Need help figuring out your TDEE? Get a Fitbit.

heybales

Question about the accuracy of a FitBit. I own a FBOne, but I'm constantly questioning how accurate it is with the calories it projects? I do work on my feet 40 hours/week (I work as a vet tech so I average 7000 steps in one work day... on my long days it's 10,000), and then I'm pretty active on top of that, but I feel like on the days I work and then go to the gym or go for a 4-6 mile run it calculates so many more calories that I just don't really feel like I should eat or want to eat. Anyone else have an issue with questioning accuracy?
Today for example, my goal is 1520/day I worked an 8 hour shift on my feet, got about 6000 steps at work, and then had a dog class in the evening. Otherwise I was sedentary and watched TV. No extra exercise today... and it's telling me I should be eating nearly 2000 calories. I just feel like that's WAYYY overestimated. I know as the evening progresses the amount can go down because I'll be sleeping and such but I just don't know how much I trust it.

What experience do you have with calories besides what MFP told to you have any idea if high or low?

Did you ever log what you used to eat when maintaining a higher weight, when likely not exercising?

Your concept of calories is waayyyy off, 2000 is about right for sedentary, which you weren't - you worked 8 hrs on your feet!

Wow, that's going to burn a lot you know. Standing compared to resting.

Think of your logic too.

It's different than what you've seen, and its higher, therefore you question it.

Why isn't the opposite true, why isn't the prior level distrusted because it's different and lower?

Just something to think about. Step based activities are it's best estimates. Other stuff is under-estimated actually.

jonnythan

Working 8 hours on your feet burns a lot of calories.

WinoGelato

Question about the accuracy of a FitBit. I own a FBOne, but I'm constantly questioning how accurate it is with the calories it projects? I do work on my feet 40 hours/week (I work as a vet tech so I average 7000 steps in one work day... on my long days it's 10,000), and then I'm pretty active on top of that, but I feel like on the days I work and then go to the gym or go for a 4-6 mile run it calculates so many more calories that I just don't really feel like I should eat or want to eat. Anyone else have an issue with questioning accuracy?
Today for example, my goal is 1520/day I worked an 8 hour shift on my feet, got about 6000 steps at work, and then had a dog class in the evening. Otherwise I was sedentary and watched TV. No extra exercise today... and it's telling me I should be eating nearly 2000 calories. I just feel like that's WAYYY overestimated. I know as the evening progresses the amount can go down because I'll be sleeping and such but I just don't know how much I trust it.

I don't think that is way overestimated at all. I average 11-12K steps a day even without "exercising" also and my average calories burned through FitBit is 2100-2200. And that is with a desk job, not a job on my feet all day. When you said FitBit says you should be eating 2000 calories, is that your calories burned (TDEE) or the result of FitBit and MFP synching and factoring in your weight loss goal and telling you how many calories you have to eat? Because it sounds about right to me.

What is your activity level set at and what are your weight loss goals set at?

WinoGelato

One thing i've noticed with my fitbit, is i'm not sure of how accurate of a calorie count it can give for things like riding a bike. It doesn't have anything to do with my heart rate, doesn't pick up "steps" because there isn't enough of the walking motion, so how can i rely on that for how much i should be eating in a day? Right now, mine says i've burned 1000 calories from midnight until now.

There is a trick for this one... put the fitbit in your sock

It does pick up some of the "steps" but it wont be the miles that you tick along on your bike- the revolutions are too small for it to pick up each one-but like it has been said by prior posters- less cals showing to eat means you wont eat as much

When I ride the stationary bike, I use the larger FitBit band and put it around my ankle (or in your sock would work) but then I still log it into MFP as Stationary Bike, using the start/stop time. FitBit registers some movement, and then MFP tells it what that movement is, they synch up and the active minutes and my calories adjust accordingly. It doesn't "double count" if that is what you are afraid of.

betweenthebirds

Question about the accuracy of a FitBit. I own a FBOne, but I'm constantly questioning how accurate it is with the calories it projects? I do work on my feet 40 hours/week (I work as a vet tech so I average 7000 steps in one work day... on my long days it's 10,000), and then I'm pretty active on top of that, but I feel like on the days I work and then go to the gym or go for a 4-6 mile run it calculates so many more calories that I just don't really feel like I should eat or want to eat. Anyone else have an issue with questioning accuracy?
Today for example, my goal is 1520/day I worked an 8 hour shift on my feet, got about 6000 steps at work, and then had a dog class in the evening. Otherwise I was sedentary and watched TV. No extra exercise today... and it's telling me I should be eating nearly 2000 calories. I just feel like that's WAYYY overestimated. I know as the evening progresses the amount can go down because I'll be sleeping and such but I just don't know how much I trust it.

