Why is MFP giving me such a high calorie allotment!
Replies
-
WinoGelato wrote: »OP what does FitBit say for your total calories burned ? Ultimately that's what the adjustments are derived from, the difference between what FitBit says you burned and what MFP predicts your NEAT to be. That's a more helpful data point, in my opinion, than trying to base it just on how many steps you took.
It says I burned about 2,000 calories in total.0 -
The Fitbit adjustments always sound way too high to me when people post them. But I don't have one, so I don't really know.0
-
kshama2001 wrote: »I'm not complaining, the more I can eat the better but I just want to make sure I'm not over eating. I am 5'2 and 135 pounds with a GW 115. I set my goal to lose .5 pounds a week and that allows me 1400 hundred calories. Today my fit bit earned me 500 calories!! So I have eaten 1600 calories and still have 300 hundred left and it just does not seem like I could possibly eat this much food and still lose weight! When I eat 1200 to 1400 I feel starving and always lead to a binge but at least I was losing. These past two weeks I have not lost any weight I just fluctuated a between .5 and 1lb. I have been over eating but I am really trying to get back on track here but I just find my self obsessing over the numbers and I feel like I am failing. I was even going to fast today to try to make up for the past week of over eating but I couldnt because I feel sick if I dont eat. I just don't understand why it's giving me 1900 calories when I'm so short and work in an office all day long.
The exercise calories in the MFP database are about 25% inflated for me, but I can safely eat back 100% of the exercise calories my Fitbit One gives me.
Please provide details about what your 500 calories were from: Number of steps? Exercise? Duration?
If I exceed my calorie budget one day I don't punish myself the next day; I just consider the next morning a reset and move on.
This is from 7500 steps from my fit bit. I have mfp set to sedentary because my steps vary alot. Then I logged 30 minutes on stationary bike but didn't log any strength training I did.
How many calories did you add for the stationary bike? Asking because on a good day I'll get 100 calories in 30 minutes of that, so let's say I don't even bother anymore. I'm not too sure how people actually manage to get good calorie burns with those things (or maybe it's because my fitness is too high and I can pedal like a crazy person and barely reach 100 HR).
I don't get good calorie burns from the bike either but I just log it since I do other things like strength training and elliptical but I do log those. So I log it for general exercise since I have no idea how much I burn while doing the other things. If I only work out on the bike and don't do strength training then I won't bother logging it.0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »OP what does FitBit say for your total calories burned ? Ultimately that's what the adjustments are derived from, the difference between what FitBit says you burned and what MFP predicts your NEAT to be. That's a more helpful data point, in my opinion, than trying to base it just on how many steps you took.
It says I burned about 2,000 calories in total.
And what are your current stats again? Height, weight, and age?
Do you use the MFP app? Did you see the screen shot I posted where you can see what MFP has as your baseline and what it estimates you will burn from Fitbit and how the adjustment is then calculated? What are your three numbers. It should be a simple X-Y = Z. Look at all three numbers to see if they make sense.0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »OP what does FitBit say for your total calories burned ? Ultimately that's what the adjustments are derived from, the difference between what FitBit says you burned and what MFP predicts your NEAT to be. That's a more helpful data point, in my opinion, than trying to base it just on how many steps you took.
It says I burned about 2,000 calories in total.
And what are your current stats again? Height, weight, and age?
Do you use the MFP app? Did you see the screen shot I posted where you can see what MFP has as your baseline and what it estimates you will burn from Fitbit and how the adjustment is then calculated? What are your three numbers. It should be a simple X-Y = Z. Look at all three numbers to see if they make sense.
I am 5'2 135 lbs and want to be 115-120. Already lost 15lbs about .5 a week.I could not find where you took the screen shot and I don't know how to post a picture but my home page says. 1600-1867+319(exercise)=62 remaining. That was yesterday.0 -
I mean they make sense but considering I sit all day long in the office and have my activity level set to lightly active it seems crazy I'm still getting a calorie adjustment from my steps.0
-
If it's giving you a calorie adjustment for your steps I would definitely change it back to sedentary.0
-
WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »OP what does FitBit say for your total calories burned ? Ultimately that's what the adjustments are derived from, the difference between what FitBit says you burned and what MFP predicts your NEAT to be. That's a more helpful data point, in my opinion, than trying to base it just on how many steps you took.
