MFP calories needed

Use the guided setup and use a sensible weekly weightloss goal. Everything that gets you above 1200 as a woman, and 1500 as a man is likely sensible as these are the lowest numbers mpf will give you, regardless of whether this will result in the goal you set or not.

toadflaxbex wrote: »

I’m currently set to eating 1400 which is 1000 cals deficit (2400). For example yesterday I burned roughly 4100 throughout the day says Fitbit and my exercise adjustment was around 1700. (3200). Giving me my 1000 deficit roughly. That’s right isn’t it?

Remember it's not just an exercise adjustment - it's everything, it just appears in the exercise diary as that's the only place it can go.

What did you do throughout the day to get to 4100?
That's an unusually large TDEE estimate for a day - I would expect that on a day when I cycle about three hours.

toadflaxbex wrote: »

I went for a 3-4 mile walk 95% in zone. Took my bathroom tiles down which was hard work. I did over 15k steps. Im a large lady so that’s likely why higher calories burned? On a non day where I don’t do a walk and just potter around doing less than 3k steps I generally burn about 2500-2700

I don't know what "large" means to you but that still sounds quite high, especially for less than 3000 steps. On Saturday I did 16,900 steps and burned 2270 calories in total that day. We are probably not the same height/weight/age so your values will differ of course, but that seems a very big difference.

toadflaxbex wrote: »

Yeah I think my Fitbit is screwed tbh. I think it’s wayyy over estimating. I’m 132kg 5’5 age 42. I’ve factory reset it and it’s still giving me higher numbers than expected. Tbh I don’t eat my exercise cals I’m just interested in what I burn. I think I will send it back and get a different one. My original versa was more accurate but it stopped registering HR.

I saw another thread of yours and, indeed, it is possibly your Fitbit is over-estimating especially when your heart rate is high. However neither your 4100 day or your regular 2500-2700 days are EGREGIOUS given your current weight and height and median statistical estimates.

Your BMR per Mifflin St. Jeor, which is the one used on MFP is 1981 Calories a day which is what you would burn sitting unthinking and unmoving in your bed doing nothing.

3000 steps is within sedentary activity guidelines (which would generally start moving slowly into lightly active at about this level) and a median caloric estimate for someone moving around that much is 1.25*BMR... or just about 2476 Calories.

I posit to our protesters that seeing 2500-2700 when expecting 2476 does not seem THAT far-fetched to me.

A 15000 Step day could easily fall at the limits of MFP very active or it could also fall above that. Getting a 4100 day from a BMR of 1981 is an activity level of 2.07, slightly higher than the 1.8 that MFP uses for very active.

Is it likely to be a slightly high estimate? Knowing what I do about how Fitbit counts inactivity vs activity, and that it is likely that heart rate comes into play giving an extra caloric "boost" to the estimate, yes, it is probably a slightly high estimate. BUT, again, NOT egregiously high.

BUT, then again, not everyone tracks with the statistical averages. MOST do, by definition. But some of us will be off, a very few of us even by a lot.

The best bet is to monitor your estimated deficits over a long enough period of time (for women that would be about 6 weeks with special attention paid to matching positions in monthly cycles to account for hormonal water retention), and compare the expectation of weight loss to what your weight TREND has done during the same time period. Then you will know how accurate the totality of your logging is for you, validated against how your body is reacting

May I suggest that if you're using a Fitbit, using trendweight.com might be a good fit? Happy Scale is useful to iPhone people and Libra for Android, weightgrapher.com for people without a free fitbit.com account... or you can of course pick different ones... these were the ones I stumbled on a few years back when I started advocating their use!

To be honest, I'm not sure a new fitbit will help as it will likely use the same algorithm, the same firmware. The sensor might be different. They could make a difference in how they measure movement and HR, but I'm not sure just moving about will trigger the use of the HR sensor.