Eating calories earned on fitbit

boofle2

Can someone advise please if any calories earned on fitbit should be eaten. I have around 1200 1300 cals daily, i am 5 foot 2 148 pounds, want to be around 133 to 136 pounds. I have lost half this week but not consumed any exercise calories. Thnk you

harper16

The minimum a sedentary female should be eating is 1200 net calories a day.

cwolfman13

boofle2 wrote: »

Can someone advise please if any calories earned on fitbit should be eaten. I have around 1200 1300 cals daily, i am 5 foot 2 148 pounds, want to be around 133 to 136 pounds. I have lost half this week but not consumed any exercise calories. Thnk you

If your FitBit is linked, it is not giving you "exercise" calories per sei...it is simply reconciling your stated activity level in MFP to your actual activity level per your device. If your actual activity level per your device surpasses that which was selected in MFP, you get additional calories...essentially, the more you move, the more energy you expend and theoretically would continue to lose at the desired/target rate of loss. This does not, however, take into account inherent inaccuracies in logging, etc.

When I was logging I ate back additional calories for activity and exercise in excess of my stated activity level...that's how this program is designed to work...that said, I was pretty meticulous in my logging and verifying entries in the database to either packaging or the USDA website for whole food items, and I weighed out most things on a kitchen scale...particularly more calorie dense items. Weighing most of my food was quite an eye opener for me...for example, I would grill some chicken breast and would log it as 4 oz which is a serving of chicken breast and I figured since I was only having one, that was a serving...turns out, the average chicken breast is typically closer to 8-10 ounces. I had all kinds of material errors like that when I was logging before I started weighing things out, and those calories really add up.

In most cases, when someone is not losing as expected, they are simply consuming more calories than they think they are due to logging errors. A lot of people also forget or neglect to account for things like cooking oils and even fruits and vegetables because they are under the impression that fruits and vegetables are "healthy" and thus don't really count towards your calorie target...but everything counts towards your calorie target.

freda666

harper16 wrote: »

The minimum a sedentary female should be eating is 1200 net calories a day.

Not "net". The idea being you need 1200 calories IN FOOD to get enough nutrition.

harper16

freda78 wrote: »

harper16 wrote: »

The minimum a sedentary female should be eating is 1200 net calories a day.

Not "net". The idea being you need 1200 calories IN FOOD to get enough nutrition.

Maybe I wasn't being clear with my comment. If she eats 1200 calories and for example burns off 300 calories. That's only 900 calories a day which would not be healthy.

boofle2

Thank you for replies. It says on MFP where i log my food i have eaten 1236 cals but earned 451 from my fitbit steps, it then adds the 451 to my 1200 daily total given 1651cals for the day. I only eat the 1236 is this correct.I am getting confused with whether to eat them or not. I have my profile set to lose half per week and get 1220 cals daily and my exerise set at sedentary

hankHardisty

So, someone please explain to me what the purpose of the “negative calorie” setting is. What I have experienced is that when I have logged 200 cal in body weight exercises or yoga, the app starts subtracting calories earned by walking from the exercise session. I use Fitbit Coach and Down Dog, but they do not communicate directly with MyFitnessPal. Thanks!

harper16

boofle2 wrote: »

Thank you for replies. It says on MFP where i log my food i have eaten 1236 cals but earned 451 from my fitbit steps, it then adds the 451 to my 1200 daily total given 1651cals for the day. I only eat the 1236 is this correct.I am getting confused with whether to eat them or not. I have my profile set to lose half per week and get 1220 cals daily and my exerise set at sedentary

You should be eating back your exercise calories, but if you are worried it might be over estimating you can eat back 75% for example and adjust.

Rhumax67

as per Harper 16 - I eat back some of the fitbit calories - I think it over estimates

boofle2

Thank you everyone xx

srk369

hankHardisty wrote: »

So, someone please explain to me what the purpose of the “negative calorie” setting is. What I have experienced is that when I have logged 200 cal in body weight exercises or yoga, the app starts subtracting calories earned by walking from the exercise session. I use Fitbit Coach and Down Dog, but they do not communicate directly with MyFitnessPal. Thanks!

The negative calories is just an adjustment between what Fitbit says you've burned and what MFP thinks you have burned. I have a lightly active setting and anytime I sync with less than 6000 steps or if I run early but don't have any other movement, I get a negative adjustment. This usually goes away by the afternoon for me as I move more. I'm actually using Garmin now, but I'm pretty sure my previous Fitbit worked the same.

heybales

hankHardisty wrote: »

So, someone please explain to me what the purpose of the “negative calorie” setting is. What I have experienced is that when I have logged 200 cal in body weight exercises or yoga, the app starts subtracting calories earned by walking from the exercise session. I use Fitbit Coach and Down Dog, but they do not communicate directly with MyFitnessPal. Thanks!

You do more you should eat more.
You do less you should eat less.

In a diet a tad less in either case.

The negative adjustment causes the latter.
The positive causes the former.

In your case MFP doesn't know if the steps were part of the exercise it knows about that you logged - so it removes it.

But really if you have a workout of 200 cal, and MFP removes from your extra calories based on steps 200 cal - you are right where you began.
No change.

But that sort of usage (where you are NOT syncing Fitbit and MFP accounts) is fraught with error - MFP doesn't know distance from those steps and that is more accurate calorie burn for daily stuff. It doesn't know if workout involved steps so it assumes yes.