It says I burned about 2,000 calories in total.
And what are your current stats again? Height, weight, and age?
Do you use the MFP app? Did you see the screen shot I posted where you can see what MFP has as your baseline and what it estimates you will burn from Fitbit and how the adjustment is then calculated? What are your three numbers. It should be a simple X-Y = Z. Look at all three numbers to see if they make sense.
I am 5'2 135 lbs and want to be 115-120. Already lost 15lbs about .5 a week.I could not find where you took the screen shot and I don't know how to post a picture but my home page says. 1600-1867+319(exercise)=62 remaining. That was yesterday.WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »OP what does FitBit say for your total calories burned ? Ultimately that's what the adjustments are derived from, the difference between what FitBit says you burned and what MFP predicts your NEAT to be. That's a more helpful data point, in my opinion, than trying to base it just on how many steps you took.
It says I burned about 2,000 calories in total.
And what are your current stats again? Height, weight, and age?
Do you use the MFP app? Did you see the screen shot I posted where you can see what MFP has as your baseline and what it estimates you will burn from Fitbit and how the adjustment is then calculated? What are your three numbers. It should be a simple X-Y = Z. Look at all three numbers to see if they make sense.
I am 5'2 135 lbs and want to be 115-120. Already lost 15lbs about .5 a week.I could not find where you took the screen shot and I don't know how to post a picture but my home page says. 1600-1867+319(exercise)=62 remaining. That was yesterday.
Are you using the app? Scroll down to the bottom of your diary where it says "exercise" and there should be something called "Fitbit calorie adjustment" and you can click that and it will show you the details. I'm not sure if there's a similar option on the website.
For what it's worth, and I think I said this upthread, my stats are exactly the same as yours. Im 5'2 with a desk job. I started around 150, lost about 15, then got a FitBit, changed my activity level to lightly active, set at 0.5 lb/week weight loss, are back exercise adjustments, kept losing, and reached my goal weight (and beyond) in a little over a year. I'm maintaining at 120 now for the past couple years while trusting those FitBit adjustments.0 -
animatorswearbras wrote: »If it's giving you a calorie adjustment for your steps I would definitely change it back to sedentary.
Why?0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »animatorswearbras wrote: »If it's giving you a calorie adjustment for your steps I would definitely change it back to sedentary.
Why?
Because she has a desk job? I might be getting my wires crossed as fitbit's in the equation but purely on an MFP basis I either set myself as sedentary and add any walking or set myself as lightly active and don't add my steps unless I've walked above and beyond my regular walks of roughly 7500 steps a day same as the OP. As I said that is what I would do.0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »OP what does FitBit say for your total calories burned ? Ultimately that's what the adjustments are derived from, the difference between what FitBit says you burned and what MFP predicts your NEAT to be. That's a more helpful data point, in my opinion, than trying to base it just on how many steps you took.
It says I burned about 2,000 calories in total.
And what are your current stats again? Height, weight, and age?
Do you use the MFP app? Did you see the screen shot I posted where you can see what MFP has as your baseline and what it estimates you will burn from Fitbit and how the adjustment is then calculated? What are your three numbers. It should be a simple X-Y = Z. Look at all three numbers to see if they make sense.
I am 5'2 135 lbs and want to be 115-120. Already lost 15lbs about .5 a week.I could not find where you took the screen shot and I don't know how to post a picture but my home page says. 1600-1867+319(exercise)=62 remaining. That was yesterday.WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »OP what does FitBit say for your total calories burned ? Ultimately that's what the adjustments are derived from, the difference between what FitBit says you burned and what MFP predicts your NEAT to be. That's a more helpful data point, in my opinion, than trying to base it just on how many steps you took.
