Can this be right?

Stellamom2018

Could someone look at my diary? I'm just so confused. I had my fitbit synced (versa) for about a week and it was giving me like 500-1000 calories on top of my 1400. I panicked and stopped syncing them because that is A LOT of food to also lose weight. Is this right? I average 11500 steps a day, a high end is about 16000 on days I exercise, if I only work and do nothing else I hit right around 9000 steps. SW: 210 CW: 191 GW:140ish

Edited: right now I have it set at the 1400 plus I eat back half of what my versa says my work out burn is. But sometimes I am STARVING and literally laying in bed with my stomach growling. Other days I'm fine. If I eat it, I weigh it and log it.

RetiredAndLovingIt

You don't say your age, but I don't think 1900 (your 1400 + 500 for exercise) for over 11,000 steps seems out of line. Not sure about 16,000 steps..I never get quite that high.

Stellamom2018

RetiredAndLovingIt wrote: »

You don't say your age, but I don't think 1900 (your 1400 + 500 for exercise) for over 11,000 steps seems out of line. Not sure about 16,000 steps..I never get quite that high.

I am 27 year old female.

RetiredAndLovingIt

I am way older (68) & some lighter & I have gotten at least 400 when I have gotten 12,000 or more steps.

heybales

Those aren't workout calories syncing over - as you have seen, you get more calories on days with no workouts.

Because you are much more active, as steps show, then the MFP Activity Level you selected.

Doesn't mean you have to change it from Sedentary AS LONG AS you keep syncing. MFP is trying to correct itself.

What you should do is that Fitbit is giving the most accurate calorie burn for MFP to indeed be using the best estimate.

Have you ever walked a known distance at average daily pace (not grocery store shuffle, not exercise level pace, but what ever is in the middle) and confirmed Fitbit saw the distance correctly?
Because distance and time is pace, pace and weight is calorie burn in very accurate formulas. Steps is merely a way to get to distance.

Have you ever looked at your daily calorie burn graph - and confirmed the high burn times are correct with reality?

If the Fitbit is going into HR-based calorie burn often when it should not be (during daily activity levels) - you'll get inflated.
Are you manually logging on Fitbit any lifting or intervals - because that is totally opposite use for HR-based calorie burn and will be inflated.

Because with steps almost 3 x sedentary level - yes that much adjustment almost does seem correct.

Oh - the only eating back 50% of workouts - that's if it's based on the database and being added to only MFP figures yourself.

Those Fitbit adjustments are NOT database workouts and that method could be very foolish - as your lying in bed very hungry is pointing out.
Keep it up and your body will adapt so it's not burning as much to compensate - now your Fitbit will be very wrong and not very correctable situation - recommend not going there.

Stellamom2018

heybales wrote: »

Those aren't workout calories syncing over - as you have seen, you get more calories on days with no workouts.

Because you are much more active, as steps show, then the MFP Activity Level you selected.

Doesn't mean you have to change it from Sedentary AS LONG AS you keep syncing. MFP is trying to correct itself.

What you should do is that Fitbit is giving the most accurate calorie burn for MFP to indeed be using the best estimate.

Have you ever walked a known distance at average daily pace (not grocery store shuffle, not exercise level pace, but what ever is in the middle) and confirmed Fitbit saw the distance correctly?
Because distance and time is pace, pace and weight is calorie burn in very accurate formulas. Steps is merely a way to get to distance.

Have you ever looked at your daily calorie burn graph - and confirmed the high burn times are correct with reality?

If the Fitbit is going into HR-based calorie burn often when it should not be (during daily activity levels) - you'll get inflated.
Are you manually logging on Fitbit any lifting or intervals - because that is totally opposite use for HR-based calorie burn and will be inflated.

Because with steps almost 3 x sedentary level - yes that much adjustment almost does seem correct.

Oh - the only eating back 50% of workouts - that's if it's based on the database and being added to only MFP figures yourself.

Those Fitbit adjustments are NOT database workouts and that method could be very foolish - as your lying in bed very hungry is pointing out.
Keep it up and your body will adapt so it's not burning as much to compensate - now your Fitbit will be very wrong and not very correctable situation - recommend not going there.

Thanks for the awesome help and questions!

I have MFP set to lightly active for a activity level. Which is why I am mainly concerned about how many calories its giving me beyond that.

I have not ever walked a mile and confirmed it was a mile, I will do that today and see what I get.

