Eating calories from steps walked

Your activity level that you select when setting up MFP is going to include quite a bit of that...even a sedentary setting accounts for up to about 5,000 steps per day. If anything I'd just adjust my activity level to reflect my actual daily activity and those steps.

I track my steps also. I have a daily goal of doing 10,500. MFP does adjust the amount of calories you can eat that day.

It will depend on your activity level setting. Here's an example.

Lets say based on your stats (this is hypothetical, I don't know your stats) sedentary would burn 2500 and lightly active would burn 2800. If you tell MFP you're lightly active it will base your daily calories on 2800, tell you to eat 2050 for 1.5 pounds per week. If you're actually sedentary and eat 2050, then your deficit is only 450 for almost 1 pound per week.

The key is to set your activity level accurately. You could sync your phone step counter, just to get a better idea if your activity level is reasonable. If you sync and the step adjustment is almost always 0, it means you're not as active as you set your level to be, so you're not burning as much as MFP expects. If you're usually earning some small adjustment, your level is set accurately. If you often earn a big adjustment your activity level is set too low.

You can of course also judge by results. If you're accurately logging/eating at MFP's recommended amount and lose weight about 1.5 pounds per week your activity level is set correctly. Slower means your activity level may be too high. Of course, you would need 1-3 months of data to judge from weight loss results.

StaciMarie1974 wrote: »

It will depend on your activity level setting. Here's an example.

Lets say based on your stats (this is hypothetical, I don't know your stats) sedentary would burn 2500 and lightly active would burn 2800. If you tell MFP you're lightly active it will base your daily calories on 2800, tell you to eat 2050 for 1.5 pounds per week. If you're actually sedentary and eat 2050, then your deficit is only 450 for almost 1 pound per week.

The key is to set your activity level accurately. You could sync your phone step counter, just to get a better idea if your activity level is reasonable. If you sync and the step adjustment is almost always 0, it means you're not as active as you set your level to be, so you're not burning as much as MFP expects. If you're usually earning some small adjustment, your level is set accurately. If you often earn a big adjustment your activity level is set too low.

You can of course also judge by results. If you're accurately logging/eating at MFP's recommended amount and lose weight about 1.5 pounds per week your activity level is set correctly. Slower means your activity level may be too high. Of course, you would need 1-3 months of data to judge from weight loss results.

Great explanation of how this works! The only thing I would add is that you need to have negative calories enabled if your activity level is anything other than sedentary. That way you don't over eat. I would sync your step counter, I have my fitbit sync'd and 10K steps usually nets me about 457 calories.

mamahope2020 wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I do have my activity level set to lightly active, so that should cover 10,000 steps. It's interesting that you get 180 calories for 10,000 steps. Yesterday I got 435 calories for 8458 steps.

That sounds pretty high. I estimate about 150 calories for 10000 steps, but since they say that anything up to 5000 is 'sedentary' I only log steps that go above that (e.g if I do 12000 steps I'll log 7000).

This is exactly why I set myself to Sedentary and let my Fitbit do the rest. I know I'm active, but I never want to change my activity level since days can vary.

I don't have my steps enabled because it drove me crazy to have my calories change on a daily/hourly basis. Instead I set my activity level to lightly active. I don't add my 30 minute walk to and from work, walking around the school (I work at a high school), light yoga, or daily cleaning and chores. I consider that all part of the lightly active lifestyle. However, I do add back all exercise calories I burn at the gym for running and weights and more intense and intentional exercise.

brendak76 wrote: »

I don't have my steps enabled because it drove me crazy to have my calories change on a daily/hourly basis.

I didn't like that either. Changing the Fitbit food plan from Personalized to Sedentary fixes this. My calories used to bounce up and down before I changed it and now I get nothing but steady increases since I'm set as sedentary everywhere but I'm quite the opposite.

I am using them but only if I get reslly hungry. Sometimes I eat them all. The fact I am gaining all those calories if I walk is a great motivator to do my steps. I have been very sedentary due to an injury for the past two years so it's working great for me. I am feeling great and the normal lose rate for me is about one pound per week even though I set this to two. I don't want it to be more than one tho it's working and I am more into building healthy relationships with food and a change of lifetime than "dieting". Try and see what works for you. Cheers,

I typically don't eat the calories from my synced steps. I listed myself as moderately active when I signed up for MFP, and I believe that there is an allowance of extra calories for that distinction.

I had to get up over my 'norm' to see loss. As I suspected I was already at about 10k daily with 'lifestyle' steps... I pushed my goal to 100k a week with the last 30k being purposeful hill walks and trail hikes & ate some of that back. It has worked well for me.

I sync mine and regularly eat them back, loosing 2lb a week on 1220 Cals a day plus what ever my steps give me which is usually 200-300

Maybe that 'don't eat any exercise calories back' advice works for very obese people doing very gentle workouts, but I wouldn't be able to do the kinds of workouts I do if I didn't eat some of those calories back!
Came back to edit: that sounds too harsh! What I mean is this... MFP is set up for you to eat back exercise calories to some degree. Sadly, calorie burns assigned can be too high, so it is prudent not to eat all of them back. But if you are doing something very strenuous, say a three or four hour hike, or even habitual long walks at a 15 minute mile pace or better, etc, you WILL need to eat in a way that backfills some of that deficit or your performance can suffer, you might begin to feel either lethargic or antsy, and you are more apt to break in an unscheduled binge-y way to close that gaping deficit.
Everybody is a little different. The overall accuracy of all your other logging comes in to play too. Start by eating some of those calories. If you feel it slows your weight loss, back off a little. If you still feel crazy hungry (true hungry, not bored hungry) try adding in a few more. The scale will show true deficit eating is working over time. When I started in August 500 calorie daily deficits were easy and effective. Now that I'm about 20 lbs from my goal 250 calorie daily deficits are more realistic and comfortable. I'm okay with the slower pace. I'm going to be doing some form of this forever, right? I also take refeed breaks where I eat at maintenance just to practice what that feels like. It's amazing how good you can feel after a week or two of that once you get over feeling 'naughty.'
Fitness and weight loss are two different but synergistic goals. I practice fitness religiously. I take mini breaks from weight loss when I begin to feel ground down, out of energy and overly negative.

I eat most of my step calories back, usually not all, but most of them. I'm set as sedentary and have my Fitbit synced. During the work week, I don't usually get many step calories, but I get a good amount on the weekend and use them to eat and drink well on the weekend!