Base calorie goal when using Fitbit?

HanMW96
HanMW96 Posts: 51 Member
edited November 18 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?
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Replies

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?

    Yep, that's exactly what i do.

    All of my exercise is step based, so i let my fitbit do it's thing, and don't log anything manually.

  • HanMW96
    HanMW96 Posts: 51 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?

    Yep, that's exactly what i do.

    All of my exercise is step based, so i let my fitbit do it's thing, and don't log anything manually.

    And you maintain? I'm surprised by how many calories I could apparently consume and still maintain?
  • mohamedahmed07
    mohamedahmed07 Posts: 161 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?

    Best way to do it from experience, if you wanna lose weight, put a 15% deficit (lose 0.5lb a week/250calories) and exercise another 250-400 calories.

    If you wanna maintain and you workout, put a (gain 0.5lb a week) and exercise 250calories.

    You put activity level as sedentary and you add your workouts to the "exercise" section.

    for example 10minutes of hiit equals 150-200 calories, 20 minutes of cardio equals 125-200 calories , but it depends on intensity of course

    so keep sedentary level, add the rest. even walking is an exercise.
  • pmoore8274
    pmoore8274 Posts: 1 Member
    I was wondering the same thing. I've tried setting it to sedentary and very active but, it seems to balance itself out on my end. If I put sedentary it will say 10,000 steps is +2000 calories and if I have it set to very active it will be only +1000. My calories always seem to be at between 4k-5k per day which is impossible for me to do and sounds ridiculously high.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?

    Yep, that's exactly what i do.

    All of my exercise is step based, so i let my fitbit do it's thing, and don't log anything manually.

    And you maintain? I'm surprised by how many calories I could apparently consume and still maintain?

    Aah i can't answer that one, as i have never eaten ALL of my fitbit calories back, I'd say i would gain if i did that! I'm currently set at maintenance/sedentary calories and creating a deficit through exercise (trying to lose a few vanity pounds).
    Going off my numbers here, i should be losing around 1lb a week, but it is much, much slower than that... You might be one of the lucky ones, and your fitbit numbers are perfectly accurate, it's trial and error.
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member
    @Christine_72 seems to get the FitBit estimates to work. Not me! Probably because of cycling and swimming. I also got ridiculous numbers from mowing the lawn. (Vibrations from the mower?) Anyway, I had to leave the apps un-linked and do a bit of reckoning when adding the FitBit calories to my tally, which I did by adding "Walking, 4.0 mph, very brisk pace" with enough time to equal whatever number of calories I felt were reasonable from the FitBit app.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?


    for example 10minutes of hiit equals 150-200 calories, 20 minutes of cardio equals 125-200 calories , but it depends on intensity of course

    so keep sedentary level, add the rest. even walking is an exercise.

    the burn from hiit/cardio is going to depends on the persons weight as well not just intensity
  • HanMW96
    HanMW96 Posts: 51 Member
    Thank you all, I think I'm going to chop 500 off from my Fitbit calorie goal, cause even that is still more than I have been eating! I believe I have been undereating, but not by 800/900 cals a day like my Fitbit says!! Does this sound good?
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Thank you all, I think I'm going to chop 500 off from my Fitbit calorie goal, cause even that is still more than I have been eating! I believe I have been undereating, but not by 800/900 cals a day like my Fitbit says!! Does this sound good?

    why would you want to cut off 500 from your fitbit calorie goal? if your goal is more than what you are eating you dont eat less. how many calories are you eating?how much does it give you?
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I'd start by eating back 50% of your exercise calories/fitbit adjustment and go from there. Adjust up or down after a few weeks of data.
    I highly recommend downloading a weight trending app, I use Trendweight. It syncs with fitbit and mfp. It will smooth out the fluctuations, so you wont panic if you see a sudden gain on the scales.
  • mohamedahmed07
    mohamedahmed07 Posts: 161 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?


    for example 10minutes of hiit equals 150-200 calories, 20 minutes of cardio equals 125-200 calories , but it depends on intensity of course

    so keep sedentary level, add the rest. even walking is an exercise.

    the burn from hiit/cardio is going to depends on the persons weight as well not just intensity

    first of all, overweight person shouldn't do hiit, and someone overweight won't do it as intense.

    so it's intensity - weight = calories burn, it evens out at the end a fat person won't run as fast as a fit one, a fit one won't burn as much as a fat person with the same intensity.
  • mohamedahmed07
    mohamedahmed07 Posts: 161 Member
    edited May 2017
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Also, what does Fitbit say your TDEE is? I average 15-18k steps a day and fitbit estimates my tdee to be 2300-2400.