I don't think that is way overestimated at all. I average 11-12K steps a day even without "exercising" also and my average calories burned through FitBit is 2100-2200. And that is with a desk job, not a job on my feet all day. When you said FitBit says you should be eating 2000 calories, is that your calories burned (TDEE) or the result of FitBit and MFP synching and factoring in your weight loss goal and telling you how many calories you have to eat? Because it sounds about right to me.

What is your activity level set at and what are your weight loss goals set at?

That's where I'm a little confused as to how I should set it... I have MFP set to sedintary but I have a customized goal of 1520. I have my FB linked to MFP with the same goals set for both, so the amount I mentioned in my previous post is my FB compensating for calories I did burn throughout the day yesterday with my weight loss goals in mind (aiming for ~.5-.7 lb loss each week). Should I have either set to anything in particular? I know I'm technically an "active" type of person, but I just don't know how I should truly have it set.

Also... I know it's not good to not eat enough calories - I pretty much refuse to ever eat less than 1200 cals in a day. Any suggestions on how to account for additional calories that I know I'll burn later in the day or see pop up from syncing my FB without shoving them all into dinner at the end of the day? I guess probably just getting a feel for how many cals I do burn on a typical day at work would be helpful. I just don't want to get into a rut of not eating enough despite how active I am and then having to worry about eating more right before bed.

WinoGelato

Question about the accuracy of a FitBit. I own a FBOne, but I'm constantly questioning how accurate it is with the calories it projects? I do work on my feet 40 hours/week (I work as a vet tech so I average 7000 steps in one work day... on my long days it's 10,000), and then I'm pretty active on top of that, but I feel like on the days I work and then go to the gym or go for a 4-6 mile run it calculates so many more calories that I just don't really feel like I should eat or want to eat. Anyone else have an issue with questioning accuracy?
Today for example, my goal is 1520/day I worked an 8 hour shift on my feet, got about 6000 steps at work, and then had a dog class in the evening. Otherwise I was sedentary and watched TV. No extra exercise today... and it's telling me I should be eating nearly 2000 calories. I just feel like that's WAYYY overestimated. I know as the evening progresses the amount can go down because I'll be sleeping and such but I just don't know how much I trust it.

I don't think that is way overestimated at all. I average 11-12K steps a day even without "exercising" also and my average calories burned through FitBit is 2100-2200. And that is with a desk job, not a job on my feet all day. When you said FitBit says you should be eating 2000 calories, is that your calories burned (TDEE) or the result of FitBit and MFP synching and factoring in your weight loss goal and telling you how many calories you have to eat? Because it sounds about right to me.

What is your activity level set at and what are your weight loss goals set at?

That's where I'm a little confused as to how I should set it... I have MFP set to sedintary but I have a customized goal of 1520. I have my FB linked to MFP with the same goals set for both, so the amount I mentioned in my previous post is my FB compensating for calories I did burn throughout the day yesterday with my weight loss goals in mind (aiming for ~.5-.7 lb loss each week). Should I have either set to anything in particular? I know I'm technically an "active" type of person, but I just don't know how I should truly have it set.

Also... I know it's not good to not eat enough calories - I pretty much refuse to ever eat less than 1200 cals in a day. Any suggestions on how to account for additional calories that I know I'll burn later in the day or see pop up from syncing my FB without shoving them all into dinner at the end of the day? I guess probably just getting a feel for how many cals I do burn on a typical day at work would be helpful. I just don't want to get into a rut of not eating enough despite how active I am and then having to worry about eating more right before bed.

