Quick question on sedentary vs lightly active WITH Fitbit
moonduck
Posts: 53 Member
Hi All!
I was hoping someone could help me with this question - I have been struggling with what to set MFP goals at. I walk 10,000 steps (8km) minimum per day - always between 8km to 12km. I don't do any other exercise though.
MFP does sync with my FB and does count the steps/calories. I try not to eat back more than 50% of those it logs.
So my question is...would I be better listed as sedentary or as lightly active?
Thanks in advance!!
I was hoping someone could help me with this question - I have been struggling with what to set MFP goals at. I walk 10,000 steps (8km) minimum per day - always between 8km to 12km. I don't do any other exercise though.
MFP does sync with my FB and does count the steps/calories. I try not to eat back more than 50% of those it logs.
So my question is...would I be better listed as sedentary or as lightly active?
Thanks in advance!!
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Replies
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I set MFP to sedentary and eat back 1/2 to 3/4 of my exercise calories. I also walk anywhere from 3-8 miles a day, but some days I do not do any activity at all. If you set it to slightly active because you are walking, you wouldn't want to count any calories from that.0
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Every device and calculation method uses a different calculation for their activity levels. I've set both MFP and Fitbit to sedentary, synced the calorie intake limit on both, turned off negative adjustments, and let it go. That works best for me because I don't exercise daily, nor is my exercise the same each time. This way, my normal day is steady, and on the days I do exercise, it's added in. If you have the wrist one, try wearing it on your non-dominant wrist, but set it to dominant. That makes it less sensitive, and is a bit more accurate that way I've found. I also eat back most of my exercise calories, usually 75-90% of them and I was doing fine. YMMV.
It may take some time to set both up to work together well, though. Took me about three weeks before I got mine set up so that I was losing weight again because I kept having to adjust my calorie goal on both. But once I did, it worked great for me. Just make sure you log exercise ONLY with Fitbit, and food ONLY with MFP. Otherwise, you'll end up with double entries which can screw you up.0 -
Thank you both for your responses! I apologize but I'm so simplistic at this that I'm still not quite getting this...
Could you possibly recommend for me, based on these facts:
1. I walk approximately 8km per day, every day - no days where I don't do this. These aren't always done briskly though - often just gained throughout the day, but always gained daily.
2. I don't do any other exercise.
3. I sync my fitbit constantly throughout the day
Three questions for you:
1. Should I be set as sedentary or lightly active?
2. Should I use the negative calorie enabled setting?
3. Should I eat or not eat the calories "given" to me from my daily steps or ONLY eat the calories from the daily allowed quota from MFP?
Thanks SO much and for putting up with my repetitive questions.
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I've found no matter what I choose either sedentary or lightly active it adjusts the cal burn accordingly and you get same overall burn...its just a matter of preference. I like mine at active as I see more cals right away to eat....but if I do have the occasional sedentary day then Mfp adjusts my total downwards which is totally the right thing anyway. I have enabled negative adjustments in mfp settings
Each to their own ehThank you both for your responses! I apologize but I'm so simplistic at this that I'm still not quite getting this...
Could you possibly recommend for me, based on these facts:
1. I walk approximately 8km per day, every day - no days where I don't do this. These aren't always done briskly though - often just gained throughout the day, but always gained daily.
2. I don't do any other exercise.
3. I sync my fitbit constantly throughout the day
Three questions for you:
1. Should I be set as sedentary or lightly active?
2. Should I use the negative calorie enabled setting?
3. Should I eat or not eat the calories "given" to me from my daily steps or ONLY eat the calories from the daily allowed quota from MFP?
Thanks SO much and for putting up with my repetitive questions.
1 you're lightly active
2 yes enable negative adjustments
3 eat what mfp gives you, I eat most of what it gives me to allow for logging inaccuracies 0 -
Ps I'm like you, I aim for around 15k steps a day/ 7 miles. ..half of those walked fast or ran.0
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RunRutheeRun wrote: »I've found no matter what I choose either sedentary or lightly active it adjusts the cal burn accordingly and you get same overall burn...its just a matter of preference. I like mine at active as I see more cals right away to eat....but if I do have the occasional sedentary day then Mfp adjusts my total downwards which is totally the right thing anyway. I have enabled negative adjustments in mfp settings
Each to their own ehThank you both for your responses! I apologize but I'm so simplistic at this that I'm still not quite getting this...