    I'm 45, 5'8 and 148lbs
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?


    for example 10minutes of hiit equals 150-200 calories, 20 minutes of cardio equals 125-200 calories , but it depends on intensity of course

    so keep sedentary level, add the rest. even walking is an exercise.

    the burn from hiit/cardio is going to depends on the persons weight as well not just intensity

    first of all, overweight person shouldn't do hiit, and someone overweight won't do it as intense.

    so it's intensity - weight = calories burn, it evens out at the end a fat person won't run as fast as a fit one, a fit one won't burn as much as a fat person with the same intensity.

    who said an overweight person shouldnt do hiit? I did it when I was obese and I do it now when Im only a few lbs overweight and Im not dead yet. just because a person is overweight/obese does not mean they cant do certain things. everyone is different. as for running you cant say one person who is "fat" cant run as fast as a thin one. I have seen some people who outweigh me outrun me.
  • mohamedahmed07
    mohamedahmed07 Posts: 161 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?


    for example 10minutes of hiit equals 150-200 calories, 20 minutes of cardio equals 125-200 calories , but it depends on intensity of course

    so keep sedentary level, add the rest. even walking is an exercise.

    the burn from hiit/cardio is going to depends on the persons weight as well not just intensity

    first of all, overweight person shouldn't do hiit, and someone overweight won't do it as intense.

    so it's intensity - weight = calories burn, it evens out at the end a fat person won't run as fast as a fit one, a fit one won't burn as much as a fat person with the same intensity.

    who said an overweight person shouldnt do hiit? I did it when I was obese and I do it now when Im only a few lbs overweight and Im not dead yet. just because a person is overweight/obese does not mean they cant do certain things. everyone is different. as for running you cant say one person who is "fat" cant run as fast as a thin one. I have seen some people who outweigh me outrun me.

    Why do you insist on making me look wrong xD obviously someone trying to lose weight is not "Athletic" and probably haven't run before for quite some time, so I would expect a 140lb person to outrun a 240lb person.

    and hiit is too hard for overweight people, too much stress on the cardiovascular system, can someone overweight run for 30-60seconds with all of their speed 8-12 times a workout? If they can, then sure they can do it, but most can't.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?


    for example 10minutes of hiit equals 150-200 calories, 20 minutes of cardio equals 125-200 calories , but it depends on intensity of course

    so keep sedentary level, add the rest. even walking is an exercise.

    the burn from hiit/cardio is going to depends on the persons weight as well not just intensity

    first of all, overweight person shouldn't do hiit, and someone overweight won't do it as intense.

    so it's intensity - weight = calories burn, it evens out at the end a fat person won't run as fast as a fit one, a fit one won't burn as much as a fat person with the same intensity.

    who said an overweight person shouldnt do hiit? I did it when I was obese and I do it now when Im only a few lbs overweight and Im not dead yet. just because a person is overweight/obese does not mean they cant do certain things. everyone is different. as for running you cant say one person who is "fat" cant run as fast as a thin one. I have seen some people who outweigh me outrun me.

    Why do you insist on making me look wrong xD obviously someone trying to lose weight is not "Athletic" and probably haven't run before for quite some time, so I would expect a 140lb person to outrun a 240lb person.

    and hiit is too hard for overweight people, too much stress on the cardiovascular system, can someone overweight run for 30-60seconds with all of their speed 8-12 times a workout? If they can, then sure they can do it, but most can't.

    because most of what you are saying is wrong. just because a person is fat does not mean they cant be athletic. maybe a majority of obese people havent run while fat,so you are saying that since I am overweight by less than 10 lbs that hiit is too hard for me? I am not an athletic person either. Yet I do it and can do it and have when I was obese.

    There are no guarantees that a 140lb person can outrun an 240lb person(depends on the people in question). maybe the 240lb person has been running for awhile and the 140lb person hasnt. There can be many variables but with you saying fat people cant do certain things is appalling. I have done a lot of things when I was obese I couldnt do when I was thinner,some people cant run at all no matter what their weight is.The more you do something the more efficient your body gets at it. you saying fat people cant do certain things is appalling.
  • mohamedahmed07
    mohamedahmed07 Posts: 161 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?


    for example 10minutes of hiit equals 150-200 calories, 20 minutes of cardio equals 125-200 calories , but it depends on intensity of course

    so keep sedentary level, add the rest. even walking is an exercise.

    the burn from hiit/cardio is going to depends on the persons weight as well not just intensity

    first of all, overweight person shouldn't do hiit, and someone overweight won't do it as intense.

    so it's intensity - weight = calories burn, it evens out at the end a fat person won't run as fast as a fit one, a fit one won't burn as much as a fat person with the same intensity.

    who said an overweight person shouldnt do hiit? I did it when I was obese and I do it now when Im only a few lbs overweight and Im not dead yet. just because a person is overweight/obese does not mean they cant do certain things. everyone is different. as for running you cant say one person who is "fat" cant run as fast as a thin one. I have seen some people who outweigh me outrun me.