I would definitely change your activty setting in MFP from Sedentary to Lightly Active or probably Active, given that you said you are on your feet at work. I have a desk job, and originally set mine to Sedentary and had big adjustments throughout the day, but got good advice (in this thread actually) that I was probably more active than I had thought based on the fact I was averaging >10K steps/day. I first moved it to Lightly Active and still kept a custom goal (which I increased but calculated myself based on my TDEE - 20%). That made my adjustments smaller and the two systems were closer together at the end of the day as far as how many calories were left. Then, over Christmas, I changed my setting to Active, which calculated my TDEE in MFP to be ~1900 and when I put in 0.5 lb loss/week it gave me 1650 as a goal which was about where I wanted to be, so I just decided to let MFP set the calorie goal and I changed my macros goals. Since then, the adjustments are even smaller because my activity level is more accurate, and the two systems are within 15 calories of each other at the end of each day. I'm getting ready to move into maintenance and I trust that with the two systems, should be pretty easy transition.

You really do kind of have to give it a couple of weeks, watch the numbers in both systems, and get a better idea of your averages. Then you can plan your day out as far as calories go - you don't have to wait till the end of the day and eat them all then. If you know you are going to work and can expect a calorie burn for the whole day greater than 2,250 based on prior history, then plan to eat around 2,000 calories that day (based on 250 cal reduction). If you know you aren't going to be moving as much, eat smaller meals earlier and just see how the day shapes up to see if you have room at the end of the day for treats.

ETA: even though my net goal is ~1650 I eat quite a bit more than that because I still get at least a couple hundred calorie adjustment from FitBit when I exercise or am very active. It is only on truly sedentary days where I get no adjustment or a negative adjustment. I probably eat anywhere from 1900-2200 on a daily basis and am still losing as expected.

Sizethree4Ever

Thank you for this info. I`m wondering what type of fitbit to buy, the flex or the One. I work in a retail store, and I'm using my hands a lot. Not sure if I get the flex,it might would over estimate the calories burnt, just because I move my hands a lot..

DymonNdaRgh40

Thanks for starting this thread. There's a lot of great information here.

heybales

That's where I'm a little confused as to how I should set it... I have MFP set to sedintary but I have a customized goal of 1520. I have my FB linked to MFP with the same goals set for both, so the amount I mentioned in my previous post is my FB compensating for calories I did burn throughout the day yesterday with my weight loss goals in mind (aiming for ~.5-.7 lb loss each week). Should I have either set to anything in particular? I know I'm technically an "active" type of person, but I just don't know how I should truly have it set.

Also... I know it's not good to not eat enough calories - I pretty much refuse to ever eat less than 1200 cals in a day. Any suggestions on how to account for additional calories that I know I'll burn later in the day or see pop up from syncing my FB without shoving them all into dinner at the end of the day? I guess probably just getting a feel for how many cals I do burn on a typical day at work would be helpful. I just don't want to get into a rut of not eating enough despite how active I am and then having to worry about eating more right before bed.

If you have a customized goal you want to eat daily, then you need to unsync the FitBit.

As it's been mentioned, MFP compare's the FitBit TDEE to what it calls daily maintenance, which it would then deficit 250 or 500, ect, to get your eating level.

Your way, it is doing the compare, and adjusting, but then it's adjusting your custom eating goal.

If you want it close to accurate with smaller adjustments except exercise, and want your daily goal to change only based on exercise, and still want to sync, then do the following.

Find about 10 normal typical days with no exercise, but not super lazy or super active either.
Add up the FitBit TDEE and get an average TDEE for non-exercise days. That's what MFP would call their maintenance figure.

Take that figure and divide by the MFP BMR they are using - found under Apps, Mifflin BMR.
There is your activity multiplier by BMR.
Now set MFP activity level to the one closest, not under, closest, to that multiplier.
1.25 - Sedentary
1.4 - Lightly Active
1.6 - Active
1.8 - Very Active

Set weight loss goal to maintain. Because you are setting your own eating goal, right.

Once you do that, you'll have to go set your eating goal and macros manually again.
So you can set your eating goal to the average non-exercise TDEE minus 250, 500, 15-20%, ect.

Now, when you exercise with something FitBit is bad about getting calories on, log it on MFP correctly so it syncs back across to FitBit.
If exercise is what FitBit is good at, accept those adjustments straight off.
Any daily adjustments to your eating goal will be based on how different from non-exercise days.

iitanyia

Good afternoon.
Which FitBit do you have (FitBit Flex, FitBit One, FitBit Zip, FitBit Aria)? There are several on the site.

