Fitbit - Am I really burning this much?

Cat_Lifts

Hey there, just got my new Fitbit Zip a few days ago. I work a lightly active job, retail/grocery business in a bakery which requires half of the job just standing to pack product, and the other half consisting of squatting for products, lifting and moving heavy boxes for bread (putting away loads), stocking walls, walking across the store multiple times throughout the day, and plenty of back and forth movement in the department.

I weight 192, I'm 5'2" and have a bodyfat percentage of 34%. I have not calculated an "average" day yet, meaning no exercise included, but the last two days I *have* worked out and burned 267 the first day, and 265 today. This is what my total calories for the last two days burned looks like:

Day 1: Exercise calories burned - 267.
Total calories burned for the day: 2564

Day 2: Exercise calories burned: 265
Total calories burned for the day: 2831

and still have less than an hour until midnight! So a projected 2900ish! :noway:

My question is, is this a huge amount to be burning given my physical stats? Is it true the heavier you are, the more you burn? Is it unrealistic to burn this much with the exercise included? With exercise (jogging), I average about 11k steps a day.

p.s. Online TDEE's put me at 2000-2300ish for sedentary to light activity. My exercise is not consistent, so I do not add that in when my computing my TDEE due to my inconsistent workout days.

MySlimGoals

Hi, I have a fitbit too. Firstly you need to make sure you don't log your exercise twice. Have you got your fitbit connected to MFP? If so you never have to add any exercise into MFP again - your fitbit will put it in by itself. Use MFP just to put in your food, and don't put your food into the fitbit site as well. Also you need to set your MFP and fitbit settings to Sedentary not active. You also need to decide whether or not to have fitbit adjust your calories on days you do less. I chose to have this on, so on those days it tells MFP I eat less calories. After that it should be right. It does seem high from what you said, but I was that weight a short time ago, and I was eating around 1400-1600 per day and not eating back my exercise calories. You have to decide what is best for you - you have those extra calories to eat if you need them. If you're truly hungry after work then you probably do need to eat some of them back.

Katmary71

I'll let someone better than I am explain more, just wanted to say I definitely wouldn't rate yourself as being sedentary! I'm limited due to nerve damage and unable to work- I do what I can, but it's hard to get out and work out, and when I do, it for a few hours here and there as far as getting out. Working out is short amounts of time, and definitely not doing Insanity (I wish I could just go nuts in the gym like I used to!). I'm the definition of sedentary. Definitely reconsider and if that's what you put yourself down as, it sounds like you're a lot more active at work than you realize. It sounds more like you may be moderate, though I don't remember the exact definition, just thinking with the amount of physical work you're doing, you may be more active than you realize (as you're learning).

If you spend some time looking at how much lifting and moving boxes about the weight of the ones you lift are (say lifting weights at a 50 pounds for 30 minutes), you'll be surprised at how much you likely burn at work.

I do think we burn more being heavier, it's more weight to support and lug around than if we were at our goal weight. I have a feeling you're burning more than you think, which would be great! I've been playing with the idea of getting a Fitbit, but don't think that would be close to my numbers!

Kat

MySlimGoals

The reason I said for her to put sedentary is because the fitbit will quickly compensate for that with any moving around she does. It is meant to calculate true exercise calories done. So even though she isn't sedentary it will work that out. You could play around with putting moderate, but it may put your calories too low. They do look very high at the moment, but there is no way for me to really know if you deserve that credit in calories or not.

Cat_Lifts

The reason I said for her to put sedentary is because the fitbit will quickly compensate for that with any moving around she does. It is meant to calculate true exercise calories done. So even though she isn't sedentary it will work that out. You could play around with putting moderate, but it may put your calories too low. They do look very high at the moment, but there is no way for me to really know if you deserve that credit in calories or not.

So I don't need to put down exercise calories on MFP? I saw a post saying when you work out, make sure you log what time you start your activity and for how many minutes/how much you burned (I have an HRM for calorie estimate) and that will allow your Fitbit to know that you increased activity by working out. I was told not to log food on fitbit or exercise either, since that all will come from MFP.

I also could not find an option to change my activity level at the fitbit website but know where to find it here on MFP.

edit: From a Fitbit Moderator:

One thing that is really important to understand about this integration is that it was designed to easily allow you to use MyFitnessPal to log foods, exercises and water and to use your Fitbit tracker to track your general calories burned, steps and sleep minutes. If you try to use Fitbit to log foods and exercises you will likely see problems with double counted data, etc...

double edit: Now just came across this:

"Please note that if you are wearing your Fitbit during the day, we recommend that you NOT log any exercise on your MyFitnessPal Exercise Diary that the Fitbit excels at tracking: this includes walking, jogging, running, climbing stairs or hills, or daily home or office activity." :frown: