Adding steps added ALOT of calories

ahatrick
ahatrick Posts: 2 Member
edited November 13 in Fitness and Exercise
Seems like a stupid question but I have my garmin viveo synced with MFP and it's adding my daily steps in as exercise. To lose weight it has me at 1200 cameos but with my workouts and about 12k steps everyday, it added 1100 extra calories....I ended up ending my day today with over 1200 calories left over. Can that be right? 2600 calories a day?!?! I'm 36, female, 5'8 and 179 lbs.....

Replies

  • Mamzelc606
    Mamzelc606 Posts: 30 Member
    No answer but following, wondering the same thing as my up2 added me like 900 cal today for like 8600 steps!
  • Meganthedogmom
    Meganthedogmom Posts: 1,639 Member
    Wow, that sounds like a lot! Mine added 600-700 today and I went about 18,000 steps, and I thought mine was overestimating!
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    The extra calorie burns can be considerably off, in my experience. Start with eating about half of them back until you know how that works for you. Your body needs the extra energy to fuel all that movement. So aim for the 1200 plus 1/2 of the cal burn given by your tracker. Watch what happens over the next 4-6 weeks, and adjust your intake accordingly based on results.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,610 Member
    I'm a 5'6" female who started at about your weight. I burn approx. 200 cal for a 1-hour walk.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,111 Member
    That sounds high. I'm 5'7" 36 year old female 170lb. I did Insanity Max30 and have logged over 10k steps today and only got 665 calories added from activity. I'm set to sedentary.
  • Mamzelc606
    Mamzelc606 Posts: 30 Member
    There is just no way this is accurate IMO, I did have a quick run today, but before getting the tracker I would just log like 150-200 for running 30 mins and I was losing just fine. I am afraid this will be too much calories and will mess up my thing. I guess I will stick to what works for now, still appreciate the input for step goals and such though, it does its job of keeping me motivated!
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    ahatrick wrote: »
    Seems like a stupid question but I have my garmin viveo synced with MFP and it's adding my daily steps in as exercise. To lose weight it has me at 1200 cameos but with my workouts and about 12k steps everyday, it added 1100 extra calories....I ended up ending my day today with over 1200 calories left over. Can that be right? 2600 calories a day?!?! I'm 36, female, 5'8 and 179 lbs.....

    At 5'8 and 179 no way should your target be as low as 1200

    12K steps plus a workout would probably add around 600 to your sedentary TDEE ...so to lose 1lb a week you should eat I would guess somewhere around 1800

    I say that from being 5'8 and 160 at maintenance for the last 2 years ...my general TDEE is around 2200-2400 and our activity is close
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    2600 doesn't sound high for someone your height, weight and very active.

  • firef1y72
    firef1y72 Posts: 1,579 Member
    I'm 5'1" 187lb take around 21000 steps a day and average at 2250 Calories a day with some spikes of 3000+, with the calculations taken from my Fitbit to lose 1lb/week. Depending on whether your tracker also reads HR, it might not just be the number of steps taken, but also how quickly those steps were taken and how high your HR reached. I can (depending on speed and resistance) burn 10 Cal/min on the stationary bike, same on the rower and during Zumba/Boxercise/Insanity while not recording a huge number of steps.
  • Ultima_Morpha
    Ultima_Morpha Posts: 892 Member
    edited October 2016
    I don't count steps, but a 10 mile run for me calculates at right around 1000 calories. I'm 5'4" and 145 pounds. That sounds like a lot of extra calories.

    That being said, that doesn't sound like a crazy calorie intake for your current weight and activity level.
  • ahatrick
    ahatrick Posts: 2 Member
    I'm trying to lose weight so I disconnected the step tracker from my Garmin so it doesn't show in MFP. I'm keeping the activity tracker and only logging those calories. I'll keep you all updated. Thanks for the help everyone!!!
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
    MFP seems to give me calories for my steps as well, but it does a pretty good job of not double logging them. For instance, if I go for a 5 mile walk I may get near 10k steps, but when my app logs the exercise it doesn't log any calories for those steps as well. However, if I then go walking or spend a lot of time on my feet I'll start seeing it add a few calories for instance if I go over 15k or so which is fine. But if I go back and log exercise it'll take them away. Seems pretty accurate that way for me. If it's giving you calories for exercise and calories for steps at the same time, then something may be double logging both. You may need to tweak settings. I believe when I had that problem last year it was healthkit on my phone causing it, once I disconnected it the double logging stopped.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    It seems to me that your Garmin is making adjustments and giving you a maintenance level of calories. I'd say you'd be safe to eat around 1600-1800 gross to lose...I'd at least start there.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    ahatrick wrote: »
    I'm trying to lose weight so I disconnected the step tracker from my Garmin so it doesn't show in MFP. I'm keeping the activity tracker and only logging those calories. I'll keep you all updated. Thanks for the help everyone!!!

