Help!! Unable to achieve fitbit calorie goal

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sumayaiphone
sumayaiphone Posts: 15 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Sorry I have been searching for the answer but I still dont understand. Please help me in complete beginner terms. I am doing 10,000 steps walking everyday which includes a 20 min cardio session. My fitbit says my calorie goal is 2120 calories. Why is that? I am not logging food as off now having a general idea of what my 1200 calories should look like. Why is my calorie goal so high? Thank you so much
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Replies

  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    You burn a lot of calories in your sleep, sitting down, etc. Your heart is a muscle and needs calories to beat. Your diaphragm is a muscle, it needs calories to make you breathe. Digesting food burns calories. Etc. Your goal includes exercise calories and not-exercise calories, it's for your total burn.

    If you're burning 2,120 and eating 1,200 that's a very large deficit!
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    edited May 2019
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    sumayaiphone wrote: »
    Sorry I have been searching for the answer but I still dont understand. Please help me in complete beginner terms. I am doing 10,000 steps walking everyday which includes a 20 min cardio session. My fitbit says my calorie goal is 2120 calories. Why is that? I am not logging food as off now having a general idea of what my 1200 calories should look like. Why is my calorie goal so high? Thank you so much

    What is your gender, height, and current weight?

    When you set up your account here on MFP, what activity level did you choose and how many lbs per week did you say you wanted to lose?
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    Are you sure you are not confusing your calorie goal with your daily calorie burn? The calories that show on Fitbit are what your body currently burns. That's not the number you need to eat unless you want to maintain your weight. To lose weight, you may want to eat anywhere between 1600 and 1850 depending on how much you want to lose.

    Also, if you aren't logging your food, there is a possibility that you're under-estimating your calories. Humans are bad at estimating calories, especially those who have weight to lose. If you want a more predictable process, start logging accurately. It helps you make sure you are not undereating/overeating.
  • sumayaiphone
    sumayaiphone Posts: 15 Member
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    Thank you for all the helpful answers:

    I am a female, 5ft 2inches and at 57 kg.
    On mfp i selected sedentary lifestyle as wasnt working out and chose to lose a pound per week.
    Yes i mean my daily calorie burn goal is 2120 calories which i never achieve. I always hit 1800 maximum. Thats what I dont understand how to achieve a 2120 calorie goal.
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
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    sumayaiphone wrote: »
    Thank you for all the helpful answers:

    I am a female, 5ft 2inches and at 57 kg.
    On mfp i selected sedentary lifestyle as wasnt working out and chose to lose a pound per week.
    Yes i mean my daily calorie burn goal is 2120 calories which i never achieve. I always hit 1800 maximum. Thats what I dont understand how to achieve a 2120 calorie goal.

    more exercise. but honestly that goal of burn rate is very random. i found that as well with fitbit. the only time i hit it was if i did long distance running that day. Even a 5-6k run and 18,000 steps i wouldn't hit the 2120 calorie goal. i'ts a fake goal you should ignore. or change manually.

    i'm not even sure why they set it to that.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    sumayaiphone wrote: »
    Thank you for all the helpful answers:

    I am a female, 5ft 2inches and at 57 kg.
    On mfp i selected sedentary lifestyle as wasnt working out and chose to lose a pound per week.
    Yes i mean my daily calorie burn goal is 2120 calories which i never achieve. I always hit 1800 maximum. Thats what I dont understand how to achieve a 2120 calorie goal.

    So your Fitbit adjustment is taking you from sedentary (which you now are not) to active (which is what 10,000 steps is).

    2100 does seem pretty high for weight loss though, and I doubt 1800 is way too low. Some people do find activity trackers give them a few too many cals. So I'd just stick with 1800 for a few weeks and if you are losing weight at an appropriate rate, stay there. If you are losing faster, you can eat more by eating more calorie dense foods, but I wouldn't worry about that until you know it's necessary. (You are already in the healthy weight range for your height, so you really shouldn't be losing faster than 1lb per week)
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    edited May 2019
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    kimny72 wrote: »
    sumayaiphone wrote: »
    Thank you for all the helpful answers:

    I am a female, 5ft 2inches and at 57 kg.
    On mfp i selected sedentary lifestyle as wasnt working out and chose to lose a pound per week.
    Yes i mean my daily calorie burn goal is 2120 calories which i never achieve. I always hit 1800 maximum. Thats what I dont understand how to achieve a 2120 calorie goal.

    So your Fitbit adjustment is taking you from sedentary (which you now are not) to active (which is what 10,000 steps is).

