Fitbit Calories

808Trish808

I'm new to Fitbit and I have noticed that I earned myself some calories based on my steps for the day. Question is, should I eat any of them back? Before I had my fitbit I only ate back a portion of the calories I earned after a workout. Please advise. Thank you.

capaul42

When I first got my fitbit, I ignored my adjustment and only ate back 50% of actual exercise. I found I was losing too quickly, much faster than my planned rate. So I started eating back 50% of the adjustment, after finding out what it actually was. Currently I eat back 90% and still lose at my expected rate.

The adjustment you see is not the calories you burned for your steps. Well, not exactly.

Fitbit sends 2 pieces of info to MFP: step count and total calorie burn. That burn is for all your daily activity, including steps and exercise. MFP compares that number to what it thinks you burn in a day based on your setup/activity level. The adjustment is the difference between those numbers.

Example: I had 13,000 steps the other day. And I burned 2400 calories. MFP says I should have burned 1800 so it gave me an adjustment of 600 to add to my daily calories of 1560.

Colorscheme

Depends on how many cals you have left. If you're tdee is 2000, and you have 1500 net, I wouldn't eat it back. But if your tdee is 2000 and you're burning 1,000 cal a day from exercising, I'd eat 500 cals. And I always eat back calories if I'm under 1200 net so that I'm consuming about 1200-1300 a day.

daniip_la

I have a Fitbit, and if I don't eat back the calories it gives me from activity, I lose faster than expected and feel ill from under eating. I've found my Fitbit to be completely accurate, after tracking the last four months of data from it, so I tend to eat back everything it gives me unless I'm just not hungry.

babypunkprincess

daniip_la wrote: »

I have a Fitbit, and if I don't eat back the calories it gives me from activity, I lose faster than expected and feel ill from under eating. I've found my Fitbit to be completely accurate, after tracking the last four months of data from it, so I tend to eat back everything it gives me unless I'm just not hungry.

What kind of fitbit do u have? I have a flex and take an average of 8000 steps a day and take it off when I use my elliptical. For my steps I burn around 350 on mfp, can I eat those calories back? Or is that just calories burnt from daily stuff that I shouldn't eat back?

Colorscheme

babypunkprincess wrote: »

daniip_la wrote: »

I have a Fitbit, and if I don't eat back the calories it gives me from activity, I lose faster than expected and feel ill from under eating. I've found my Fitbit to be completely accurate, after tracking the last four months of data from it, so I tend to eat back everything it gives me unless I'm just not hungry.

What kind of fitbit do u have? I have a flex and take an average of 8000 steps a day and take it off when I use my elliptical. For my steps I burn around 350 on mfp, can I eat those calories back? Or is that just calories burnt from daily stuff that I shouldn't eat back?

Why do you take it off? some of the models have smart track features so it can detect walking, biking, etc Maybe you'll want that.

rsclause

I wear mine for everything and when logging would eat or drink til I was getting close to my deficit number. I was very honest with logging and was running 30 miles a week at the time. Fifty pounds melted off me fast.

daniip_la

babypunkprincess wrote: »

daniip_la wrote: »

I have a Fitbit, and if I don't eat back the calories it gives me from activity, I lose faster than expected and feel ill from under eating. I've found my Fitbit to be completely accurate, after tracking the last four months of data from it, so I tend to eat back everything it gives me unless I'm just not hungry.

What kind of fitbit do u have? I have a flex and take an average of 8000 steps a day and take it off when I use my elliptical. For my steps I burn around 350 on mfp, can I eat those calories back? Or is that just calories burnt from daily stuff that I shouldn't eat back?

I have a Fitbit One, I never take it off except to shower.

If your Fitbit is linked to MFP, and MFP is giving you those calories for your steps, I'd say to eat them. I eat them, and lose exactly according to plan.

Edit: A caveat to this is that you're absolutely accurate with your logging. I weigh everything I eat, and overestimate when possible. If you don't, I would recommend not eating back as many calories to make up for any inaccuracies in logging.

808Trish808

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I feel kind of guilty eating them back because i have been doing the same amount of activity (except exercise) before i purchased the fitbit. However, my eating habits aren't the same so I think maybe I should eat approximately 50%?

tracymayo1

808Trish808 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I feel kind of guilty eating them back because i have been doing the same amount of activity (except exercise) before i purchased the fitbit. However, my eating habits aren't the same so I think maybe I should eat approximately 50%?

If you have your calorie adjustment set to ALLOW NEGATIVE CALORIE ADJUSTMENT - then yes you can eat them back. It measures your calories burnt against what MFP calculated you would of burnt and gives back the difference.
If you aren't 100% sure eat part of them back and see what your losses are and manually adjust from there.

