Why is MFP giving me such a high calorie allotment!

Christine_72

WinoGelato wrote: »

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Christine_72 wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

Molly_234 wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

Molly_234 wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

Molly_234 wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

OP what does FitBit say for your total calories burned ? Ultimately that's what the adjustments are derived from, the difference between what FitBit says you burned and what MFP predicts your NEAT to be. That's a more helpful data point, in my opinion, than trying to base it just on how many steps you took.

It says I burned about 2,000 calories in total.

And what are your current stats again? Height, weight, and age?

Do you use the MFP app? Did you see the screen shot I posted where you can see what MFP has as your baseline and what it estimates you will burn from Fitbit and how the adjustment is then calculated? What are your three numbers. It should be a simple X-Y = Z. Look at all three numbers to see if they make sense.

I am 5'2 135 lbs and want to be 115-120. Already lost 15lbs about .5 a week.I could not find where you took the screen shot and I don't know how to post a picture but my home page says. 1600-1867+319(exercise)=62 remaining. That was yesterday.

Molly_234 wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

Molly_234 wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

OP what does FitBit say for your total calories burned ? Ultimately that's what the adjustments are derived from, the difference between what FitBit says you burned and what MFP predicts your NEAT to be. That's a more helpful data point, in my opinion, than trying to base it just on how many steps you took.

It says I burned about 2,000 calories in total.

And what are your current stats again? Height, weight, and age?

Do you use the MFP app? Did you see the screen shot I posted where you can see what MFP has as your baseline and what it estimates you will burn from Fitbit and how the adjustment is then calculated? What are your three numbers. It should be a simple X-Y = Z. Look at all three numbers to see if they make sense.

I am 5'2 135 lbs and want to be 115-120. Already lost 15lbs about .5 a week.I could not find where you took the screen shot and I don't know how to post a picture but my home page says. 1600-1867+319(exercise)=62 remaining. That was yesterday.

Are you using the app? Scroll down to the bottom of your diary where it says "exercise" and there should be something called "Fitbit calorie adjustment" and you can click that and it will show you the details. I'm not sure if there's a similar option on the website.



For what it's worth, and I think I said this upthread, my stats are exactly the same as yours. Im 5'2 with a desk job. I started around 150, lost about 15, then got a FitBit, changed my activity level to lightly active, set at 0.5 lb/week weight loss, are back exercise adjustments, kept losing, and reached my goal weight (and beyond) in a little over a year. I'm maintaining at 120 now for the past couple years while trusting those FitBit adjustments.

What are your maintenance calories? We're you losing .5lb every week or would it sometimes be less? I know that it's going to take patience but a year sounds like a long time. I do want to tone up as well but I imagined losing the last 15 in 4 to 5 months.

I lost ~30 lbs in just about a year. I stopped over the holidays, intentionally, my first year, and then I gained some back after a summer in Europe which I lost again by the following Christmas.

My TDeE according to my FitBit and actual results is ~2200 when I'm active. Over this past winter I've been less active because of work and weather but am still at ~2100 for my TDEE.

I average 15k steps a day and do light circuit training a few times a week.

I eat lighter during the week and more on the weekends.

I trust the two systems and they have always worked well for me. It seems like you are skeptical about eating back the calories, and that's fine, but the only way to know for sure is to pick a number and an approach, stick with it for a period of time, monitor your actual results and go from there.

@WinoGelato Fitbit says my TDEE is 2200-2300. I average 15,000 steps everyday too. But I'm 150lbs, 5"8 and age 45.
I did take a couple inches off my height and stride length and added 5 years to my age, only because fitbit was way overestimating.
If i remember correctly, it said my TDEE was around 2500, which according to my weight loss was incorrect. Since i made the changes the new TDEE corresponds to my weight loss/maintenance.

I wonder why Fitbit is spot on for some, and off for others? I have no health conditions to explain the discrepancy, nor are my 'calories in' off by hundreds everyday, or even every week.

I'm not sure why it's accurate for me and not for you. I know you've said that you go to bed quite early, 7pm, right? Not sure what time you get up and get moving, maybe it has something to do with activity being crowded into a smaller time period if you sleep longer (I only sleep about 5-6 hours). Or maybe it's because you're Aussie.
You also keep MFP set at sedentary when you are clearly not. I'm not saying any of those things are bad, just that they might make you an outlier that the algorithms aren't working for you.

Yes, you are correct. I go to bed early (7-8pm) and usually get up around 5am, but don't start moving (walking) til around 8am.

I agree, I am definitely not sedentary, but the extra 250 calories i get when i'm at lightly active pretty much get taken away again (200ish calories) by the next morning, so it's pretty pointless to adjust my activity level. I seriously tried staying up later last night, but i got an elbow from hubby as i was snorting in my sleep on the couch at 8:30pm. I am bloody hopeless!

I should up it to Active, i would be curious to see how much the numbers change from bedtime to the next morning. It would be a huge amount I'd bet!

heybales

That BMR issue mentioned by Pavel is likely a decent part of it.

Since your BMR is used in the calculations of those walking calories, if estimated BMR used is inflated over reality, so will the exercise calories, and all those steps you get in.

Also, since you get so many steps, Fitbit's ability to dynamically adjust for each foot step loses accuracy at the edge of the range, and perhaps you have a lot of your steps at that edge.

Shoot, you could just have for some genetic reason slightly smaller metabolically active organs compared to what is expected, even if you used a BMR estimate based on BF%.

It actually could be a significant amount of calories - have you lost perhaps half your liver or kidney.