Could you possibly recommend for me, based on these facts:
1. I walk approximately 8km per day, every day - no days where I don't do this. These aren't always done briskly though - often just gained throughout the day, but always gained daily.
2. I don't do any other exercise.
3. I sync my fitbit constantly throughout the day
Three questions for you:
1. Should I be set as sedentary or lightly active?
2. Should I use the negative calorie enabled setting?
3. Should I eat or not eat the calories "given" to me from my daily steps or ONLY eat the calories from the daily allowed quota from MFP?
Thanks SO much and for putting up with my repetitive questions.
1 you're lightly active
2 yes enable negative adjustments
3 eat what mfp gives you, I eat most of what it gives me to allow for logging inaccuracies
Lightly active is about 7500 steps a day so you should be set to that at minimum and you should have negative adjustments set up.
I also eat 80-100% of my exercise cals. I'm comfortable with 100% of what Fitbit gives me, I adjust down for some of the other exercise I manually enter.
You will have to experiment to figure out exactly how much for you.
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I prefer to get the extra cals than have them taken away on a light day, so I set to sedentary for 7000-9000steps/day. It's a matter of personal preference. Fitbit & MFP will adjust either way. Keep walking!!0
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Thank you all so much for your advice - it is most appreciated! 0
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RunRutheeRun wrote: »I've found no matter what I choose either sedentary or lightly active it adjusts the cal burn accordingly and you get same overall burn...its just a matter of preference. I like mine at active as I see more cals right away to eat....:
This is how I understand it too- it doesn't matter what you set your activity level to, with negative adjustments switched on, your FitBit calories will always 'win'. If you set it to sedentary, you will just be awarded more exercise calories.
I also prefer to set my level to 'active' so that 1) I have a high activity level to aim for each day and 2) I know in the morning roughly what I can expect to eat during that day. Some days MFP takes calories away from me, but I tend not to worry about it at a daily level, more over the course of a week.
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Very interesting. Active seems like a whole different kettle of fish!
I do have another question now though...I've been doing the recommended setting we talked about "lightly active" and "enabling negative calories". What I found today though in the morning is that it showed 1,750 for goal - 0 for food but then -173 for exercise for a total of 1577. So did it take away calories in the morning as I hadn't started walking yet whereas most mornings at the same time I have at least some?
And then now - i'm at almost 10,000 steps so far and it's counting that as less than 100 calories where it would normally be a fair amount more.
Any ideas on why this is now happening?
Thanks very much! 0 -
Very interesting. Active seems like a whole different kettle of fish!
I do have another question now though...I've been doing the recommended setting we talked about "lightly active" and "enabling negative calories". What I found today though in the morning is that it showed 1,750 for goal - 0 for food but then -173 for exercise for a total of 1577. So did it take away calories in the morning as I hadn't started walking yet whereas most mornings at the same time I have at least some?
And then now - i'm at almost 10,000 steps so far and it's counting that as less than 100 calories where it would normally be a fair amount more.
Any ideas on why this is now happening?
Thanks very much!
Pretty much why I personally never synchronized fitbit with MFP. Sometimes the numbers make NO sense.0 -
Very interesting. Active seems like a whole different kettle of fish!
I do have another question now though...I've been doing the recommended setting we talked about "lightly active" and "enabling negative calories". What I found today though in the morning is that it showed 1,750 for goal - 0 for food but then -173 for exercise for a total of 1577. So did it take away calories in the morning as I hadn't started walking yet whereas most mornings at the same time I have at least some?
And then now - i'm at almost 10,000 steps so far and it's counting that as less than 100 calories where it would normally be a fair amount more.
Any ideas on why this is now happening?
Thanks very much!
I'm set to lightly active, and i wake up everyday day to around -140. It's 10am here now, and I'm at 12,278 steps and have earned 443 calories.0 -
Very interesting. So the FB gives more calories if you complete your steps earlier in the day rather than later?
This isn't making sense to me - if you've been allotted 443cal for 12K steps and I've been allotted 90cal for 10K steps. I just don't understand
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Very interesting. So the FB gives more calories if you complete your steps earlier in the day rather than later?
This isn't making sense to me - if you've been allotted 443cal for 12K steps and I've been allotted 90cal for 10K steps. I just don't understand
I don't get it either, unless our stats are dramatically different.
