10,000 Steps a day

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donjtomasco
donjtomasco Posts: 789 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Does MFP have 10,000 steps built into the regular daily calories burned for any of the activity levels?

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  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    I think mfp's activity levels are loosely based on this
    http://www.fitnessforweightloss.com/rate-your-activity-level-based-on-steps-per-day/

    I have a fitbit synced to mfp, so i don't have to stress or guess which activity level means what.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    donjtomasco wrote: »
    Does MFP have 10,000 steps built into the regular daily calories burned for any of the activity levels?

    Active is close to that I believe.
  • amarneu
    amarneu Posts: 164 Member
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    I have mine synced but it's saying I'm allowed over 1000 extra cals and I know there is no way I burn that much just walking 10k steps. Do I set it up wrong or is this normal?
  • ClosetBayesian
    ClosetBayesian Posts: 836 Member
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    amarneu wrote: »
    I have mine synced but it's saying I'm allowed over 1000 extra cals and I know there is no way I burn that much just walking 10k steps. Do I set it up wrong or is this normal?

    Something isn't right. Are you also adding exercise into MFP? If you are, don't- the calorie adjustment in MFP is based on the data your fitbit sends over.
  • amarneu
    amarneu Posts: 164 Member
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    No, I only log my food
  • 23susu23
    23susu23 Posts: 68 Member
    edited January 2017
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    amarneu -- When I started out on MFP, I set myself to sedentary because I was very..... and older, short and retired. I decided to wait until I lost a little before I started purposeful exercise. When I first connected my Fitbit, it took away calories because I moved so little. I notice that I have a subtraction of calories until I reach about 3000 steps. I am now trying for 10K steps and I get anywhere from 300-500 extra calories depending on if they are active minutes. I have just started eating some extra (up to half) the last few days. I hesitate to add much until I see what happens. (I have enabled negative calories for the Fitbit.) If you just connected your Fitbit I understand that it may take it a week or so to figure you out.
  • ClosetBayesian
    ClosetBayesian Posts: 836 Member
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    Do you have one that measures your heartrate constantly? What's your MFP calorie target?
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,639 Member
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    Active loosely corresponds to a range of 8k to 12k steps for most people.
    .
    If set to that you would not manually add a walking exercise activity for your steps.

    If you're automatically synchronizing a device such as a Fitbit or other tracking device where you regularly record about 10,000 steps, the setting of active would give you the most minimal exercise adjustment up or down at the end of the day. .

    You would still potentially get an exercise adjustment it just would be the smallest.

    Note that in the context of trackers exercise adjustment does not really correspond to exercise. It is just an accounting adjustment to equalize your measured tdee for the day with the tdee that Mfp had initially guessed you were going to be at by the end of the day
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    amarneu wrote: »
    I have mine synced but it's saying I'm allowed over 1000 extra cals and I know there is no way I burn that much just walking 10k steps. Do I set it up wrong or is this normal?

    That's not right unless you're very heavy. 2000 steps is commonly considered to be roughly equivalent to 1 mile and to burn about 100 calories (higher if you're heavier; lower if you're lighter). So, I'd expect you to get an adjustment in the ballpark of 500 calories for 10,000 steps.

    That said, if you have a FitBit with a heartrate monitor *and* you spend a lot of your day standing, you may also be getting a bit of an adjustment for the standing (which does indeed burn more calories than sitting - not a lot more, but still more).
  • sksaustin
    sksaustin Posts: 4 Member
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    Does anyone know the origin of "ten thousand steps"? It's really kind of ironic. Back in the 70s or so, a Japanese advertising company came up with the use of "ten thousand steps" in their logo for a new pedometer, and pushed it so hard that people started believing there is some scientific basis for it....nope! How long and how fast you walk is what counts to burn calories (especially if you use interval training), but the 10K steps idea is a gimmick.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    It may be a gimmick, but if it helps people to move more then it's a helpful one. Is 10,000 steps massively better than 9,999 steps? Of course not. But our brains respond to round numbers - and this one is in a good place for overall health.

    For the most part, distance covered is the factor most directly related to calorie burn when walking - but as long as one's pace is relatively constant, more steps = more distance covered.

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