Fitbit Calorie Adjustments

etherealanwar

Do you trust your fitbit calorie adjustments? I have myself set to sedentary and allow MFP to adjust exercise calories based on my step count. Just wondering if I can count them towards my net calorie intake fully or only partially? It seems kind of all over the place sometimes. I am a 5'4 female weighing in at 130 lbs aiming to get to 120 lbs. For instance, this Wed I got in 6,820 steps and it gave me an extra 358 calories. The next day it gave me 217 calories for 4,638 steps...Why do I feel like this is a bit much? My total calorie avg for the week is 1,407 calories but my net is 1,255 which is better aligned with my goal.

I know I need to be extra mindful with my CICO since I am in healthy bmi range and losing these last lbs are more difficult and requires much more accuracy since the deficit is smaller. I just don't know if I can trust my net calorie totals.

PAV8888

How many calories would MFP give you for lightly active?

That's the "true" MFP level your steps represent at a glance.

You will know your true answer in 4-6 weeks when you compare your weight trend changes to your expected results based on the caloric balances you've recorded

A lot depends on your food logging too, and on whether you're solidly at the mean or an outlier in terms of statistical estimates!

What each of us personally experiences beyond that... doesn't guarantee your own results!

Over several years my Fitbit TDEE has consistently been less than 5% off over longer periods of time. Over a single month or two? it has actually been off as high as 10%. During my first 12 months on MFP it was 0.15% off. Over 5 years it is probably closer to between 3 and 4% off.

The percentages I am referring to are calculated off of Fitbit's TDEE, not the smaller adjustment number which will also vary depending on your MFP settings.

etherealanwar

PAV8888 wrote: »

How many calories would MFP give you for lightly active?

That's the "true" MFP level your steps represent at a glance.

You will know your true answer in 4-6 weeks when you compare your weight trend changes to your expected results based on the caloric balances you've recorded

A lot depends on your food logging too, and on whether you're solidly at the mean or an outlier in terms of statistical estimates!

What each of us personally experiences beyond that... doesn't guarantee your own results!

Over several years my Fitbit TDEE has consistently been less than 5% off over longer periods of time. Over a single month or two? it has actually been off as high as 10%. During my first 12 months on MFP it was 0.15% off. Over 5 years it is probably closer to between 3 and 4% off.

The percentages I am referring to are calculated off of Fitbit's TDEE, not the smaller adjustment number which will also vary depending on your MFP settings.

I have my loss goal set to 1 lb a week and if I change my activity level to lightly active it gives 1340 calories. This seems reasonable but giving me essentially 1538 calories for 7k steps seems too high too me to lose 1 lb a week.

PAV8888

The difference between 1538 and 1340 is 200, which would reduce your 1lb to 0.5lb which would still be substantial progress especially within the normal weight range.

7K is at the boundary of active / upper limit of lightly active. sub 5k is at the entry point of lightly active in terms of corresponding steps to activity. YMMV as mentioned. I used lightly active as an example that would allow you to evaluate whether the adjustments you were getting from your Fitbit were substantially far off of what MFP itself would have given you had you better aligned your base activity setting to your steps instead of just selecting sedentary.

Obviously Fitbit will be more nuanced as it has infinite levels as opposed to four levels.

In the end you will not know ahead of time. As mentioned you can compare your actual weight TREND to your expectations after 4-6 weeks and a complete hormonal cycle and you will then know how closely the calories are tracking.

Personally, within the normal weight range, I don't see a lot of issues with whether you lose at 1lb, 0.5lbs or 0.25lbs a week as long as you continue to make progress.

And if you are making sacrifices that are too hard to make if you don't instantly get the result you want, this would raise the question of whether you are pushing too hard

Sustainability of effort is important!

janejellyroll

I eat back my full activity adjustment because I know (from paying attention over time) that my Fitbit estimates are accurate.

Talan79

I have a Fitbit Flex 2 and recently got an Apple Watch. I’m a 40 year old female, 5”2 and maintaining at 118-120. I went back and looked for you to compare data. On a day where I don’t go to the gym, but get 8,000/9,500 steps, my Fitbit adjustment is only about 165. I have my activity leve set to lightly active. If I had put sedentary, my adjustment would probably be more.
I’ve started wearing both trackers to compare and it’s taken Apple Watch five days or so to celebrate to my routine I guess. It was highly inaccurate but now my date matches Fitbit pretty closely.