Thanks for your time!

rsclause

Every day there are a dozen posts by people who can't figure out their TDEE and therefore have no idea how much food to actually eat.

There are a bunch of ways to estimate TDEE. Some of them are good. Some of them are not so good. All of them involve a whole bunch of guesswork and estimation.

My suggestion is to forget all that and just spend $60-$100 on a Fitbit. The method I used for a long time, to great effect, was to estimate BMR using an online calculator, multiply by 1.2 to get a sedentary TDEE, and simply add exercise calories on top of it. It was the exercise calories that were the huge question mark - where do I draw the line between exercise calories and sedentary activity level? How many calories did I burn while walking through the mall for a few hours shoe shopping? Etc.

I got a Fitbit at the beginning of February and have implicitly trusted it ever since. I add a few extra calories for things the Fitbit can't really estimate well, like strength training, but other than that I just have it on my waist and let it do its thing. It connects to MFP and just automatically and brainlessly tells me how many calories I have to eat.

There's a bit of a learning curve getting all the numbers to sync between the sites, but once it's set up it's kind of amazing.

And if you're wondering how accurate/effective it really is, let my results speak for themselves:

I agree 100%, I was making some progress with exercise and eating better foods. When I got the fitbit force and Aria scale for Christmas it really hit high gear. I now monitor all activity and calories. I consistently lose weight but never really starve myself. I really like to run now and also use RunTastic for walking/running.

betweenthebirds

Question about the accuracy of a FitBit. I own a FBOne, but I'm constantly questioning how accurate it is with the calories it projects? I do work on my feet 40 hours/week (I work as a vet tech so I average 7000 steps in one work day... on my long days it's 10,000), and then I'm pretty active on top of that, but I feel like on the days I work and then go to the gym or go for a 4-6 mile run it calculates so many more calories that I just don't really feel like I should eat or want to eat. Anyone else have an issue with questioning accuracy?
Today for example, my goal is 1520/day I worked an 8 hour shift on my feet, got about 6000 steps at work, and then had a dog class in the evening. Otherwise I was sedentary and watched TV. No extra exercise today... and it's telling me I should be eating nearly 2000 calories. I just feel like that's WAYYY overestimated. I know as the evening progresses the amount can go down because I'll be sleeping and such but I just don't know how much I trust it.

I don't think that is way overestimated at all. I average 11-12K steps a day even without "exercising" also and my average calories burned through FitBit is 2100-2200. And that is with a desk job, not a job on my feet all day. When you said FitBit says you should be eating 2000 calories, is that your calories burned (TDEE) or the result of FitBit and MFP synching and factoring in your weight loss goal and telling you how many calories you have to eat? Because it sounds about right to me.

What is your activity level set at and what are your weight loss goals set at?

That's where I'm a little confused as to how I should set it... I have MFP set to sedintary but I have a customized goal of 1520. I have my FB linked to MFP with the same goals set for both, so the amount I mentioned in my previous post is my FB compensating for calories I did burn throughout the day yesterday with my weight loss goals in mind (aiming for ~.5-.7 lb loss each week). Should I have either set to anything in particular? I know I'm technically an "active" type of person, but I just don't know how I should truly have it set.

Also... I know it's not good to not eat enough calories - I pretty much refuse to ever eat less than 1200 cals in a day. Any suggestions on how to account for additional calories that I know I'll burn later in the day or see pop up from syncing my FB without shoving them all into dinner at the end of the day? I guess probably just getting a feel for how many cals I do burn on a typical day at work would be helpful. I just don't want to get into a rut of not eating enough despite how active I am and then having to worry about eating more right before bed.

I would definitely change your activty setting in MFP from Sedentary to Lightly Active or probably Active, given that you said you are on your feet at work. I have a desk job, and originally set mine to Sedentary and had big adjustments throughout the day, but got good advice (in this thread actually) that I was probably more active than I had thought based on the fact I was averaging >10K steps/day. I first moved it to Lightly Active and still kept a custom goal (which I increased but calculated myself based on my TDEE - 20%). That made my adjustments smaller and the two systems were closer together at the end of the day as far as how many calories were left. Then, over Christmas, I changed my setting to Active, which calculated my TDEE in MFP to be ~1900 and when I put in 0.5 lb loss/week it gave me 1650 as a goal which was about where I wanted to be, so I just decided to let MFP set the calorie goal and I changed my macros goals. Since then, the adjustments are even smaller because my activity level is more accurate, and the two systems are within 15 calories of each other at the end of each day. I'm getting ready to move into maintenance and I trust that with the two systems, should be pretty easy transition.

