Walking calories

Fizbopper

Hi, looking for advice please. Does anyone find the Fitbit walking calories estimate really high? Today so far I’ve done 6200 steps & it’s given me 250 calories to add to my daily amount. It seems a lot I think, that’s almost a sandwich! Any help appreciated

estherdragonbat

It depends on your weight and rate of speed. I don't use a fitbit; I go with MFP's calculations. For me to walk roughly an hour at 3.5 mph is just under 250.

lx1x

Enter the walking on your excercise.. and compare..

Which Fitbit you have? How fast? Inclined?

I find it fairly accurate.

brandigyrl81

I have the Fitbit Charge 3. I walk regularly on a walking track at the YMCA and on average if I walk anywhere between 10,000 - 12,000 steps for an hour, I typically burn between 500-700 calories.

I'm not sure which Fitbit you have, but the Charge 3 is a little buggy at times and has the tendency to indicate a higher heartrate than what it actually is which can inaccurately give you additional calories. My heartrate when I'm walking usually stays around the 145-160 range.

Based on this, your extra 250 calories sounds about right, but monitor to your heartrate while you're walking to get a good feel as to where you should be.

lx1x

brandigyrl81 wrote: »

I have the Fitbit Charge 3. I walk regularly on a walking track at the YMCA and on average if I walk anywhere between 10,000 - 12,000 steps for an hour, I typically burn between 500-700 calories.

I'm not sure which Fitbit you have, but the Charge 3 is a little buggy at times and has the tendency to indicate a higher heartrate than what it actually is which can inaccurately give you additional calories. My heartrate when I'm walking usually stays around the 145-160 range.

Based on this, your extra 250 calories sounds about right, but monitor to your heartrate while you're walking to get a good feel as to where you should be.

So you walking at a speed of 5-6 miles per hours? 😮


Are you sure you walking not running?

thanos5

i've compared mfp with fitbit...they are close enough for my purposes. i always assume a hundred or so less though, just in case.

Fizbopper

estherdragonbat wrote: »

It depends on your weight and rate of speed. I don't use a fitbit; I go with MFP's calculations. For me to walk roughly an hour at 3.5 mph is just under 250.

Thanks. So it seems maybe it’s accurate after all. I’m not of sure my speed I’ll check it out. Dog walking pace!

Fizbopper

lx1x wrote: »

Enter the walking on your excercise.. and compare..

Which Fitbit you have? How fast? Inclined?

I find it fairly accurate.

I have a Fitbit Charge 2. I’m not sure of my speed, I’ll look into it. It’s fairly flat where I live so I guess some inclines. I going to track my speed later. Thanks

lx1x

Fizbopper wrote: »

lx1x wrote: »

Enter the walking on your excercise.. and compare..

Which Fitbit you have? How fast? Inclined?

I find it fairly accurate.

I have a Fitbit Charge 2. I’m not sure of my speed, I’ll look into it. It’s fairly flat where I live so I guess some inclines. I going to track my speed later. Thanks

Download gps speedometer on your cell phone. Should give you good info.

Brisk walk are usually 3mph. 2k steps per mile. Just did a treadmill walk earlier in mornin..

Below is what I got.. via Fitbit. About 1.25 mile walk at 3.5 mph(per treadmill speed)

brandigyrl81

lx1x wrote: »

brandigyrl81 wrote: »

I have the Fitbit Charge 3. I walk regularly on a walking track at the YMCA and on average if I walk anywhere between 10,000 - 12,000 steps for an hour, I typically burn between 500-700 calories.

I'm not sure which Fitbit you have, but the Charge 3 is a little buggy at times and has the tendency to indicate a higher heartrate than what it actually is which can inaccurately give you additional calories. My heartrate when I'm walking usually stays around the 145-160 range.

Based on this, your extra 250 calories sounds about right, but monitor to your heartrate while you're walking to get a good feel as to where you should be.

So you walking at a speed of 5-6 miles per hours? 😮


Are you sure you walking not running?

Last I checked, I was walking. I do it in addition to my other workouts.

Fizbopper

lx1x wrote: »

Fizbopper wrote: »

lx1x wrote: »

Enter the walking on your excercise.. and compare..

Which Fitbit you have? How fast? Inclined?

I find it fairly accurate.

I have a Fitbit Charge 2. I’m not sure of my speed, I’ll look into it. It’s fairly flat where I live so I guess some inclines. I going to track my speed later. Thanks

Download gps speedometer on your cell phone. Should give you good info.

Brisk walk are usually 3mph. 2k steps per mile. Just did a treadmill walk earlier in mornin..

Below is what I got.. via Fitbit. About 1.25 mile walk at 3.5 mph(per treadmill speed)

That’s really helpful. Thank you I will do!

PAV8888

Your Fitbit adjustment is NOT related to a single walk.

You've told MFP you're sedentary and MFP has assigned a number of calories for that sedentary level of activity.

Your Fitbit tries to estimate your total energy expenditure for the day including your walks and everything else.

MFP then takes in that information and 'corrects' the calories you were assigned (because of the activity level you selected during guided setup) to the level of calories that your Fitbit detected.

