Can you trust the 'calories burned' count from iOS step tracker?

AnnaDyer836
AnnaDyer836 Posts: 28 Member
edited November 30 in Health and Weight Loss
I ask because this is how I measure my calories burned through walking on a daily basis. If it's not near accurate, I'm screwed

Replies

  • AnnaDyer836
    AnnaDyer836 Posts: 28 Member
    For example. Today I ate 1512. I did ~24000 steps which iOS / MFP estimated at 660 calories burned. Does this seem accurate? It's a lot. And as my maintenance is around 1600 I don't have much room to play with :/
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited March 2016
    24000 steps is around 11 miles so its not an out of the way calorie burn in my opinion.

    To give you an example, I have a Fitbit and yesterday I did 21000 steps - that gave me a TDEE of 2200 (I'm small) - my BMR is around 1400 so the burn from all my other activities yesterday including those steps was the difference i.e 800.

    Are you sure your maintenance calories are 1600? I maintain on 2200 cals at 5ft 2".
  • AnnaDyer836
    AnnaDyer836 Posts: 28 Member
    Yep - my sedentary maintenance is unfortunately calculated on MFP at 1617 :(

    I'm glad it doesn't seem too high - I was worried it was very inaccurate, but I suppose it is a decent amount of walking.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited March 2016
    . posted twice!
  • AnnaDyer836
    AnnaDyer836 Posts: 28 Member
    Haha not on average! Just today. My average is under that. I set MFP to sedentary because some days I do absolutely nothing and don't want it to overestimate my activity for those days :)
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    If thats the case then you are right to set it at sedentary...but what are your average steps??
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited March 2016
    p.s My steps average are 15k, that gives me 2100 TDEE - thats why I question the need for me to do more personally, especially as I'm in maintenance. But then I keep taking on Fitbit challenges and I get competitive.... :smiley:

    under 5k steps is counted as sedentary
    around 10k steps is counted as lightly active
    more than 15k steps is counted as active.

    Hope this helps :smile:
  • AnnaDyer836
    AnnaDyer836 Posts: 28 Member
    In that case I'm closer to 'active'.
    However. I don't want MFP saying that I need like 1900 to maintain, and then I do 24000 steps and it STILL says I burned 660 on TOP of the assumed 15000 steps it automatically adds, leaving a ~500 cal margin of error... Does that make sense? Or does MFP work differently??
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited March 2016
    have you changed your mfp settings to enable negative adjustments from your tracker?? that way if you aren't as active it will deduct some calories off that 1900 on your less active days...

    and are you wanting to maintain weight or lose?

    Is your tracker synced with mfp ?
  • AnnaDyer836
    AnnaDyer836 Posts: 28 Member
    How do I do that??
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited March 2016
    go into settings, then diary settings and click/tap box to 'enable negative adjustments' and save.

    This only applies if your IOS stepper is synced with mfp.
  • AnnaDyer836
    AnnaDyer836 Posts: 28 Member
    Thank you !!!
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    You're welcome :smile: trust the MFP numbers, they really are pretty accurate :smile:
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