldn't recommend eating NONE of them. First, your body does actually need extra fuel if you're burning calories via exercise. Particularly if you have never been very active (I literally was almost completely sedentary when I started this process), you will be burning more calories than you did in the past. That coupled with eating less because you're tracking to a certain calorie limit ensures you'll lose weight.

ridge4mfp

I have to disagree with most of the posts in the thread. Walking is exercise. On my walks my Fitbit HR logs my heart rate at the cardio level for about 70% of the walk. If you set up as a sedentary lifestyle, it will give you extra calories for steps over and above what is expected for a sedentary person. If you are not sedentary, change your activity level to better reflect what is "over and above" for you on an ordinary day, excluding exercise.

If you do not eat back your exercise calories, you then risk eating too few net calories. This can lead to being too hungry, or weak and tired, which can lead to bingeing and ultimately even failure. If you don't trust the calorie figures, such as from exercise machines or the MFP database, eat half of them back.

When I got my Fitbit HR, I decided to test trusting it and see how it went. I have eaten back my calories on most days (not all, especially a heavy exercise day), and continue to lose at the expected rate of 2 lbs per week. I have now lost 51 lbs.

Feed your body for your exercise and don't go hungry.

cbowman1114

Thank You for all of the responses. It's just a little different for me to think about eating back calories because prior to having my son I lost 60 pounds, and I never ate back any calories I burned. So that is something that I'm a little apprehensive about.

chandanista

I override the calories, for example if I put in 20 minutes jogging, it'll automatically figure up 200-ish calories. Before I press the "add" button, I move the cursor into the calorie total and I press delete. MFP still wants a number there, so I'll change it to 20 or so, but that way the system isn't telling me I had an incredible deficit that I know I didn't have.

Clobern80

jessiruthica wrote: »

When I started about a year and a half ago, weighing in at 235, I bought a FitBit and synced it with MFP. I set MFP activity level to sedentary and let FitBit calculate "extra" calories over the MFP setting. I logged specific exercise that the FitBit didn't record but let it manage anything step-related (walking, running, etc). I ate ALL of the calories the MFP said I could, because it was doing all of the calculations. Following that pattern I lost a total of about 75 pounds in about a year.

If you set your activity level to sedentary, MFP expects you to eat back any exercise calories that you accumulate. While it is certainly true that many of the activities listed in MFP have over-estimated calorie burns, I found that the FitBit did a good job of working out what I was actually burning.

Many recommend eating back just half of the exercise calories that you "earn", but I wouldn't recommend eating NONE of them. First, your body does actually need extra fuel if you're burning calories via exercise. Particularly if you have never been very active (I literally was almost completely sedentary when I started this process), you will be burning more calories than you did in the past. That coupled with eating less because you're tracking to a certain calorie limit ensures you'll lose weight.

This, this and more this.