Exercise calories and MFP activity level

Katmary71

Sorry I'm asking questions again but I'm confused on something! I usually get 10,000-20,000 steps so I upped my activity level from lightly active to active. Are the calorie adjustments from my Fitbit calories I should be eating above that level? I get the majority of the steps during my workouts so I'm not sure if it's what I should be eating as I also log my workouts under "workout" and am not sure if it's being counted twice. I tried to find the answer and just confused myself when it came to activity level. I'm currently maintaining.

heybales

Yes.

Did you read the FAQ in this group?
It has the answers to your other wonderings too.

The end of the day totals will be the same no matter activity level selected.
That merely effects the size of the adjustment as the day progresses.
You'll learn what those totals are, so eventually it doesn't matter if you start with large base calories and small adjustment, or small base calories and large adjustment - both will equal XXXX at the end of the day.
But page 2 of FAQ does share the problem with large activity level and using a tracker.

Katmary71

I've read the FAQs more times than you'd think despite my questions! I thought I had it figured out then lost a pound, was injured so I'm doing different workouts and getting a lot of steps for seated chair cardio, upped my calories, and gained a couple pounds. I'm going to just go somewhere in the middle and see what happens. It seemed like I was given more calories despite increasing activity level which is why I was confused but I lowered it and still ended up with a big adjustment so I experienced exactly what you said despite activity level. Still confused on some things like why I supposedly burn more doing arms only cardio vs HIIT but hopefully it'll eventually get clearer.

heybales

Katmary71 wrote: »

I've read the FAQs more times than you'd think despite my questions! I thought I had it figured out then lost a pound, was injured so I'm doing different workouts and getting a lot of steps for seated chair cardio, upped my calories, and gained a couple pounds. I'm going to just go somewhere in the middle and see what happens. It seemed like I was given more calories despite increasing activity level which is why I was confused but I lowered it and still ended up with a big adjustment so I experienced exactly what you said despite activity level. Still confused on some things like why I supposedly burn more doing arms only cardio vs HIIT but hopefully it'll eventually get clearer.

Always keep in mind you do not respond to changes in water weight by changing things up.

Fat is not fast in losing or gaining.

If you gained a couple pounds, and you think it's fat, you would have had to eaten 7000 calories over and above your maintenance eating level.
Not your current eating goal on a diet, which may be 500 or more less than maintenance.
So if this happened in 2 weeks say - you would have eaten through your deficit and 500 more calories. Each and every 14 days.

More likely if injured body is inflaming and water weight to aid in repair.

If you are adjusting mid-day - you can't go by the math until your device has synced again and math can be redone.
None of those tests likely apply so forget them.

So the FAQ says there is no double counting - it explains why.
It explains the adjustment is from MFP, merely correcting itself to the Daily Calories burned figure that Fitbit has.
Also advice on not logging your workouts on MFP for a couple reasons.

Katmary71

I definitely know I didn't eat 7000 calories, I upped them but not that much! I'm a very detailed logger, I even log herbs. It's trying to figure out how spot-on Fitbit is at this point. You're right, didn't even think of the injury adding water weight. I figured I didn't gain that much but moved my scale and keep forgetting to weigh. I'm going to keep it steady eating most of the calories and re-evaluate in a few weeks.

I haven't logged my workouts since you advised me not to, I've shared that advice with others logging 1 calorie for activity too, thank you!