Good results with Fitbit Charge Hr??

editorgrrl

I've used Fitbit + MFP for years, lost the weight, and kept it off. The only way to gauge the accuracy is to enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, trust your Fitbit for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress.

You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

Your Fitbit burn is TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments, your adjusted goal is TDEE minus deficit. But you still have to log everything you eat & drink accurately & honestly. Also, I log exercise in Fitbit—never MFP.

tiffkittyw

I like my charge HR but since there is no way for it to know how fast your metabolism is I doubt I burn as many calories as it says. It does keep me on track with trying to reach 10,000 steps a day which is a challenge for me with a sedentary desk job.

newyorkcitymom

I love mine. Only had it for two weeks, but so far it seems very accurate - and it's telling me that I get pretty huge calorie burns. I've averaged around 3,000 calories burned a day and averaged about 2,000 calories eaten a day and I'm losing about 2lbs a week - so pretty much right on target. Two very nifty things about it: 1) if you click on the calories in/out tab on the dashboard, it will give you your total deficit for the week thus far; you can use this on a weekly basis to see how your deficit matches up to your actual loss; this can help you to make any accuracy adjustments; in other words, it's something you can verify rather than guess at; 2) if you weigh yourself daily, it will give you a running average of your weight for the week and shows previous weeks; I really like this as it helps me to see progress beyond the day to day fluctuations - I can easily see how my avg this week compares to previous weeks; I've had a lot of fluctuations in my day to day weight, but my week over week avg has been 2lbs/week - exactly on target. And yes, it does motivate you. I set my activity level on MFP as sedentary - if I really was that sedentary, there is no way in hell I could meet the calorie goals necessary, but this allows me to eat more calories on days I am more active; I find that on lighter activity days I naturally eat less. Finally, one very useful thing about the fitbit is the perspective it gives me on activity. I run and bike and do other workouts and these are great and definitely burn calories, but the primary thing that drives my TDEE (total calorie burn) is not my exercise but my overall level of activity. This helps me focus on leading a more active lifestyle generally and ensures that I am not complacent just because I worked out that day.

ilovesweeties

newyorkcitymom wrote: »

I love mine...
the primary thing that drives my TDEE (total calorie burn) is not my exercise but my overall level of activity. This helps me focus on leading a more active lifestyle generally and ensures that I am not complacent just because I worked out that day.

Completely agree. I had a Flex for most of my weight loss, moved to Charge HR for maintenance. After more than a year of step counting my motivation remains high! I am not quite yet able to trust the calories burned it gives me as it seems so high. But since I have had it the HR, I seem to be losing roughly what it would predict. I am working on increasing my calories to maintenance by trying to get over the mental block that I am actually allowed to eat that much!

tiffkittyw

The one thing I don't like about the Fitbit is that it doesn't tell you your projected calorie burn for the day. My BodyBugg would do that and it would help me plan how much more I could eat with the estimated TDEE. Fitbit only tells you your burn as of the moment you check it.

janejellyroll

I eat all my Fitbit calories and am comfortably maintaining my weight.