Activity level and step tracking

kraffty86

Hi

I'm trying to get an accurate measure of my daily calories - including using my Fitbit tracker for steps.

I am massively overweight (obese) at 15st9 (5ft5) so I know I would probably burn more than the average person.

Do I set myself as 'inactive' on MFP and then allow my Fitbit to update on exercise calories? I did this today and apparently I've my quota of 1,200 has risen by 1000 calories!! I do around 8000-8500 steps per day.
Doesn't seem quite right.

Ready2Rock206

I think it can take a few days to get to know you and work itself out - but yes 1,000 extra calories for only 8,000 steps does seem a bit extreme.

ottermotorcycle

I'm not sure that is extreme, because 1200 calories is absurdly low for someone 5'5" and over 200lbs. Like, starving the body, in danger of losing lots of lean muscle mass low. You very well may be burning 2200+ calories per day.

tinkerbellang83

I am about the same weight but a little taller, my TDEE yesterday for walking around 9000 steps and no other exercise was 2577 according to my Garmin, I have myself set as Lightly Active and received a calorie adjustment of 141 calories.

1000 calories does seem like a high adjustment for the amount of steps, what was the adjustment on your final sync of the day? It might be worth checking your settings in both MFP and Fitbit are correct, it might be that you have the wrong stats in one or the other.

@ottersandsealsdonotfly It's not dangerous for someone of OPs stats to be eating 1200 calories as long as that's the net figure. My TDEE at sedentary for the same stats is 2100 so 1200 calories would put me at less than 2lb per week loss, which is safe for someone who has a lot to lose, the problem is it's not very sustainable long term.

OP You do need to make sure you're eating a portion of your exercise calories back (once you've figured out an accurate amount), ensure that you're getting adequate protein and it would be best to incorporate some strength training. I would also consider adjusting to a slightly less aggressive rate of loss, perhaps 1-1.5lb per week, it will likely be easier to stick to long term.

LivingtheLeanDream

If you are in the habit of doing 8500 a day that puts you just into the lightly active bracket for MFP - in other words if you change your setting here then it wont add very much on for those steps (lightly active is anything above 7k).
It depends on what you prefer seeing, ie if you like to see your exercise cals being added on then leave your setting to sedentary.

To give you an idea, its roughly 2000 steps for 1 mile which equals from 80-100 cals on average. If you are running a lot of your daily steps then of course the calorie burn will be higher.

Of course with a higher weight then the overall burn from just a normal day even at sedentary will be higher. So say you are actually burning 2200 calories (i.e your TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expended) to lose weight you still need to eat at say 25% deficit of that number so technically you'll know in a few weeks if you are eating around 1650 calories a day then you are truly burning 2200 a day, that should have you losing an average of 1lb a week. (These figures are just examples btw)