Negative calorie adjustment confusion!

plasticserenity

It feels like I'm constantly asking questions here, but you're all so helpful that I just can't stop myself

Okay, so. I'm currently aiming for about 1400 calories per day. MFP estimates my TDEE to be around 1730, and this tallies up pretty well with numbers I've gained from online calculators. I aim for just under 20% less than that to lose weight. I'm set as sedentary, as I have a desk job with very little opportunity to wander around at work. I try to go for a 30 minute walk at lunchtime if I have time. I exercise in the evenings but I have a Fitbit Zip on me at all times to measure my activity throughout the day. So basically I have MFP set as sedentary to get an idea of my base calories, then I have my Fitbit to tweak it for activity and I can assess any extra exercise I do accordingly.

Now, yesterday was a day when I actually was very sedentary as far as my Fitbit was concerned (honestly, EMBARRASSINGLY low number of steps). I had a busy day at work and no time for a lunchtime wander. I did do around 40 minutes of exercise in the evening, but not anything that would register on my Fitbit.

I noticed at the end of the day, my Fitbit had given me a negative calorie adjustment of -136 calories. It surprised me a little bit, as I assumed that as my TDEE of 1730 took into account that it was set to sedentary, then having a sedentary day wouldn't affect it too much?

So I think my basic question is... can I assume that the calculations on MFP and the rest of the internet are just a bit of an overestimate? If I assume my sedentary TDEE is closer to what my Fitbit says at the end of a sedentary day, it's closer to 1600, so a 20% defecit would be closer to 1280 calories a day for me to aim for (obviously on heavy exercise days I would eat a little more). Or even if my TDEE is nearer 1600, would a target allowance of 1400 still be enough to see some slow and steady results? As long as I'm heading in the right direction I'm okay with results being a bit slower, I just don't want to be eating too much and gaining.

I'm still too early into my calorie budgeting to know what is going to give me the best results, so I know I can still do some tweaking when I've been at it a few more weeks, but I'd just like to know that I'm aiming for a sensible daily budget first! I'm just wondering what you guys would think is best?

Dozer561

i would shoot to stay around 1400, you don't want to go too low. you can turn off negative adjustments in "MY HOME", settings, diary settings, scroll down and uncheck the box, now the fitbit will only add calories throughout the day