Who Has Lost Using Fitbit's Numbers?

MithrilMermaid2016

Hello all. I lost 89 pounds from Jan-Aug in 2015. I've maintained since then but am ready to lose the last 50. I am now using a FitBit Charge HR to closely track my calories burned so that I know exactly how many calories to eat per day to maintain my target deficit.

Has anyone else had success using this method? Or do you find your FitBit to be overestimating calories burned?

Wickedfaery73

I have had my Fitbit (same one) for a almost 2 weeks now I think. I am kinda afraid to eat as much as the Fitbit app tells me to LOL. I'm not usually hungry for more anyway. I have both MFP and FB set to lose 1 lb a week. There is usually a pretty big difference in what it says I burned between the days I work out and days I dont. Before I had the fitbit I was losing 1 to 3 lbs a week despite the 1lb setting so maybe it is relatively accurate.

Sklahsen

I also feel like my Fitbit tells me I can eat way more that I need to. I try to stick to my 1760 that fitness pal gives me, and that seems to be working. I lost almost 8 pounds in a month doing this.

shadow2soul

I lost weight that way.

Zip and Flex I found underestimated by daily calorie burn by an average of about 200 calories per day.
Surge and now Blaze I found to be spot on for me.

HavtaLose

I have a FitBit One since almost 2 yrs out of which i have used it daily since this Jan now. It is very accurate for me. Though sometimes it logs stairs for me that i haven't climbed, but the end calorie count turns out to be quite accurate. Because my loss stats end of the week seem to match the deficit i have in the week.

Somebody_Loved

I have a FitBit Charge and have been using it for a year. I've found the numbers super accurate - I almost always eat back my exercise calories and have been losing consistently.

chunky_pinup

I use the Charge HR as well and I have been having very good success staying within the caloric range it gives me.

MithrilMermaid2016

That is good news! My goal is to avoid eating too little while losing, causing my maintenance calories to be unnecessarily low when I get there. I've seen this happen to lots of people, including myself, years ago. I'd rather eat the most calories I can per day, while keeping my goal deficit, and doing reasonable activity. No extremes on any of it.

Wickedfaery73

I didnt realize that could happen. eeekk I think I eat back about half of my exercise most of the time tho. My FB user ID is https://www.fitbit.com/user/4K9TK4 if you want a friend on there

RiverMelSong

I use my flex' numbers as a guide and have been losing at a good, steady pace for the past month and a half

AmandaLawter

I also have a Charge HR. I have MFP set to lose 2lbs/week, so I'm given 1730 calories a day. I do NOT have my Fitbit and MFP linked. I did before, and eating back ALL of the Fitbit adjusted calories was NOT working for me! So, I manually enter in half of my daily exercise calories into MFP that Fitbit calculated. Sometimes I don't even need those extra calories, though.

Numberwang22

Fitbit zip was probably the best for weightloss for me. I've had a few different devices, misfit was worst. Currently using Garmin Vivoactive. Although cheap and cheerful the zip was super accurate for for me at least.

lore622

Ordered a fit bit today .. Should be in within the week .. Looking for fit bit pals since I found out you can use a app that connects other fit bit friends
Add me if you would like to add me

InfoomaousTete

I've lost close to 20 with my Charge HR. I don't eat my exercise calories back during the week. Usually just the save that for the weekend. Just got the Blaze for mother's day, so we will see

lizzy_satellite

I have the charge. Since July 1st last year I've lost 43lbs. I log my food, pay attention to my fitbit numbers, and make the assumption that fitbit probably overestimates by a few % and that I probably underestimate by a few % so we cancel each other out. My losses have been pretty consistent with the figures so I'm confident that it's worked.

gandssmith

i'm do dumb. i've had my fitbit for a while. have never really paid attention to the total calories burned for the day. so do you just look at the total calories burned for that day and keep your calories in so many below that to lose? How many calories should you stay below to lose a pound or two a wk? i've been at a stand still for a long time. i've tried lower my calories, upping my calories, eating back my calories. nothing seems to be working.

shadow2soul

gandssmith wrote: »

i'm do dumb. i've had my fitbit for a while. have never really paid attention to the total calories burned for the day. so do you just look at the total calories burned for that day and keep your calories in so many below that to lose? How many calories should you stay below to lose a pound or two a wk? i've been at a stand still for a long time. i've tried lower my calories, upping my calories, eating back my calories. nothing seems to be working.

@gandssmith
If you link MFP and your Fitbit accounts, it will do the math for you and figure out what is extra that you can eat and add the extra calories as an adjustment in your exercise diary. At the end of the day, your MFP goal + Fitbit adjustment should be anywhere from 250-1000 calories under your Fitbit calorie burn (depending on which rate of loss you selected). If MFP is set to Sedentary, you will probably see very large adjustments. If you set MFP to Lightly Active or higher, it will take longer to get calories added and if you have negative adjustments turned on you will actually start the day with a negative adjustment (losing calories).