I'm 5"8, age 43 and 150lbs.
And no it doesn't really matter what time you get your steps in. I'm set at lightly active, and mfp/fitbit expects me to keep up that level til midnight. I get a whole swag of calories taken away by days end because I go pretty sedentary after 5pm.
For example, yesterday I earned 1,200 something calories (27,000 steps), but checking my diary this morning it had gone down to a little over 900 calories. I just make sure to have a few hundred in the green when I go to bed.
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Oh wow! That is crazy!! What the heck is going on?0
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I set MFP to sedentary and eat back all of my fitbit calories. I've been maintaining doing that for 5-6 months.0
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ilovesweeties wrote: »RunRutheeRun wrote: »I've found no matter what I choose either sedentary or lightly active it adjusts the cal burn accordingly and you get same overall burn...its just a matter of preference. I like mine at active as I see more cals right away to eat....:
This is how I understand it too- it doesn't matter what you set your activity level to, with negative adjustments switched on, your FitBit calories will always 'win'. If you set it to sedentary, you will just be awarded more exercise calories.
I also prefer to set my level to 'active' so that 1) I have a high activity level to aim for each day and 2) I know in the morning roughly what I can expect to eat during that day. Some days MFP takes calories away from me, but I tend not to worry about it at a daily level, more over the course of a week.
^^ yep totally agree 0 -
christinev297 wrote: »Very interesting. So the FB gives more calories if you complete your steps earlier in the day rather than later?
This isn't making sense to me - if you've been allotted 443cal for 12K steps and I've been allotted 90cal for 10K steps. I just don't understand
I don't get it either, unless our stats are dramatically different.
I'm 5"8, age 43 and 150lbs.
And no it doesn't really matter what time you get your steps in. I'm set at lightly active, and mfp/fitbit expects me to keep up that level til midnight. I get a whole swag of calories taken away by days end because I go pretty sedentary after 5pm.
For example, yesterday I earned 1,200 something calories (27,000 steps), but checking my diary this morning it had gone down to a little over 900 calories. I just make sure to have a few hundred in the green when I go to bed.
and yeah this also is true - it expects you to keep carrying on that high activity right up to bedtime so it predicts ahh if she does 10k this early in the day then the rest of the day will be double...and then when we enjoy some well earned rest, the adjustments get made and we 'lose' cals burned as such. Its just the way it works but it also makes sense too...
What I find odd/annoying even, is that I can do 28000 steps on two different days, one of those days I will have ran perhaps 10k worth of them and the rest walked, then on the other day I will have walked all of the 28k - my TDEE will be VERY different, the mix of running and walking will make my TDEE reach 2500, just walking them it will be 2100. I know it makes sense as I wasn't exerting myself enough but when you have a really active day and do high steps it feels like you're not getting 'rewarded' properly....sighhhh don't mind me, I have a habit of going off on a tangent lol0 -
on another tangent....
I've found that if I do 12k steps a day I get 2100 for my TDEE (mix of walking/running)
and if I do 20k+ my TDEE only increases to a maximum of 2400 - and I feel with almost double the effort that 300 cals extra are just not worth the effort. I now only do high steps a few days a week when I really enjoy being outdoors and if the weather is nice enough to be outdoors.0 -
I set my Fitbit Charge HR to Sedentary with the negative calorie adjustment enabled and synced. With these settings Fitbit adds calories through out my active days. I usually pre log my day on FMP so I can see the red numbers go down each time the Fitbit and MFP syncs. It motivates me to be active so that I go "green" (have a surplus of calories equaling a deficit for the day). I eat back most of my exercise calories.
If you set both to lightly active and enable the negative calorie adjustment you see more calories in the AM but fewer at night. Just the opposite of sedentary settings. It depends on which you prefer.
I tried both and much prefer the sedentary setting, negative calorie adjustment on and synced because I hated that it took calories away from me rather than added calories for me. I find I stay more active during the day when I know how many calories I have to burn to create a deficit.
