Calories earned from steps
tomschroe83
Posts: 15 Member
Should you eat back calories from steps? My fit bit gave me 345 extra calories from walking 10000 steps today and I ate them all back except 17. I want to know if anyone else eats back calories from only step added calories and still manage to lose weight or if I should just stay with my original deficit.
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Replies
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I eat mine back most of the time. At first I was skeptical so I didn’t eat many of them back, but based on lots of data I now know that I should have been eating them back. You can start by eating some of them and see how it goes, or start by eating them al back. Adjust as needed after a few weeks of keeping up the same system.3
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This is just me, but I don’t eat back generic walking calories. I suspect my watch gives me credit for too many steps. I’m a waver and gesturer, do needlepoint and crochet, and wear my watch on my dominant right wrist, all of which contribute towards over credit.
Many people on MFP only eat back half their excercise calories because many believe that their devices over credit on all forms of excercise.0 -
Thank you! That's good advice I will start with eating only half back and hopefully I will still be losing a pound a week and if not I'm not gonna eat them back. 345 calories does seem like a lot to tack on to my 1360 calories1
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One thing that I think is important to know: Your Fitbit adjustment is not for the number of steps you did. It’s a calorie burn comparison.
Fitbit is saying based on whatever you did today you burned 345 calories more than MFP expected you to based on your activity level setting (10,000 steps is about MFPS Active setting).
The math is:
Fitbit Calorie burned - MFP Activity Calorie Burn = +/- adjustment
For example:
My tracker estimates I burned 2331 based on my activity for the day.
MFP estimates I burn 1866 calories a day when set to Lightly Active.
2331 - 1866 = 465
I burned approximately 465 calories more than MFP thought I would burn for the day. To keep my deficit at a modest 250 calories a day I will need to eat an additional 465 calories.
For me Fitbits with HRMs are close enough to my actual TDEE for me to eat all the calories back. Without a HRM they actually underestimate a bit for me.12 -
Whats hrm?0
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Heart rate monitor0
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Oh 😃 ya my fit bit does not have a hrm. That would be nice though0
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tomschroe83 wrote: »Should you eat back calories from steps? My fit bit gave me 345 extra calories from walking 10000 steps today and I ate them all back except 17. I want to know if anyone else eats back calories from only step added calories and still manage to lose weight or if I should just stay with my original deficit.
What did you set your activity level to in MFP? (Sedentary, Active, etc.)
My old fitness tracker over-estimated my step calories. My new one matches up well based on years of data.0 -
I eat back some. I have my activity set to light, because my daily work tasks vary from day to day. I may be sitting at a desk or I may be running all over a warehouse pulling heavy boxes from racks. My FitBit has a HRM, so it bases my calorie burn on my heart rate. For example, today it said I got in 11,020 steps and burned 3,931 calories. I was doing a lot of manual labor. Other days I may get in 11,000 steps and burn 2,400 calories.0
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tomschroe83 wrote: »Should you eat back calories from steps? My fit bit gave me 345 extra calories from walking 10000 steps today and I ate them all back except 17. I want to know if anyone else eats back calories from only step added calories and still manage to lose weight or if I should just stay with my original deficit.
What did you set your activity level to in MFP? (Sedentary, Active, etc.)
My old fitness tracker over-estimated my step calories. My new one matches up well based on years of data.
My activity level is lightly active0 -
I eat back half of calories earnt by exercise but I also cap that at a maximum of 400 per day.0
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OooohToast wrote: »I eat back half of calories earnt by exercise but I also cap that at a maximum of 400 per day.
Might want to read above explanation from shadow2soul.
The adjustment is not just, or may not even be, exercise calories - but merely MFP correcting itself from your guess of 4 rough activity levels to what you really did today.2 -
Calories are not from steps. I know the app makes that confusing as hell, but if you use the website it makes a bit more sense.
Your fitbit or Garmin or whatever you calculates your tdee.1 -
I usually only eat 1/2 my calories back.0
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I've been eating my calories back (some days just part of them). I mainly want to make sure my net is over the 1200 mark and without eating the exercise calories, I won't hit it. Losing weight at .5-1 per week.2
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Glad I found this thread!! My setup on MFP is set to sedentary so my calorie intake is recommended at 1241cal/day. My average steps on FitBit (no hrm) is about 6,000steps. What I noticed is that MFP will tell me I'm over budget or on budget with calorie intake but the fitbit app tells me I'm under budget nearly every single day! (Though I end up consuming between 1300 and 1500cal/day). I don't record dedicated walking workouts on MFP instead I let the steps transfer over to MFP from FitBit. Does anyone else do something similar?0
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keananaki13 wrote: »Glad I found this thread!! My setup on MFP is set to sedentary so my calorie intake is recommended at 1241cal/day. My average steps on FitBit (no hrm) is about 6,000steps. What I noticed is that MFP will tell me I'm over budget or on budget with calorie intake but the fitbit app tells me I'm under budget nearly every single day! (Though I end up consuming between 1300 and 1500cal/day). I don't record dedicated walking workouts on MFP instead I let the steps transfer over to MFP from FitBit. Does anyone else do something similar?
FYI - the steps you see are merely a figure to display - nothing else is done with them on MFP.
That adjustment you get on MFP is merely to correct the fact you are not Sedentary according to Fitbit's report of your daily burn, and what MFP calculated you'd burn.
