I don't mean to be repetitive - FItbit Calorie Adjustment

amarieh831

Today my fitbit gave me 660 calories exercise calories which I did not eat back. I am 145 lbs, 5'3 and looking to lose about a 1 lb a week, even though I feel that's a bit unrealistic. I did recently start a job as a book keeper at Safeway and spend most of my 8 hour shift on my feet. On the days that I work I easily hit 10,000 steps. I just want to know how accurate this is and if I am truly more active than I originally thought because even on the days I do not work I still hit about 5,000 steps... Am I being too hard on myself or does my fitbit deceive me? Is fitbit telling me what I need to maintain my weight even though it's synced to MFP? (I have a fitbit flex)

sarahmichelef

I'd say that 660 is plausible if you were over 10,000 steps for the day. And I'd encourage you to eat at least some of them back. Wearing the flex has taught me that I burn a lot more than I thought I did and I'm having much more success in losing weight (13 pounds since the end of March) eating back most of my exercise and fitibit adjustment than I have when I tried to limit myself to just my 1200 or 1300 cal baseline.

editorgrrl

Your Fitbit burn is TDEE, the number of calories to maintain your current weight. Your default MFP calorie goal is activity level minus deficit. Adjustments are the difference between your Fitbit burn and your activity level.

If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, eating back your adjustments means you're eating TDEE minus deficit.

You're 5'3" and 145 lbs. 1 lb. per week is too aggressive a goal. The less you have to lose, the more slowly it comes off. That's just the way the human body works. And chronic undereating usually leads to bingeing.

Set your goal to .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight, enable negative calorie adjustments, and trust your Fitbit.

Food is fuel, and we should all be looking for the maximum number of calories at which we lose weight—never the minimum.

heybales

amarieh831 wrote: »

Today my fitbit gave me 660 calories exercise calories which I did not eat back. I am 145 lbs, 5'3 and looking to lose about a 1 lb a week, even though I feel that's a bit unrealistic. I did recently start a job as a book keeper at Safeway and spend most of my 8 hour shift on my feet. On the days that I work I easily hit 10,000 steps. I just want to know how accurate this is and if I am truly more active than I originally thought because even on the days I do not work I still hit about 5,000 steps... Am I being too hard on myself or does my fitbit deceive me? Is fitbit telling me what I need to maintain my weight even though it's synced to MFP? (I have a fitbit flex)

You are actually getting underestimating calorie burn for all that standing non-moving time during the day.
You are given sleeping level calorie burn, BMR, despite the fact being awake and standing burns more.

And those 660 calories was not exercise - but how far off your guess of activity level on MFP was.
Did you set MFP to sedentary - despite that job?

Fitbit is estimating what you burn daily - if you eat that, you maintain. Actually, you'd probably lose a little bit.
But both Fitbit and MFP can be set to put a deficit to whatever you burn to cause weight loss - so depends on how you setup your profile.

To that point - read through the FAQ in the stickies.

shancourcy16

Thanks for posting this question i had the exact same one

jelyfi

I second the thanks above. Even though MFP says I should eat 1200 calories a day to lose what I want, it gave me 1100 extra calories in exercise yesterday. That seems excessive. I do sit most of the day, but I went for a quick walk and a 4.5 mile run. But I still wouldn't think I should get double my day's worth of calories....just trying to use common sense at this point and use Fitbit as a baseline for how much exercise I'm getting.

editorgrrl

jelyfi wrote: »

Even though MFP says I should eat 1200 calories a day to lose what I want, it gave me 1100 extra calories in exercise yesterday. That seems excessive. I do sit most of the day, but I went for a quick walk and a 4.5 mile run. But I still wouldn't think I should get double my day's worth of calories.

Click on the adjustment to see the math MFP used to calculate it, but you've burned 1,100 calories more than your activity level.

If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, you can increase your activity level. You'll still be eating the same number of calories (TDEE mins deficit)—you'll just start with more calories and get smaller adjustments. It's entirely a matter of personal preference.

I was shocked how many calories Fitbit told me I could eat. But I lost the weight & have maintained for a year. Trust your Fitbit for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress.

heybales

jelyfi wrote: »

I second the thanks above. Even though MFP says I should eat 1200 calories a day to lose what I want, it gave me 1100 extra calories in exercise yesterday. That seems excessive. I do sit most of the day, but I went for a quick walk and a 4.5 mile run. But I still wouldn't think I should get double my day's worth of calories....just trying to use common sense at this point and use Fitbit as a baseline for how much exercise I'm getting.

Just means you selected Sedentary on MFP as activity level outside exercise - but you aren't really.
Read the FAQ for the implications of using more honest level, or staying where it's at.

Also, don't compare increased activity to your eating goal, but to your daily burn estimate with no exercise.
MFP doesn't know that, it's estimating.
Fitbit is better estimate.

Find a non-exercise day where you do all the other normal stuff - what does Fitbit say you burn on those days?

Now is your exercise really that much as a %? And as stated above, I don't mean the MFP Fitbit adjustment because that is NOT exercise, I mean actually no Fitbit, the stats for say that run.