Help...confused about activity level setting

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rjsehm5
rjsehm5 Posts: 39 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Need your opinion...

I had originally set my activity setting to Sedentary because I didn't feel I fell into the lightly active category. According to my fitbit, I spend more time in the "lightly active' category. Upping this gives me120 additional calories a day going from 1200-1320. In addition, I get like 150-250 calories extra just for taking steps each day.

Does this seem right? Am I double dipping if I use the additional 120 for lightly active and the 150-250 step calories each day?

Not to mention my workouts give me anywhere between 250-500 additional calories 6 days a week.

I am afraid to not eat enough but my gut is telling me this may be too much.....not literally cause I can handle way more than this sadly:)

If anyone can make some sense of this please advise..

Replies

  • HMToomey
    HMToomey Posts: 276
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    How many steps are you taking? Getting 200 - 300 calories is, what? 5 miles a day?
  • rjsehm5
    rjsehm5 Posts: 39 Member
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    Anywhere between 6500-8500 during the week. More on weekends. Like today so far I have about 6500 steps and the calorie adjustment is 160. Plus an additional 526 for 50 minutes of cardio today.
  • ebonyvi
    ebonyvi Posts: 7 Member
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    I didnt understand either yesterday i had a very active day and they gave me all those extra calories. i was thinking to myself im trying to lose weight so why would i consume that many extra calories
  • rjsehm5
    rjsehm5 Posts: 39 Member
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    It just doesn't make sense to me but I am hoping that someone can shed some light here.
  • HMToomey
    HMToomey Posts: 276
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    Basically, you are not a sedentary person! Sedentary is that you have done NOTHING all day. You've taken nearly 7000 steps today!!! You're at least lightly active!
  • HMToomey
    HMToomey Posts: 276
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    I was keeping my level at sedentary and letting fitbit fill in the blanks but I was getting frustrated to see an additional 700+ calories get tacked on come the end of the day (I'm pretty active!) so I'm trying to revamp things and just upped my level to moderatly active and I've still got an additional 160 adjustment in there right now.
  • rjsehm5
    rjsehm5 Posts: 39 Member
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    Taking the kids to and from school and sports all day plus cleaning the house is something I always do so I didn't count it as active but yeah, guess I fall more correctly under lightly active. Still....if I get those extra 200. cals as an adjustment and another lets say 500 for exercise would I still lose weight if I ate them up each day?
  • HMToomey
    HMToomey Posts: 276
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    If you upped your activity level it would up your calories accordingly. I wouldn't log any activities that are walking based, just let fitbit do that. what are your workouts / how are you getting the 500 calories there? Through a HRM or this sites estimations?
  • rjsehm5
    rjsehm5 Posts: 39 Member
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    HMR
  • zaph0d
    zaph0d Posts: 1,172 Member
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    Seems right. Nobody should use sedentary unless they're in a coma.
  • heidimaggott78
    heidimaggott78 Posts: 203
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    Seems right. Nobody should use sedentary unless they're in a coma.

    I do, but ensure I eat back most of my exercise calories. Otherwise I'm given too many calories to consume
  • sgaranzuay
    sgaranzuay Posts: 34 Member
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    It just doesn't make sense to me but I am hoping that someone can shed some light here.

    Hello,

    This is a common issue with FitBit tracker users (at least at first!). I assume you have linked your FitBit Tracker with your MFP site, yes? If so, a critical step is to ensure you have roughly the same lifestyle profile (which is quantified as your RMR - Resting Metabolic Rate) for each (sedentary, lightly active, etc.) Once those are aligned, when your FitBit syncs it calculates an adjustment. This figure shows up on your MFP as "FitBit adjustment." To calculate it, it basically does the following:

    Adjustment = [Total Calories Expended] - [Resting Metabolic Rate] - [Exercise calories]

    It calculates your [Total Calories Expended] based on your height, weight, and your activity (stairs, steps).
    It calculates your [RMR] from the same profile (height, weight)
    It calculates the [Exercise calories] by using the information you provide MFP or the FitBit website, and the data is has gathered during your actual exercise period.

    So, to finish the VERY long-winded answer to your question - Fitbit takes care of the calculations for you. You can *basically* trust the numbers it provides, so long as you trust the data you have provided it.

    Good luck to you - we're all in this together!!!

    - Severin

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