Understanding Fitbit

Merkavar

stephaniechukwu31 wrote: »

ColinsMommaOC wrote: »

stephaniechukwu31 wrote: »

Thank you.

What about car rides? Does any one else find it annoying that you have to account for the time you're driving just seems tedious.

You burn calories sitting in the car. You burn calories sitting on the couch. You burn calories eating. You burn calories taking a shower, sleeping, brushing your teeth... So no, I dont account for when I am just driving because my heartrate is what is telling fitbit how many cals I am burning. Nothing is going to be 100% accurate. But I think the margin of error for fitbit is considerably less than personal guesstimates and online calculators that only ask for a few stats and base their answers on the average person.

If you are worried it is logging extra steps then take it off and put it in your purse or pocket. It will assume you are just burning BMR cals for the time it is not on and should not log any extra for you.

I do take it off. I only wear it when I know I'm doing heavy activity. In the car it still adds steps, miles, and calorie burn.

I have a Fitbit surge not a charge.

I have never noticed a large number of steps, miles added after driving.

Also you are burning calories driving so it should be adding calories. If the charge is like the surge it will add calories if your wearing it or not. Since your always burning calories.

Attach your fitbit to mfp. Turn on negative adjustments in mfp. Wear your fit bit as much as possible to be as accurate as possible. When doing actual exercise turn your fit bit to exercise mode etc. don't log exercises.

PeachyCarol

Merkavar wrote: »

stephaniechukwu31 wrote: »

ColinsMommaOC wrote: »

stephaniechukwu31 wrote: »

Thank you.

What about car rides? Does any one else find it annoying that you have to account for the time you're driving just seems tedious.

You burn calories sitting in the car. You burn calories sitting on the couch. You burn calories eating. You burn calories taking a shower, sleeping, brushing your teeth... So no, I dont account for when I am just driving because my heartrate is what is telling fitbit how many cals I am burning. Nothing is going to be 100% accurate. But I think the margin of error for fitbit is considerably less than personal guesstimates and online calculators that only ask for a few stats and base their answers on the average person.

If you are worried it is logging extra steps then take it off and put it in your purse or pocket. It will assume you are just burning BMR cals for the time it is not on and should not log any extra for you.

I do take it off. I only wear it when I know I'm doing heavy activity. In the car it still adds steps, miles, and calorie burn.

I have a Fitbit surge not a charge.

I have never noticed a large number of steps, miles added after driving.

Also you are burning calories driving so it should be adding calories. If the charge is like the surge it will add calories if your wearing it or not. Since your always burning calories.

Attach your fitbit to mfp. Turn on negative adjustments in mfp. Wear your fit bit as much as possible to be as accurate as possible. When doing actual exercise turn your fit bit to exercise mode etc. don't log exercises.

Small caveat: Don't log exercises in MFP. Not all Fitbits have an exercise mode to switch on, so that advice only pertains to certain models.

Let your Fitbit record all your step-based exercise. You can enter any other type of activity into the Fitbit website. Note your start time and the duration of the activity. I find the Fitbit site logs more accurate burns than MFP does. The calorie adjustment will still be sent to MFP.

For the easiest and least confusing method, set your activity level on MFP to sedentary even if you aren't. You'll be less likely to ever have to deal with negative calorie adjustments then.

Now... here's what I do. I have my setting set to sedentary and get my adjustment, but I use my Fitbit TDEE to figure out how much to eat. I eat within a range for my deficit. My average TDEE is about 2200. I eat anywhere from 1500-1700 depending on whether or not I've had a more or less active day. On less active days, I eat at the lower end of my range. On more active days, I eat higher.

You can decide to do something like this too. Let Fitbit find your average TDEE, then select a range of calorie levels with the deficit you'd like, and eat less on less active days, more on more active days. Pretty much ignore what MFP says. You should lose weight just fine.

stephaniechukwu31

Thanks guys. I'm like in a super good mood I lost weight eating nothing but junk food. That's awesome! -1.4 pounds down no exercise and I ate cookies pizza, 2 bags of chips. I can't complain!!!

Merkavar

stephaniechukwu31 wrote: »

Thanks guys. I'm like in a super good mood I lost weight eating nothing but junk food. That's awesome! -1.4 pounds down no exercise and I ate cookies pizza, 2 bags of chips. I can't complain!!!

1.4 pounds since yesterday? just sounds like normal weight fluctuations. got to look at your weight loss over longer time frames, at the trend. from what I have seen your focused to closely on day to day gains and losses, your weight fluctuates on a hourly, daily, monthly basis.

But either way good luck.

jeepinshawn

It will take at least a month to get a good TDEE average, until then just link your fitbit to MFP and follow MFP's calorie recommendation and eat back a portion of the calories it gives you from the fitbit, 25-30% is a good number to start with.