How to work out my calories with BMR / steps?

willsreb
willsreb Posts: 48 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I hope you’re all keeping well!

How do I work out how many calories I burn a day with steps? My BMR is 1335 and I aim to hit 15k steps every day. I use my iPhone to track my steps.

Is there any easy way of working this out? I just want to make sure I’m eating the correct calories for weight loss - I’ve gained during lockdown and keen to get it off now.

Thanks in advance!

Replies

  • gallicinvasion
    gallicinvasion Posts: 1,015 Member
    edited May 2020
    You could use this steps to calories converter (there are three charts; use the one appropriate for your height). https://www.verywellfit.com/pedometer-steps-to-calories-converter-3882595

    For example, at 5’4” and 127 lbs, This estimates that I burn between 28 and 32 calories per 1000 steps. For 15,000 steps, this estimates I burn between 413 and 475 calories on top of my BMR.

    This doesn’t take into account elevated heart rate from other purposeful exercise that might not show up in your step count, but it could be a good starting point for you to estimate your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). Then you can take off a small percentage of that number to get an initial calorie deficit to shoot for.

    Any way you decide to get an initial deficit target to aim for, the same principle of trial-and-adjust applies. Try the same deficit for 4-6 weeks (be as consistent with your food logging as possible), and at the end of the trial period, assess whether you were losing faster than expected, slower than expected, or just at the right rate you were aiming for. Then, if needed, bump your calorie deficit target up or down slightly, and do another 4-6 week trial period. Keep at it until you arrive at a good target for you and your goals.

    Good luck!
  • KrissFlavored
    KrissFlavored Posts: 327 Member
    edited May 2020
    I would follow whatever calorie goal mfp gives you for weight loss.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,985 Member
    Are you walking to get the steps or is this something that just happens due to your work? If it's the latter then this would could into your daily activity level (probably very active), if you walk as a workout then it would be logged as sport.
  • sugaraddict4321
    sugaraddict4321 Posts: 15,894 MFP Moderator
    It's not clear to me from your post, so just in case I'll comment. You should not be trying to eat below your BMR and also exercise to drop kcals further. BMR is the number of kcals your body needs if you're in a coma. ;)

    You want to figure out your TDEE as gallicinvasion says above, and choose an amount to reduce from there. If you're hitting 15k steps per day, odds are your TDEE is high enough that you can eat plenty and still lose weight.

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