It says I burned about 2,000 calories in total.
And what are your current stats again? Height, weight, and age?
Do you use the MFP app? Did you see the screen shot I posted where you can see what MFP has as your baseline and what it estimates you will burn from Fitbit and how the adjustment is then calculated? What are your three numbers. It should be a simple X-Y = Z. Look at all three numbers to see if they make sense.
I am 5'2 135 lbs and want to be 115-120. Already lost 15lbs about .5 a week.I could not find where you took the screen shot and I don't know how to post a picture but my home page says. 1600-1867+319(exercise)=62 remaining. That was yesterday.
Are you using the app? Scroll down to the bottom of your diary where it says "exercise" and there should be something called "Fitbit calorie adjustment" and you can click that and it will show you the details. I'm not sure if there's a similar option on the website.
For what it's worth, and I think I said this upthread, my stats are exactly the same as yours. Im 5'2 with a desk job. I started around 150, lost about 15, then got a FitBit, changed my activity level to lightly active, set at 0.5 lb/week weight loss, are back exercise adjustments, kept losing, and reached my goal weight (and beyond) in a little over a year. I'm maintaining at 120 now for the past couple years while trusting those FitBit adjustments.
What are your maintenance calories? We're you losing .5lb every week or would it sometimes be less? I know that it's going to take patience but a year sounds like a long time. I do want to tone up as well but I imagined losing the last 15 in 4 to 5 months.0 -
I agree with others about the FitBit. The FitBit is notorious for overestimating how much you've burned. I would assume 50% of what the FitBit is telling you, so if it says you burned 500 only enter in 250.0
-
Okay I found this page it looks very similar to yours I just don't know how to post the picture. I am using the app.WinoGelato wrote: »Here's mine from yesterday, this was for about 15k steps. I'm set at Active. MFP thinks I bum ~1850 cals as my baseline. I got a 236 cal adjustment because FitBit says I burned that much more.
0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »OP what does FitBit say for your total calories burned ? Ultimately that's what the adjustments are derived from, the difference between what FitBit says you burned and what MFP predicts your NEAT to be. That's a more helpful data point, in my opinion, than trying to base it just on how many steps you took.
It says I burned about 2,000 calories in total.
And what are your current stats again? Height, weight, and age?
Do you use the MFP app? Did you see the screen shot I posted where you can see what MFP has as your baseline and what it estimates you will burn from Fitbit and how the adjustment is then calculated? What are your three numbers. It should be a simple X-Y = Z. Look at all three numbers to see if they make sense.
I am 5'2 135 lbs and want to be 115-120. Already lost 15lbs about .5 a week.I could not find where you took the screen shot and I don't know how to post a picture but my home page says. 1600-1867+319(exercise)=62 remaining. That was yesterday.WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »OP what does FitBit say for your total calories burned ? Ultimately that's what the adjustments are derived from, the difference between what FitBit says you burned and what MFP predicts your NEAT to be. That's a more helpful data point, in my opinion, than trying to base it just on how many steps you took.
It says I burned about 2,000 calories in total.
And what are your current stats again? Height, weight, and age?
Do you use the MFP app? Did you see the screen shot I posted where you can see what MFP has as your baseline and what it estimates you will burn from Fitbit and how the adjustment is then calculated? What are your three numbers. It should be a simple X-Y = Z. Look at all three numbers to see if they make sense.
I am 5'2 135 lbs and want to be 115-120. Already lost 15lbs about .5 a week.I could not find where you took the screen shot and I don't know how to post a picture but my home page says. 1600-1867+319(exercise)=62 remaining. That was yesterday.
Are you using the app? Scroll down to the bottom of your diary where it says "exercise" and there should be something called "Fitbit calorie adjustment" and you can click that and it will show you the details. I'm not sure if there's a similar option on the website.
For what it's worth, and I think I said this upthread, my stats are exactly the same as yours. Im 5'2 with a desk job. I started around 150, lost about 15, then got a FitBit, changed my activity level to lightly active, set at 0.5 lb/week weight loss, are back exercise adjustments, kept losing, and reached my goal weight (and beyond) in a little over a year. I'm maintaining at 120 now for the past couple years while trusting those FitBit adjustments.
