Using fitbit to calculate calories

Ange_

Hi,

I've decided that upping my cals and doing weights is the right way to go. I've so far done 4 workouts of Stage 1 of TNRFLFW and i'm loving it and feeling much stronger already.

Now i have a fitbit which i got so i could better estimate the number of calories i burn in the day for daily activity.
It has shown me that i am more active than i thought.

So just wondering what is the correct way to use the fitbit information that i'm getting to adjust my cals for the day? The fitbit website lists for each day the total number of calories i've burnt both from exercise, daily activity and my BRM as a single number.
It varies from around 2100 cals on fairly nothingy days to 2500+ or so on workout days.

So is the simple thing to just eat 85% of the total cals i've burnt each day? That way i can stop thinking about my varying activity levels and number of cals burnt on weights days and cardio days.

It gets quite confusing when i'm taking advice from my MFP, FitBit and TNRFLFW which all have slightly different plans. I want to use the best bits of all of these things though.

Thanks in advance for your help. This is a pretty great group on here, you are all very inspiring.

helened

Hello,

You've just about got it. It's easy to get confused by all these numbers. Your numbers sound in the same range as mine actually.

The way I look at it, if you want it to be easy, is to average out what you burn over a week and eat accordingly. So if you workout 4 days that's ~16000 calories per week. That averages out to about 2300 calories per day for maintenance. Taking 15 to 20% max off this number would bring you to somewhere in the range of 1800-2000 per day for slow loss. Doing it this way will allow you to not worry about day to day numbers and their variations. At this level, you will also be getting the nutrition you need for your lifting workouts.

I know myself I use that range as my number without worrying too much. At this point, I do not eat back additional exercise calories since they are already factored in.

gemiwing

I connected MFP to my FitBit and use the FitBit's calorie calc to double-check my levels for the day.

If MFP says I have five cals left- but Fit Bit says what I burned would put my deficit too high- then I eat more food. MFP for basics and FitBit for precise, hope that makes sense.