Anyone have success following Fitbit exactly?

nikkohli

Hello all!
I have a question about my Fitbit calories. I usually eat around 1500 calories, without eating my exercise cals back unless I had a REALLY hard workout or I am just hungry and feel like my body needs some extra fuel.
I was thinking about changing up my calories to match Fitbit--so instead of exactly eating 1500-1600 cals, eating whatever Fitbit says my TDEE is for the day minus 10%. This would mean I would be eating a different amount of cals every day but would be closer to my true deficit.

Thoughts? Has this worked for anyone? I have already lost 20lbs and really only have 5-10 more but even with exercise 3X a week I am not seeing a loss in over month so I am ready to try something new.

Thanks for the help

nikkohli

Bump for the PM crew...

Tanya949

I use 4 weeks of fitbit daily burns to average my TDEE and take a deficit from that. Works well. I log my exercise in fitbit so I don't eat back exercise calories unless I do something out of my norm. My exercise is pretty scheduled. If I do miss a workout I eat 100 cals less, if I add exercise that was not planned I eat 100 extra cals that day. I readjust TDEE every 5 lb loss or so.

The problem with doing it daily is you have to know how many calories you would burn from your last meal to midnight. Your fitbit is still counting, while you've finished eating. Knowing your BMR, you could calculate the remaining calories burned, assuming you are sedentary after dinner. Or you could eat the previous day,s fitbit calories since you know exactly what you burned the previous day.

editorgrrl

As I replied to your post in the Fitbit Users group: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/1307-fitbit-users

I connected my accounts and logged non-step exercise in Fitbit. I followed my MFP calorie goal, ate back all my Fitbit calorie adjustments, and lost weight.

It will take trial & error to find what works for you.

mspoopoo

That wouldn't work for me as fitbit gives me some ridiculously low calories like between 600 to 900 calories a day to eat. lol really.

editorgrrl

That wouldn't work for me as fitbit gives me some ridiculously low calories like between 600 to 900 calories a day to eat. lol really.

Fitbit pro-rates your calories by time of day. And goes way below 1,200 calories.

So I connected my accounts http://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps/show/30 and follow my MFP calorie goal.

When you connect your accounts, MFP uses your Fitbit burn rather than your activity level to calculate your calorie goal.

Sharon_C

I've been using my Fitbit since the beginning of the year. I've moved into maintenance mode and so far I've been maintaining +/- a few pounds.

StaciMarie1974

I have MFP set to lightly active. I allow negative calories. My personal agenda is to be active enough that I earn exercise calories, when MFP calculates from my Fitbit that I've done enough. I take that to mean that I'm active enough to earn the 'lightly active' label. I eat some of the 'extra' calories but aim for a slight surplus. My deficit is based on 1 pound per week loss.

Most of my activity is walking based so the Fitbit should be decent at tracking. If/when I have other activity I will log manually.

gmstarr1

I follow FItbit. I have it set to 'personalized' so that it uses my past history to estimate my calorie burn for the day. If you pick 'sedentary', the numbers of calories you have starting the day out will be low.

I'm a data girl; I like data, so I've been tracking my weight loss, my calories burned according to Fitbit, calories eaten, and the deficit I've had over the last several months. Using the 3500 calorie deficit equals a pound lost, according to the data, I should have lost 7 pounds; instead I've lost 11. So either the calories burned is wrong, or I'm eating less than I think. Or I lost a lot of water when I first started. Think I'm going to start over and see what numbers I get.

If you do start following the Fitbit numbers, make sure you enter your non step exercise, or it won't be accurate. And that might be why I lost more weight than I thought I should have.

It will take some trial and error to figure out what works. I'm still working on mine. Good luck!

nmcrosier

I try to follow fit bit, since I am new to my flex - but when I sync into my computer to update my steps - then see I'm short - I go for a mile walk come back to sync and it only registered 4 - YES 4 - steps I want to throw it in the trash - it was a one mile walk! Grrr...

Anyone else see this issue or do I have a dud?

editorgrrl

Contact Fitbit customer service. If your tracker is defective, they'll replace it.

whitebalance

Hello all!
I have a question about my Fitbit calories. I usually eat around 1500 calories, without eating my exercise cals back unless I had a REALLY hard workout or I am just hungry and feel like my body needs some extra fuel.
I was thinking about changing up my calories to match Fitbit--so instead of exactly eating 1500-1600 cals, eating whatever Fitbit says my TDEE is for the day minus 10%. This would mean I would be eating a different amount of cals every day but would be closer to my true deficit.

Thoughts? Has this worked for anyone? I have already lost 20lbs and really only have 5-10 more but even with exercise 3X a week I am not seeing a loss in over month so I am ready to try something new.

Thanks for the help

I lost weight doing this, and I've been maintaining for ten months doing this. It works great for me. My TDEE for a day can be anywhere from 1400 to 3000. The one downside I've noted is that I'm probably not eating enough for recovery on some of my rest days after heavy workout days, so I give myself some leeway to eat over a little on the rest days and make up for it with a small deficit on workout days.

nmcrosier

Contact Fitbit customer service. If your tracker is defective, they'll replace it.

Thanks - I'll shoot them an email