    Why do you insist on making me look wrong xD obviously someone trying to lose weight is not "Athletic" and probably haven't run before for quite some time, so I would expect a 140lb person to outrun a 240lb person.

    and hiit is too hard for overweight people, too much stress on the cardiovascular system, can someone overweight run for 30-60seconds with all of their speed 8-12 times a workout? If they can, then sure they can do it, but most can't.

    because most of what you are saying is wrong. just because a person is fat does not mean they cant be athletic. maybe a majority of obese people havent run while fat,so you are saying that since I am overweight by less than 10 lbs that hiit is too hard for me? I am not an athletic person either. Yet I do it and can do it and have when I was obese.

    There are no guarantees that a 140lb person can outrun an 240lb person(depends on the people in question). maybe the 240lb person has been running for awhile and the 140lb person hasnt. There can be many variables but with you saying fat people cant do certain things is appalling. I have done a lot of things when I was obese I couldnt do when I was thinner,some people cant run at all no matter what their weight is.The more you do something the more efficient your body gets at it. you saying fat people cant do certain things is appalling.

    Well, obviously there are exceptional cases in almost every science research or everything people talk about I thought this was obvious enough that I don't have to mention it, you're right someone overweight could be more athletic than a skinny person but in a very rare cases, that wasn't what I meant anyways.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,303 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?

    Yes.

    You can chose ANY MFP level and, if negative adjustments are enabled, **at midnight** the final calculation (which is mis-labelled as an 'exercise adjustment') will be exactly the same.

    There will be more calories added if you are set as sedentary on MFP, and fewer added (or potentially some subtracted) if you're setup as very active but prove not to be.
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Thank you all, I think I'm going to chop 500 off from my Fitbit calorie goal, cause even that is still more than I have been eating! I believe I have been undereating, but not by 800/900 cals a day like my Fitbit says!! Does this sound good?

    Do you have some personal data that lead you to believe that Fitbit and your logging are not accurate for you?

    I would assume that I am normal and my tools will work for me, and adjust when and if they prove not to!

    Connect fitbit.com to trendweight.com and evaluate your progress based on your trending weight.
  • HanMW96
    HanMW96 Posts: 51 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?

    Yes.

    You can chose ANY MFP level and, if negative adjustments are enabled, **at midnight** the final calculation (which is mis-labelled as an 'exercise adjustment') will be exactly the same.

    There will be more calories added if you are set as sedentary on MFP, and fewer added (or potentially some subtracted) if you're setup as very active but prove not to be.
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Thank you all, I think I'm going to chop 500 off from my Fitbit calorie goal, cause even that is still more than I have been eating! I believe I have been undereating, but not by 800/900 cals a day like my Fitbit says!! Does this sound good?

    Do you have some personal data that lead you to believe that Fitbit and your logging are not accurate for you?

    I would assume that I am normal and my tools will work for me, and adjust when and if they prove not to!

    Connect fitbit.com to trendweight.com and evaluate your progress based on your trending weight.

    How do I enable negative adjustment? I've also set my Mfp base goal as what my Fitbit says my BMI is, or is this wrong considering I will burn cals whilst sedentary which are not in the exercise adjustment?
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?

    Yes.

    You can chose ANY MFP level and, if negative adjustments are enabled, **at midnight** the final calculation (which is mis-labelled as an 'exercise adjustment') will be exactly the same.

    There will be more calories added if you are set as sedentary on MFP, and fewer added (or potentially some subtracted) if you're setup as very active but prove not to be.
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Thank you all, I think I'm going to chop 500 off from my Fitbit calorie goal, cause even that is still more than I have been eating! I believe I have been undereating, but not by 800/900 cals a day like my Fitbit says!! Does this sound good?

    Do you have some personal data that lead you to believe that Fitbit and your logging are not accurate for you?

    I would assume that I am normal and my tools will work for me, and adjust when and if they prove not to!

    Connect fitbit.com to trendweight.com and evaluate your progress based on your trending weight.

