Fitbit giving then taking away calories

BattyKnitter

Hello, let's start with stats: Female, 33, 5'2", CW: 153, GW 125, set to lightly active, diary open to public.

Can anyone explain to me why my Fitbit gives me extra calories for taking steps beyond lightly active (I usually get 10,000 - 12,000 steps on weekdays) but as the day goes on I lose those calories? It's aggravating that I get these extra calories, so I eat them but then they go away. For example last night I had 125 calories left over when I went to bed, but I woke up to only 87.
Normally I eat back all my calories but I'm trying to save a little more every day this week sine I am going out with friends Friday and would like to have a drink with my meal.

I try to spread out my steps to avoid this but most of my steps are gained in the 1 hour a day I walk on the active workstation (treadmill with a computer) at work .

etherealanwar

I believe that when you get a lot of steps in the beginning of the day the app gives you calories assuming that you are going to keep at the pace you were going at and if you don't it takes the extra away at the end of the day. I am not 100% sure about this though so if someone can chime in that would be great

tinkerbellang83

BattyKnitter wrote: »

Hello, let's start with stats: Female, 33, 5'2", CW: 153, GW 125, set to lightly active, diary open to public.

Can anyone explain to me why my Fitbit gives me extra calories for taking steps beyond lightly active (I usually get 10,000 - 12,000 steps on weekdays) but as the day goes on I lose those calories? It's aggravating that I get these extra calories, so I eat them but then they go away. For example last night I had 125 calories left over when I went to bed, but I woke up to only 87.
Normally I eat back all my calories but I'm trying to save a little more every day this week sine I am going out with friends Friday and would like to have a drink with my meal.

I try to spread out my steps to avoid this but most of my steps are gained in the 1 hour a day I walk on the active workstation (treadmill with a computer) at work .

If the majority of your steps are early in the day then it will assume the same level of activity for the rest of the day, if you become more sedentary in the afternoon, it will start to adjust based on that. You could just try and base your calorie intake on what a normal day looks like from previous experience? 40 calories or so difference isn't going to make a whole lot of difference to your weight loss and it's still only an estimate.

Maxematics

Based on your activity, Fitbit is projecting what they think your activity level will be until midnight. At the end of the day, that number will decrease a bit. Leaving a few calories on the table can assist with that or setting your activity level to sedentary may cause less of a decrease at the end of the day.

BattyKnitter

Thank for the responses everyone! I'm not worrying about it, I was just curious why it might be doing this

Makes sense that it thinks I will be keeping up that pace all day. During the week it's not so bad, but I am pretty sedentary on the weekends so going for a walk to up my activity and then losing those extra calories can be a bit annoying!

kimny72

Yep, Fitbit tries to be predictive. I found over time it got better at it, which is a little scary . Over time, you'll also get a feel for how active you are and how many calories it will buy you. Also if you know you're going to do a workout and then sit on the couch all day, don't automatically eat all the calories it gives you as soon as your Fitbit syncs

heybales

To straighten out some comments above thinking that Fitbit or MFP assume rest of the day is just as active as the start of a busy day when many steps (calories actually) are done (or a workout for that matter) - no.

MFP receives the Fitbit daily burn and time stamp of it up to that point. Corrects it's own estimate of calorie burn up to that point basically, and assumes rest of the day will be at your selected Activity Level - Lightly-Active according to OP's choice.

If it's not at that rate as the Fitbit syncs occur, then calories will keep getting removed as the day progressed.
If you keep at that burn rate or better, calories will increase.

The end of the day will never be accurate, because when you come home and hit the couch and then bed - Fitbit will be logging BMR level calorie burn (with no steps), but at the least MFP is assuming 1.25 x BMR for Sedentary, or 1.4 for Lightly-Active.
Considering Fitbit also doesn't send new data until 100 calorie higher than prior sync - it would easily be over 1 hr, like the next day, for MFP to get new figures to adjust for.

So the level of correction there depends on when you hit the couch, and when you last look at the adjustment to decide what you eat.

If midnight than you may be right on.

If you looked at adjustment at 7 pm and went to bed at 8 pm and were set at Active - the biggest correction the next morning.

That's one reason why Sedentary is normally recommended, especially if the latter happens.

But as commented - a few days of observing and you'll know how much to leave in the green so the correction the next day almost nails it.

If curious on the math of what's occurring, read the 2nd section here.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy/p1

BattyKnitter

heybales wrote: »

To straighten out some comments above thinking that Fitbit or MFP assume rest of the day is just as active as the start of a busy day when many steps (calories actually) are done (or a workout for that matter) - no.

MFP receives the Fitbit daily burn and time stamp of it up to that point. Corrects it's own estimate of calorie burn up to that point basically, and assumes rest of the day will be at your selected Activity Level - Lightly-Active according to OP's choice.

If it's not at that rate as the Fitbit syncs occur, then calories will keep getting removed as the day progressed.
If you keep at that burn rate or better, calories will increase.

The end of the day will never be accurate, because when you come home and hit the couch and then bed - Fitbit will be logging BMR level calorie burn (with no steps), but at the least MFP is assuming 1.25 x BMR for Sedentary, or 1.4 for Lightly-Active.
Considering Fitbit also doesn't send new data until 100 calorie higher than prior sync - it would easily be over 1 hr, like the next day, for MFP to get new figures to adjust for.

So the level of correction there depends on when you hit the couch, and when you last look at the adjustment to decide what you eat.

If midnight than you may be right on.

If you looked at adjustment at 7 pm and went to bed at 8 pm and were set at Active - the biggest correction the next morning.

That's one reason why Sedentary is normally recommended, especially if the latter happens.

But as commented - a few days of observing and you'll know how much to leave in the green so the correction the next day almost nails it.

If curious on the math of what's occurring, read the 2nd section here.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy/p1

Wow thank you for taking the time to explain this I appreciate it! I'll definitely check the link you posted.