How accurate is FitBit TDEE (HR monitor version)?
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shampbj
Posts: 33 Member
I just wondered how accurate people have found exercise monitor TDEE calculations to be.
I'm a 5'3" female, 153 lbs., with PCOS. I am down about 25 lbs. (SW 179) over the past two years but the past year I have been bouncing back up and down between about 155 and 152 and cannot seem to get under the magic 150 barrier. My goal is 140, which will put me at a normal BMI.
My FitBit says I burn 2,400 calories a day (that's averaging out the burn over the past five weeks). I average about 12,600 steps a day (average for the last five weeks). About half those steps come from exercise (brisk walking 45 min/5x week + low impact aerobics with resistance band 45 min/2x week) and about half come from NEAT.
I weigh my food on a scale, and my calorie goal has been manually set at 1400 cals/day. I recently reset it (this week) to 1 lb./week, lightly active, which is 1430--so about what I was doing before.
I'm not on a specific diet but strictly count calories. I do try to limit processed carbohydrates due to my PCOS.
Is my TDEE way off? I don't think eating fewer calories is sustainable long term, because I will get hangry and give up. But when I do eat more calories, my weight seems to start creeping up again. Anybody have some good advice for me? I'm not looking to be a supermodel; I just want to get down to a normal BMI.
I'm a 5'3" female, 153 lbs., with PCOS. I am down about 25 lbs. (SW 179) over the past two years but the past year I have been bouncing back up and down between about 155 and 152 and cannot seem to get under the magic 150 barrier. My goal is 140, which will put me at a normal BMI.
My FitBit says I burn 2,400 calories a day (that's averaging out the burn over the past five weeks). I average about 12,600 steps a day (average for the last five weeks). About half those steps come from exercise (brisk walking 45 min/5x week + low impact aerobics with resistance band 45 min/2x week) and about half come from NEAT.
I weigh my food on a scale, and my calorie goal has been manually set at 1400 cals/day. I recently reset it (this week) to 1 lb./week, lightly active, which is 1430--so about what I was doing before.
I'm not on a specific diet but strictly count calories. I do try to limit processed carbohydrates due to my PCOS.
Is my TDEE way off? I don't think eating fewer calories is sustainable long term, because I will get hangry and give up. But when I do eat more calories, my weight seems to start creeping up again. Anybody have some good advice for me? I'm not looking to be a supermodel; I just want to get down to a normal BMI.
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Replies
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I've been using a Fitbit with HR since 2015 and I've found it to be very accurate.
That said, your real life results are going to be your best guide. If you're eating 2,400 and your weight is going up, that's more meaningful information than what the Fitbit is telling you your TDEE is.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »I've been using a Fitbit with HR since 2015 and I've found it to be very accurate.
That said, your real life results are going to be your best guide. If you're eating 2,400 and your weight is going up, that's more meaningful information than what the Fitbit is telling you your TDEE is.
I'm not eating 2,400 calories a day. I'm eating 1,400 calories a day. If 1,400 is my maintenance calories, I'm am severely in trouble.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »I've been using a Fitbit with HR since 2015 and I've found it to be very accurate.
That said, your real life results are going to be your best guide. If you're eating 2,400 and your weight is going up, that's more meaningful information than what the Fitbit is telling you your TDEE is.
I'm not eating 2,400 calories a day. I'm eating 1,400 calories a day. If 1,400 is my maintenance calories, I'm am severely in trouble.
Your weight is going up on 1,400?0 -
How long have you been eating 1400 cals? If you're weighing is accurate and your calorie burn is accurate then you should be losing 2lb per week. Are you?1
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This study found that most activity trackers are pretty bad at estimating energy expenditure, even if they're measuring your heart rate accurately.
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2017/05/fitness-trackers-accurately-measure-heart-rate-but-not-calories-burned.html
Which probably isn't very helpful for you! But I guess it just means you need to keep tweaking what you're doing until you get the real-life result you want, rather than trusting what the FitBit is telling you.1 -
TavistockToad wrote: »How long have you been eating 1400 cals? If you're weighing is accurate and your calorie burn is accurate then you should be losing 2lb per week. Are you?
No. As stated in my original post, I have been bouncing up and down in a 3-pound range (155-152) for a year.2 -
TavistockToad wrote: »How long have you been eating 1400 cals? If you're weighing is accurate and your calorie burn is accurate then you should be losing 2lb per week. Are you?
No. As stated in my original post, I have been bouncing up and down in a 3-pound range (155-152) for a year.
Then you're eating more and burning less than you think.
