How sedentary IS sedentary according to MFP?

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serindipte
serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So.. I've been up for an hour. I have a total of 290 steps so far, and MFP is already giving me a calorie adjustment. I really don't get it. 13 extra calories for getting up, walking through the house and going to the bathroom a few times?

I'm really thinking about turning off the exercise adjustments and going back to my TDEE-% method I was using before. When I see those extra calories, my brain says EAT but I think that's backfiring on me even when I don't eat all or even most of them back most days.

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  • kiela64
    kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
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    Yeah I unsynched my activity tracker from MFP for this reason. I am often very sedentary and I think that my calorie burn from steps was over estimated. I log deliberate exercise or walks of over 10min.
  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
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    Yesterday, my total steps were 5,549 (I did one intentional walk of 1 mile at @3mph) and MFP gave me 628 extra calories..

    Yep, I'm going back to TDEE-%
  • workinonit1956
    workinonit1956 Posts: 1,043 Member
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    It seems accurate for me, I set my activity level to not very active and let Fitbit figure out the rest. Yesterday I had 7857 steps and my adjustment by the end of the day was 332. I had a lot of errands to do and snuck in a quick walk before dinner.
  • Calliope610
    Calliope610 Posts: 3,771 Member
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    I use my FitBit to track my activity and workouts. I DO NOT sync FitBit to MFP. I figured my basic daily activity (getting ready for work, brushing my teeth, etc, etc, etc) is the same now as it was when I was gaining weight, so why should that "activity" be counted towards a deficit just because my goal is to lose weight?

    My MFP daily calorie requirement is sedentary TDEE less 500calories for 1lb/wk weight loss. I do track my exercise calories (structured walks, hikes, cycling) as cardio workouts. I don't use the exercise calories burned in order to increase my daily calories - I use the exercise to increase my daily deficit.

    So far this has been working to the tune of 12lbs lost in 60 days.
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
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    MFP's definitions are here:

    How would you describe your normal daily activities?
    Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
    Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesperson)
    Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. food server, postal carrier)
    Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

    It relates specifically to the type of work or activities you do during a typical day. This may have been designed before everyone started on this modern craze of counting steps.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,108 Member
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    serindipte wrote: »
    Yesterday, my total steps were 5,549 (I did one intentional walk of 1 mile at @3mph) and MFP gave me 628 extra calories..

    Yep, I'm going back to TDEE-%

    What device are you using? Just curious

    I have a Charge 2 and am currently at 8893 steps with 1hr lifting and 40 min boxing this evening. My calorie adjustment is only 681. I usually have a negative adjustment until I get over 4000 steps and I never get more than a 500cal adjustment without working out and elevating my heart rate
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    It's pretty much like someone who works a desk job and pretty much the only walking they do is walking to and from their car.
  • PokeyBug
    PokeyBug Posts: 482 Member
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    Calliope610 wrote: »
    I don't use the exercise calories burned in order to increase my daily calories - I use the exercise to increase my daily deficit.

    That's me, except for those days I get extremely hungry, but even then, I try to eat as few exercise calories as I can get away with.

  • layladrew26
    layladrew26 Posts: 111 Member
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    Mine varies a lot. I could do 8000 steps one day it'll give me about 400 extra calories then I could do 10000 steps and it'll only give me 300 more. I think it depends on the intensity of your activity. My fitbit is a charge 2 so has a heart rate monitor.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    Seems buggy. Do you have negative calories enabled? I mean, it's 10am, been up for 2 hours, I have 450 steps, and I'm at -87 calories so far. MFP setting is sedentary.
  • Rocknut53
    Rocknut53 Posts: 1,794 Member
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    I use sedentary because some days I truly am fairly lazy. The only exercise I log is through mapmyhike or manual additions for certain physical day to day stuff, like hours of yard work, etc. I don't eat back all of those additional calories just some. I know everyone wants this to be exact, but the whole process is far from it. If you're losing weight, it's working, if you're not, you need to make some adjustments.
  • iowalinda
    iowalinda Posts: 354 Member
    edited June 2018
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    gebeziseva wrote: »
    My sedentiary is ~200cal less than MFP sedentiary ("my" as in "after two years collecting data in spreadsheets"). My sedentiary is just sitting down all day long really. MFP includes some ~5k steps in the sedentiary which I don't do on sedentiary days. 5k steps would be my intentional exercise which I log separately when I do it.

    So I don't follow MFPs calorie goal but my own. I've already lost the 30lbs I needed to lose exactly at the rate that I expected and I don't doubt my calculations. However they are completely individual. My calculations do not say anything about the ability of mfp to predict average burns in people in general.

    I would love to hear how this all works. Can you share what info you use on your spreadsheet and exactly how you draw conclusions from it? Trying to learn :) Do you need to have a fitness tracker watch to do this? I don't have one.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,771 Member
    edited June 2018
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    iowalinda wrote: »
    I would love to hear how this all works. Can you share what info you use on your spreadsheet and exactly how you draw conclusions from it? Trying to learn :) Do you need to have a fitness tracker watch to do this? I don't have one.

    I am not sure how @gebeziseva has set-up her spreadsheet and, of course, a tracker adds to the fun; but, it isn't necessary.

    The BASIC information I believe you need in order to gauge your progress is:

    # of days

    Calories eaten per day I use macros multiplied out, which absent alcohol tends to be a bit higher than MFP's number of calories as most products round down or discount 100% for fiber grams instead of a more accurate average of closer to ~50% as some fiber is still digestible

    Weight change in lbs based on what your trending weight app reported your weight to be

    Implicit daily deficit = weight change lbs*3500/days

    Implicit TDEE = Calories eaten MINUS implicit daily deficit

    Official TDEE In my case this is my daily Fitbit TDEE. Without a tracker it would be the official TDEE as reported by MFP. This would be your caloric allowance per day plus your chosen deficit plus any exercise you've logged on top

    and...

    The percentage difference between implicit and official tdee: [implicit - official]/official (formatted as a percentage)

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