iOS Step Calorie Numbers Way Inflated

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fly_yyz
fly_yyz Posts: 12 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
am I the only one who feels like the calorie credits from iOS seem ridiculous? Example numbers: 12000 steps give credits in the 500 calorie range. Huh? This is just from my time wandering around town, or walking through airports and such. No sweating, no inflated heart rate or such.

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  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
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    12000 steps is around 6 miles so 500 cal is not unreasonable.
  • fly_yyz
    fly_yyz Posts: 12 Member
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    I hear you sorta but only agree if that was 12000 steps running. Meandering around the house, town or airport? Doesn't jive to me
  • fly_yyz
    fly_yyz Posts: 12 Member
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    Also, I'm assuming if I link runkeeper as well as iOS steps that I end up with a double count when going for a run?
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
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    My Apple Watch gives me around 78 cal per mile which is pretty much the value predicted by other sources. So. for 6 miles that would give 468 cal. Depending on your weight, you may burn more or less than that.

    I'm not sure about the double counting with those two as sources.
  • professionalHobbyist
    professionalHobbyist Posts: 1,316 Member
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    Sometimes they double the calories

    iOS does goofy things with MFP

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  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    fly_yyz wrote: »
    am I the only one who feels like the calorie credits from iOS seem ridiculous? Example numbers: 12000 steps give credits in the 500 calorie range. Huh? This is just from my time wandering around town, or walking through airports and such. No sweating, no inflated heart rate or such.
    This would also count your sedentary maintenance calories, not just additional calories. In other words, if you sat on the couch for the length of time to get the 12000 steps you may have burned 200 of those 500 cals. so the "additional" cals burned from the steps would only be 300.
  • Emilia777
    Emilia777 Posts: 978 Member
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    I believe the calorie adjustment will be relative to the level activity you selected. If you chose “sedentary” and walk 12000 steps you will get a bigger calorie adjustment (i.e. more calories) than if you had chosen “lightly active” and walked 12000 steps. Notice that negative adjustments are available too, so if you choose a high level of activity in your profile and then don’t move much, you lose calories.

    Though I agree they’re usually pretty generous, I take the adjustments with a grain of salt, as I do any burn estimate.
  • SimoneBee12
    SimoneBee12 Posts: 268 Member
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    I never eat those calories, maybe just a few each day because I don't think I deserve them as extra calories. I am set to sedentary, and when I run, it doubles my calories (from the steps and syncing from Runtastic) but after a few hours it normally adjusts and the steps from that half an hour are deleted. If not, I delete them myself to keep my net calories on par.
  • fly_yyz
    fly_yyz Posts: 12 Member
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    Hmm all enlightening, thanks. Will maybe adjust to light. My job involves sitting on my a@@ for long periods of time but away from work quite active. Looking for lean gains so the added calories not a huge deal, just a stickler for accuracy

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