Calories from steps
kevin_montgomery
Posts: 20 Member
I use my phone to count my steps each day with the goal of hitting 10k, which I do regularly. I sync the counter with MFP. My question is, should I eat back some of those calories?
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Replies
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You can eat back your calories from any type of exercise.
Personally, I don't eat them all back because I find the calorie "expenditure" to generally be inflated. But I know many people on here eat back all their exercise calories (whatever type of exercise it is) and continue to lose. Experiment. Eat them all back. Stop losing? Eat only 3/4 of them back. And so on until you find your sweet spot.3 -
It depends where you set your activity level. If you set it on "sedentary", then you can add some of those steps as exercise. But if you are set at "lightly active" or "active", then probably not.1
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SuzySunshine99 wrote: »It depends where you set your activity level. If you set it on "sedentary", then you can add some of those steps as exercise. But if you are set at "lightly active" or "active", then probably not.
Assuming the devices are synced, MFP will only grant additional calories when one has exceeded the estimated calorie burn for one's activity level. So someone set at "lightly active" will began "earning" extra calories after more activity than someone who is sedentary.
This is specifically designed to prevent double-dipping, so people of all activity levels can use calorie adjustments.7 -
Yes, you should eat them back. I would probably do it by "converting" those steps to distance (if you don't know your own average stride length then assume 2,000 steps = 1 mile) and then taking 1/3 my body weight in calories. This will probably underestimate slightly (it doesn't account for hills or stairs) but that's in line with losing weight.0
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I am set on sedentary. I think I will wait until I start my workout routine before I start eating back exercise cals. I never eat back the cals from walking, but I wanted to be sure that I had them there for a buffer if I was really struggling. Extra walking does not seem to add to my appetite, I was just curious. Thanks for the replies.0
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I don't eat my step calories back. In fact, I unsynced my Misfit with MFP because it was messing up my calorie counts so bad. I ended up gaining 5#'s back of what I'd lost because I didn't realize what was happening. Now, when I add my exercise to MFP, I just automatically say I did less. If I walk 3mi at a vigorous speed then I say I walked 2.5mi/hour. That way I'm already cutting back how many calories I'm eating back from exercise. If I said I went 3mi/hour it gives me like an extra hundred calories or something like that. So I do my "cutting back on exercise calories eaten" by entering in less exercise then I actually did.0
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Yeah fitbit gives me way to many calories burned,I'd be gigantic if I ate them all back1
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Walking can be a great way to burn some extra calories without a massive increase in appetite.
If you have MFP set for a 2lb/week weight loss goal already AND you're getting all those steps in, consider eating at least 50% of the calories back. You can save them up over the course of the week for a treat/weekend meal if you don't want to eat them the day you earn them.
Creating too large of a deficit can be really hard on the body - it's important to give yourself enough fuel!
~Lyssa3 -
Eating back your burnt Calories seems counterproductive if your aim is to loose weight.0
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JohnWelssh wrote: »Eating back your burnt Calories seems counterproductive if your aim is to loose weight.
^^This. Except if you run a half marathon that day or something. But if you're walking a mere 2 miles or lifting for 20 minutes, don't eat those back unless you're wanting to maintain or lose at a snail pace.1 -
JohnWelssh wrote: »Eating back your burnt Calories seems counterproductive if your aim is to loose weight.
The earth seems flat, but it's actually round like a ball.
When you sign up for MFP, which you did if you're posting here, you created a profile and put in your very own statistics like your weight and your goal here, whether that's to lose weight (and how quickly) or to gain or maintain. After you did that, MFP gave you a personalized calorie goal. That's how much you need to eat to lose weight, at the speed you said you wanted to. That doesn't have exercise factored in.
For the same reason that 1 - 1 = 0, eating your exercise calories brings you back to your weight loss goal.
People with excessively large deficits wind up losing hair, losing muscle mass, becoming unhealthy and lethargic, and looking much worse for it, as if they've aged rapidly. Now, most people want to look weight to look and feel better, and if that's you, then refusing to eat your exercise calories is a really bad idea.
People don't wind up in a situation where they need to lose weight overnight, so they shouldn't expect to lose the weight overnight either. People have this "more is better" idea like if a small order of fries is good, then two extra large orders is better. It's the same mentality that says you should do lots of exercise and not eat the calories. Slow and steady wins the race.14 -
need2belean wrote: »JohnWelssh wrote: »Eating back your burnt Calories seems counterproductive if your aim is to loose weight.
