Fitbit Flex Confusion/Calories Burned

turtlez23

Jeez Fitbit confuses me so much. It says my boyfriend burned 2000 calories and walked 3500 steps but he actually just sat as his desk all day. Me on the other hand it says I took 6,000 steps and burned 400 calories but it makes sense because I did walk around a lot today. Anyone have any advice?

editorgrrl

The only way to gauge the accuracy of your Fitbit is to eat back your adjustments for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress.

I lost the weight & have maintained for six months, so my Fitbit is 100% accurate.

heybales

Same devices?

Same non-dominate or dominate hand?

And was that a daily 2000 calorie burn? - which is small for a guy, but probably right for sitting around.

Where exactly are you reading what was burned? Because it doesn't report what was burned by the steps, but by being alive AND your steps. Since you burn calories sleeping, it's probably higher than you think.

turtlez23

We both have ours on our non dominate hand. I see the calories burned on his app where it has that little flame, unless you are saying that is the amount of calories your body burns just doing nothing?

Cause right now mine says, 1,488 calories burned, but then when I check MFP which syncs with Fitbit it says i burned 89 calories today....

editorgrrl

Your Fitbit "calories burned" is your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). It isn't just exercise, it's everything—including BMR, which is the calories your body burns just being alive (breathing, pumping blood, digestion, etc., etc.). Your TDEE is your maintenance calories. I have maintained my weight for six months by eating my Fitbit calories. To lose, eat 250 less than your Fitbit burn for every 25 lbs. you're overweight. If you connect your accounts and set your goal appropriately, MFP will adjust your calories for you.* Easy peasy!

TDEE is affected by sex, age, height, weight, etc. Men burn way more calories than women—the lucky so & so's!

Edited to add click on your 89-calorie adjustment for details. It's the difference between your Fitbit burn and your MFP activity level. Sounds like you may have set your activity level unrealistically high.

turtlez23

Hi Editorgrrl- Okay thanks that makes sense on the TDEE and BMR part, however, on MFP I have my goals set to sedentary (sitting at desk all day). I did however, manually change my calories to 1430 instead of the 1200 that MFP wanted to give me since I was hungry all the time.

So for today, I did kickboxing for 50 mins and brought my fitbit with me, I synced it with MFP and MFP now states that I burned 380 "exercise" calories which seems legit.

What do you think?

editorgrrl

turtlez23 wrote: »

I did however, manually change my calories to 1430 instead of the 1200 that MFP wanted to give me since I was hungry all the time.

Set your goal to .5 lb. for each 25 lbs. you need to lose: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

Enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

Eat back your Fitbit calorie adjustments. If you follow these directions, you'll be eating TDEE minus an appropriate deficit.

turtlez23

okay I set my goal of .5lbs and MFP adjusted my calories to 1830. I don't really want to eat that many calories though.

I enabled negative adjustments (even though I sync my Fitbit many times a day).

I am still so very confused.

thanks for your help.

editorgrrl

If you disable negative calorie adjustments, you won't eat at a deficit whenever you're less active than your MFP activity level. It has nothing to do with how often you sync.

I was shocked how many calories Fitbit told me to eat. But I lost the weight, and have maintained for six months. Give it a couple of weeks, then reevaluate your progress.

heybales

turtlez23 wrote: »

Hi Editorgrrl- Okay thanks that makes sense on the TDEE and BMR part, however, on MFP I have my goals set to sedentary (sitting at desk all day). I did however, manually change my calories to 1430 instead of the 1200 that MFP wanted to give me since I was hungry all the time.

So for today, I did kickboxing for 50 mins and brought my fitbit with me, I synced it with MFP and MFP now states that I burned 380 "exercise" calories which seems legit.

What do you think?

I'll bet badly underestimated calorie count that Fitbit saw. It saw steps, and calculated calories burned on those steps either walking or running, depending on impact and frequency of steps. But kickboxing is more effort than the steps would indicate.

And while that calorie adjustment (which is what it is called right there on MFP) may be listed under exercise, it is NOT just exercise, it is the total difference between what MFP thought you'd burn sedentary with no exercise, and what Fitbit saw doing whatever.

You could have a non-exercise very active day with a huge positive adjustment.
You could have an intense workout day sleeping many extra hours with no adjustment.

So if you manually changed your eating goal, the math between MFP and Fitbit is done with a figure you haven't touched, your MFP daily maintenance, or it's estimate of non-exercise TDEE, but then that difference is added to your manually made eating goal.
Which is fine, but you can usually select a reasonable deficit in the first place, because you made it become 1200 actually by your selection.

With 24 lbs to go, you could be reasonable with a 1 lb weekly loss goal, until you get to 10 lbs left. Then 1/2 is more reasonable.

But you need to manually correct those workouts that are not step based, for better accuracy.

Isn't that why you bought the device anyway, better accuracy about what you burn, and therefore what you should eat?