Should I be eating back fitbit calorie calculation?

comptonelizabeth

I recently started using a fitbit, mainly to track my steps. When I joined mfp I set my activity level at lightly active. That includes just walking around my house, up and down 2 flights of stairs, walking to and from the shops and doing a couple of dog walks each day. I've never bothered logging any of that as exercise. According to my fitbit that amounts , daily , to around 10000 steps which fitbit reckons amounts to around 200 calories. Should I be eating this back? I'm asking because my weight gain has plateaud and I'm wondering if I'm more active than I thought I was!

KarenSmith2018

I generally eat to what my Garmin watch says I’ve consumed in a day and that seems to work out ok so I would eat whatever the total calories are on mfp assuming your Fitbit calorie burns track over.

bcradio1

Are you trying to gain fat or muscle? If muscle, what lifting routine are you on?

comptonelizabeth

bcradio1 wrote: »

Are you trying to gain fat or muscle? If muscle, what lifting routine are you on?

My original aim was to gain both (I was underweight) I was doing well on strong lifts but have had to stop all upper body exercise and pretty much all lifting due to a shoulder and neck injury. I'm doing lower body weight exercises but doubt I'm gaining any muscle on that. And don't want to gain any more fat! I'd be happy maintaining but wouldn't want to lose which is why I'm wondering if I need to eat back the calories fit bit says I'm burning (yes they're syncing over to mfp)

middlehaitch

Start by eating back 50% of what your Fitbit gives you. If that works well and you are gaining at a rate that suits you keep it st that. Otherwise go to 75% or even the full 100%.

Be consistent in the % you eat back, it is easier to adjust from there if you are solutions going by Fitbit.

The other option is to add a flat 100 cals to your intake, and monitor.

Cheers, h.

comptonelizabeth

Thank you !