What are your maintenance calories? We're you losing .5lb every week or would it sometimes be less? I know that it's going to take patience but a year sounds like a long time. I do want to tone up as well but I imagined losing the last 15 in 4 to 5 months.
I lost ~30 lbs in just about a year. I stopped over the holidays, intentionally, my first year, and then I gained some back after a summer in Europe which I lost again by the following Christmas.
My TDeE according to my FitBit and actual results is ~2200 when I'm active. Over this past winter I've been less active because of work and weather but am still at ~2100 for my TDEE.
I average 15k steps a day and do light circuit training a few times a week.
I eat lighter during the week and more on the weekends.
I trust the two systems and they have always worked well for me. It seems like you are skeptical about eating back the calories, and that's fine, but the only way to know for sure is to pick a number and an approach, stick with it for a period of time, monitor your actual results and go from there.2 -
animatorswearbras wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »animatorswearbras wrote: »If it's giving you a calorie adjustment for your steps I would definitely change it back to sedentary.
Why?
Because she has a desk job? I might be getting my wires crossed as fitbit's in the equation but purely on an MFP basis I either set myself as sedentary and add any walking or set myself as lightly active and don't add my steps unless I've walked above and beyond my regular walks of roughly 7500 steps a day same as the OP. As I said that is what I would do.
A desk job is one measurement of how active a person is but as has been stated in this thread (I think, maybe I'm getting them all mixed up) if you are averaging more than 8000 steps a day you are not sedentary.
With the FitBit, it's all a wash in the end. If you leave yourself set at sedentary then you'll get bigger adjustment with those step counts. I chose to set myself at lightly active and now active, because I wanted a higher baseline of caps to begin with and smaller adjustments to reflect my purposeful exercise. I have negative calorie adjustments enabled for days when I truly do get less steps and am less active than normal.2 -
SusanMFindlay wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »I'm not complaining, the more I can eat the better but I just want to make sure I'm not over eating. I am 5'2 and 135 pounds with a GW 115. I set my goal to lose .5 pounds a week and that allows me 1400 hundred calories. Today my fit bit earned me 500 calories!! So I have eaten 1600 calories and still have 300 hundred left and it just does not seem like I could possibly eat this much food and still lose weight! When I eat 1200 to 1400 I feel starving and always lead to a binge but at least I was losing. These past two weeks I have not lost any weight I just fluctuated a between .5 and 1lb. I have been over eating but I am really trying to get back on track here but I just find my self obsessing over the numbers and I feel like I am failing. I was even going to fast today to try to make up for the past week of over eating but I couldnt because I feel sick if I dont eat. I just don't understand why it's giving me 1900 calories when I'm so short and work in an office all day long.
The exercise calories in the MFP database are about 25% inflated for me, but I can safely eat back 100% of the exercise calories my Fitbit One gives me.
Please provide details about what your 500 calories were from: Number of steps? Exercise? Duration?
If I exceed my calorie budget one day I don't punish myself the next day; I just consider the next morning a reset and move on.
This is from 7500 steps from my fit bit. I have mfp set to sedentary because my steps vary alot. Then I logged 30 minutes on stationary bike but didn't log any strength training I did.
Early in the day? Or end of day?
I'd expect FitBit to credit you with about 100 calorie for every 2,000 steps beyond the first 3,000 steps. So, that'd be about 200 extra calories. I'm assuming the extra 300 came from logging the cycling? But that seems too high for half an hour of cycling.
The other possibility is that it was early and FitBit was assuming that you'd remain at that activity level and get many more steps - and that your calorie target would have dropped later if you didn't continue to get steps. This can be an issue for those who get up early and go to bed early. I'm a night owl - rarely in bed before 11pm (usually after midnight) and sleep as late as possible so I start the day with 7 or 8 hours of nothingness worked into my daily average; that means I don't get calories "taken away" after I go to bed. But someone who gets up at 4am and goes to bed at 8pm would have to be aware of that effect.