Also, there's an outside chance you need a diet break...5 -
Your weight is going up on 1,400?[/quote]
No, my weight stays about the same at 1,400. If I go above that, say a couple of splurge days of 1600-1800, then, yes my weight goes up. It usually rebounds back to about the same level after going back to strict 1,400 for a few days.
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My Alta HR seems pretty accurate.
I've always estimated my sedentary TDEE as around 1700. The Alta gives me that TDEE on lazy days (under 5k steps) which seems right on point. On more active days, I average out around 1900-2000 TDEE - which makes sense.
2400 for 12k steps and some other workouts seems about right for you. PCOS may be throwing a wrench into the calculations though.2 -
No, my weight stays about the same at 1,400. If I go above that, say a couple of splurge days of 1600-1800, then, yes my weight goes up. It usually rebounds back to about the same level after going back to strict 1,400 for a few days.
That seems pretty low. Are you using a food scale for all your solid food?0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »
No, my weight stays about the same at 1,400. If I go above that, say a couple of splurge days of 1600-1800, then, yes my weight goes up. It usually rebounds back to about the same level after going back to strict 1,400 for a few days.
That seems pretty low. Are you using a food scale for all your solid food?
Yes, I weigh meat in ounces since most of the entries use ounces, and everything else in grams, including hummus and shredded cheese! Except of course when I eat out, which is usually one night a week. But I usually get a burger with no bun and a salad with no dressing, so I don't think my logging could be off enough from that to wreck a whole week. I'm just feeling very frustrated at the moment. The biggest ? would probably be the wine I have with dinner, but if my TDEE is accurate, I'd have to be drinking two extra bottles of wine a week to account for the calories mismatch, which is definitely not the case.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »
No, my weight stays about the same at 1,400. If I go above that, say a couple of splurge days of 1600-1800, then, yes my weight goes up. It usually rebounds back to about the same level after going back to strict 1,400 for a few days.
That seems pretty low. Are you using a food scale for all your solid food?
Yes, I weigh meat in ounces since most of the entries use ounces, and everything else in grams, including hummus and shredded cheese! Except of course when I eat out, which is usually one night a week. But I usually get a burger with no bun and a salad with no dressing, so I don't think my logging could be off enough from that to wreck a whole week. I'm just feeling very frustrated at the moment. The biggest ? would probably be the wine I have with dinner, but if my TDEE is accurate, I'd have to be drinking two extra bottles of wine a week to account for the calories mismatch, which is definitely not the case.
You don't log the wine?1 -
Some are better than others. My Alta HR has been very accurate. I'm 5'1" and 131 pounds and Fitbit estimates 2400 calories for 15K steps a day, which is pretty consistent with what I'm losing at currently. My husband's counts steps when he's driving in his car. The MFP estimate given to you and your Fitbit are only part of the picture. For all of this to work correctly, you have to be logging accurately. If you've been consuming 1400 calories consistently for the last year and not losing anything, then my initial suggestion is that something is incorrect with your logging. Can you open your food diary?2
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TavistockToad wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »
No, my weight stays about the same at 1,400. If I go above that, say a couple of splurge days of 1600-1800, then, yes my weight goes up. It usually rebounds back to about the same level after going back to strict 1,400 for a few days.
That seems pretty low. Are you using a food scale for all your solid food?
Yes, I weigh meat in ounces since most of the entries use ounces, and everything else in grams, including hummus and shredded cheese! Except of course when I eat out, which is usually one night a week. But I usually get a burger with no bun and a salad with no dressing, so I don't think my logging could be off enough from that to wreck a whole week. I'm just feeling very frustrated at the moment. The biggest ? would probably be the wine I have with dinner, but if my TDEE is accurate, I'd have to be drinking two extra bottles of wine a week to account for the calories mismatch, which is definitely not the case.
You don't log the wine?
Of course I log the wine. But I pour it into a glass. I don't weigh it. So there might be a variance if I am logging a glass as five ounces but in fact it is six ounces.0 -
TavistockToad wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »
No, my weight stays about the same at 1,400. If I go above that, say a couple of splurge days of 1600-1800, then, yes my weight goes up. It usually rebounds back to about the same level after going back to strict 1,400 for a few days.
That seems pretty low. Are you using a food scale for all your solid food?
Yes, I weigh meat in ounces since most of the entries use ounces, and everything else in grams, including hummus and shredded cheese! Except of course when I eat out, which is usually one night a week. But I usually get a burger with no bun and a salad with no dressing, so I don't think my logging could be off enough from that to wreck a whole week. I'm just feeling very frustrated at the moment. The biggest ? would probably be the wine I have with dinner, but if my TDEE is accurate, I'd have to be drinking two extra bottles of wine a week to account for the calories mismatch, which is definitely not the case.
