fitbit users...,question!
CaitMang
Posts: 5 Member
For thoes of you that have your fitbit synced with mfp... this question is for you!
Do you feel the "exercise" calories they are givng you are accurate? I feel like they are very excessive! For example today... it gave me and additional 1184 calories (Did not work out, just at work)! I think that's insane! If i consumed that plus my daily allowance I'd be eating like 2,600 calories a day.
Do you feel the "exercise" calories they are givng you are accurate? I feel like they are very excessive! For example today... it gave me and additional 1184 calories (Did not work out, just at work)! I think that's insane! If i consumed that plus my daily allowance I'd be eating like 2,600 calories a day.
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Replies
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Holy! I've never ever gotten that many extra calories from walking, even when I've gotten 10,000 or 12,000 steps! How many steps are you getting daily? I think when I've gotten like 10,000 steps the most calories I've gotten was 700 extra.0
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I ignore it, and I actually unlinked them. Wrist based trackers aren't accurate enough to depend on for eating back exercise calories when you want a deficit, in my opinion. I use my Fitbit as an estimation of what I burned, not a guide for how much I can eat. I end up losing consistently this way.4
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I did 10,000 steps today and it gave me about 381 calories. I have never seen that many calories....0
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Funny you bring this up. Yesterday, it seemed no matter what I did, I was struggling to get steps in. The amount of walking I did, usually would have been around 14000, but was right under 10000. No biggie, as I just don't have an appetite lately and was no where near my calories.
Fast forward to today, went out and did yard work and was at 5000 lickety split. Shocked me. Took a walk and just looked at my fitbit adjustment and was thinking, wth, I didn't exercise that much. Today seems crazy. It was close to a 1000 exercise calories0 -
Does anyone know why sometimes it adds calories, and then they dissapear as if it took them back? lol I get that sometimes where at 1PM I have 50 extra calories, then by 7PM they are gone and it says zero again
lol 0 -
I got over 1,000 extra calories yesterday for 25,000 steps /10 miles. Sometimes I eat them all back, and sometimes half or none. It all seems to even out in the end.1
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When I take steps, my TDEE is about 2200 a day on average with 10k steps. Today I did 14k so my TDEE will be higher by about 200 cals.
I'm pretty sure that's accurate but how I have it set up is this:
-Fitbit on non-dominant wrist to prevent extra steps by accident
-MFP set to sedentary
-negative calorie adjustment enabled on MFP1 -
I'm 5'3" and 111 pounds. I have a Fitbit Charge HR. I'm set as Sedentary on MFP and I have negative adjustments enabled. As of now, I have 27,452 steps and a calorie adjustment of 1354 for the day. I can't eat that much today, but I do eat my usual adjustments which average between 300 to 900 and I've had zero issues. Then again, I weigh everything I eat to the gram on my food scale and overestimate when I can't.0
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I am at about 17,300 steps right now and so far I have an adjustment of 430. I have negative adjustments enabled and on a typical day I don't get a positive adjustment until I've walked 7-8k steps. I'm 5'6", 165 lbs and I'm set to active. I have a Zip if that makes any difference.0
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Hmm. Without knowing how many steps you actually got in, it does seem excessive for an average day. I don't link my Fitbit with MFP because the calories sound off most of the time. My only advice would be unlinking the two and changing your activity level in MFP. That way if you're consistent with your daily walking goal (7500, 10,000, whatever steps a day), you'll get a few more calories from the activity level adjustment without having to worry about the day-to-day Fitbit calories.0
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Mines been weird lately...like the other day I had 13000 steps and it added 0 to mfp set at sedentary. Makes no sense when usually it gives me 100 at least for that many steps.
