Fitness tracking added calories

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jaredhelder
jaredhelder Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm getting a lot more serious about my health goals. I bought a fitness tracker that counts my steps, and synced it with MFP. Because it was adding more calories everyday, I do at least 10000 steps due to my job, I lowered my activity rate to sedentary. It's been adding over 2000 calories a day to MFP from all my steps. Should I eat these extra calories? I really want to be healthy and lose 50lbs. I just don't want to overeat.
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Replies

  • Cynsonya
    Cynsonya Posts: 668 Member
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    Dang, that's a lot of calories it's adding just for 10,000 steps. I would no way be comfortable eating them all. At least to start. If it were me I'd pick a percentage maybe 33%-50% and eat that amount back for a few weeks. Then I'd analyze the data. Did I lose what I expected? Did I lose more? Less? Then adjust accordingly.
  • annaelisam
    annaelisam Posts: 2 Member
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    I usually try to keep with my regular daily calorie goal before the exercise and then use extra calories from exercise to give myself a "treat" of 200 to 300 calories like a Lara bar or something to reward myself for the extra work.
  • cheer4beer
    cheer4beer Posts: 22 Member
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    Go to settings and see where your steps are pulling from. I had same problem where my Garmin tracker and my iPhone were both pulling in, doubling my extra calories. 2000 extra seems really high from just one device.
  • ForeverSunshine09
    ForeverSunshine09 Posts: 966 Member
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    Man that seems like a lot when I do 15000 I get maybe 350 cals.
  • Cynsonya
    Cynsonya Posts: 668 Member
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    ForeverSunshine09 wrote: »
    Man that seems like a lot when I do 15000 I get maybe 350 cals.

    A lot will depend on the size of the individual. A heavier person will burn more calories for the steps taken. I'm 300lbs and 15,000 steps gets me about 800 calories. If I eat them all back I lose 2ppw. If iI only eat back half I lose 3ppw. So this is an accurate # for my body.
  • ForeverSunshine09
    ForeverSunshine09 Posts: 966 Member
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    Yes but, 2,000 for 10,000 unless you are 400 lbs seems like a lot.
  • Cynsonya
    Cynsonya Posts: 668 Member
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    ForeverSunshine09 wrote: »
    Yes but, 2,000 for 10,000 unless you are 400 lbs seems like a lot.

    Oh, I agree 100% That's why I suggested only eating back 33-50% to start.
  • abatonfan
    abatonfan Posts: 1,123 Member
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    2,000 extra really sounds like a lot. Based on my fitbit's averages for the past 28 days, I walked an average of 17,200 steps and had a TDEE of about 2280 (95% of my exercise is walking-based). My BMR is about 1380 calories a day (5'6 female at 130lbs), so I would theoretically burn an additional 52 calories per 1,000 steps (or 520kcal added to my BMR for 10,000 steps).

    I have my calorie goal set to 1570 (negative calories enabled), and I have to walk about 3,000 steps to not have a negative adjustment. Most weekdays (when I'm getting the 17,000-20,000+ steps a day) I'll have a positive adjustment of 600-700 calories, while the weekends (average steps taken about 13,000-15,000) will only have a 350-500 calorie adjustment. I would have to walk over 38,000 steps to get a 2,000 calorie positive burn on MFP.
  • EddieP50
    EddieP50 Posts: 192 Member
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    I have a Fitbit Charge HR linked to my account here. The explanation on the Exercise page states they project your total calorie burn for the day subtracting MyFitnessPal calories burned from the Fitbit calories burned and that shows up on your summary page and the app. It can change if the projection for the day changes. I just ignore it and go by my base calories of 1500 per day. My goal is to lose 2 lbs per week so my daily calorie burn goal is 2500 vs 1500 consumed. To me it seems counterproductive to exercise and then eat the calories back.
  • CollieFit
    CollieFit Posts: 1,683 Member
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    2000 calories from 10,000 incidental steps???
  • CollieFit
    CollieFit Posts: 1,683 Member
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    ForeverSunshine09 wrote: »
    Yes but, 2,000 for 10,000 unless you are 400 lbs seems like a lot.

