Calorie numbers...how to interpret these pictures?
_Tzefira_
Posts: 65 Member
I know calorie questions have been done to death, but I wanted to put up a specific case and ask advice.
I'm a very short female who, prior to Fitbit, had been netting 1200 cals a day (without regard for TDEE as I really had no idea what my TDEE was). Now I've had a fitbit for over a week and have been watching its daily totals. I set Fitbit to a 500 calorie deficit (which it says is 1lb a week). MFP is also set to 1 lb a week loss, which it tells me should be a 520 cal/day deficit. I looked back at Saturday (it's now 2am Sunday) and see this:
...and I'm rather confused by it. It tells me I'm in the zone in one breath, but 630 calories over in the next? Surely FB doesn't mean for me to be eating 720 calories a day?
Meanwhile, MFP is telling me this:
...and that it's basing its calories on a projected 2113 from FB. If I ate 1591 calories I'd be in trouble. I realize MFP is trying to guess based on FB data up to a certain time, but does that mean MFP is basically unreliable now with FB synced?
And also, what on earth does FB mean telling me I'm 630 calories over? If I did indeed burn 1905 yesterday as it says and ate 1359 I should be good on a 500 cal deficit for the day, at least by the subtraction I learned in grade school.
Any clarification is welcome. I haven't been with FB very long so I don't mean to be dense, I'm just trying to figure out what to make of the numbers. Thanks!
I'm a very short female who, prior to Fitbit, had been netting 1200 cals a day (without regard for TDEE as I really had no idea what my TDEE was). Now I've had a fitbit for over a week and have been watching its daily totals. I set Fitbit to a 500 calorie deficit (which it says is 1lb a week). MFP is also set to 1 lb a week loss, which it tells me should be a 520 cal/day deficit. I looked back at Saturday (it's now 2am Sunday) and see this:
...and I'm rather confused by it. It tells me I'm in the zone in one breath, but 630 calories over in the next? Surely FB doesn't mean for me to be eating 720 calories a day?
Meanwhile, MFP is telling me this:
...and that it's basing its calories on a projected 2113 from FB. If I ate 1591 calories I'd be in trouble. I realize MFP is trying to guess based on FB data up to a certain time, but does that mean MFP is basically unreliable now with FB synced?
And also, what on earth does FB mean telling me I'm 630 calories over? If I did indeed burn 1905 yesterday as it says and ate 1359 I should be good on a 500 cal deficit for the day, at least by the subtraction I learned in grade school.
Any clarification is welcome. I haven't been with FB very long so I don't mean to be dense, I'm just trying to figure out what to make of the numbers. Thanks!
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Replies
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It just means that you haven't burnt enough calories yet to offset the food.0
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This could be because you have put the food in the diary before the day begins. It thinks that is what you have already eaten.0
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Or something is wrong with your settings0
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The pictures are of Saturday's end-of-day, taken early Sunday morning. I can't burn any more calories where Saturday's concerned. And I didn't enter that food before Saturday; I entered it at each meal. Last entry was around 9pm Saturday.0
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Have you synced at all since then ? It has been doing some weird things over the past few days.
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Also, with mine, I can look at my whole week and it will show as under. I then comeback even an hour later and half of them are "in the zone". Don't worry about it.0
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Don't worry about what?
It does say in the zone. But then it says 630 over below it, as you see. I'm just trying to understand what's going on, as if I am overeating by fitbit's opinion I would of course like to correct it.0 -
Do you log food in MyFitnessPal or Fitbit? I log everything only in MFP and just use the Fitbit dashboard as a visual of the day. Your MFP snapshot looks just like mine. We must have the same calorie numbers. I only go by MFP numbers and have seen some weird things happen on the Fitbit site over the past couple of months. The food I log in MFP carries over to the Fitbit site, but I've noticed that on some days when I've made food corrections by deleting a food item to add a different one from the database the Fitbit site will show double logs and tell me I've over eaten. Though in MFP the numbers have always stayed correct. So, like I said I just use the Fitbit as a visual and find it fun to see their numbers, but sometimes there are errors. As long as MFP numbers seem correct I don't worry about the Fitbit dashboard. I know that doesn't answer your question as to why, but at least you know that others are seeing similar issues.0
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I just checked mine and it says im 1000 calories over and i ate 1630. Its a bug in the system.0
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Do you log food in MyFitnessPal or Fitbit? I log everything only in MFP and just use the Fitbit dashboard as a visual of the day. Your MFP snapshot looks just like mine. We must have the same calorie numbers. I only go by MFP numbers and have seen some weird things happen on the Fitbit site over the past couple of months. The food I log in MFP carries over to the Fitbit site, but I've noticed that on some days when I've made food corrections by deleting a food item to add a different one from the database the Fitbit site will show double logs and tell me I've over eaten. Though in MFP the numbers have always stayed correct. So, like I said I just use the Fitbit as a visual and find it fun to see their numbers, but sometimes there are errors. As long as MFP numbers seem correct I don't worry about the Fitbit dashboard. I know that doesn't answer your question as to why, but at least you know that others are seeing similar issues.