^^This. Except if you run a half marathon that day or something. But if you're walking a mere 2 miles or lifting for 20 minutes, don't eat those back unless you're wanting to maintain or lose at a snail pace.
See above. Eating your exercise calories will have you lose weight at the pace you signed up for.7 -
JohnWelssh wrote: »Eating back your burnt Calories seems counterproductive if your aim is to loose weight.
The way MFP is supposed to work is you put in your stats, including your non-exercise activity level and your desired weight loss, and it gives you the number of calories to eat to meet the weight loss goal. If you then are more active than your estimate, MFP add calories so you continue to meet your goal. If you exercise, MFP gives you more calories, again to meet the original weight loss goal. It's fine if your talking about a bit of walking, but as soon as you increase your activity level or start exercising regularly, than you will in essence, be under eating. So you won't be able to adequately fuel your activity level or exercise.
The system works as designed and is designed to give a reasonable loss rate that can be sustained. Not eating your exercise calories is counter to how it is set up to work.9 -
I eat back those earned from intentional exercise, if I am hungry.
If I had a busy day running around and got an extra handful, I don't worry about it.1 -
I try not to eat back my walking calories, or even my exercise calories but I like knowing that they are there if I need a little bit more substance. For example if I want a protein shake after exercise
I do try not to make a habit of it, I'm still struggling at the mo with this but I'll get there in the end! 1 -
For myself I just keep mfp set as sedentary and let fitbit do it's thing as far as measuring my activity level since it always changes a little but no where near sedentary. I then eat most of my adjustment. I tried not to eat any adjustments in the beginning but was miserable. We always burn calories and the more we move the more we burn so please eat!!4
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JohnWelssh wrote: »Eating back your burnt Calories seems counterproductive if your aim is to loose weight.
Purposeful exercise of any kind is not factored into your calorie goal, so not counter-productive at all.
NEAT (determined by gender, age, height, weight & chosen non-exercise activity level - CALORIE DEFICIT (determined by weight loss rate) = CALORIE GOAL
CALORIE GOAL + CALORIES BURNED THROUGH EXERCISE = TOTAL CALORIE GOAL FOR DAY
As mentioned by other posters, the accuracy can be questionable if using MFP's database, machine readings and some fitness trackers, however you can start out eating 50% of calories burned and reviewing weight loss progress after a month and adjust as necessary. I've found my own tracker to be spot on (Garmin Vivoactive HR) and eat back all of my calorie adjustment, still losing at my expected rate.1 -
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JerSchmare wrote: »I only get extra calories from steps when I exceed a ton of steps. I'm not exactly clear on how it all works,
If you have a tracker/step app synced, it gives you X amount of steps per day for the activity level you have set MFP to, once you have exceeded that amount of steps you then receive additional calories. If you have negative adjustments enabled and you're not reaching the number of steps for your activity level it will also give you a negative calorie adjustment.
For example if I have myself set to Lightly Active MFP expects me to register around 5000 steps per day, if I stayed in bed all day then it would deduct calories from my goal. If I hit 10000 steps then it will give me a calorie adjustment for the 5000 extra steps that I've done because the first 5000 are already accounted for in my calorie goal.
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I have switched from using my Apple watch to a Jawbone for activity. The Apple watch used to give me 30-60 calories positive adjustment per day, whereas my Jawbone gives me 400-600 per day. That makes me very hesitant to use those extra calories. How do I know which one is correct when they are so vastly different?0
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Hey, it all depends whether you're hungry, I wouldn't force myself to eat back calories if you're not hungry, my calorie goal is set to 1370 but I burn about 500 a day so I tend to eat around a total of 1700 so my net is around 1200, but I tend to plan my meals ahead so I can figure out how much to burn so I can make sure my net is around 1200, I tend to lose an average of 2lbs per week but that's just me personally, you may have a higher or lower daily calorie goal than me and different goals.0
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justjoyriding wrote: »I have switched from using my Apple watch to a Jawbone for activity. The Apple watch used to give me 30-60 calories positive adjustment per day, whereas my Jawbone gives me 400-600 per day. That makes me very hesitant to use those extra calories. How do I know which one is correct when they are so vastly different?
You will be able to determine accuracy by comparing the weight loss rate you're actually seeing with the weight loss rate you have set in your MFP settings. If you were seeing a higher loss with the apple watch then it may not have been accurate.
What sort of exercise are you doing to burn 400-600 and what are your stats (age,weight, height)
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For now I am keeping to the same calories because I'm averaging 1.64 per week. I've got about 23 left for my first goal, then I'll decide whether I want to keep the same rate or bring it down to .5 to 1 per week, which might happen naturally at a lower weight anyway.
