Calories burned from walking 20000 steps

Lydia_G_S

Hi everyone,

I have an office job, but I still walk around during lunch breaks and before and after work so I average around 20000 steps a day. (I also go running two to three times a week and do weight training for 30 minutes twice a week.) I currently have my fitbit synced to myfitnesspal and on a normal day without exercise, I get around 900 extra calories from walking (having set my activity level to sedentary in myfitnesspal). I am wondering whether that is too much? I am 5’3’’ and weigh 136lbs and on average I probably eat between 2000 and 2300 calories on a 250 calorie deficit. This seems like a lot of calories considering that I am only 5’3’’. Any opinions? Thank you!

Fflpnari

I personally don't sync my Fitbit and mfp. I go off the burned calories from Fitbit. I take the weekly average to make sure I'm set up to lose a pound a week.

LivingtheLeanDream

It sounds about right actually. I used to average 21k steps, my TDEE was 2200-2300 for those steps and to lose I would eat at 250 deficit. I'm 5ft 2/49yrs/127lbs.

CharlieBeansmomTracey

if you walk that much you are not sedentary you are active. I would adjust your activity level accordingly but if you are happy with the weight you are at then I dont see the issue

WinoGelato

Sounds right to me.

You are not Sedentary. You are Very Active. You get a large adjustment because you told MFP that you had an activity level that suggested you didn’t burn a lot of calories. You do burn a lot of calories. FitBit is telling MFP how many calories you actually burn and the adjustment is the difference between that and what MFP estimated based on your stats and your incorrect activity level. If you change it to the correct activity level then MFp will give you a higher target to begin with but the adjustments will be smaller. Total calories should be the same though but you might feel more comfortable trusting them.

If you use the app, in the diary under exercise where you set the FitBit adjustment you can click the info button and it will show you the math of what MFP thinks your baseline cals would be and how the adjustment was calculated.

The main question though is are you losing half a pound per week with the current calorie intake?

nurees

According to my Apple watch that 20000 steps equals about 7 calories burned....

Lillymoo01

CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »

if you walk that much you are not sedentary you are active. I would adjust your activity level accordingly but if you are happy with the weight you are at then I dont see the issue

I hate having my settings set as very active for syncing purposes. If I do I know that those remaining few hours when I am in bed will see my calorie allowance go down a fair bit because MFP assumes I'll be active 24/7. I hate waking up seeing a significant reduction in overall calories for the same reason. I hate seeing my calorie allowance go down as my day progresses because most of my steps are achieved in the morning. I find it easier for me to 'balance the books' if I set my activity level to sedentary, knowing that it will increase as the day goes on without any major fluctuations.
As long as you are not counting your exercise or steps twice, or not counting them at all, the way you go about balancing it all out is really a personal preference. MFP is a tool. You need to know how to operate it, then use it to best suit your individual needs.

I should also add that 900 calories seems about right but the only way to tell is to eat back what you get given for a month or so and compare your actual weight loss with your predicted weight loss.

PAV8888

At 20k you are well above MFP's very active level by almost an extra level.

Your adjustment makes sense.

Bring able to determine your weight trend with everything going on and such a small deficit will be difficult as your normal weight variations will be larger than your targeted loss rate.

Can it be done? Absolutely. But be prepared to be patient and accurate with your logging.

GottaBurnEmAll

There are reasons, as Lillymoo noted, for very active people to call themselves sedentary when they're not for purposes of syncing. Even though I'm active throughout the day and usually get 30K steps, I'm set to sedentary because I go to bed early and since all adjustments are predictive, end up getting 200 or so calories shaved off after I go to sleep.

I don't like that. So I avoid it. As it is, I still end up getting about 50-60 calories shaved off my adjustment, but I can deal with that.

Anyway, yes, OP, that adjustment sounds about right. I'm 5'1" and that's close to what I get at around that step level.

CSARdiver

If you're syncing an activity tracker the activity setting on MFP is nothing more than a guideline as long as you have negative calories enabled. The reason this is showing up so high is the difference between your stated activity and your actual activity. Not that this matters - the end result is the same.

emmamcgarity

By MFP standards I am sedentary due to a desk job. I sync my Fitbit and am purposeful about getting exercise almost daily, but I didn’t when I first started tracking. Once my exercise became more consistent I considered changing my activity level, but I decided not to. Instead I purposely eat back at least part of my exercise calories on a regular basis. I am 5’1” and my calorie adjustment for 20k steps ends up around 800 calories. So your estimate sounds about right.

kshama2001

Lillymoo01 wrote: »

CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »

if you walk that much you are not sedentary you are active. I would adjust your activity level accordingly but if you are happy with the weight you are at then I dont see the issue

I hate having my settings set as very active for syncing purposes. If I do I know that those remaining few hours when I am in bed will see my calorie allowance go down a fair bit because MFP assumes I'll be active 24/7. I hate waking up seeing a significant reduction in overall calories for the same reason. I hate seeing my calorie allowance go down as my day progresses because most of my steps are achieved in the morning. I find it easier for me to 'balance the books' if I set my activity level to sedentary, knowing that it will increase as the day goes on without any major fluctuations.
As long as you are not counting your exercise or steps twice, or not counting them at all, the way you go about balancing it all out is really a personal preference. MFP is a tool. You need to know how to operate it, then use it to best suit your individual needs.

I should also add that 900 calories seems about right but the only way to tell is to eat back what you get given for a month or so and compare your actual weight loss with your predicted weight loss.

Yup, I'd stay at Sedentary for the reasons stated above.

CharlieBeansmomTracey

Lillymoo01 wrote: »

CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »

if you walk that much you are not sedentary you are active. I would adjust your activity level accordingly but if you are happy with the weight you are at then I dont see the issue

I hate having my settings set as very active for syncing purposes. If I do I know that those remaining few hours when I am in bed will see my calorie allowance go down a fair bit because MFP assumes I'll be active 24/7. I hate waking up seeing a significant reduction in overall calories for the same reason. I hate seeing my calorie allowance go down as my day progresses because most of my steps are achieved in the morning. I find it easier for me to 'balance the books' if I set my activity level to sedentary, knowing that it will increase as the day goes on without any major fluctuations.
As long as you are not counting your exercise or steps twice, or not counting them at all, the way you go about balancing it all out is really a personal preference. MFP is a tool. You need to know how to operate it, then use it to best suit your individual needs.

I should also add that 900 calories seems about right but the only way to tell is to eat back what you get given for a month or so and compare your actual weight loss with your predicted weight loss.

yeah I know how it works and that its a tool.