New to EMTWL and question about FitBit

galipemi1

I have been reading about the road map for about a week now and have decided to start it this week. I have downloaded heybales' calculator and I just wanted to check on two things if someone wouldn't mind helping.

I have a fitbit and according to it, I have burned an average of 1978 calories since I started using it. But, I know they apparently overestimate. When I fill out the calculator with what I think I do I come up with a TDEE of 1791 (with TDEG 1478). Can my fitbit really be that far off or am I really underestimating how much I'm moving around in a day? I'm a full time student so my days can be pretty sedentary until I get to work (retail). Which TDEE would you work off of? I can adjust my activity stats until I get to the fitbit TDEE if that's what's recommended.

Second question; when looking at my fat calculations I get:
37.37 U.S. Navy Circumference Method
24.33 Covert Bailey "Fit or Fat" book method
30.85 Avgerage body fat % of the two

I have used the average but I remember reading somewhere that whichever one moves (more? less?) over time is the more accurate. Can someone clarify that for me?

I really appreciate all the help, you guys are such a big group and very supportive. I'm looking forward to it.

Oh, and stats:
30 year old female

146 <

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Current Weight

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61.5 <

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Height

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5.62 wrist of dominate hand - minimum girth
9.75 forearm palm up - maximum girth
12. neck looking level - minimum girth
31. waist - minimum girth
35.5 abdomen at navel - maximum girth
41.25 hips feet together - maximum girth
24. one thigh feet 2" apart - maximum girth
15.25 one calf - maximum girth

holleysings

Trust your fitbit. The average burn it gives you is your TDEE.

GoGoGadgetMum

I have a fitbit & I'm trusting it and its working. It allows me to eat a bit more on high burn which means I'm less likely to go over the next day. I was surprised a my burns too, higher than I thought but it's working. I think we naturally underestimate how active we are.

As far as fat calc, personally I find it hard to see how you can measure fat with a tape. My trainer used callipers and they were far lower than any calc but maybe stick with one. Just my opinion.

Btw I'm same height/ weight but 10 years older.

Feel free to add as friend if you need any

CanGirl40

I find my fitbit very accurate (I don't use it for my formal exercise however which consists of strength training mostly). On sedentary days, I only burn about 1750 and on a more normal day for me I burn 2,000. Pretty much exactly what the Scooby calculator estimates.

I would trust the fitbit numbers and go from there.

I don't know much about body fat % and how to calculate it. Sorry!

pineygirl

I have no idea how accurate my Fitbit is. Mine says I burn anywhere from 1940 to 2330 calories a day. My average is around 2100.

This sounds pretty normal...except I'm 5'0 on a tall day, weigh 117lbs, and have a BMR of 1185.

I do walk about 10000-20000 steps a day and walk up about 15-50 (yes 50) flights of stairs a day. But I still think that calorie burn seems excessive.

I'm doing an experiment and actually using 2100 as my TDEE and doing a 15% cut on average from that. I'm curious to see if I lose any weight. I haven't lost much yet and those 2lbs I lose...I always gain right back in a day or do (water weight).

Been at this 7 weeks....hoping to see a small change.

Faulkners407

I have not used the fit bit, but I had a body bugg.

On days I did not exercise, in a 24 hour period I burned around 1900. Desk job. Hour at the gym with 30 minutes of cardio, usually running and 30 min weights I would burn around 2400. On days I did 60 or more minutes of cardio I burned close to 3000. Your numbers do sounds about right to me,

galipemi1

Thanks everyone! Glad to hear I sound relatively normal :P

I am meeting with a trainer at the school gym on Monday for an assessment which I suspect (fear) will include the calipers. So, hopefully that will give me a more accurate idea of my body fat. For now, I'll just keep using the average of the two from the spreadsheet. I always thought I was only very lightly active, but my fitbit stats since starting to work in retail seem to have proven otherwise. I guess I walk around more than I thought I did during an average shift. Just wish I'd had it when I was working all my Christmas hours!

Now to keep tracking and get my burn even higher!

heybales

Thanks everyone! Glad to hear I sound relatively normal :P

I am meeting with a trainer at the school gym on Monday for an assessment which I suspect (fear) will include the calipers. So, hopefully that will give me a more accurate idea of my body fat. For now, I'll just keep using the average of the two from the spreadsheet. I always thought I was only very lightly active, but my fitbit stats since starting to work in retail seem to have proven otherwise. I guess I walk around more than I thought I did during an average shift. Just wish I'd had it when I was working all my Christmas hours!

Now to keep tracking and get my burn even higher!

Yep, probably moving more than you think, though it could be inflated burns, but your BF% isn't that bad to cause that.
FitBit and BodyMedia both use Harris BMR.
The spreadsheet uses more accurate Katch BMR.
If there is a 200-400 spread with Harris higher then it will be inflated. That is what is used for basis of your slow and non moving time. So if you have 1/2 of your day slow or non-moving, that means you are inflated 100-200 minimum easy. The walking is based on weight and steps though, so more accurate.

You should add hrs to the activity calculator lines for service trades or labor trades until the TDEE matches what you see on avg from the FitBit.
Then you can still benefit from good deficit recommendation based on your real exercise and amount to lose.

As to the BF% estimates being off.
Those 2 calculators are the most recommended and found the most accurate that are around, obviously still can be off. And since they mostly use different body parts to estimate with, if they aren't within 5%, you got some body parts that are inflating one of the values more than reality.

So on your next measurements, whichever estimate changes the most is likely the least accurate one.

So if the 24% jumps to 28%, but the 37% only drops to 36%, the higher value is more accurate. So taking the avg, it may appear you actually gained BF. But really, you just got more accurate on the higher level.

You can also probably name from those measurements what you think the worse trouble spot is, and if you lower it in the measurements, like pretending future measurement, you'll see which one moves. Interesting test.

galipemi1

Thanks hey bales - I'll keep an eye on everything and see what happens to the numbers.