That many extra calories does seem excessive, though. I personally would not eat many of them back.0 -
The adjustment depends on the difference between what mfp thinks you should burn and what fitbit says you burned. This means if you are set at sedentary you will see much larger adjustments. Whether they are accurate or not can only be known if you are sure your calories in are spot on, then compare what you lose over a period of time to see if it evens out. I will get 1k adjustments some days because I am obese and set to sedentary, so mfp expects me to burn like 1900 a day, but on a day when I get in 16k steps and I exercise, I might burn 3k, leaving me with a 1100 adjustment. Again, if it is accurate or not only you can figure out, but remember you can not directly tie people's adjustments to their steps, since it depends on weight, intensity, and their settings. If I up my activity level to activate I might not see any adjustments for the same number of steps and if I take a walk, but then sit all the rest of the day my calories will be less than a day I get the same steps but get them by walking around and cleaning all day.0
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Maybe you are under estimating your normal activity level, setting mfp to sedentary when it should be lightly active for example.
But ultimately the only way to check is to compare it to actual results.
I find mine to be pretty accurate.
What's your deficit, 2600 isnt completely unreasonable if your job is remotely active and your deficit is low.0 -
i find mine pretty accurate, it always gives me less than mfp would have given me for the same exercise.0
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I had around 2500 Calories added yesterday, thanks to 47000 steps but usually get around 1000 with my usual 20000 steps. Never eat them all back but love the incentive of being able to eat 2000 calories rather than 1500 and still lose weight. For me at least it's pretty accurate too, I'm losing at around the rate Fitbit says I should which is averaging at 2.5lb a week.1
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Where do you find the time to do 47000 steps, firef1y72? I reckon you'd have to be walking constantly all day to achieve that, no? I reckon that must be a distance of 22-25 miles (depending on your height)? I would happily walk this amount in a day but never have the time to do so - I tend to average ~15k-18k steps/day.1
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jtcedinburgh wrote: »Where do you find the time to do 47000 steps, firef1y72? I reckon you'd have to be walking constantly all day to achieve that, no? I reckon that must be a distance of 22-25 miles (depending on your height)? I would happily walk this amount in a day but never have the time to do so - I tend to average ~15k-18k steps/day.
Yep I was walking/hiking/running around after children nearly all day, it's not something I do on a daily basis though. Not sure what it was in miles but came in at a smidge over 30km, which is about double my usual 15km a day.0 -
From my own calculations, eating back every single one of my fitbit calories is 90% or so accurate to my weight loss goal, that is if I want to lose 1 pound a week I end up at nearly exactly at 0.9 pounds a week +/- 0.1
Edit: for normal walking around the house 10k steps gives me about 500 extra calories, but I'm obese so it gives me more calories than many for 10k.0 -
Does anyone know why sometimes it adds calories, and then they dissapear as if it took them back? lol I get that sometimes where at 1PM I have 50 extra calories, then by 7PM they are gone and it says zero again lol
Because it assumes your activity level will remain constant for the rest of the day - so if you do loads of steps in the morning it assumes you'll do about the same each hour until midnight, so it gives you the extra calories. Then when you don't it adjusts back to the actual activity level. Hope that makes sense!1 -
Does anyone know why sometimes it adds calories, and then they dissapear as if it took them back? lol I get that sometimes where at 1PM I have 50 extra calories, then by 7PM they are gone and it says zero again lol
Because it assumes your activity level will remain constant for the rest of the day - so if you do loads of steps in the morning it assumes you'll do about the same each hour until midnight, so it gives you the extra calories. Then when you don't it adjusts back to the actual activity level. Hope that makes sense!
To avoid this, set your food plan to sedentary instead of personalized on Fitbit. When I first got my Fitbit, I found that so annoying to see my allowance bounce up and down. With the sedentary setting, I start with around -70 every morning and I'm at 500 or more by the evening.0 -
I am 5'3" and about 185 lbs. I get about 1K extra calories a day for 20K steps, depending on if those were all walking steps or if I ran on the treadmill.0
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Does anyone know why sometimes it adds calories, and then they dissapear as if it took them back? lol I get that sometimes where at 1PM I have 50 extra calories, then by 7PM they are gone and it says zero again lol
Fitbit bases it's calculations on predicted/expected activity. So if you spend the first half of the day consistently and unexpectedly active then suddenly go full couch potato and hardly move, you "lose" predicted calories burned. The formula does its best to be predictive based on how you tend to move.
