BMR Calcs and Activity Setting

nsahni10
nsahni10 Posts: 2 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
If connected to an activity tracker (iPhone step counter) it appears that the daily target caloric intake increases based on your physical acritivuty level (as well as any logged exercise). Yet, when setting up a weight loss goal, it asks for your activity level, which in turn increases your allowable intake (makes sense). My question is: doesn't this seem like double counting? If you select lightly active and then "allow" yourself additional calories based on your daily activity, are you exceeding the target intake to support weight loss? My solution was to choose sedentary as my activity level in the goal setting and use the sum of BMR+exercise+activity calorie targets to be my guide. Thoughts???

Replies

  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    Yep, mine is set for sedentary.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    Mine is set at sedentary for my tracker too.
  • ness8484
    ness8484 Posts: 42 Member
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    Yep, mine is set for sedentary.

    What she said! I'm a cubicle worker of the world, so any extra calories I burn over that is actually what I consider "exercise". I'm working my way up to more exercise. But currently with the way the settings are I'm losing just over 1lb per week.
  • Gena575
    Gena575 Posts: 224 Member
    When mfp calculates your extra activity calories, it factors in what you've already established as a calorie base.

    For example: my daily burn at light activity is 2278 according to mfp. According to fitbit, I will finish the day with 3200 as my burn. So the two of them together add 922 calories as my exercise adjustment. In THEORY I could eat all of those calories and still make my deficit. In reality my fitbit is on crack. I could *maybe eat a quarter to half of them. Maybe. But I do think there's something wonky with my fitbit. Still doesn't change how mfp accounts for extra calories.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Whether you set yourself to sedentary or lightly active the calories you get at the end of the day should match. It just means that you need to do more before getting positive adjustments if set at lightly active or above, and you need to keep up that activity level throughout the day or else you'll end up losing calories.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    edited September 2016
    No, it's not double counting. I'm on my feet a lot at work and walk a lot too, but I can't be bothered to log every time I get up on my feet. So, I pick an activity level to address the fact that all that standing and walking burns calories.

    If you're using an activity tracker, you won't get as many "bonus" calories from activity if you picked a higher activity level as your base. You may even get some taken away if you have a relatively inactive day.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,336 Member
    edited September 2016
    If you enable negative adjustments MFP will adjust your eating target as per your activity tracker, and it really won't matter whether you start your day as sedentary or highly active, your adjustment will change accordingly.

    Of course this means that you might get an unexpected surprise at the end of the day especially if your actual activity level as measured by your tracker proves less than the activity level you told MFP you would engage in.

    If negative adjustments are disabled and you chose a setting other than sedentary and do not engage in sufficient activity to meet the requirements of that level then you will indeed be "over-counting". This would be true regardless of whether you have a tracker connected or not.

    Even then, there would be no "double counting" because your activity tracker will not trigger a positive adjustment till your measured activity exceeds your MFP setting.
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