I log food in MFP only. I saw this morning sometime between two a.m. and seven a.m. MFP adjusted my calories back down to match Fitbit's 1300-something. But that's rather unhelpful if it's telling me to eat 1500 all day and then overnight abruptly changes its mind. Yikes.0 -
myfatass78 wrote: »I just checked mine and it says im 1000 calories over and i ate 1630. Its a bug in the system.
Okay, good to know it happens to other people. Thanks!
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Another thing that might affect the adjustments is Calorie Estimation. I have calorie estimation disabled so that the Fitbit doesn't guess what I might burn. Instead it just gives me credit for what I do burn. Once in a while I may see a 10-30 calorie difference from night to morning in MFP, but not always and never huge numbers like you have seen. You might want to look and see if you have Calorie Estimation enabled and disable it. I'm not exactly sure where to find it for you, as it may have changed since I got mine a year ago. On my Fitbit dashboard it is under settings-preferences. If it's not there for you, look around and see if you can find it.0
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Another thing that might affect the adjustments is Calorie Estimation. I have calorie estimation disabled so that the Fitbit doesn't guess what I might burn. Instead it just gives me credit for what I do burn. Once in a while I may see a 10-30 calorie difference from night to morning in MFP, but not always and never huge numbers like you have seen. You might want to look and see if you have Calorie Estimation enabled and disable it. I'm not exactly sure where to find it for you, as it may have changed since I got mine a year ago. On my Fitbit dashboard it is under settings-preferences. If it's not there for you, look around and see if you can find it.
I've already got that disabled, but thank you!0 -
I just had breakfast of 310 calories and it is now telling me that i only have 310 calories left to eat today !!!
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Please everyone - forget that tile or info about being in the zone.
That is a snapshot of calorie burn and logged food up to that time right then and there.
No bearing on what you will likely burn all day, which your eating goal is actually based on.
Now, if you leave that tile and gauge out of it, is there still any confusion on the other more useful tiles?0 -
OP - why would you be in trouble eating 500 less than what you burn, merely 232 more calories?
Or have you slowed your system down from long term dieting that Fitbit's estimate of calorie burn is badly inflated now?0 -
Point is the mobile app is a bit screwy. It also thought that I ate 310 calories of almonds this morning. I have not eaten almonds since I have been logging food. I don't worry about that too much. I look at calories in vs calories out only.0
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Also my Fitbit Flex thought I was walking at a speed of 102km (63.3799) per hour today, so I take it with a grain of salt.0
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OP - why would you be in trouble eating 500 less than what you burn, merely 232 more calories?
Or have you slowed your system down from long term dieting that Fitbit's estimate of calorie burn is badly inflated now?
Hyperbole, admittedly. But if I had eaten MFP's goal at that point I'd end up in a 314 calorie deficit versus a 500 calorie one...not the end of the world, but 500 or more is what I want for the 1lb a week. I just see people saying they trust the MFP goals and I'm scratching my head.
I don't /think/ FB's burn is inflated, but I am not really sure how to tell.
If I leave the gauge out of it, no. /If/ fitbit's burn calculations are right then their eating goals are correct and MFP's aren't during the day...I guess due to needing to catch up to FB's end calculations long after midnight. If I'm understanding this right now.
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OP - why would you be in trouble eating 500 less than what you burn, merely 232 more calories?
Or have you slowed your system down from long term dieting that Fitbit's estimate of calorie burn is badly inflated now?
Hyperbole, admittedly. But if I had eaten MFP's goal at that point I'd end up in a 314 calorie deficit versus a 500 calorie one...not the end of the world, but 500 or more is what I want for the 1lb a week. I just see people saying they trust the MFP goals and I'm scratching my head.
I don't /think/ FB's burn is inflated, but I am not really sure how to tell.
If I leave the gauge out of it, no. /If/ fitbit's burn calculations are right then their eating goals are correct and MFP's aren't during the day...I guess due to needing to catch up to FB's end calculations long after midnight. If I'm understanding this right now.
So the issue is MFP maybe didn't get up to date daily burn from Fitbit yet, to end with the same numbers.
Because it should if the deficits are the same.
If Fitbit says you burned 2500, it's eating goal should be 2000.
Received from Fitbit 2500 - 2000 MFP estimated = 500 cal adjustment.
MFP's eating goal was 2000 - 500 = 1500 daily + 500 cal adjustment = 2000 eating goal.
But the only reason it doesn't happen during the day is if there are sync issues.
If you have looked at your device after a sync, or Fitbit's site, and seen a daily burn of whatever, then look at MFP exercise tab, the calorie adjustment, the "i" button for more info, and see what is the Fitbit stats that MFP received that it is working with.
If not up to date, then yes, delayed info. Subtract 500 from what you saw on the device.
That applies all day long actually, don't even need to sync frankly, just watch MFP's total eating stat, and do quick math.
So no matter what MFP says the goal is, and it may appear you are eating over MFP goal, you see looking at device that say 2300 is going to make it's way over to MFP eventually, and you are going to enjoy all 1800 calories and know you got a 500 cal deficit in.
And Fitbit's daily burn is underestimated too, for a healthy body that is full burning metabolism.
It assigns sleeping calorie burn (BMR) to all non-moving time.
When awake you burn more though (RMR).
When standing no steps you burn even more.
When digesting/processing food you burn more (about 10% of calories eaten).
Even most exercise is underestimated unless really walking/running level with stride length that is in your stats.0
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