808Trish808

tracymayo1 wrote: »

808Trish808 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I feel kind of guilty eating them back because i have been doing the same amount of activity (except exercise) before i purchased the fitbit. However, my eating habits aren't the same so I think maybe I should eat approximately 50%?

If you have your calorie adjustment set to ALLOW NEGATIVE CALORIE ADJUSTMENT - then yes you can eat them back. It measures your calories burnt against what MFP calculated you would of burnt and gives back the difference.
If you aren't 100% sure eat part of them back and see what your losses are and manually adjust from there.

Thank you. Yes, I will do a trial and error and eat part of them back.

FLBeachluvr

So many things factor into how you lose. For me, I have a lower calorie goal during the week and a higher goal for the weekends. Most days I net right around 900 calories (a bit more on the weekends) and I mostly do not eat back my exercise calories (again, I give myself a little more leeway on the weekends) and I "only" lose about a pound per week. Everyone is different. I do wear my Fitbit all the time except when I shower. I also have the negative calorie adjustment enabled.

tessiscruisen

I have a fitbit one, I've been exercising everyday and eating between 1200 and 1600 call per day. My fitbit calorie burn is between 1900 - 2300 per day, I have gained weight only 1 pound, but haven't lost any so far this week... is this normal? My stats: woman, 46, 5'2 166.6 pounds, macros around 35 P, 25 C, and 40 F. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Terpnista84

tessiscruisen wrote: »

I have a fitbit one, I've been exercising everyday and eating between 1200 and 1600 call per day. My fitbit calorie burn is between 1900 - 2300 per day, I have gained weight only 1 pound, but haven't lost any so far this week... is this normal? My stats: woman, 46, 5'2 166.6 pounds, macros around 35 P, 25 C, and 40 F. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Hi! Is this the first week? You shouldn't expect the scale to move right away, especially when water retention can cause fluctuations. I weighed myself on a hot day and I was 3lbs heavier than the day before. The same thing happens when I have an intense workout. I burned almost 3,000 calories one day due to a heavy cardio session and my reward the next day was over a pound of weight gain lol. If you must weight yourself, do it after a rest day. I found that the scale moves after my muscles have a chance to repair themselves.

I've been at this for a month and I'm terrified of stepping on the scale even though I do appear to be changing physically. But my large calorie deficit (which also causes water retention) and my huge daily burns I know I am doing what I need to do, and you shouldn't worry either. Be patient. Your body will catch up to your effort eventually.

tessiscruisen

Thank you!

inertiastrength

According to my fitbit Alta I have a TDEE of anywhere between 1850 and 2300 so on days that I'm pretty sedentary and it's 1850 I obv don't eat anything back because I'm usually at about 1350 anyhow. On days where it's 2300 I usually eat 1600-1700 if I'm snack-y. If I try and be a hero and eat low when I've been consistently 2300 for TDEE I will end up binging on something not-that-exciting like peanut butter (see yesterday) lol

babypunkprincess

Colorscheme wrote: »

babypunkprincess wrote: »

daniip_la wrote: »

I have a Fitbit, and if I don't eat back the calories it gives me from activity, I lose faster than expected and feel ill from under eating. I've found my Fitbit to be completely accurate, after tracking the last four months of data from it, so I tend to eat back everything it gives me unless I'm just not hungry.

What kind of fitbit do u have? I have a flex and take an average of 8000 steps a day and take it off when I use my elliptical. For my steps I burn around 350 on mfp, can I eat those calories back? Or is that just calories burnt from daily stuff that I shouldn't eat back?

Why do you take it off? some of the models have smart track features so it can detect walking, biking, etc Maybe you'll want that.

I take it off bc i don't always have my hands on the moving arms part....also it motivates me to work out on top of my daily goal of 8000 steps a day. Keeps me more active.

babypunkprincess

daniip_la wrote: »

babypunkprincess wrote: »

daniip_la wrote: »

I have a Fitbit, and if I don't eat back the calories it gives me from activity, I lose faster than expected and feel ill from under eating. I've found my Fitbit to be completely accurate, after tracking the last four months of data from it, so I tend to eat back everything it gives me unless I'm just not hungry.

What kind of fitbit do u have? I have a flex and take an average of 8000 steps a day and take it off when I use my elliptical. For my steps I burn around 350 on mfp, can I eat those calories back? Or is that just calories burnt from daily stuff that I shouldn't eat back?

I have a Fitbit One, I never take it off except to shower.

If your Fitbit is linked to MFP, and MFP is giving you those calories for your steps, I'd say to eat them. I eat them, and lose exactly according to plan.

Edit: A caveat to this is that you're absolutely accurate with your logging. I weigh everything I eat, and overestimate when possible. If you don't, I would recommend not eating back as many calories to make up for any inaccuracies in logging.

Thanks!