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How many steps Fitbit says is "Sedentary", "Lightly Active", etc.

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Angierae75
Angierae75 Posts: 417 Member
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So, my husband and I both have Fitbits and both use MFP, and we've noticed something strange. He has himself set to Sedentary, and he "breaks even" at about 3500 steps. (MFP gives no calories nor takes any away at that point.

However, I have myself set to "lightly active" and my break even point is ALSO 3500. (When I was set to Sedentary, it was 2500.)

We have pretty much the same BMI, so it's not that. Is it a difference between men and women? Anyone know?

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  • 100andOnward
    100andOnward Posts: 145 Member
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    I suspect it's the difference in gender. It could also be an age difference.
  • xcalygrl
    xcalygrl Posts: 1,897 Member
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    Gender.
    Height.
    Age.
    How quickly you walk during your steps (walking faster racks up steps faster making FitBit believe you are more active than if you took those same number of steps in twice the time).
  • Wantingtolose1
    Wantingtolose1 Posts: 139 Member
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    fitbit basis it on calories not on steps. I would assume since he is a male he would have more calories allocated to him in the first place. Based on your activity when you sync the two devices fitbit will estimate what your burn is for the day and its its more then what my fitnesspal has estimated then you will get a positive calorie adjustment if its less then you will get a negative adjustment and this will change throughout the day based on how active you are. So its not actually based on steps. If it took you for instance a whole day to do 2500 steps I don't think you will get an adjustment but say you did 2500 in an hour then you will get an adjustment because fitbit is assuming you will do these many steps every hour for the rest of the day and therefore burn more calories then what myfitnesspal has estimated. Hope this makes sense
  • skkmthng
    skkmthng Posts: 2
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    I logged on my app today and i saw a pop up stating that there has been an adjustment to the Gender Male setting.

  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Angierae75 wrote: »
    So, my husband and I both have Fitbits and both use MFP, and we've noticed something strange. He has himself set to Sedentary, and he "breaks even" at about 3500 steps. (MFP gives no calories nor takes any away at that point.

    However, I have myself set to "lightly active" and my break even point is ALSO 3500. (When I was set to Sedentary, it was 2500.)

    We have pretty much the same BMI, so it's not that. Is it a difference between men and women? Anyone know?

    It's not about the steps, it's about the calories burned as a result of the steps, which could be different kinds of steps. Shuffle short steps, running long steps. Different calorie burns.

    Better - what is your estimated non-exercise daily burn as shown by MFP compared to his on different setting?
    Under Goals tab.
    That's what Fitbit daily burn is compared to.

    And BMI is not used, BMR is, which is very specific to age, weight, height, gender.

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