Steps and calories

Alpine021

Hi,

If I google 10,000 steps and calories almost every website agree on 10,000 steps being about 500 calories for a male of average weight and height. I'm 5'10 and about 180lbs and today I've done 13,800 steps and it's saying 170 calories. My weight and height are input already. Is MFP wrong or the websites?

TeaBea

For the 170 calories - do you have something synced to MFP (like an activity tracker)? What trackers do is give you credit for the difference between your stated activity level and your actual activity. If you enable negative adjustments you can also get calories taken away for inactive days.

Other websites might be quoting 100% of the steps. That would include a fair amount of double-counting. Consider also that 500 might be a "gross" number. You are burning calories 24/7 (even asleep). You don't want to add calories for your BMR (basal metabolic rate) either.

Alpine021

Agree but your BMR is what you burn without moving right? As in what you would burn doing nothing? Totally appreciate I don't want to double count. What I'm doing is 10,000 steps above my commute to work. So if I do 10,000 steps extra I want to gauge what kind of calorie expenditure this is. Even if it's 200 calories. Does that make sense? By the way I'm using a Mi Band 2 wristband. Tracks steps, sleep, HR, and calories burnt.

Michael190lbs

To burn the 500 calories you have to do an extra 10,000 steps not the typical 5000-5700 most people do.. So 15,000 total for the day sounds more accurate for an extra 500 calorie burn over your typical rate. For the record your Brain burns 200-250 calories a day just firing off sparks and a Man your size burns about 75 calories every hour he breathes while sleeping or just laying on the couch

CyberTone

Alpine021 wrote: »

Agree but your BMR is what you burn without moving right? As in what you would burn doing nothing? Totally appreciate I don't want to double count. What I'm doing is 10,000 steps above my commute to work. So if I do 10,000 steps extra I want to gauge what kind of calorie expenditure this is. Even if it's 200 calories. Does that make sense? By the way I'm using a Mi Band 2 wristband. Tracks steps, sleep, HR, and calories burnt.

What is your MFP Activity Level set at: Sedentary (Not Very Active), Lightly Active, Active, or Highly Active?

Since you have an all-day activity tracker synced, unfortunately, MFP does not partition out how many extra Cals specifically by steps. It just calculates a total estimate of Cals for the day based on the MFP Activity Level, then adjusts total Cals earned based on the data for the Cals sent by the tracker. MFP may show the number of steps from the tracker, but MFP does not use that step number in any of its calculations as far as I can tell.

If you set MFP to Sedentary, you can monitor the number of steps throughout the day and note the number of steps when you start getting a positive adjustment in MFP. For me at Sedentary, the positive adjustment starts at about 2700 steps. Then you can use any steps earned higher than that number to start estimating how many Cals per steps you earn in MFP above Sedentary.

Alpine021

Michael190lbs wrote: »

To burn the 500 calories you have to do an extra 10,000 steps not the typical 5000-5700 most people do.. So 15,000 total for the day sounds more accurate for an extra 500 calorie burn over your typical rate. For the record your Brain burns 200-250 calories a day just firing off sparks and a Man your size burns about 75 calories every hour he breathes while sleeping or just laying on the couch

5000-7000 steps isn't calculated into your BMR though. It's just your body functioning. I know people that sit in the house all day. They don't "gain" calories burnt equivalent to 5000-7000 steps.

Alpine021

CyberTone wrote: »

Alpine021 wrote: »

Agree but your BMR is what you burn without moving right? As in what you would burn doing nothing? Totally appreciate I don't want to double count. What I'm doing is 10,000 steps above my commute to work. So if I do 10,000 steps extra I want to gauge what kind of calorie expenditure this is. Even if it's 200 calories. Does that make sense? By the way I'm using a Mi Band 2 wristband. Tracks steps, sleep, HR, and calories burnt.

What is your MFP Activity Level set at: Sedentary (Not Very Active), Lightly Active, Active, or Highly Active?

Since you have an all-day activity tracker synced, unfortunately, MFP does not partition out how many extra Cals specifically by steps. It just calculates a total estimate of Cals for the day based on the MFP Activity Level, then adjusts total Cals earned based on the data for the Cals sent by the tracker. MFP may show the number of steps from the tracker, but MFP does not use that step number in any of its calculations as far as I can tell.

If you set MFP to Sedentary, you can monitor the number of steps throughout the day and note the number of steps when you start getting a positive adjustment in MFP. For me at Sedentary, the positive adjustment starts at about 2700 steps. Then you can use any steps earned higher than that number to start estimating how many Cals per steps you earn in MFP above Sedentary.

My tracker isn't synced to MFP I don't think it can. I'm down as active although maybe I should change it to lightly active. I ride 1 mile to work everyday and back plus go to the gym a few times a week at least, and make sure I walk my steps.

I could set it sedentary although it was depress me looking at the amount of calories I could eat not being that much!!

CyberTone

Alpine021 wrote: »

CyberTone wrote: »

Alpine021 wrote: »

Agree but your BMR is what you burn without moving right? As in what you would burn doing nothing? Totally appreciate I don't want to double count. What I'm doing is 10,000 steps above my commute to work. So if I do 10,000 steps extra I want to gauge what kind of calorie expenditure this is. Even if it's 200 calories. Does that make sense? By the way I'm using a Mi Band 2 wristband. Tracks steps, sleep, HR, and calories burnt.

What is your MFP Activity Level set at: Sedentary (Not Very Active), Lightly Active, Active, or Highly Active?

Since you have an all-day activity tracker synced, unfortunately, MFP does not partition out how many extra Cals specifically by steps. It just calculates a total estimate of Cals for the day based on the MFP Activity Level, then adjusts total Cals earned based on the data for the Cals sent by the tracker. MFP may show the number of steps from the tracker, but MFP does not use that step number in any of its calculations as far as I can tell.

If you set MFP to Sedentary, you can monitor the number of steps throughout the day and note the number of steps when you start getting a positive adjustment in MFP. For me at Sedentary, the positive adjustment starts at about 2700 steps. Then you can use any steps earned higher than that number to start estimating how many Cals per steps you earn in MFP above Sedentary.

My tracker isn't synced to MFP I don't think it can. I'm down as active although maybe I should change it to lightly active. I ride 1 mile to work everyday and back plus go to the gym a few times a week at least, and make sure I walk my steps.

I could set it sedentary although it was depress me looking at the amount of calories I could eat not being that much!!

OK, I didn't realize your tracker wasn't synced. I'm a little confused though. In your first post, you said "it's saying 170 calories." Was it MFP that gave you 170 or was it the Mi band? If MFP, what information and where in MFP did you enter that information to get 170?

If you set MFP to Sedentary, you can add one or more exercise activities to MFP Cardiovascular to add Calories for your biking commute and other walking separately. Or you could use an online TDEE estimator to get your maintenance Cals and subtract 250 or 500 Cals per day depending on your goal, then play with the MFP activity settings to get close to that number.