Fitbit's own math for eating goal is different than MFP, especially projected for the day as it goes on.
End of the day they should both match.
But recommend not attempting to follow 2 roads to the same destination - confusing and can be aggravating.
MFP for food related goals & logging (despite the name MyFitnessPal).
Fitbit for movement related goals and logging.3 -
OooohToast wrote: »I eat back half of calories earnt by exercise but I also cap that at a maximum of 400 per day.
Might want to read above explanation from shadow2soul.
The adjustment is not just, or may not even be, exercise calories - but merely MFP correcting itself from your guess of 4 rough activity levels to what you really did today.
Thanks - But I am not using a Fitbit or any other gadget / app.
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OooohToast wrote: »OooohToast wrote: »I eat back half of calories earnt by exercise but I also cap that at a maximum of 400 per day.
Might want to read above explanation from shadow2soul.
The adjustment is not just, or may not even be, exercise calories - but merely MFP correcting itself from your guess of 4 rough activity levels to what you really did today.
Thanks - But I am not using a Fitbit or any other gadget / app.
oh sorry - that's what this topic was about, hence the assumption.1 -
OooohToast wrote: »OooohToast wrote: »I eat back half of calories earnt by exercise but I also cap that at a maximum of 400 per day.
Might want to read above explanation from shadow2soul.
The adjustment is not just, or may not even be, exercise calories - but merely MFP correcting itself from your guess of 4 rough activity levels to what you really did today.
Thanks - But I am not using a Fitbit or any other gadget / app.
oh sorry - that's what this topic was about, hence the assumption.
My bad I think - I didnt clock the significance of 'steps'.
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OooohToast wrote: »OooohToast wrote: »I eat back half of calories earnt by exercise but I also cap that at a maximum of 400 per day.
Might want to read above explanation from shadow2soul.
The adjustment is not just, or may not even be, exercise calories - but merely MFP correcting itself from your guess of 4 rough activity levels to what you really did today.
Thanks - But I am not using a Fitbit or any other gadget / app.
Then perhaps you should indicate that (as well as what you're using to estimate Calories out) when suggesting what you did since you suggested it in a thread where the op is using a tracker.
Other than hearsay, what makes you believe that your estimation of calories spent is 100% off as compared to the real actual ones you're spending? I mean if you're eating 50% that means that your estimates are double!!!
Now 0.25 * BMR / 1440 * minutes of exercise (or 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 depending on your MFP activity setting) may be on account of the calories given to you not being NET Calories... but what makes you believe the rest are so far off if your food intake logging is accurate?1 -
OooohToast wrote: »OooohToast wrote: »I eat back half of calories earnt by exercise but I also cap that at a maximum of 400 per day.
Might want to read above explanation from shadow2soul.
The adjustment is not just, or may not even be, exercise calories - but merely MFP correcting itself from your guess of 4 rough activity levels to what you really did today.
Thanks - But I am not using a Fitbit or any other gadget / app.
Then perhaps you should indicate that (as well as what you're using to estimate Calories out) when suggesting what you did since you suggested it in a thread where the op is using a tracker.
Other than hearsay, what makes you believe that your estimation of calories spent is 100% off as compared to the real actual ones you're spending? I mean if you're eating 50% that means that your estimates are double!!!
Now 0.25 * BMR / 1440 * minutes of exercise (or 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 depending on your MFP activity setting) may be on account of the calories given to you not being NET Calories... but what makes you believe the rest are so far off if your food intake logging is accurate?
Wow........have I triggered you in some way ?4 -
OooohToast wrote: »OooohToast wrote: »OooohToast wrote: »I eat back half of calories earnt by exercise but I also cap that at a maximum of 400 per day.
Might want to read above explanation from shadow2soul.
The adjustment is not just, or may not even be, exercise calories - but merely MFP correcting itself from your guess of 4 rough activity levels to what you really did today.
Thanks - But I am not using a Fitbit or any other gadget / app.
Then perhaps you should indicate that (as well as what you're using to estimate Calories out) when suggesting what you did since you suggested it in a thread where the op is using a tracker.
Other than hearsay, what makes you believe that your estimation of calories spent is 100% off as compared to the real actual ones you're spending? I mean if you're eating 50% that means that your estimates are double!!!
Now 0.25 * BMR / 1440 * minutes of exercise (or 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 depending on your MFP activity setting) may be on account of the calories given to you not being NET Calories... but what makes you believe the rest are so far off if your food intake logging is accurate?
Wow........have I triggered you in some way ?
Not you *personally*. I even see in another post that you in fact follow the idea of correcting based on one's personal trend.
But you didn't mention that in your post that I commented on.
The general idea that calories spent on activity are somehow not real and can be ignored, yes, I am sure it is somewhat annoying to me!
Because it often leads to under-eating and excess deficits which seldom turn out to the benefit of the people attempting them.
Suggesting half the exercise calories and monitoring one's weight trend and adjusting after four to six weeks based on results.... makes sense when dealing with modest deficits.
I note that your post, at face value, suggests that a 24 hour ultramarathon racer should eat half their calories and cap them at 400.
Plus now that you mention it, I am concluding that I may be somewhat cranky today because the internet was not working on my desktop because Windows 10 and 2 hours to resolve between last night and this morning!!!!!6
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