    2100 does seem pretty high for weight loss though, and I doubt 1800 is way too low. Some people do find activity trackers give them a few too many cals. So I'd just stick with 1800 for a few weeks and if you are losing weight at an appropriate rate, stay there. If you are losing faster, you can eat more by eating more calorie dense foods, but I wouldn't worry about that until you know it's necessary. (You are already in the healthy weight range for your height, so you really shouldn't be losing faster than 1lb per week)

    I only get the 2100 if I walk 20,000+ steps like I said (or run long distance much more than 5km). They say they base i ton this:
    https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/index.htm


    I basically learned to ignore that number :P it's also not the amount for weight loss it's just a goal of calories to burn daily. The number also did not change after losing 50lb ;)
  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,593 Member
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    k8wqia7snwx1.png

    If I understand you correctly the above image shows my Fitbit activity for today. I personally treat the circles as separate goals. I start with the right circle which turns green once I reach 30 active minutes (continuous minutes of activity). Then I move to the left circle which turns green for me at 5 miles. The center circle of activity burn I only occasionally make a goal for myself to achieve this goal. It turns green for me at 2185 calories. Typically when I reach that goal, I have walked 17,000 to 19,000 steps (around 8 miles generally) or had an otherwise really active day gardening of running.
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,310 Member
    edited May 2019
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    emmamcgarity wrote: »
    k8wqia7snwx1.png

    If I understand you correctly the above image shows my Fitbit activity for today. I personally treat the circles as separate goals. I start with the right circle which turns green once I reach 30 active minutes (continuous minutes of activity). Then I move to the left circle which turns green for me at 5 miles. The center circle of activity burn I only occasionally make a goal for myself to achieve this goal. It turns green for me at 2185 calories. Typically when I reach that goal, I have walked 17,000 to 19,000 steps (around 8 miles generally) or had an otherwise really active day gardening of running.

    Those are adjustible .. goal wise.. cal burn.. not necessarily the cal you need to eat.. it's a counter how much cal you burn so far in real time..(it resets at midnight)

    Look at the food section of Fitbit.. it should fairly set to same number as mfp. (That is if you put in your data /information... Height , weight, age etc.)

    That's the number you need to pay attention to.

    gs0agguv7z2c.png
  • sumayaiphone
    sumayaiphone Posts: 15 Member
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    Thank you to all wonderful people for the speedy responses l. Here is the attached screen shot of the 2100 calorie goal. It makes sense that i should ignore it then.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    Oh I misunderstood you. You basically want to do enough activity to reach a high calorie burn goal. With your current stats, it may not be sustainably achievable unless you want to walk even more steps than you currently do. Don't worry about the calorie burn goal, or just go to settings and put a more reasonable goal for yourself.
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
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    I honestly would IGNORE that category. it's randomly selected. I ignore it. sometimes more information is just TOO MUCH information and bogs one down. this is one of those cases I believe.

    alternatively you can manually adjust it to someone more achievable.

    but basically don't worry about that number.
  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,593 Member
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    FWIW I prefer to track my calories eaten on MFP and let Fitbit pull the data over. It’s interesting to look at some of the charts. I use the Fitbit goals as incentives to move more
  • HermanLily
    HermanLily Posts: 217 Member
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    If you were in a coma, lying in bed, your body would need, say, 2000 calories just to sustain itself. Or, in your case, 2120.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    HermanLily wrote: »
    If you were in a coma, lying in bed, your body would need, say, 2000 calories just to sustain itself. Or, in your case, 2120.

    ???
    OP is a 5'2 female, 125 lbs. Her BMR would be more like 1400 cals.
  • kara_tastic
    kara_tastic Posts: 38 Member
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    Well I have no idea how anyone can burn 2,000 calories! I can’t even burn 1,000 and I’m always going!
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    edited May 2019
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    here are two examples. i am 5’1, female, 115lbs. My steps are just short walks (under an hour) and moving around (I pace while waiting for bus). no purposeful exercise. One day I went over 20,000 steps and got the calories burned to "acheive goal".

    tdr22ud8feqd.jpeg
    ijrqs37muo5k.jpeg
  • BattyKnitter
    BattyKnitter Posts: 503 Member
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    Hmm this makes me wonder if my Fitbit isn't way overestimating my calorie burn. I routinely burn 2000 cals with 10 000 steps, 20k steps like poster above has me at 2500 cals burned. I'm short (5'2") but I am heavier at 142 lbs.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    @sumayaiphone -
    I think I saw one reference to what you are talking about - the Fitbit daily burn goal - they default set it based on calculation - you can manually set it too.

    It has no bearing on any math, just like MFP has eating goals - Fitbit has activity goals.

    Some people know they do well if they can eat say 2000 calories daily - that allows them to eat a variety of things, get their nutrition in, and still enjoy something higher calorie.

    But they want to lose 1 lb weekly - so they set their Daily Burn goal to 2500 - giving a 500 cal deficit.

    They know if they don't appear to be on track to hit it - they don't get to eat as much.
    MFP obviously helping with that side of things.

    MFP's estimate of daily burn early in the day, will likely not project out to that - unless your daily activity really will match the activity level you set MFP to.

    @BattyKnitter - it's not actually steps - it's the distance from those steps that gives the calorie burn. So easily can have variance between people, and even between your own days.

    @verybusymomto4 - that's not exercise burn - but daily burn. avg sedentary female is actually figured to be about 2000. variances in height and activity obviously mean differences.
  • thanos5
    thanos5 Posts: 513 Member
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    BattyKnitter wrote: »
    Hmm this makes me wonder if my Fitbit isn't way overestimating my calorie burn. I routinely burn 2000 cals with 10 000 steps, 20k steps like poster above has me at 2500 cals burned. I'm short (5'2") but I am heavier at 142 lbs.

    2000 a day on 10k steps? wow. i only burned 700ish on 11k steps this morning.

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