Hopefully this is what you're asking about!1 -
Does anyone know why sometimes it adds calories, and then they dissapear as if it took them back? lol I get that sometimes where at 1PM I have 50 extra calories, then by 7PM they are gone and it says zero again lol
Because it assumes your activity level will remain constant for the rest of the day - so if you do loads of steps in the morning it assumes you'll do about the same each hour until midnight, so it gives you the extra calories. Then when you don't it adjusts back to the actual activity level. Hope that makes sense!
To avoid this, set your food plan to sedentary instead of personalized on Fitbit. When I first got my Fitbit, I found that so annoying to see my allowance bounce up and down. With the sedentary setting, I start with around -70 every morning and I'm at 500 or more by the evening.
or just know that if you sit around for a few hours it will go down. I go with about 10 calories over for each hour of sitting down.
So say I have +250 exercise and its 6pm, I will assume that by midnight it will have dropped to 190 so I wont eat all the exercise calories at 6pm.0 -
Does anyone know why sometimes it adds calories, and then they dissapear as if it took them back? lol I get that sometimes where at 1PM I have 50 extra calories, then by 7PM they are gone and it says zero again lol
Because it assumes your activity level will remain constant for the rest of the day - so if you do loads of steps in the morning it assumes you'll do about the same each hour until midnight, so it gives you the extra calories. Then when you don't it adjusts back to the actual activity level. Hope that makes sense!
To avoid this, set your food plan to sedentary instead of personalized on Fitbit. When I first got my Fitbit, I found that so annoying to see my allowance bounce up and down. With the sedentary setting, I start with around -70 every morning and I'm at 500 or more by the evening.
or just know that if you sit around for a few hours it will go down. I go with about 10 calories over for each hour of sitting down.
So say I have +250 exercise and its 6pm, I will assume that by midnight it will have dropped to 190 so I wont eat all the exercise calories at 6pm.
Yes, that is also true. If you want to use a buffer instead of changing Fitbit's settings, that works, but I personally prefer to just set the food plan to sedentary, start with a lower calorie allowance, and see nothing but increases throughout the day. It can really take out the confusion/guesswork for people.1 -
Does anyone know why sometimes it adds calories, and then they dissapear as if it took them back? lol I get that sometimes where at 1PM I have 50 extra calories, then by 7PM they are gone and it says zero again lol
Because it assumes your activity level will remain constant for the rest of the day - so if you do loads of steps in the morning it assumes you'll do about the same each hour until midnight, so it gives you the extra calories. Then when you don't it adjusts back to the actual activity level. Hope that makes sense!
To avoid this, set your food plan to sedentary instead of personalized on Fitbit. When I first got my Fitbit, I found that so annoying to see my allowance bounce up and down. With the sedentary setting, I start with around -70 every morning and I'm at 500 or more by the evening.
or just know that if you sit around for a few hours it will go down. I go with about 10 calories over for each hour of sitting down.
So say I have +250 exercise and its 6pm, I will assume that by midnight it will have dropped to 190 so I wont eat all the exercise calories at 6pm.
Yes, that is also true. If you want to use a buffer instead of changing Fitbit's settings, that works, but I personally prefer to just set the food plan to sedentary, start with a lower calorie allowance, and see nothing but increases throughout the day. It can really take out the confusion/guesswork for people.
