Eating all the calories!

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  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    mir1104 wrote: »
    I burn 1000-1200 cals in an olympic triathlon, 1.5km open water swim/40km bike/10k run.
    You can use this as a comparison on the estimation and what you did.

    What do you weigh?

    My husband weighs 215 pounds. On a day in which he gets 10,000 steps, he easily burns 3500 calories (which is what her total daily burn was reported as; her weight is 266 pounds). He eats about 3000 calories/day and is losing weight steadily.

    For the people who think the numbers are too big - you're projecting what the numbers would be for you at your weight. It doesn't work that way. I've taken 10,000 steps more than my husband today. His daily calorie burn is still higher than mine. Because he weighs 60 pounds more than me.
  • SierraFatToSkinny
    SierraFatToSkinny Posts: 463 Member
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    Okay! I've been through some trial and error with my Fitbit.

    This is what I think is happening.

    My BMR is about 2000. I have my Fitbit set to lose 2 pounds a week. I think it deducts the 2 pounds from my BMR and then the adjustment is everything above the BMR.

    I've set my MFP calories to 1000 calories less than my BMR and I'm going to eat all my exercise calories.

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  • jessiferrrb
    jessiferrrb Posts: 1,758 Member
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    i just want to agree that your fitbit will be more and more accurate the longer you wear it. i have the tan lines to prove it. lol
  • SierraFatToSkinny
    SierraFatToSkinny Posts: 463 Member
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    VintageFeline wrote: »
    That's not how the syncing from MFP and Fitbit works. You should set MFP to sedentary and let MFP do the work. It adjusts accordingly with your goals and the data sent from your Fitbit. You just need to test the numbers in the real world for a period to see how accurate you are. Fiddling about with your own numbers while having the devices synced could just knock things out of whack even more.

    You can see in the picture I posted that the Fitbit app says I have 1047 calories to eat.

    This is at the start of the day. Just moving around will earn me "exercise" calories. I end up with at least 300-500 calories even sedentary days.

    On days I run I often end up with 1000+ calories.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    SierraFatToSkinny wrote: »
    VintageFeline wrote: »
    That's not how the syncing from MFP and Fitbit works. You should set MFP to sedentary and let MFP do the work. It adjusts accordingly with your goals and the data sent from your Fitbit. You just need to test the numbers in the real world for a period to see how accurate you are. Fiddling about with your own numbers while having the devices synced could just knock things out of whack even more.

    You can see in the picture I posted that the Fitbit app says I have 1047 calories to eat.

    This is at the start of the day. Just moving around will earn me "exercise" calories. I end up with at least 300-500 calories even sedentary days.

    On days I run I often end up with 1000+ calories.

    Fitbit will adjust as the day goes on, as long as you are aware of this and know roughly where you will actually be at the end of the day you can plan accordingly. If you have calories left carry them forward to another day and vice versa.

    And your definition of sedentary is probably different to MFPs definition of sedentary and to reiterate, your numbers aren't crazy when we take into account your height and current weight.

    And once again, as stated several times, you adjust as you have real world data to work with. What your losses actually are and how that aligns with Fitbit numbers.

    By making your own adjustments you're over complicating it and defeating the purpose of having the trackers and having it synced to MFP.

  • srk369
    srk369 Posts: 256 Member
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    VintageFeline wrote: »
    SierraFatToSkinny wrote: »
    VintageFeline wrote: »
    That's not how the syncing from MFP and Fitbit works. You should set MFP to sedentary and let MFP do the work. It adjusts accordingly with your goals and the data sent from your Fitbit. You just need to test the numbers in the real world for a period to see how accurate you are. Fiddling about with your own numbers while having the devices synced could just knock things out of whack even more.

    You can see in the picture I posted that the Fitbit app says I have 1047 calories to eat.

    This is at the start of the day. Just moving around will earn me "exercise" calories. I end up with at least 300-500 calories even sedentary days.

    On days I run I often end up with 1000+ calories.

    Fitbit will adjust as the day goes on, as long as you are aware of this and know roughly where you will actually be at the end of the day you can plan accordingly. If you have calories left carry them forward to another day and vice versa.

    And your definition of sedentary is probably different to MFPs definition of sedentary and to reiterate, your numbers aren't crazy when we take into account your height and current weight.

    And once again, as stated several times, you adjust as you have real world data to work with. What your losses actually are and how that aligns with Fitbit numbers.

    By making your own adjustments you're over complicating it and defeating the purpose of having the trackers and having it synced to MFP.