    How do I enable negative adjustment? I've also set my Mfp base goal as what my Fitbit says my BMI is, or is this wrong considering I will burn cals whilst sedentary which are not in the exercise adjustment?

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    Scroll down and click "Enable negative calorie adjustments"

    What I do is set MFP at sedentary maintenance and let Fitbit add exercise calories since most of my exercise is step based. I don't worry about weight lifting, and will sort out any impact that has on my weight once I'm done losing weight. You should manually log any exercise that is not step based on either MFP or Fitbit using start and end times.

    To create a deficit for myself, I just leave calories on the table at the end of the day equal to the deficit I want to create. If you're maintaining, just eat back your Fitbit adjustment.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    OP what are your goals (lose weight or maintain)?
    What rate of loss did you select in MFP.
    What calorie goal did MFP provide?
    How many steps do you average/day?
    What does FitBit say your total calories burned is?

  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?

    Yes.

    You can chose ANY MFP level and, if negative adjustments are enabled, **at midnight** the final calculation (which is mis-labelled as an 'exercise adjustment') will be exactly the same.

    There will be more calories added if you are set as sedentary on MFP, and fewer added (or potentially some subtracted) if you're setup as very active but prove not to be.
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Thank you all, I think I'm going to chop 500 off from my Fitbit calorie goal, cause even that is still more than I have been eating! I believe I have been undereating, but not by 800/900 cals a day like my Fitbit says!! Does this sound good?

    Do you have some personal data that lead you to believe that Fitbit and your logging are not accurate for you?

    I would assume that I am normal and my tools will work for me, and adjust when and if they prove not to!

    Connect fitbit.com to trendweight.com and evaluate your progress based on your trending weight.

    How do I enable negative adjustment? I've also set my Mfp base goal as what my Fitbit says my BMI is, or is this wrong considering I will burn cals whilst sedentary which are not in the exercise adjustment?

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    Scroll down and click "Enable negative calorie adjustments"

    What I do is set MFP at sedentary maintenance and let Fitbit add exercise calories since most of my exercise is step based. I don't worry about weight lifting, and will sort out any impact that has on my weight once I'm done losing weight. You should manually log any exercise that is not step based on either MFP or Fitbit using start and end times.

    To create a deficit for myself, I just leave calories on the table at the end of the day equal to the deficit I want to create. If you're maintaining, just eat back your Fitbit adjustment.

    I did exactly this except I do not have negative calories enabled. Having my setting as sedentary means my calorie target already is the minimum for the day even if I do no additional exercise so there is no need for it to go even lower. For a while I put it at lightly active and DID enable negative calories but decided that sedentary and disabled worked the best for me. I log my water aerobics and swimming separately and let my tracker take care of the rest. I eat back most of my tracker calories and about 1/2 of my logged calories earned.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    Now I have a Fitbit, I've set my base activity level as sedentary and will add on everything the Fitbit tracks. Does that sound right?


    for example 10minutes of hiit equals 150-200 calories, 20 minutes of cardio equals 125-200 calories , but it depends on intensity of course

    so keep sedentary level, add the rest. even walking is an exercise.

    the burn from hiit/cardio is going to depends on the persons weight as well not just intensity

    first of all, overweight person shouldn't do hiit, and someone overweight won't do it as intense.

    so it's intensity - weight = calories burn, it evens out at the end a fat person won't run as fast as a fit one, a fit one won't burn as much as a fat person with the same intensity.

    I'm sorry, but that's poop. I've seen many overweight people killing it at hiit. Heck, I did hiit when I was around 250lbs.

    There's a video floating around of an overweight lady doing really tall box jumps. She's amazing.

    A larger person will burn more calories simply because they're heavier.

    Anyone can do the exercise they wish to.

    glad others see it the same way :) you can do a lot if you put your mind to it
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member

    I'm sorry, but that's poop. I've seen many overweight people killing it at hiit. Heck, I did hiit when I was around 250lbs.

    Anyone can do the exercise they wish to.

    Yes yes yes! Check out this whole page on the subject of HIIT a the venerable NYTimes. HIIT can be done at any weight or level of fitness. Of course, if you get in better shape, your intervals can be harder.

    https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/search/high+intensity+interval+training/?_r=1

    I do worry about heavier people taking up running, only because it can be very hard on your joints and there are many other options, including walking. But, the best exercise is the one that inspires you to keep going.
  • HanMW96
    HanMW96 Posts: 51 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    OP what are your goals (lose weight or maintain)?
    What rate of loss did you select in MFP.
    What calorie goal did MFP provide?
    How many steps do you average/day?
    What does FitBit say your total calories burned is?