If you aren't losing, have you double checked the entries you are using from the database? There is a lot of stuff that's really off (I saw a chicken entry that was about 1/3 the calories it should have been not to long ago).
Also, if not already, have you considered using a food scale to weight out portions (it's more accurate than measuring cups and has less clean up)?

gandssmith

@shadow2soul thanks! I do have my fitbit linked to my mfp acct. I'm not sure what I have my acct set to. Think it's light activity. I've not been the best lately at tracking and I'm sure that's the problem. But even when I have a really good wk it doesn't seem to go any where. I've used scales for yrs. I work out 5 days a wk. Doing hammer & chisel right now plus walk for 30-60 min 4 days a wk. Had my calories set to 1200 which maybe was too low. I've gone back to 1530 which is what mfp set for me. I've just got to get my head back in the game. Also I have the fitbit flex. It never seems to calculate my workouts as exercise on mfp. I guess bc it's more wt lifting. It only counts my walking as exercise. So idk. Thanks for your input.

Xpecta

I have the same fitbit as you and I just eat when I'm hungry. I'm usually pretty spot on with my cals that mfp gives me. And using that I'm losing weight a lot easier than I was with just mfp before. It probably has something to do with the fitbit app because I want to see all the goals green at the end of the day ya know? So it makes me push myself harder than I normally would.

calichiro

I have a Fitbit Flex and it's always telling my I'm over my "zone." I'm losing at a pretty steady 1-1.5 lbs per week, so I don't give it much more attention. I think it's underestimating my calorie burn slightly. The trends give me useful data, but for calories in I use MFP. I usually eat back any extra I burn from activity.

afatpersonwholikesfood

I have the Charge HR. I've had it since November, but I was cautious of using too many of the calories up until the last three or so months. With MFP set for 2lbs/week, I am losing at that rate while eating most, but not all, of my Fitbit calories. This is going by monthly averages and not each week's loss.

kirstenb13

I have a fitbit one and for me it underestimates by quite a bit. I lost >40 lbs pretty quickly but now that I'm in maintenance I'm still losing even though I eat up to what mfp+fitbit allows me. Not complaining, just another data point. (I also don't do a lot of non-step based activity so it should count everything I do)

scrittrice

FitBit + MFP has been freakily accurate for me.

lore622

Still waiting for mines and can't wait

imclynn

I have a Fitbit Alta.
So I was curious whether the calories out minus calories in (logged using MFP), along with the resulting calories balance given by Fitbit app would equal what I saw on the scale. This was using 20 days worth of figures.

Fitbit says my daily burn is approx 2400 cal.
Fitbit set my daily intake to be 1940 calories giving me a 500 cal a day deficit to result in 1lb a week.

I added up all the calories taken in 37,424 averaged to 1872.2.
I added up what my Fitbit Alta reported to be my daily burned calories, 48,821, averaged to 2441.05.
Here's the math :-)
2441.05 - 1872.2 = 569.8 x 20 = 11,398 / 3500 = 3.25 lbs

3.25 lbs is what Fitbit says I should have lost in those twenty days.
What my scale said...3.14 for that 20 days.

I was very pleased to see the results. :-)

So this helps me to trust the apps and the Fitbit Alta more. Especially when my scale fluctuates because of whether I'm retaining water that day or whatever the variables might be that weigh in day which make you go...how come it says I gained a lb in a day?!?! Arrgh!

Connie

Christine_72

I'm so happy to have read this @imclynn . I'm getting the Alta on Wednesday, moving up from the zip

sunflowerhippi

I find my fitbit underestimates what I am doing. I have a flex so does not take HR or do stairs so when I carry my daughter around or running up and down steps.

hannydeee

I use a Charge HR and have had good results from following the suggested calories/TDEE, eating back earned calories, etc.
I've actually been monitoring its accuracy for the past 8 weeks by keeping a spreadsheet of Fitbit calories burned vs MFP food logged. Based on my calculations (total deficit/3500) I *should* have lost 9.2lbs. I actually lost 8.6lbs. Unless the scales suddenly jump downwards tomorrow morning, I'm inclined to say that the Charge HR, at least for me, slightly overestimates TDEE. Only slightly, though, and of course the discrepancy in predicted vs actual results could also come down to changes in body composition.

marm1962

I have had my fitbit for a couple of years now, didn't lose hardly anything (but there were other issues involved I recently discovered), anyway Mine is a fitbit flex and I have it on my non dominate hand, but I have my setting set to the dominate one and sensitivity set to normal. I feel that it is now more accurate for my calorie burn and I have finally started losing some weight. So if you are having trouble losing then try adjusting your settings....not sure if you can do that on the other ones.

Christine_72

marm1962 wrote: »

I have had my fitbit for a couple of years now, didn't lose hardly anything (but there were other issues involved I recently discovered), anyway Mine is a fitbit flex and I have it on my non dominate hand, but I have my setting set to the dominate one and sensitivity set to normal. I feel that it is now more accurate for my calorie burn and I have finally started losing some weight. So if you are having trouble losing then try adjusting your settings....not sure if you can do that on the other ones.

@marm1962 what did you have your settings at before you changed them?

marm1962

I had it set on non dominant hand and sensative