Do you believe the calories Fitbit says you've used?

Kate_UK

Before getting my fitbit one I knew my activity level was probably somewhere between sedentary and lightly active on MFP, but I set to sedentary to be on the safe side. Yet some days my fitbit is giving me up to an extra 1000 calories a day, which according to my setting should still see me loosing 1lb a week, I just don't believe that could be accurate. Yes I've walked more on those days but surely not enough be be eating over 2500 calories and still be loosing weight??
Admittedly I've not really been tracking food much lately, I want to start back this week in the hope of loosing a few lbs before summer.
Does anyone else see unlikely calories goals when using fitbit?

kuranda10

I have my calories set to a custom setting. so I can't speak to that part of your question, but for the most part my FitBit seems to be right. If anything I find it under reports. And after going from a One to the HR, I'm almost certain my One under reported.

My BMR is 1400. So far today it says I've burned 1688 calories (I'm in OZ) and I am on track to burn 1988 for the day. Do I think it is plausible that I have burned 588 calories going about my daily life. Sure.

You should also have the activity levels set the same on MFP and the FB. Once I did that, my "extra" calories went to what one would expect.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

How many steps are you getting to get the 1000 calories?

I have always found mine to be accurate. It actually guesses a bit low for me. But to get an extra 1000 calories it would have to be an extremely active day-- in the 20,000 step range. Then again I'm very small.

Christine_72

ILiftHeavyAcrylics wrote: »

How many steps are you getting to get the 1000 calories?

I have always found mine to be accurate. It actually guesses a bit low for me. But to get an extra 1000 calories it would have to be an extremely active day-- in the 20,000 step range. Then again I'm very small.

for me personally, I have to get around 22,000, I can't remember exactly, to get 1000 calories burned.

kuranda10

I think the activity levels aren't synced.
I had MFP at sedentary and Fit bit had me at fairly active and I was getting an extra 800+a day.
Once I synced them I get normal exercise calories

editorgrrl

Adjustments are the difference between your Fitbit burn (which is TDEE, aka your maintenance calories) and your MFP activity level. If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments, eating your adjustments means you're eating TDEE minus deficit: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

FishyK

kuranda10 wrote: »

I think the activity levels aren't synced.
Fit bit had me at fairly active

Fitbit identifies me as "fairly active" based on my average activity, but is there an actual setting on Fitbit that I should adjust to conform with my MFP "sedentary" base setting? I only see these settings on Fitbit and no others:

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editorgrrl

Ignore your Fitbit calorie goal & follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments.

FishyK

editorgrrl wrote: »

Ignore your Fitbit calorie goal & follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments.

I understand that, and I do that. However, I have seen several posts saying that BOTH Fitbit and MFP need to be set at sedentary. I just want to know if I'm missing something.

Amerielle

I don't think there is a fitbit setting, if I am understanding your question. It really doesn't even matter what you set MFP at as long as you enable the negative calories...you will end up with the same number of calories to eat. Many people don't like the huge + or - calories every day so try to find the mfp setting that is closest to their activity.

FishyK

Ok, thanks.

Christine_72

Amerielle wrote: »

I don't think there is a fitbit setting, if I am understanding your question. It really doesn't even matter what you set MFP at as long as you enable the negative calories...you will end up with the same number of calories to eat. Many people don't like the huge + or - calories every day so try to find the mfp setting that is closest to their activity.

I've got fitbit set at personalised and mfp at sedentary. You can change fitbit to sedentary under the food tab if you wish, but I've been told this is unnecessary. I've also got negative adjustments enabled.

I've had my fitbit since march 28th and was sceptical of the calorie burns as well. But so far, so good. I haven't gained weight eating back my fitbit exercise calories, and have lost a kilo since then, which is right on track

Amerielle

I see what you are saying. I have mine at personalized too. I use mfp for food calories so I rarely even look at fitbit's how much to eat info. It probably doesn't matter either way...just more do you like to "earn" calories or see the big picture.

So far, so good for me too and I have used fitbit and mfp since Jan 2013.

rosebette

I find my FitBit Charge HR to be very accurately. On a typical moderate active day (campus walking + a 2 mile walk), it gives me around 1500-1600, which most calculators estimate as around my TDEE. MFP is adjusting me down to 1200 or less to give me a deficit. In other words, I shouldn't have been "eating back" all those calories when I was just relying on MFP.

Kate_UK

christinev297 wrote: »

ILiftHeavyAcrylics wrote: »

How many steps are you getting to get the 1000 calories?

I have always found mine to be accurate. It actually guesses a bit low for me. But to get an extra 1000 calories it would have to be an extremely active day-- in the 20,000 step range. Then again I'm very small.

for me personally, I have to get around 22,000, I can't remember exactly, to get 1000 calories burned.

14,000 steps gives me just over 1000 cals extra, on an average day I earn maybe 3 - 400 extra. Given that everyone else seems to find it pretty accurate I'm guessing that my activity setting on MFP is set too low, looks as if I'd be classed closer to lightly active.

editorgrrl

Kate_UK wrote: »

[14,000 steps gives me just over 1000 cals extra, on an average day I earn maybe 3 - 400 extra. Given that everyone else seems to find it pretty accurate I'm guessing that my activity setting on MFP is set too low, looks as if I'd be classed closer to lightly active.

Everybody's different, so it'll take trial & error to find what works for you.

If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments, increasing your MFP calorie level won't change the number of calories you get each day. You'll still be eating TDEE minus deficit–you'll just start with more calories but get smaller adjustments.

jumblejups

I do negative adjustment and the 'turn estimations off' thing, so basically the calories Fitbit gives me increase as the day goes on starting from sedentary. MFP does the same and adds more calories as Fitbit sends them over. An inactive (I mean really inactive) day would see me around 1400, so I'm almost always over that. 10,000 steps gives me about an extra 500cals, 20,000 gets me around an extra 1000cals.

As for accuracy, for me it seems to be on track. I eat pretty much all of my calories, Fitbit and MFP say pretty much the same thing (MFP tends to be about 50-100cals higher than Fitbit by the end of the day). I generally manage my calories weekly rather than just daily and I rely on Fitbit's accounting for my burns over MFP. I'm set to a deficit for 1lb a week (around 3500cal deficit per week) and I am losing that consistently. Been using my Flex this way for about 2-3 months.