You don't log the wine?
Of course I log the wine. But I pour it into a glass. I don't weigh it. So there might be a variance if I am logging a glass as five ounces but in fact it is six ounces.
Surely you can figure that out by how many glasses you get out of a bottle...? It's not that difficult a calculation....0 -
DomesticKat wrote: »Some are better than others. My Alta HR has been very accurate. I'm 5'1" and 131 pounds and Fitbit estimates 2400 calories for 15K steps a day, which is pretty consistent with what I'm losing at currently. My husband's counts steps when he's driving in his car. The MFP estimate given to you and your Fitbit are only part of the picture. For all of this to work correctly, you have to be logging accurately. If you've been consuming 1400 calories consistently for the last year and not losing anything, then my initial suggestion is that something is incorrect with your logging. Can you open your food diary?
I did set it to public in my settings. Is there something else I need to do?
ETA - Not sure why I can't see it from my profile, but the link is http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/shampbj0 -
TavistockToad wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »
No, my weight stays about the same at 1,400. If I go above that, say a couple of splurge days of 1600-1800, then, yes my weight goes up. It usually rebounds back to about the same level after going back to strict 1,400 for a few days.
That seems pretty low. Are you using a food scale for all your solid food?
Yes, I weigh meat in ounces since most of the entries use ounces, and everything else in grams, including hummus and shredded cheese! Except of course when I eat out, which is usually one night a week. But I usually get a burger with no bun and a salad with no dressing, so I don't think my logging could be off enough from that to wreck a whole week. I'm just feeling very frustrated at the moment. The biggest ? would probably be the wine I have with dinner, but if my TDEE is accurate, I'd have to be drinking two extra bottles of wine a week to account for the calories mismatch, which is definitely not the case.
You don't log the wine?
Of course I log the wine. But I pour it into a glass. I don't weigh it. So there might be a variance if I am logging a glass as five ounces but in fact it is six ounces.
Surely you can figure that out by how many glasses you get out of a bottle...? It's not that difficult a calculation....
Yes, there are 5 glasses per bottle. So if I drink half a bottle of wine, I log 2.5 glasses. I'm saying it might not be exact, but it should be pretty close. You are kind of treating me like an idiot here.
If I am maintaining at 1,400 calories a day but my FitBit says my TDEE is 2,400 calories a day, then either my consumption numbers are wrong or my TDEE is wrong. I am a very tight logger, so I'm theorizing that my TDEE is not correct, and this post was to see if anyone else had encountered similar issues.0 -
TavistockToad wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »
No, my weight stays about the same at 1,400. If I go above that, say a couple of splurge days of 1600-1800, then, yes my weight goes up. It usually rebounds back to about the same level after going back to strict 1,400 for a few days.
That seems pretty low. Are you using a food scale for all your solid food?
Yes, I weigh meat in ounces since most of the entries use ounces, and everything else in grams, including hummus and shredded cheese! Except of course when I eat out, which is usually one night a week. But I usually get a burger with no bun and a salad with no dressing, so I don't think my logging could be off enough from that to wreck a whole week. I'm just feeling very frustrated at the moment. The biggest ? would probably be the wine I have with dinner, but if my TDEE is accurate, I'd have to be drinking two extra bottles of wine a week to account for the calories mismatch, which is definitely not the case.
You don't log the wine?
Of course I log the wine. But I pour it into a glass. I don't weigh it. So there might be a variance if I am logging a glass as five ounces but in fact it is six ounces.
I use a measuring cup for my alcohol -- the liquid ones typically have the ounce measurement clearly marked.1 -
Just looking back until May, I have some questions. The recipes you log, are those generic entries or are you adding them to your recipes yourself? Some appear to be generic. How are you calculating a serving for a recipe? I see some entries that aren't weighed. Things like cake or cinnamon buns that are entered as a partial serving. I also see some entries missing for dinner or lunch. Did you not eat meals on those days? I see that you're eating out at restaurants or fast food as well. Those can be off since you have to estimate the calorie content. I see days where you're over on calories as well as under, so there are some issues with consistency. Those are all things I would recommend tightening up before jumping to not losing at 1400 calories.5
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Can be too high by a lot if you happen to have a higher than average maximum heartrate and/or are not very fit so that your heartrate goes up easily. For me it's very off! It gave me nearly 500kcal for a concert lasting about an hour yesterday and the day before. Just some dancing? No way! On normal days Fitbit is about 150-200kcal too high as well. Thus if I believed it I would gain weight. Btw, I've adjusted it by adding my maxHR, but Fitbit settings only allow so much (mine is about 205)0
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