    Maintain weight, I put my BMR as calculated by Fitbit (1340) as my base on MyFitnessPal, I average anywhere between 15,000-25,000 steps a day (Fitbit says more but I think it overestimates), and today my Fitbit says I've burned 4100 calories which, although I'm very active, I know is inaccurate- I've probably burned closer to 3000
  • lemonychild
    lemonychild Posts: 654 Member
    Wether you put it on sedentary or put it on very active (if you really are) it always balances it self out. Fitbit is made not to double dip. Also have your negative adjustment enabled so in case u don't reach the activity level, Fitbit knows to subtract cals from your daily allotted food allowance
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    OP what are your goals (lose weight or maintain)?
    What rate of loss did you select in MFP.
    What calorie goal did MFP provide?
    How many steps do you average/day?
    What does FitBit say your total calories burned is?

    Maintain weight, I put my BMR as calculated by Fitbit (1340) as my base on MyFitnessPal, I average anywhere between 15,000-25,000 steps a day (Fitbit says more but I think it overestimates), and today my Fitbit says I've burned 4100 calories which, although I'm very active, I know is inaccurate- I've probably burned closer to 3000

    I'm not understanding why you set BMR as your base calories? That's the amount of calories your body would need if you were essentially comatose, which you clearly are not. You are averaging 15k-25k steps/day. The way you've got it set up is going to result in huge adjustments (1500 or more) and that is telling you that something is out of whack with your set up.

    A more appropriate approach would be to set MFP to maintain, with either a lightly active or active activity level. The number they provide then is an estimate of your NEAT (so your BMR plus an estimate of day to day activity burn), and then when you have it synced with FitBit you would see an adjustment when your FitBit says you've burned more than that, a true up if you will between the TDEE that FitBit estimates and what MFP thinks you would burn without exercise. Enabling negative adjustments ensures that you would get a lower calorie target if you don't meet the normal activity level that MFP is suggesting.

    For what it's worth, I'm also in maintenance at 5'2 and 118. I selected active for my activity level because I average 15k steps/day even though I have a desk job. MFP says my baseline cals are 1850. I have it set up to sync with FitBit which estimates that my TDEE is around 2200-2300. So my adjustments are usually 300-500 cals which I feel is more representative of my purposeful exercise.
  • HanMW96
    HanMW96 Posts: 51 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    HanMW96 wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    OP what are your goals (lose weight or maintain)?
    What rate of loss did you select in MFP.
    What calorie goal did MFP provide?
    How many steps do you average/day?
    What does FitBit say your total calories burned is?

    Maintain weight, I put my BMR as calculated by Fitbit (1340) as my base on MyFitnessPal, I average anywhere between 15,000-25,000 steps a day (Fitbit says more but I think it overestimates), and today my Fitbit says I've burned 4100 calories which, although I'm very active, I know is inaccurate- I've probably burned closer to 3000

    I'm not understanding why you set BMR as your base calories? That's the amount of calories your body would need if you were essentially comatose, which you clearly are not. You are averaging 15k-25k steps/day. The way you've got it set up is going to result in huge adjustments (1500 or more) and that is telling you that something is out of whack with your set up.

    A more appropriate approach would be to set MFP to maintain, with either a lightly active or active activity level. The number they provide then is an estimate of your NEAT (so your BMR plus an estimate of day to day activity burn), and then when you have it synced with FitBit you would see an adjustment when your FitBit says you've burned more than that, a true up if you will between the TDEE that FitBit estimates and what MFP thinks you would burn without exercise. Enabling negative adjustments ensures that you would get a lower calorie target if you don't meet the normal activity level that MFP is suggesting.

    For what it's worth, I'm also in maintenance at 5'2 and 118. I selected active for my activity level because I average 15k steps/day even though I have a desk job. MFP says my baseline cals are 1850. I have it set up to sync with FitBit which estimates that my TDEE is around 2200-2300. So my adjustments are usually 300-500 cals which I feel is more representative of my purposeful exercise.

    Thank you! I set my BMR as my base cals on here, because Fitbit adds every bit of my activity- over 1100 so far today for example- onto my base goal. If I set my base goal on here as "lightly active", it adds all my steps and gym classes onto that, even though without any of my steps or gym I'd be sedentary and therefore only needing you eat my BMR's worth right? I'm confused so I'm going to keep doing it like I am for two weeks, then I'll weigh myself and change my tact if needs be! Thank you for your help!
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