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Should I / Do You Pay attention to Fitbit Calories?
dave_in_ni
Posts: 533 Member
If I look at what I've done today.
Goal: 1500
Food: 1687
Exercise: 1528
I am an active person, today I have clocked up 22,252 steps and burned 200 calories lifting weights but I am wondering how much attention I should pay to this? Should I just stick to my goal and ignore the rest? I mean going by the Exercise I've almost canceled out what I've eaten today.
Goal: 1500
Food: 1687
Exercise: 1528
I am an active person, today I have clocked up 22,252 steps and burned 200 calories lifting weights but I am wondering how much attention I should pay to this? Should I just stick to my goal and ignore the rest? I mean going by the Exercise I've almost canceled out what I've eaten today.
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Replies
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If your calorie goal comes from MFP, it's given to you with the assumption that you will eat back the calories burnt through additional exercise.
Some of your Fitbit calories are already accounted for in the activity level you picked when you set up your MFP account.
Have you considered syncing your MFP and Fitbit accounts? When you do this, all the math is handled for you and you get an exact number of how many calories to eat back.3 -
janejellyroll wrote: »If your calorie goal comes from MFP, it's given to you with the assumption that you will eat back the calories burnt through additional exercise.
Some of your Fitbit calories are already accounted for in the activity level you picked when you set up your MFP account.
Have you considered syncing your MFP and Fitbit accounts? When you do this, all the math is handled for you and you get an exact number of how many calories to eat back.
Thats what I've done. When the fitbit syncs it updates MFP with the details. So today the 1528 exercise is coming from Fitbit syncing with MFP0 -
dave_in_ni wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »If your calorie goal comes from MFP, it's given to you with the assumption that you will eat back the calories burnt through additional exercise.
Some of your Fitbit calories are already accounted for in the activity level you picked when you set up your MFP account.
Have you considered syncing your MFP and Fitbit accounts? When you do this, all the math is handled for you and you get an exact number of how many calories to eat back.
Thats what I've done. When the fitbit syncs it updates MFP with the details. So today the 1528 exercise is coming from Fitbit syncing with MFP
Got it, sorry for misunderstanding your initial post.
I eat back all my calorie adjustments. I've been doing this since 2015 and find that I lost/maintain exactly as expected. Others find that they do need to make adjustments, eating less of their adjustments. The best way to verify is against your real life results.
Is your Fitbit sync new or is it something you've been seeing for a while and ignoring? If it's new, I'd say eat back a portion of them -- say 50-75% -- and then monitor your results and adjust after a few weeks based on that. If you've been ignoring them for a while, what have your real life results shown?1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »dave_in_ni wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »If your calorie goal comes from MFP, it's given to you with the assumption that you will eat back the calories burnt through additional exercise.
Some of your Fitbit calories are already accounted for in the activity level you picked when you set up your MFP account.
Have you considered syncing your MFP and Fitbit accounts? When you do this, all the math is handled for you and you get an exact number of how many calories to eat back.
Thats what I've done. When the fitbit syncs it updates MFP with the details. So today the 1528 exercise is coming from Fitbit syncing with MFP
Got it, sorry for misunderstanding your initial post.
I eat back all my calorie adjustments. I've been doing this since 2015 and find that I lost/maintain exactly as expected. Others find that they do need to make adjustments, eating less of their adjustments. The best way to verify is against your real life results.
Is your Fitbit sync new or is it something you've been seeing for a while and ignoring? If it's new, I'd say eat back a portion of them -- say 50-75% -- and then monitor your results and adjust after a few weeks based on that. If you've been ignoring them for a while, what have your real life results shown?
I've not paid attention to be honest as I've been maintaining my weight. Its only now I'm cutting again I decided to pay attention.0 -
I’m in a similar position, in fact asked almost this exact question a few days ago.
I regularly get between 600-1,200 calories from my Fitbit sync.... this is just from daily steps though, not from formal exercise. I haven’t been eating them back, still unsure if I should.
My Fitbit is new, so as janejellyroll said above, I’m going to give it a few weeks, watch the scales and see what happens.
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dave_in_ni wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dave_in_ni wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »If your calorie goal comes from MFP, it's given to you with the assumption that you will eat back the calories burnt through additional exercise.
Some of your Fitbit calories are already accounted for in the activity level you picked when you set up your MFP account.
Have you considered syncing your MFP and Fitbit accounts? When you do this, all the math is handled for you and you get an exact number of how many calories to eat back.
Thats what I've done. When the fitbit syncs it updates MFP with the details. So today the 1528 exercise is coming from Fitbit syncing with MFP
Got it, sorry for misunderstanding your initial post.
I eat back all my calorie adjustments. I've been doing this since 2015 and find that I lost/maintain exactly as expected. Others find that they do need to make adjustments, eating less of their adjustments. The best way to verify is against your real life results.