I stay active for a minimum average of around 12,000 steps a day, so 5+ miles, but try to do more. I've lost 51 lbs. I checked it for accuracy against my Polar FT7 heart rate monitor and it's pretty accurate so I don't add any exercise to Fitbit anymore unless I swim (can't wear Fitbit in the pool).0 -
"RunRutheeRun wrote: »it expects you to keep carrying on that high activity right up to bedtime so it predicts ahh if she does 10k this early in the day then the rest of the day will be double...and then when we enjoy some well earned rest, the adjustments get made and we 'lose' cals burned as such. Its just the way it works but it also makes sense too...
As an example of this, when I finish my 2200 step walk to work in the morning, I am usually around -50 calories from my expected MFP 'active burn' for the day. Then, I sit down for 4 hours, barely move, and by lunchtime, I am more like -150 calories lower than the expected MFP burn. As other posters have said, FitBit expected me to keep on walking, but I didn't, so it took more calories away. I walk at lunchtime, then walk home and my FitBit calories start to catch up with my expected MFP active burn again.
Unless it's a specific exercise day for me, my FitBit calories will never catch up with MFP and I will end the day with a negative adjustment. On days when I run, my FitBit calories will exceed the MFP estimate and on days when I do a short workout, FitBit and MFP are usually equal (around 2400 kcal).
I think I said earlier, I don't worry about how the calories change over the day. Having worn a Flex for more than a year and a Charge HR for the last five months, I know it is true when Fitbit tells me I had:
2 days*2700 kcal burn + 2 days*2100 + 3 days*2400 calories (over a week)
My weight fluctuations over the last 5 months reflect that as accurate enough that I can eat an average 2400 calories/day to maintain my weight... which is also the MFP predicted active burn for my weight and height.
Now that I know my TDEE is around 2400, what is the point in continuing with FitBit?! I could have worked all that out with online calculators. For me, it's motivation, the ability to look at trends and making sure that under-exercising (and over-eating) don't start to take over again.
Apologies for the rambling response and good luck with your FitBit, OP. I would not be without mine now!
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@trina1049 great reply and glad to see you also found your tracker accurate..ok we don't need these gadgets but they're an incentive 0
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RunRutheeRun wrote: »@trina1049 great reply and glad to see you also found your tracker accurate..ok we don't need these gadgets but they're an incentive
Definitely an incentive! When I first got my fitbit in March this year, i didn't change my activity for the first week, and most days I was maxing out at 3,000ish steps
Now I hit a minimum of 20,000 steps everyday, and usually hover around 25,000. It's the best $80 investment i could have made. 0 -
Totally agree! The FB has totally changed my life! Don't know if I've lost that much because of it, but I do think I haven't gained much because of it! 0
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RunRutheeRun wrote: »What I find odd/annoying even, is that I can do 28000 steps on two different days, one of those days I will have ran perhaps 10k worth of them and the rest walked, then on the other day I will have walked all of the 28k - my TDEE will be VERY different, the mix of running and walking will make my TDEE reach 2500, just walking them it will be 2100. I know it makes sense as I wasn't exerting myself enough but when you have a really active day and do high steps it feels like you're not getting 'rewarded' properly....sighhhh don't mind me, I have a habit of going off on a tangent lol
My gripe is that I can get 18K steps from class time and walking the playground at recess on a teaching day, and only get the same calorie credit for hiking hills the same number of steps. And of course since I hike slowly, I don't get green bars, but recess duty I do. (I have a Flex. Wondering if a Charge HR would be more accurate.)
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RunRutheeRun wrote: »@trina1049 great reply and glad to see you also found your tracker accurate..ok we don't need these gadgets but they're an incentive
I resisted the trackers for a long time and now I wish I had one sooner! You're right @RunRutheeRun, we don't need them but they are a great incentive to get moving. I was pretty much a slug, but not anymore. As for accuracy, the HR was extremely close to Scooby and IlFYM TDEE calcs as well as my Polar HRM. It was surprising.0 -
I love my Fitbit as it makes me more aware of how much exercise I need to do. But it is really only a guide I find, as I have found that arm movements and motion adds steps even when you are not walking. One example was a day when I did not do many steps,but spent over an hour in the garage sawing timber, the Fitbit recorded the arm movement as steps and I did over 10,000 steps that day. Another time I was sitting on a train for an hour and when I stepped off the train found that my step count had gone up a lot. Even cleaning your teeth and towling yourself dry after a shower increases steps. Sorry to disappoint you all but I was very disappointed when I noticed this. Has anybody else noticed this?0
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