Fitbit Adjustments - Do I trust?

kiwilaurie

I lost some weight last year with just MFP. I lost pretty quickly and steadily, but gained it back because, well, I was an idiot.

Trying again this year. Have got a fitbit and I notice I am getting quite a lot of extra calories allocated based on my daily routine.

Are these trustworthy? I am a bit scared that they may be overestimated or something. Do you believe the adjustment and eat back these calories?

Would love any opinions or personal insights.

Thanks!

ladyraven68

I lost some weight last year with just MFP. I lost pretty quickly and steadily, but gained it back because, well, I was an idiot.

Trying again this year. Have got a fitbit and I notice I am getting quite a lot of extra calories allocated based on my daily routine.

Are these trustworthy? I am a bit scared that they may be overestimated or something. Do you believe the adjustment and eat back these calories?

Would love any opinions or personal insights.

Thanks!

When you go to your home page, and look at Goals in MFP, there is an estimate of your calorie burn from normal daily activity (top right hand side). This excludes exercise calories.

If I put in sedentary it gives me an estimate of 1700 calories,
My fit bit tells me that on a normal non workout day I use 1800 calories, so it adds those 100 calories to my MFP settings, so that I should eat the extra calories to maintain the defict I chose.

Using that knowledge I should now adjust MFP to lightly active, which gives me 1850 non-exercise calories, which is far closer to my Fitbit calories.

Hope this makes sense.

I find MFPs sedentary category to be more of a bedridden category, because you will use more than just by doing your grocery shopping, walking to the bus-stop, even an office worker isn't chained to their desk all day.

kiwilaurie

Thanks. That makes perfect sense. What I am concerned about is that FitBit seems to give me a LOT of extra calories (yesterday is was 400) and it doesn't seem like if I eat 400 cal more I will be losing weight. In fact, that would probably mean I was eating more than I was before I started this journey.

Has anyone else been relying on the FitBit adjustments and found them reliable? I am on holiday and playing with the kids a lot more, whereas at work I am tied to a desk, so sure that has an affect, but still, just seems awfully high.

ladyraven68

Thanks. That makes perfect sense. What I am concerned about is that FitBit seems to give me a LOT of extra calories (yesterday is was 400) and it doesn't seem like if I eat 400 cal more I will be losing weight. In fact, that would probably mean I was eating more than I was before I started this journey.

Has anyone else been relying on the FitBit adjustments and found them reliable? I am on holiday and playing with the kids a lot more, whereas at work I am tied to a desk, so sure that has an affect, but still, just seems awfully high.

What does your MFP daily calorie estimate say compared to your fit bit? You'll find it in Goals, Top right hand side.

if your Fitbit is regularly saying more, just increase your activity level on MFP as you are underestimating your calorie expenditure.

If you aren't going to trust it, then there is probably no reason for you to wear it.

tegantheaverage

*bump*

kiwilaurie

What does your MFP daily calorie estimate say compared to your fit bit? You'll find it in Goals, Top right hand side.

If you aren't going to trust it, then there is probably no reason for you to wear it.

My goal is based on sedentry, which I probably am when working.

And that is a very good point. Originally I got FitBit to challenge a friend to just increase our movement during the day, so more for the steps and reporting, and didn't even know it integrated with MFP.

Thought I guess this would explain why I lost weight so easily last year!