Does that work though, say your set it at sedentary and then at 6pm you have +500, it is still going to drop if you sit around to say +440 by midnight isnt it? Changing it to sedentary when you arent just means its less likely to go into negative, but it still goes up and down over the day just the same.0 -
Does anyone know why sometimes it adds calories, and then they dissapear as if it took them back? lol I get that sometimes where at 1PM I have 50 extra calories, then by 7PM they are gone and it says zero again lol
Because it assumes your activity level will remain constant for the rest of the day - so if you do loads of steps in the morning it assumes you'll do about the same each hour until midnight, so it gives you the extra calories. Then when you don't it adjusts back to the actual activity level. Hope that makes sense!
To avoid this, set your food plan to sedentary instead of personalized on Fitbit. When I first got my Fitbit, I found that so annoying to see my allowance bounce up and down. With the sedentary setting, I start with around -70 every morning and I'm at 500 or more by the evening.
or just know that if you sit around for a few hours it will go down. I go with about 10 calories over for each hour of sitting down.
So say I have +250 exercise and its 6pm, I will assume that by midnight it will have dropped to 190 so I wont eat all the exercise calories at 6pm.
Yes, that is also true. If you want to use a buffer instead of changing Fitbit's settings, that works, but I personally prefer to just set the food plan to sedentary, start with a lower calorie allowance, and see nothing but increases throughout the day. It can really take out the confusion/guesswork for people.
Does that work though, say your set it at sedentary and then at 6pm you have +500, it is still going to drop if you sit around to say +440 by midnight isnt it? Changing it to sedentary when you arent just means its less likely to go into negative, but it still goes up and down over the day just the same.
I have personally never had a decrease in calories once they've gone up using sedentary mode on Fitbit and setting myself to sedentary on MFP as well. Sedentary mode on Fitbit starts you off with a negative adjustment and only increases as you move; it doesn't predict like personalized mode does. For me, it makes everything simple and straightforward.0 -
Does anyone know why sometimes it adds calories, and then they dissapear as if it took them back? lol I get that sometimes where at 1PM I have 50 extra calories, then by 7PM they are gone and it says zero again lol
Because it assumes your activity level will remain constant for the rest of the day - so if you do loads of steps in the morning it assumes you'll do about the same each hour until midnight, so it gives you the extra calories. Then when you don't it adjusts back to the actual activity level. Hope that makes sense!
To avoid this, set your food plan to sedentary instead of personalized on Fitbit. When I first got my Fitbit, I found that so annoying to see my allowance bounce up and down. With the sedentary setting, I start with around -70 every morning and I'm at 500 or more by the evening.
or just know that if you sit around for a few hours it will go down. I go with about 10 calories over for each hour of sitting down.
So say I have +250 exercise and its 6pm, I will assume that by midnight it will have dropped to 190 so I wont eat all the exercise calories at 6pm.
Yes, that is also true. If you want to use a buffer instead of changing Fitbit's settings, that works, but I personally prefer to just set the food plan to sedentary, start with a lower calorie allowance, and see nothing but increases throughout the day. It can really take out the confusion/guesswork for people.
Does that work though, say your set it at sedentary and then at 6pm you have +500, it is still going to drop if you sit around to say +440 by midnight isnt it? Changing it to sedentary when you arent just means its less likely to go into negative, but it still goes up and down over the day just the same.
It doesn't usually decrease for me on sedentary, except for when MFP-Fitbit communication is being finicky like yesterday. On these days I just manually calculate the difference from the fitbit site the next day. Example: yesterday was such a day, and my calories managed to evaporate down to 237 which is not typical for the amount of steps I took, so this morning I calculated it manually and I should have been given 401 calories.0 -
For thoes of you that have your fitbit synced with mfp... this question is for you!
Do you feel the "exercise" calories they are givng you are accurate? I feel like they are very excessive! For example today... it gave me and additional 1184 calories (Did not work out, just at work)! I think that's insane! If i consumed that plus my daily allowance I'd be eating like 2,600 calories a day.
Do you have a fitbit with a HRM? Mine does, I walk the same way to work every day, and days when I'm stressed/distressed my KCal burn is MUCH higher for exactly the same distance/time.
It's because it 'thinks' I'm working harder so will burn more calories.
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