Over estimating calories.

tcatcarson2
tcatcarson2 Posts: 8 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi folks,

I'm not new to MFP by any means but I can't get my head round the calories my wife is being provided with.

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1370 calories for steps and a cycle seems huge - at the end of the day she had eaten well, wasn't hungry but was fretting that she should find another 1000 calories to consume! The cycle was with a heart rate monitor so should be accurate, but is Garmin/MFP making a mistake with the steps?

Replies

  • Ann262
    Ann262 Posts: 266 Member
    If she is wearing a fitness monitor, (doesn't everyone these days?) then it is counting all her steps all day and giving her exercise credit for them. Some of that "activity" is just normal life. I would say, if you ate well all day and are satisfied, listen to your body, don't go find more to eat. If truly hungry, and you have some calories left, have something to eat. Not necessarily another 1000 calories, though.
  • tcatcarson2
    tcatcarson2 Posts: 8 Member
    Thanks, that sounds about right. She has her activity level set to sedentary so the watch can calculate any additional exercise calories on top of her goal and gets frustrated when the tech seems to be not working! (But she's losing weight and getting fit so it's all good news!)
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,874 Member
    I have to say those numbers look very high to me. I have a Garmin as well and I get nowhere near 900 extra calories for 13000 steps. I had 13600 steps yesterday, which gave me 267 calories extra.
  • tcatcarson2
    tcatcarson2 Posts: 8 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    I have to say those numbers look very high to me. I have a Garmin as well and I get nowhere near 900 extra calories for 13000 steps. I had 13600 steps yesterday, which gave me 267 calories extra.

    That sounds more like we'd expect, but I can't find a setting which makes a difference.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,874 Member
    How many calories burned does the Connect app give for that day?
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    edited June 2020
    If you take 2 people of exact same stats (height, weight, age, gender) and both walk 13,000 steps in a day and have the same weight loss goal entered for daily deficit:

    Person A sets MFP to Active
    Person B sets MFP to Sedentary

    A will have a higher initial calorie goal and smaller adjustment
    B will have a lower initial calorie goal and larger adjustment

    End result is the same. She could consider changing her goals/settings on MFP to perhaps be lightly active, and 1 pound per week loss rate (if she has it set to 1.5-2 pounds now). Then she can just ignore the exercise calories, with the goal of losing 1 pound per week from what she consumes and additional for activity/exercise.
    tcatcarson2 wrote: »
    Lietchi wrote: »
    I have to say those numbers look very high to me. I have a Garmin as well and I get nowhere near 900 extra calories for 13000 steps. I had 13600 steps yesterday, which gave me 267 calories extra.

    That sounds more like we'd expect, but I can't find a setting which makes a difference.

  • pridesabtch
    pridesabtch Posts: 2,477 Member
    I had to un-sync my Garmin because of this. I don't count calories from steps unless it is dedicated exercise. I just enter my actual exercise calories from Garmin into MFP.

    Best of luck!
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,874 Member
    nanamerriman2020 wrote: »
    If you take 2 people of exact same stats (height, weight, age, gender) and both walk 13,000 steps in a day and have the same weight loss goal entered for daily deficit:

    Person A sets MFP to Active
    Person B sets MFP to Sedentary

    A will have a higher initial calorie goal and smaller adjustment
    B will have a lower initial calorie goal and larger adjustment

    End result is the same. She could consider changing her goals/settings on MFP to perhaps be lightly active, and 1 pound per week loss rate (if she has it set to 1.5-2 pounds now). Then she can just ignore the exercise calories, with the goal of losing 1 pound per week from what she consumes and additional for activity/exercise.
    tcatcarson2 wrote: »
    Lietchi wrote: »
    I have to say those numbers look very high to me. I have a Garmin as well and I get nowhere near 900 extra calories for 13000 steps. I had 13600 steps yesterday, which gave me 267 calories extra.

    That sounds more like we'd expect, but I can't find a setting which makes a difference.

    Well, I'm also set at sedentary, so in that way the adjustment can be compared.
    But we don't know anything about the wife though. As for me, I'm 37, female, 1m66 (5ft5) and 75.5kg (166.5lbs).

    Some potential solutions:
    - is her activity class setting set (too) high?
    - does she have a higher than normal heart rate (or perhaps the trackers is getting false HR readings that are too high)?
  • Xiaolongbao
    Xiaolongbao Posts: 854 Member
    I wish that was true! I am set at sedentary and I don't log any walking calories (minimum of 10000 steps a day I usually try to go over 12000). I'd love to think I was secretly accumulation 900 extra calories of deficit each day). Sadly though the results indicate that's not the case.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,747 Member
    The numbers are definitely too high, unless she is very obese. For me, 13000 steps is about 6 miles, so 300 or so calories, and that includes every day living (wandering the house, shopping, etc.), so maybe 4 miles is actually deliberate exercise. As to the bike, when I do an hour on the bike, covering 22 miles, I burn about 300 calories. She might do better to not sync her watch to mfp, but just enter her deliberate exercise manually. OTOH, you said she is losing weight, so for now she can continue as she is until it isn't working any more.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,449 Member
    Well, I have to say...if I was trying to bike for 80 minutes AND getting in 13000 steps I'd be crashing pretty quickly on 1500 calories.

    I'd say more like 2000 total calories to eat on a day like that for a one pound per week loss. I'm assuming the wife only has 30 pounds or so to lose.

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