My daily burn graphs are always right on with when I am exercising/walking/activity, so I think this is being accurate.

I never log anything on fitbit, I have a versa so whenever I do any cardio I select the "workout" on my versa to record the activity. I also select "strength training" when I am doing weights for start and end. But I dont do anything beyond that, should I be? I also rarely do strength training, I need to up that game considerably.

heybales

That device and Weights is great, because then it uses database entry for calculating calories which is most accurate compared to HR. Older models used HR. Actually, older models used steps, which is even more wrong, the other direction.

Confirm that mile walk is avg daily pace - it should feel hard to purposely move that slow - maybe 2 mph or less.

So that much adjustment on non-workout days when already set to Lightly Active - that could be a bit high.
Which could be corrected with stride length when you test distance.

Stellamom2018

heybales wrote: »

That device and Weights is great, because then it uses database entry for calculating calories which is most accurate compared to HR. Older models used HR. Actually, older models used steps, which is even more wrong, the other direction.

Confirm that mile walk is avg daily pace - it should feel hard to purposely move that slow - maybe 2 mph or less.

So that much adjustment on non-workout days when already set to Lightly Active - that could be a bit high.
Which could be corrected with stride length when you test distance.

My stride length is 21", I tested it quite a few ways so I did change my fitbit to that stride length. It was set at 25".

But even today, I have 12500 steps and it is adding a HUGE amount of calories. I just dont know if it's worth it to have it synced vs just logging exercise calories like I had been so I stop worrying about it.

heybales

I hope you didn't measure steps a cross a room or such - 1/4 mile is about minimum needed for accuracy, 1/2 to 1 is better.

So the other aspect of HR devices - if you have a HR that just runs high, it can be jumping into a range the Fitbit thinks means it should use HR-based calorie calculations.
But the lower end of that range is inflated because it's right next to the range where HR is NOT a good estimate of calorie burn.
So it would be best if it used step-based calorie burn.

So you might also trying disabling HR for a day, except during a cardio workout.

That was my comment about checking the daily graph of calorie burn.
Some people will find the spikes of time during the day, knowing they weren't exercising, merely moving around as normal, though perhaps stairs or picking something up.

Jessiedawn3

I was just wondering the same thing with mine. I am getting adjustments consistently that I think are high. I tried a few things out, and to not get the large adjustments and come out pretty close to even, I have to set my activity level to active. I am in no way near active. I am probably on the border of sedentary and lightly active averaging 6000-7000 steps a day. And that is just daily activity, no additional exercise. I'm really wondering what my actual calorie burn is a day.

heybales

6000-7000 steps, if decent distance of course and not grocery store shuffle - is leaving Lightly-Active range actually, heading into Active.

Sedentary is firmly below 4K.

Of course by starting at Active to reduce the adjustments - you are merely starting with a higher base goal.
End of the day - the numbers would be the same.

That adjustment is MFP correcting itself, doesn't matter what the set activity level is, the end result is reaching what Fitbit is estimating you burned that day.

My suggestions in couple posts above try to remove the biggest potential for error.
Other than that, you may carry more BF% than the default BMR calculation suggests, so BMR is actually lower, and movement based on BMR would be lower too.
Or you could be higher like some of us are, and increase height to increase the BMR used to better estimate.

Jessiedawn3

Thank you for your reply. I did follow correct my stride length so I'll see what difference that makes. Most of my steps are just walking around with daily movements. Maybe not a grocery store shuffle, but definitely not deliberate excerize. I could never find anything that says for sure what step ranges correlate to what range.

heybales

Purely experience as commented on by those that start receiving adjustments.

At 4K, I start getting some calorie adjustment when set to Sedentary. But it appears though I am very sedentary outside exercise, when I do get steps, they are serious enough to get some distance and therefore better than slow calorie burn.

Because others will comment going above 4K to start getting very small.

That's why it's always a range, and even your own personal discovered range can change depending on the day.

Jessiedawn3

I seem to start getting adjustments (200-250 calories) around 3500 steps when I'm set at sedentary. I know in the end all the numbers come out the same, but visually, and for food planning purposes, I don't like to see huge adjustments. I try to get it as close to zero when I'm not purposely excerizing. I changed my activity level too, so maybe that will help with what I want to see. I'd rather plan to come in under my goal and end at goal after a small negative than end the day with a big adjustment and have that justify eating a bunch if junk because I have the calories left to do it. I guess it's all how the mind sees it. Thanks for your comments!