The final adjustment is performed at midnight. If you go to bed or start watching TV before then you will start "losing" calories while you remain less active than MFP's sedentary level would imply.

Anyway. With 6800 steps you are closer to MFP's lightly active as opposed to MFP's sedentary activity levels and your 250 Cal adjustment reflects that.

I would consider a 250 Cal adjustment to be fairly small.

Maxematics

People should keep in mind that the calories burned that Fitbit shows include your BMR.

For example, the walk above where the person burned 227 calories in 26 minutes; it wasn't 227 calories on top of their BMR, it was in addition to it. If they didn't walk during that time, maybe they'd only burn 40 calories or so by just existing for those 26 minutes, so it's actually a burn of 187 calories for the walk and that's the adjustment Fitbit may send over to MFP depending on your activity level. If you put more than sedentary, it could be less.

If you use a Fitbit but don't link it to MFP and just add the exercises you see on the Fitbit app to MFP as is, some double dipping would be happening. This is why linking your Fitbit to MFP and letting it take care of any adjustments is recommended. Also make sure negative adjustments are enabled. The only thing you do on your end is log food in MFP.

Fizbopper

PAV8888 wrote: »

Your Fitbit adjustment is NOT related to a single walk.

You've told MFP you're sedentary and MFP has assigned a number of calories for that sedentary level of activity.

Your Fitbit tries to estimate your total energy expenditure for the day including your walks and everything else.

MFP then takes in that information and 'corrects' the calories you were assigned (because of the activity level you selected during guided setup) to the level of calories that your Fitbit detected.

The final adjustment is performed at midnight. If you go to bed or start watching TV before then you will start "losing" calories while you remain less active than MFP's sedentary level would imply.

Anyway. With 6800 steps you are closer to MFP's lightly active as opposed to MFP's sedentary activity levels and your 250 Cal adjustment reflects that.

I would consider a 250 Cal adjustment to be fairly small.

Great thank you. I noticed my calories did adjust during evening sedentary time. Thanks for explanation

Fizbopper

Maxematics wrote: »

People should keep in mind that the calories burned that Fitbit shows include your BMR.

For example, the walk above where the person burned 227 calories in 26 minutes; it wasn't 227 calories on top of their BMR, it was in addition to it. If they didn't walk during that time, maybe they'd only burn 40 calories or so by just existing for those 26 minutes, so it's actually a burn of 187 calories for the walk and that's the adjustment Fitbit may send over to MFP depending on your activity level. If you put more than sedentary, it could be less.

If you use a Fitbit but don't link it to MFP and just add the exercises you see on the Fitbit app to MFP as is, some double dipping would be happening. This is why linking your Fitbit to MFP and letting it take care of any adjustments is recommended. Also make sure negative adjustments are enabled. The only thing you do on your end is log food in MFP.

Oh ok. I didn’t realise it wasn’t on top of my BMR. I’ve linked Fitbit & MFP and walk be only be logging food, thanks for great info.

PAV8888

Fizbopper wrote: »

Maxematics wrote: »

People should keep in mind that the calories burned that Fitbit shows include your BMR.

For example, the walk above where the person burned 227 calories in 26 minutes; it wasn't 227 calories on top of their BMR, it was in addition to it. If they didn't walk during that time, maybe they'd only burn 40 calories or so by just existing for those 26 minutes, so it's actually a burn of 187 calories for the walk and that's the adjustment Fitbit may send over to MFP depending on your activity level. If you put more than sedentary, it could be less.

If you use a Fitbit but don't link it to MFP and just add the exercises you see on the Fitbit app to MFP as is, some double dipping would be happening. This is why linking your Fitbit to MFP and letting it take care of any adjustments is recommended. Also make sure negative adjustments are enabled. The only thing you do on your end is log food in MFP.

Oh ok. I didn’t realise it wasn’t on top of my BMR. I’ve linked Fitbit & MFP and walk be only be logging food, thanks for great info.

An excellent plan!

Now, if you also connect trendweight.com to your fitbit.com account and enter your weight info daily into Fitbit, you will be able to see your weight trend on trendweight and use that information to evaluate (after a good 4 to 6 weeks that should include a complete monthly cycle due to the potentially associated water retention) how reflective your weight level trend is of your purported deficits so that you can proceed to adjust as needed.

csplatt

I wouldn't count fitbit walking steps as a part of calorie burn - I would use the average to set your activity level (lightly active, moderately active, etc). I only counted and ate back intentional cardiovascular exercise burns, not steps.

Maxematics

csplatt wrote: »

I wouldn't count fitbit walking steps as a part of calorie burn - I would use the average to set your activity level (lightly active, moderately active, etc). I only counted and ate back intentional cardiovascular exercise burns, not steps.

Setting their activity level based on their step average will still give them more calories to eat. Walking does burn calories and if someone is waking enough to have a calorie adjustment then they should eat them.

I have always kept myself set at sedentary and let Fitbit adjust my calories. I exercise for an hour six days per week and get 15K steps daily on average. I haven't gained a pound from eating my calories back.