Fitbit calorie budget...

chloe2300

Hi, I got my fitbit one today and am confused about how it works out my remaining calorie budget.

I get that it's using my BMR plus calories burned to calculate my "out" figure and that my calories in is synced from MFP. What I don't understand is why it says I'm under budget... I've set it so it knows I want to lose 1lb a week (i.e. 500 calorie deficit) but today I've eaten 1299 and burnt 1716 (which gives me a deficit of 416 - obviously less than what I need) but it says I'm 110 calories UNDER budget?!!! Why does it want me to eat more when I've already exceeded what I should have eaten to lose the 1lb?!

CoachJen71

I feel like mine is crediting me too much. It's not even 6pm, and it says that I should be eating 2400 calories (up from 1700.) Granted I am nearly done with my 10K steps thanks to a 2 mi walk this morning, and I am very, very heavy. But it seems like a lot for someone who wants to lose weight.

Kimsied

Hi, I got my fitbit one today and am confused about how it works out my remaining calorie budget.

I get that it's using my BMR plus calories burned to calculate my "out" figure and that my calories in is synced from MFP. What I don't understand is why it says I'm under budget... I've set it so it knows I want to lose 1lb a week (i.e. 500 calorie deficit) but today I've eaten 1299 and burnt 1716 (which gives me a deficit of 416 - obviously less than what I need) but it says I'm 110 calories UNDER budget?!!! Why does it want me to eat more when I've already exceeded what I should have eaten to lose the 1lb?!

On your Fitbit dash, there are two different tiles relating to your allowance. 1--Calories in/out (showing a guage icon) and 2--The Food plan (showing a plate). They are showing two different things as the day is in progress, but they will converge when the full 24 hour day is complete.
1--Calories in/out: This shows what you have burned so far and what you have eaten so far. It compares this to your Fitbit food plan goal (in case you didn't, you have to set up goals on each site they don't transfer or share goals). This is the tile that you should be looking at, though it likely says you slightly over budget at this point. Fitbit counts you as within budget if you are within 50 calories high or low from your calorie burn minus deficit goal.
2--The "Food Plan": This is based on a 24 hour estimate of what you would burn minus the deficit you set up in your fitbit account (if you didn't set one up in your fitbit food plan, it is likely set to maintain). The estimate is based on your actual Fitbit calorie burn for time passed (BMR and activity each minute) and an estimate for the remaining hours of the day. The estimate depends whether you chose the "sedentary" or "personalized" option (this has nothing to do with your MFP activity level). If set to sedentary it will assume you will be sedentary for time remaining, if set to personalized the estimate is based on your recent average calorie burn (not sure what it is based on the first day). Every time you sync your fitbit it updates the calorie burn, by the end of the day the allowance will be your actual fitbit calorie burn minus the specified deficit. If you set fitbit up with a deficit, I am guessing you are looking at this tile and it says you ahve calories remaining because it expects you to burn more caloires before the day ends (just before 12am). I like the personalized setting because my allowance usually starts pretty similar to where it ends if my activity is reasonably consistent (it averages several days calorie burn so even a high and low day can be okay), but I think it will take a few days of use to get a good average to work with.

The first day, I think I would just follow MFP's allowance. Do make sure all your fitbit settings are in place--including your height, weight, age, gender, time zone, weight loss goals (or maintain goal if that applies), etc. I would also disable calorie estiamtion in fitbit's settings.

I think the first day is usually weird since you likely didn't start wearing the device at 12am (when the day starts), it is usually a partial day. The calorie estimation setting in fitbit fills in activity calories when you don't wear your fitbit (when enabled) and is supposedly based on "average calorie burn". Except a new user has no average, and it seems everyone "averages" at least moderately active when this is applied. (That is why I generally suggest MFP users disable this setting--you still get fitbit credit for your BMR and actual activity--it just doesn't estimate any activity when there is none this way). Today I would make sure my settings are good and just get to know how it works. I wouldn't take the total calorie burn that seriously though as it may be different tomorrow after is has a full 24 hours of your activity. (It is fine to look at how any activity you do today effects your total--for all fitbits other than the zip you can make an activity record by starting your sleep timer before an activity and stopping it after. The sleep timer is also the activity timer--which type of record is based on how much you moved in that time. After you stop the timer and sync, a record will be in your fitbit websites activity log that shows various stats for that activity).

By the way, I have a One and have for a few years. I don't find that it overestimates my calorie burn at all. If anything it underestimates for some of my activities. I log my non-step exercise to get a better estimate and that pretty much always increases my fitbit calorie burn. On it's own it would underestimate for me--which actually is fine in terms of weight loss.

chloe2300

Thank you so much Kimsied for taking the time to write such a detailed answer. Definitely going to be following all that advice

bpga222

Kimsied, so right now I've had my fitbit for 2 days (the charge HR) and it says i have some 1000 calories left over today (i had a fairly heavy activity day), but in MVP, it says I went 200 calories over because fitbit hasn't told MVP that I've done anything...Is this something I should change? I don't know what calories to follow to determine if I'm within my range if fitbit doesn't talk to MVP throughout the day (even though I've synced them multiple times)

heybales

bpga222 wrote: »

Kimsied, so right now I've had my fitbit for 2 days (the charge HR) and it says i have some 1000 calories left over today (i had a fairly heavy activity day), but in MVP, it says I went 200 calories over because fitbit hasn't told MVP that I've done anything...Is this something I should change? I don't know what calories to follow to determine if I'm within my range if fitbit doesn't talk to MVP throughout the day (even though I've synced them multiple times)

Check the MFP Exercise diary, for the calorie estimation line, and the "i" to click on that will tell you what calorie burn Fitbit reported to MFP that it did it's math with.

Is that indeed what Fitbit is saying was calorie burn at that point?

And don't use eating goals on both sites - that's like trying to follow 2 roads to the same destination.
- And men have a bad enough time asking for directions as it is without having 2 roads to figure out.

Just confirm the Fitbit daily burn is syncing over to MFP.
MFP will then make it's daily burn match, and remove the deficit for weight loss you selected, and set your eating goal to accomplish it.

shasmac

I think that mine is too high, up to 3000 calories a day at times as MFP is adding extra calories burned on the fitbit.

him103

I am currently eating 2500 calories a day, doing a PPL split 5-6 x a week, and c25k 1-2x a week. I am 5' 9", 145 lbs.

Today I walked 13k steps, 5.81 miles, and had a total of 111 active minutes. I work in an office in Manhattan.

According to fitbit, I should be eating 3700 calories to maintain (I don't think fitbit has a setting for gaining weight). I am trying to gain 20 lbs slowly and this seems way too high even for my activity level.

myfatass78

I wouldn't panic. Things haven't been syncing between the two the last day or so

mmerry5

Mine has been syncing fine.