I'm just curious why it is so different and if anybody has an experience with the two devices or has heard anything. I was thinking the Jawbone is a little closer to accurate since losing that extra .64 is about 320 calories more deficit per day, but I'm enjoying losing the extra amount so I'm leaving it alone for now.
I use Dance Dance Revolution for my main source of aerobic activity and only about 30 minutes a day, so I end up with about 10,000 steps throughout the whole day, including the dancing. I don't add any extra exercise.0 -
It may just be the settings you had in your apple watch that had you at a higher activity level and therefore a lower calorie adjustment. Keep an eye on the weight loss rate and just adjust as necessary, especially if you find yourself hungrier than normal.2
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I ignore my calories burned and just try to eat the number of calories I am allocated for my age, height, weight and fitness level. Knowing that I can go over occasionally for a treat or a night out b/c of calories burned helps me to not feel overly devastated when I hit that red bar of shame.0
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I ignore my calories burned and just try to eat the number of calories I am allocated for my age, height, weight and fitness level. Knowing that I can go over occasionally for a treat or a night out b/c of calories burned helps me to not feel overly devastated when I hit that red bar of shame.
The red number isn't a red bar of shame
and if you're only just over your calorie goal you'd still be in a deficit, it can be helpful to understand your numbers, either by looking at the maintenance option in MFP or by using a TDEE calculator. It's also worth looking at your calorie deficit over the week, a lot of people "bank" calories during the week for a weekend or for an occasion.
For example my calorie goal is 1600 (I've manually adjusted this), my TDEE at sedentary is 2150 so my goal gives me a 550 deficit per day, if I was to be -200 calories in MFP, I'm still in a 350 calorie deficit and would still lose weight just at a slightly slower rate or at the same rate if I was under by 200 calories later in the week.
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justjoyriding wrote: »I have switched from using my Apple watch to a Jawbone for activity. The Apple watch used to give me 30-60 calories positive adjustment per day, whereas my Jawbone gives me 400-600 per day. That makes me very hesitant to use those extra calories. How do I know which one is correct when they are so vastly different?
I've seen a LOT of threads in the feedback forum about the Apple watch and iPhone step tracker calorie adjustments. Many of the users have been reporting that the calorie burn is far below what it used to be and is no longer accurate for them.
Assuming your Jawbone is similar to a Fitbit, it will take some time to "get to know you."
You might want to eat back half of those calories for 4-6 weeks and see how things go. If you're gaining weight, you'll know the numbers are wrong then!
~Lyssa0 -
The problem is, I do not trust the tracker app on my phone. The numbers I get from my step tracker do not seem to match the numbers I get when I google cals burned for the steps I take. I am not starving myself. I think I will adjust from sedentary to light activity if I find I am struggling with appetite. Thanks for all of the tips everyone.0
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You can eat back your calories from any type of exercise.
Personally, I don't eat them all back because I find the calorie "expenditure" to generally be inflated. But I know many people on here eat back all their exercise calories (whatever type of exercise it is) and continue to lose. Experiment. Eat them all back. Stop losing? Eat only 3/4 of them back. And so on until you find your sweet spot.
This is really good advice. I sometimes eat back my calories if I'm exceptionally hungry but the next day it seems to balance out because I find that those hungry days don't hit me all of the time (thank god). Use your judgement and eat back some to see if you are still able to lose weight and adjust accordingly.0 -
Follow this chart:
You can eat back your calories from any type of exercise.
Personally, I don't eat them all back because I find the calorie "expenditure" to generally be inflated. But I know many people on here eat back all their exercise calories (whatever type of exercise it is) and continue to lose. Experiment. Eat them all back. Stop losing? Eat only 3/4 of them back. And so on until you find your sweet spot.
As @LAWoman72 and others have said it's a Science Experiment and you are the Study Subject.
Most of the MFP pre-defined calorie burns appear to be higher than other sources.
So do the experiment, eat back 3/4 or 1/2 of the estimated Calories Burned for at least a 3-4 week period and then analyze and adjust. It's important to do it over a longer time period as we all have natural body rhythm fluctuations that will affect our weight.
Also added links to some good reads in the Stickies
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300331/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads#latest
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300319/most-helpful-posts-general-diet-and-weight-loss-help-must-reads#latest
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300312/most-helpful-posts-food-and-nutrition-must-reads#latest
http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/a-beginners-guide-to-your-metabolism/
http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/quick-easy-guide-creating-calorie-deficit/0
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