    VintageFeline is correct, use your real world data and adjust. I posted this earlier this week on another thread...

    I have used my actual data. (1) Sum up the last 28 days of your calorie totals. (2) Pounds lost in those 28 days *3500. Add those 2 numbers together and divide by 28. That will be a real value of what your TDEE is. I find mine comes in higher than the estimates and usually a little lower than my garmin #

    For you since you've had your fitbit about 2 weeks, use your 2 weeks of data and change the 28 to 14 or whatever the number of data you have. I keep all my info in Excel and run this calculation once a week using the prior 4 weeks data. This gives me a truer picture of my TDEE. I love my garmin w/HR for run data and steps, and on some days it comes in real close and other really active days (high steps and run activity) it comes in about 10-20% high.
  • crooked_left_hook
    crooked_left_hook Posts: 364 Member
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    Don't pay attention to the calories in the Fitbit app. Log your food in MFP, set your activity to sedentary, and let MFP adjust your calories for you. Only log non-step based exercise in MFP...let Fitbit count the steps for things like running, walking, elliptical. If you try follow the calorie in/out info in Fitbit and MFP, you will go crazy. At the end of the week look at your Fitbit average calorie burn for the week and see how it compares to what MFP says. It will get more accurate over the next month after it learns your heart rate patterns.

    I use this method and I find that it is pretty accurate. I have my activity set to 'lightly active' because I always get a min of 5000 steps a day. MFP only adds exercise calories when I go over 5000. For 2.5-3 miles of running (30 min because I'm a turtle), which for me is equal to about 5000-6000 steps, MFP gives me about 200-250 calories (for my height and weight). This is consistent with most databases I've checked, and a little less than what the treadmill says, so I consider it pretty accurate. At the end of the week the MFP and Fitbit averages for calories burned are pretty close.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    And i've just noticed, the 1000 calories you have "left" is including everything, the calories you have used from existing since midnight. You haven't eaten yet (0 cals in) so that's where that is coming from.
  • Sassafras106
    Sassafras106 Posts: 73 Member
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    SierraFatToSkinny wrote: »
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    How reasonable is that burn... seems inflated.
    SierraFatToSkinny wrote: »
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    How reasonable is that burn... seems inflated.

    This is below the number of calories I'm still able to lose at and I weigh a less and am short so you would most likely be ok with a few hundred more... I do run though, and I walk around a lot

    I subtract 25 percent of my exercise calories and then eat that number

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,732 Member
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    It doesn't HAVE to be THAT complicated (says the guy who makes his that complicated, or more) :-)

    You have a 3500+ tdee according to Fitbit and also a good amount of fat available to lose.

    A 25% cut (if you're able to comply with it) is sustainable for you. So aim for -750 and leave some extra green, or aim for 1000 and go a little in the red (most would do the first).

    A little = 125, 150; not 500 Cal.

    Connect Fitbit to trendweight to get your weight trend.

    Keep at it for a month.

    Compare actual to expected results and express it as a % overage or underage.

    Remember that this refers to the complete day, not just exercise. So 5% error on 3500 Cal is 175 Cal.

    Remember that when you manually enter an exercise on MFP you are overwriting what Fitbit detected during that time period. That can affect results.

    Remember that everything you don't log correctly in terms of food also affects results.

    Of course at the end of the day accuracy matters less than consistency.

    Consistency allows you to adjust regardless of accuracy.
  • SierraFatToSkinny
    SierraFatToSkinny Posts: 463 Member
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    I've only lost two pound in the month since buying my Fitbit. I'm extremely discouraged.

    I have it set to lose two pounds a week....

    Probably a combination of logging error and also exercise inflation.

    I'm feeling seriously discouraged.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,108 Member
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    I log all food here and all activity through fitbit. The MFP activity burns were giving me double what fitbit said so I decided the lower fitbit number was more accurate. MFP is set to lowest activity level and I allow for negative adjustments when syncing. This formula has allowed me to eat most or all of my earned activity calories.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    SCoil123 wrote: »
    I log all food here and all activity through fitbit. The MFP activity burns were giving me double what fitbit said so I decided the lower fitbit number was more accurate. MFP is set to lowest activity level and I allow for negative adjustments when syncing. This formula has allowed me to eat most or all of my earned activity calories.

    I do the same (except that I chose a higher "base" activity level for reasons of convenience). It has worked perfectly for me. My weight loss is within a pound of what it "should" be if FitBit's calorie burns are correct.

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