Is your Fitbit sync new or is it something you've been seeing for a while and ignoring? If it's new, I'd say eat back a portion of them -- say 50-75% -- and then monitor your results and adjust after a few weeks based on that. If you've been ignoring them for a while, what have your real life results shown?
I've not paid attention to be honest as I've been maintaining my weight. Its only now I'm cutting again I decided to pay attention.
Were you hitting a specific calorie goal to maintain?1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »dave_in_ni wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dave_in_ni wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »If your calorie goal comes from MFP, it's given to you with the assumption that you will eat back the calories burnt through additional exercise.
Some of your Fitbit calories are already accounted for in the activity level you picked when you set up your MFP account.
Have you considered syncing your MFP and Fitbit accounts? When you do this, all the math is handled for you and you get an exact number of how many calories to eat back.
Thats what I've done. When the fitbit syncs it updates MFP with the details. So today the 1528 exercise is coming from Fitbit syncing with MFP
Got it, sorry for misunderstanding your initial post.
I eat back all my calorie adjustments. I've been doing this since 2015 and find that I lost/maintain exactly as expected. Others find that they do need to make adjustments, eating less of their adjustments. The best way to verify is against your real life results.
Is your Fitbit sync new or is it something you've been seeing for a while and ignoring? If it's new, I'd say eat back a portion of them -- say 50-75% -- and then monitor your results and adjust after a few weeks based on that. If you've been ignoring them for a while, what have your real life results shown?
I've not paid attention to be honest as I've been maintaining my weight. Its only now I'm cutting again I decided to pay attention.
Were you hitting a specific calorie goal to maintain?
My TDEE was around 1800, I was eating anywhere from 2000-2200 and maintained maybe even lost like 1lb per month.0 -
I do to a certain degree, but with high suspicion due to the inherent inaccuracy in caloric output estimation. I go by steps taken, regardless of activity, but I am also currently in deficit. I shift according to my goals, so when I'm focusing on strength, endurance and in maintenance/surplus I use my guidance as more of a bare minimum to meet instead of a maximum level to stay under.1
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Leannep2201 wrote: »I’m in a similar position, in fact asked almost this exact question a few days ago.
I regularly get between 600-1,200 calories from my Fitbit sync.... this is just from daily steps though, not from formal exercise. I haven’t been eating them back, still unsure if I should.
My Fitbit is new, so as janejellyroll said above, I’m going to give it a few weeks, watch the scales and see what happens.
Yes It sounds too good to be true really. I don't trust it.0 -
dave_in_ni wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dave_in_ni wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »dave_in_ni wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »If your calorie goal comes from MFP, it's given to you with the assumption that you will eat back the calories burnt through additional exercise.
Some of your Fitbit calories are already accounted for in the activity level you picked when you set up your MFP account.
Have you considered syncing your MFP and Fitbit accounts? When you do this, all the math is handled for you and you get an exact number of how many calories to eat back.
Thats what I've done. When the fitbit syncs it updates MFP with the details. So today the 1528 exercise is coming from Fitbit syncing with MFP
Got it, sorry for misunderstanding your initial post.
I eat back all my calorie adjustments. I've been doing this since 2015 and find that I lost/maintain exactly as expected. Others find that they do need to make adjustments, eating less of their adjustments. The best way to verify is against your real life results.
Is your Fitbit sync new or is it something you've been seeing for a while and ignoring? If it's new, I'd say eat back a portion of them -- say 50-75% -- and then monitor your results and adjust after a few weeks based on that. If you've been ignoring them for a while, what have your real life results shown?
I've not paid attention to be honest as I've been maintaining my weight. Its only now I'm cutting again I decided to pay attention.
Were you hitting a specific calorie goal to maintain?
My TDEE was around 1800, I was eating anywhere from 2000-2200 and maintained maybe even lost like 1lb per month.
If your calculated TDEE was 1,800 but you were maintaining/slowly losing on 2,000-2,200, then your TDEE is actually more than 1,800 (all this is assuming accurate measuring of calories in). Your TDEE represents exactly where you would maintain your weight.
On your cut, are you going for a deficit of 500 calories a day? If you were maintaining on 2,000 and now trying to eat 1,500, that's fairly aggressive. It may be what you're going for, just asking.1 -
Go by your real life results - if you've been maintaining and you want to lose you need to eat a bit less.
Personally when I used fitbit I found it pretty accurate and was able to trust the numbers. So I let it sync with this app and went by those numbers.1 -
I eat my adjustment. I’m here to get fit and healthy more than anything else. A big part of that is properly fueling my body’s activity every day.1
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With fairly accurate tracking of calories in and weight trend and mostly engaging in step based activity Fitbit calculated TDEE has been accurate to within less than 5% over any random 4-6 week period these past 3 years.
If you lost while eating 2100 Cal your tdee was more than 2100 Cal (at TDEE you would maintain) and your deficit is aggressive as it exceeds 20% of your TDEE (unless morbidly obese, then 25%+ would be aggressive).
I do hear lots of abouts in what you say though...1
This discussion has been closed.
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