BMR Calcs and Activity Setting

nsahni10

If connected to an activity tracker (iPhone step counter) it appears that the daily target caloric intake increases based on your physical acritivuty level (as well as any logged exercise). Yet, when setting up a weight loss goal, it asks for your activity level, which in turn increases your allowable intake (makes sense). My question is: doesn't this seem like double counting? If you select lightly active and then "allow" yourself additional calories based on your daily activity, are you exceeding the target intake to support weight loss? My solution was to choose sedentary as my activity level in the goal setting and use the sum of BMR+exercise+activity calorie targets to be my guide. Thoughts???

lightenup2016

I believe the activity level you set is supposed to be based on your daily routine, not including exercise/workouts– – if you have a desk job you put in sedentary, if you have a housekeeping or other job that keeps you walking and moving around you would choose light activity, etc. Your actual hard workouts would be logged separately by you.

lightenup2016

I'll add that you could just choose a higher activity level to account for your exercise activity, and then just don't link your fitness tracker to MFP. I actually calculated my average TDEE, subtracted 500, and use that as my calorie goal for everyday. I don't want to have to enter workouts separately, and I don't currently have a fitness tracker (nor do I trust the calorie burns from those). At the end of the day, it's a little but trial and error.