It happens through out the day. I set my activity level to lightly active and I got 8000 steps today with a 300 calorie adjustments. It went from 1600 to 1900 which I'm still having a hard time believing. I log cycling only 30 minutes but really I am also doing a little strength training and walking on the treadmill with my hands holding the sides so I assume the fit bit doesn't count those steps but i dont want to log too much exercise since ive read on here it over calculates. I'll switch between that and cycling. (Recovering from foot surgery)
People comment the exercise database can be inflated - especially for entries that have no intensity or speed or pace to it.
Walking 3.5 mph is going to be good estimate (but don't log walking - that's what the Fitbit is already doing just fine).
Spin bike - heh, that's a huge range of effort that could be done.
Lifting is good and should be logged - on Fitbit - their database is used better. It's small calories, but that true too.
But those Fitbit Adjustments are NOT from the database.2 -
I mean they make sense but considering I sit all day long in the office and have my activity level set to lightly active it seems crazy I'm still getting a calorie adjustment from my steps.
Just to correct the language here - you are NOT getting adjustments from your steps exactly.
Bad connection and misconception.
Other misunderstanding is the adjustment is your workout calories - it's not.
Adjustment is Fitbit daily burn minus MFP estimated daily burn.
Obviously what you burn is composed of steps, majority is BMR, and other actions, could include exercise if done.
How that is done during the day is not always what people think too, MFP is doing all the math - Fitbit is merely reporting calorie burn up to that point, as @WinoGelato showed in her screen shot.
How that works is explained in the Fitbit group FAQ.1 -
fitmomhappymom wrote: »I agree with others about the FitBit. The FitBit is notorious for overestimating how much you've burned. I would assume 50% of what the FitBit is telling you, so if it says you burned 500 only enter in 250.
Go check out the Fitbit group - your find out your "notorious" is an exaggeration.
Plus it sounds like you may not be aware of what that adjustment is exactly - thinking it's exercise.4 -
I mean they make sense but considering I sit all day long in the office and have my activity level set to lightly active it seems crazy I'm still getting a calorie adjustment from my steps.
You sit 16 hrs in the office?
Or perhaps 8 hrs, maybe 9 including sitting commute?
Sleep for how long, 7 hrs?
What's the other 1/3 of the day?
Sitting also mainly?
People have this misunderstanding as to what sedentary means on daily activity descriptions.
You can have a sedentary desk job, do no exercise - and NOT be sedentary life style. And those with Fitbit's discover that fact.
If you have a kid or kids, the extra house activity required is usually found to push most people into Lightly Active.
You try to be more active to get more steps, you'll easily accomplish that too.
So don't mess yourself up or sell yourself short that a sedentary desk job means a sedentary daily activity level.4 -
I mean they make sense but considering I sit all day long in the office and have my activity level set to lightly active it seems crazy I'm still getting a calorie adjustment from my steps.
You sit 16 hrs in the office?
Or perhaps 8 hrs, maybe 9 including sitting commute?
Sleep for how long, 7 hrs?
What's the other 1/3 of the day?
Sitting also mainly?
People have this misunderstanding as to what sedentary means on daily activity descriptions.
You can have a sedentary desk job, do no exercise - and NOT be sedentary life style. And those with Fitbit's discover that fact.
If you have a kid or kids, the extra house activity required is usually found to push most people into Lightly Active.
You try to be more active to get more steps, you'll easily accomplish that too.
So don't mess yourself up or sell yourself short that a sedentary desk job means a sedentary daily activity level.
All of this. OP, @heybales gave me this EXACT advice about 3 years ago when I first got my FitBit and was questioning whether or not I should change the setting to Lightly Active instead of sedentary. I trusted him, and have been successfully losing/maintaining according to my goals ever since.
3
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393K Introduce Yourself
- 43.7K Getting Started
- 260.1K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.8K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 416 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.9K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.6K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.5K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions