Help

saz211

Can someone please help me I'm stressing out at what to put as my activity level if I put sedentary or lightly active I get 1200 cals but having linked my Fitbit up it usually gives me about 400 more over the day all I do is walk. Not sure if I can eat these cals and still lose or if I should leave them. Can I ask how much calories people eat to loose successfully?

yarwell

If you have days where your Fitbit adds few calories then your activity setting I'd about right.

If it adds a lot every day then your setting is a bit low and a higher one might make planning easier.

pebble4321

I don't use a Fitbit, but Apple Watch, which I think is doing the same kind of thing - tracking my activity and linking that to MFP.
I have my activity level set to sedentary and then allow changes (positive and negative) and eat some or all (or more!) of those calories.

I usually get at least some calories added every day, which seems right to me - if I wasn't using the watch, I'd have myself set at lightly active.

This is working for me, as I'm losing weight steadily. I have some days where I eat more cals and others where I'm under but it's all balancing out - I have my MFP goals set to lose 0.25kg/week and I've actually averaged out around 0.4kg/week (3.5kg over 8 weeks).

The best way to work out what's right for you, though, is to choose one approach (I'd start with sedentary and eat most of your extra cals) and stick with that for a month or so. Then you can evaluate what's happening and change things up if needed.

This isn't a precise science, there are so many variable that come into play, you really have to set up the system, try it out and then tweak things if needed depending on your results.

lemonychild

Ultimately it doesn't matter which of the 2 you chose because Fitbit will only start giving u calories based on your activity Only after you reach the selected activity level. So if u select sedentary you will find that u will have less base calories but more exercise calories and if U select lightly active u will have more base calories but less exercise. At the end, they are both the same cals

WendyLaubach

You might try eating 1200 calories and not eating back any exercise calories for a while, see what kind of loss rate you get. If it seems too fast (terrible problem, I know! :-)), then start eating a portion of your exercise calories back. It's not about what your devices tell you, it's about whether you're losing weight.

Nicklebee93

Are you putting the loss rate to 2lbs a week? Then MFP is going to pretty much always give you the lowest, which is 1,200 calories. But most feel that's extremely aggressive and not many people tend to stick to that.

Most people eat back about 50%-75% of the calories they gain back.