    I'm interested in why you would ignore every comment when the consensus is for your weight and activity you are not eating enough?

    But then you're probably not logging properly so I'm sure it will even out. And even if you were you'd only be losing more muscle mass than you need to in and possibly not hitting your nutritional minimums ..don't mind me just thinking out loud
  • DeniseB0711
    DeniseB0711 Posts: 294 Member
    It seems like you are getting your regular burn (RMR)? and your exercise burn added back to your mfp? What does your garmin app say you had for a calorie burn?
  • fattothinmum
    fattothinmum Posts: 218 Member
    edited October 2016
    Sued0nim wrote: »
    ahatrick wrote: »
    I'm trying to lose weight so I disconnected the step tracker from my Garmin so it doesn't show in MFP. I'm keeping the activity tracker and only logging those calories. I'll keep you all updated. Thanks for the help everyone!!!

    I'm interested in why you would ignore every comment when the consensus is for your weight and activity you are not eating enough?

    But then you're probably not logging properly so I'm sure it will even out. And even if you were you'd only be losing more muscle mass than you need to in and possibly not hitting your nutritional minimums ..don't mind me just thinking out loud

    This isn't necessarily true. We're all different. I maintain around an average of 1400-1500 daily calories over a week, and up to 20-30k a week running. I'm fluctuating between 136-140 at 5"4. Many of you would lose shed loads at that rate. Not all of us.

    I agree OP needs to re evaluate calorie burn and eating, and test levels. Most apps over exaggerate. I burn around 500 calories for 7 miles of running. MFP would log that as around 1000 or more. It's wise to be cautious when eating to exercise calories unless maintaining and constantly re-evaluate.
  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
    ahatrick wrote: »
    Seems like a stupid question but I have my garmin viveo synced with MFP and it's adding my daily steps in as exercise. To lose weight it has me at 1200 cameos but with my workouts and about 12k steps everyday, it added 1100 extra calories....I ended up ending my day today with over 1200 calories left over. Can that be right? 2600 calories a day?!?! I'm 36, female, 5'8 and 179 lbs.....

    I get 75-80 calories for each mile walked - strength training adds a few more calories (but not as many as I wish it would lol).
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I have a fitbit, and for comparison.. Yesterday I did 12,544 and I got an extra 395 calories synced over to MFP. I've found the higher the steps the more over- exaggerated the calories transferred over are... I get up over 1000 calories at around 25,000 steps.

    I'm 44, 5"8, Female, 147lbs.
  • Katamondango
    Katamondango Posts: 10 Member
    Yesterday syncing my Fitbit after just 11k steps added 600 calories to my goal.

    This seems pretty universal on every tracking site, though. Honestly, I'd probably weigh 400 lbs if I ate the way Sparkpeople/Fitbit/MFP tell me I can. :D
  • cheryls1mx3
    cheryls1mx3 Posts: 97 Member
    because in our settings you are set up for a negative calorie adjustment which means if they don't think you have exercised enough to have your full calorie allowance they will deduct it - if you walk a lot and get a lot of steps or go to gym log an exercise you will get extra calories - its to help you loose weight - you can turn of the negative calorie adjustments in MFP
  • Pocket__Cthulhu
    Pocket__Cthulhu Posts: 134 Member
    I have a similar problem with my forerunner 235. I think it's a garmin thing. On a busy day at work it will give me more than 1k calories in 'exercise.' I understand that on a long hike up mountainous terrain why it might do that, but walking in circles? I ended up eating too many of those back and maintaining.

    What you can do without completely disconnecting your device is turn off the step counting. That way when you record an activity via your watch, it will sync just that to MFP.
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