    and if you're 400lb you're unlikely to be walking 5 miles while at work...
  • Mavrick_RN
    Mavrick_RN Posts: 439 Member
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    I do not trust all the extra calories my Fitbit gives me. I log my exercise time and manually input the number of calories I think are reasonable based on the gym elliptical estimate, MFP estimate and Fitness Partner (http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner) estimate.

    Those extra calories look good on my home page and usually give me a pat on the back for staying under my calorie goal but I do not eat them. I know my food logging is not 100% accurate so I figure the extra exercise can't hurt. I'm still losing .5 to 1 lb a week and not stressing out about wanting more. I've got a whole life to live.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    edited March 2016
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    I get about 200 calories for 10,000 steps. 5'3, 119 pound female.
  • Huge1993
    Huge1993 Posts: 14 Member
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    No way that 10.000 steps is going to burn you 2.000 calories. There is defenitely something wrong with the calorie calculation. For me, if I run 10k, burn about 800 calories. This number depends on your weight ofcourse, but assuming you don't weight the same as a tank, I can tell you 2.000 calories for 10.000 steps is too optimistic.

    So my advice would be to NOT eat these calories back.
  • Dnarules
    Dnarules Posts: 2,081 Member
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    Ok, I'm going out on a limb and saying the 2000 calories is the TDEE. if I get 10,000 steps, I generally burn about 1900 to 2100 for the day, not just for the steps. It helps to actually understand what the fitbit does.
  • jaredhelder
    jaredhelder Posts: 4 Member
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    I'm around 230 lbs so I was thinking an additional 2000 calories was too much. I'm going to look into the specs of my apps a lot more and see why I'm getting such high add on for calories.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    sure that is just for your steps and not what you burn all day long? I have a fitbit charge HR and it tells me what I burn just by existing as well as my exercise calories burned.
  • jaredhelder
    jaredhelder Posts: 4 Member
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    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    sure that is just for your steps and not what you burn all day long? I have a fitbit charge HR and it tells me what I burn just by existing as well as my exercise calories burned.

    It is supposed to be my all day, but it's still around 4000 calories. I can't believe that is my caloric intake for one day. My job is active, but not that active.
  • jaredhelder
    jaredhelder Posts: 4 Member
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    Dnarules wrote: »
    Ok, I'm going out on a limb and saying the 2000 calories is the TDEE. if I get 10,000 steps, I generally burn about 1900 to 2100 for the day, not just for the steps. It helps to actually understand what the fitbit does.

    I'm using UA Record with misfit flash to count steps. The whole point of me using these devices and syncing them with MFP is so I don't need to to any math myself. It's putting me at 4000 for the day though, with only 10,000 steps.
  • heatherheyns
    heatherheyns Posts: 144 Member
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    Changing your activity level on MFP won't fix that, I think. With my fitbit, it gives me the difference in calories between what MFP thinks I should burn and what Fitbit expects me to. If i change my activity level on MFP, it still will give me the difference. For example, if I am sedentary, MFP will think I will burn 1900 a day (just examples), but Fitbit says, based on my activity, I should burn 2500 for the day. MFP will give me an adjustment for 600 calories. If I change my settings, and MFP thinks I'll burn 2100, I will get a smaller adjustment, (the difference being only 400), but it will still keep the same deficit. I'm not sure I'm making any sense, but that is my understanding.

    However, 2000 seems like a LOT. On my active days, where I get 1500 steps and do an hour of a hard workout, burning 400, I still have gotten at most about 1000 extra calories, and that is based on burning 3000 that day. Do you only have the one thing connected? Also, are you adding exercise in a few different places? Any of these can cause you to get credit twice.

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