Important steps question!

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DewGracen
DewGracen Posts: 12 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Are you supposed to take 10,000 steps a day & eat those calories back on top of your exercise calories or just eat back the calories from the steps you take over 10,000 + your exercise sessions?

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  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    Are you using a device which counts steps and is synced to myfitnesspal?
  • DewGracen
    DewGracen Posts: 12 Member
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    Yes, I used to use a Fitbit and now use an Apple Watch.
  • PumpkinPeril
    PumpkinPeril Posts: 22 Member
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    It depends on your activity level setting. I'm set as not very active and have a fitbit synced with MFP. When I'm more than "not very active" (a combination of steps and the difference between MFP & FitBit's projection of calories I may burn in a day) I see a calorie adjustment under exercise.

    I allow myself to eat 90% of those since the adjustment may get slightly smaller at the end of the day if I'm not as active in the evening.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    DewGracen wrote: »
    Yes, I used to use a Fitbit and now use an Apple Watch.

    Eat the calories that myfitnesspal allows. This is because it is including the walking exercise that your watch reports. Note carefully your weight loss progress for a month. If it is what you expect from your net calorie deficit, then you are doing it right. If you find after a month that you have not lost as much weight as you had hoped to, then one possible course of action would be to eat less than allowed.

    At all times it will be important that you weigh and log your food accurately and honestly.
  • DewGracen
    DewGracen Posts: 12 Member
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    So since I put my activity level as sedentary, do I eat back all my step calories?
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    DewGracen wrote: »
    So since I put my activity level as sedentary, do I eat back all my step calories?

    Optimally, yes, but if you don't use a food scale to weigh all your food you may want to start with eating back 75% instead of all of them to account for both logging errors and Fitbit's margin of error.
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,874 Member
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    I believe sedentary setting still assumes you're getting 3-5000 steps per day. If you average 10k, why not try resetting your activity level to lightly active and make your life easier? :smile:
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    I've never been able to get MFP and AW to talk about steps. If my phone ever passed any info over, it disappeared as soon as I logged a workout via the AW. Just FYI, the interface is incredibly buggy.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    Maxematics wrote: »
    DewGracen wrote: »
    So since I put my activity level as sedentary, do I eat back all my step calories?

    Optimally, yes, but if you don't use a food scale to weigh all your food you may want to start with eating back 75% instead of all of them to account for both logging errors and Fitbit's margin of error.

    Ah for some reason I missed the Apple Watch part. Sorry. I've never used an Apple Watch but I've heard many stories of it being wonky with MFP. Also, someone correct me if I'm wrong, I've read Apple Watch tends to underestimate activity calories.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,676 Member
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    I only log intentional exercise, not the random steps I take during the day. I assume that the steps I take shopping and house cleaning are included in my activity level. I eat back all the calories from my intentional exercise. If I do more exercise than I log, that's good since it helps make up for times that my food intake is slightly more.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    spiriteagle99 wrote: »
    I only log intentional exercise, not the random steps I take during the day. I assume that the steps I take shopping and house cleaning are included in my activity level. I eat back all the calories from my intentional exercise. If I do more exercise than I log, that's good since it helps make up for times that my food intake is slightly more.

    This would normally be true. However, the OP is more than sedentary with 10,000 steps. Also, the OP is syncing a fitness device. What syncing does is compare your actual activity to your stated activity, and then gives you credit for the difference. These help get a better estimate of the "calories out."

    But, yes getting a handle on "calories in" depends on meticulous logging. A digital food scale is helpful there.
  • Maxxitt
    Maxxitt Posts: 1,281 Member
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    Apple Watch and MFP don't deal well with "steps" but MFP will consistently give a calorie allowance for the activity AW records. After keeping data for several months, I put my MFP setting at "lightly active" and the expected results of my CI-CO is as expected.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    spiriteagle99 wrote: »
    I only log intentional exercise, not the random steps I take during the day. I assume that the steps I take shopping and house cleaning are included in my activity level. I eat back all the calories from my intentional exercise. If I do more exercise than I log, that's good since it helps make up for times that my food intake is slightly more.

    If you're set to sedentary and take 10K + steps per day, you're not sedentary...so only a portion of those steps would be accounted for in a sedentary activity level.
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
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    I don't have a fitness device but I recently downloaded a step counter on my phone. It doesn't sync to anything but I do on average 7000 steps per day.

    Took a look at the items listed under Apps on MFP, but not sure if I still need a separate device or if I can use one of those directly on my phone.
  • AKTipsyCat
    AKTipsyCat Posts: 240 Member
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    I guess it would depend on how quickly you want to lose weight and how you feel? If you're hungry, sure, eat some of them back, but I don't think that you by any means have to, the whole point is to try and create a calorie deficit. Or if you're not eating them back, but you find yourself lacking energy and feel you need more calories, then by all means DO!
  • eminater
    eminater Posts: 2,477 Member
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    DewGracen wrote: »
    So since I put my activity level as sedentary, do I eat back all my step calories?

    I try not too TBH - unless I need some extra cals in that day - because it slows my progress to below my target loss rate. But I think it's an individual preference. My fitbit adjustment for my daily step count is quite low, but on the same steps on more active days it does give me quite a good level of adjustment, I might eat back say 25% on those days.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    DewGracen wrote: »
    So since I put my activity level as sedentary, do I eat back all my step calories?

    MFP is correcting itself to a potentially more accurate estimate of daily calorie burn - then you guessing between 4 different levels.

    That Adjustment is just that correction, between the calories burned being alive and moving around stepping MFP estimated, and what Fitbit has actually seen you do.

    So yes.

    And try to improve the accuracy of the better estimate.

    Ever walked a known distance at your average daily pace (not grocery store shuffle, not exercise level pace, in the middle) and confirm Fitbit saw the distance correct?

    Because that's what steps leads to - a distance. Distance and time is pace, pace and weight is calorie burn in formulas that can be very accurate for level walking.

    Ever looked at your daily graph for calorie burn - confirmed any increases actually match a big increase in effort at something?

    Because if a HR model, it could be badly slipping into HR-based calorie burn when you are still actually at daily activity levels, and that's not a good estimate of calorie burn - inflated.

    Are you logging exercise on Fitbit when HR-based formula for calorie burn is not most accurate - lifting and intervals?
    (if only 15 min 3x weekly and very active - no big deal, but if 60 min almost daily and pretty sedentary otherwise - bigger deal)

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