You really do kind of have to give it a couple of weeks, watch the numbers in both systems, and get a better idea of your averages. Then you can plan your day out as far as calories go - you don't have to wait till the end of the day and eat them all then. If you know you are going to work and can expect a calorie burn for the whole day greater than 2,250 based on prior history, then plan to eat around 2,000 calories that day (based on 250 cal reduction). If you know you aren't going to be moving as much, eat smaller meals earlier and just see how the day shapes up to see if you have room at the end of the day for treats.

ETA: even though my net goal is ~1650 I eat quite a bit more than that because I still get at least a couple hundred calorie adjustment from FitBit when I exercise or am very active. It is only on truly sedentary days where I get no adjustment or a negative adjustment. I probably eat anywhere from 1900-2200 on a daily basis and am still losing as expected.

Alright, I think I've got it all figured out now and will give this a try. I averaged my entire last month of FB use and got about 2400 average TDEE. I've got myself set to slightly active on MFP with a 0.5 lb expected loss per week, so my goal is 1860 cals/day.
One thing I think I need to do is get into the mindset that it's ok to eat more than 1500 cals on a daily basis. When I first started my weight loss I was less active and aiming for 1700 cals/day and losing 1-2 lbs per week. My weight loss slowed and now it's been at a standstill for quite some time (granted, I gave up tracking food and kind of headed into a temporary maintenance for a while), so I'm anxious to start finally losing again but I always feel like I'm not eating enough but at the same time struggling to not eat too much. Hopefully this adjustment will help! Thank you so much for the suggestions and info!

Kaylaef

I WANT ONE, I WANT ONE. But it won't sync withi my HTC phone. and it breaks my heart

Kattzmeow51

Bumpity-Bump :flowerforyou:

Tangosgrandad

Superb amount of info here. Decided to get a fitbit flex when payday arrives.

Sizethree4Ever

Right. The Fitbit website says I burned 2463 calories yesterday. It has a little food planning section that I don't really use, but it says that I was supposed to eat 1963 yesterday.

Here's how the MFP calculation works on previous days. I told MFP my age/height/weight, and activity level (sedentary). It then calculated that my before-exercise TDEE is 2040. I manually set my goal to 1650 calories. Fitbit then tells MFP "his actual TDEE yesterday was 2463." MFP says "oh OK, 2463 is 423 more than the 2040 I expected, so I'll add 423 to his goal." Therefore my MFP goal becomes 1650+423 = 2073.

^^^ That needs to be posted as sticky somewhere because most just don't understand what it's doing with the adjustments.

Manual eating goal doesn't even matter, I'm glad you spelled the math out.

Of course, that concept is exactly what happens with the whole eating back exercise calories too that so many don't get either, but at least that math makes it easy to see.

Great example.

bump

pyoungfox

First off, my wife and I love our Fitbits. We both have a Fitbit Flex and they have really inspired us to change a lot of things. Now onto this subject. I have just been learning about TDEE and trying to figure out what mine is. I put together this little graph to show how accurate the Fitbit Calories Burned is. My wife and I have been tracking our caloric intake and weight daily for the last month or so. Taking those stats, I figured out our historical TDEE. Mine is around 3900 and my wife's is 2750. According to Fitbit mine is 3750 and my wife's is 2575. Really close. The graph tracks our actual weight loss vs what the Fitbit stats are telling us. To come up with the Fitbit numbers I used the following formula:

(FB Calories Burned - Daily Caloric Intake) / 3500 * 1 pound = Weight Lost that day

I then took my starting weight and started to subtract my daily weight loss from Fitbit, the graph below displays the results:



As you can see it is not perfect but it is pretty darn close. My wife's is a little more off. Doing this really boosted my confidence in Fitbit's calculations.


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

DianeinCA

Bump

JenJBS

Every day there are a dozen posts by people who can't figure out their TDEE and therefore have no idea how much food to actually eat.

There are a bunch of ways to estimate TDEE. Some of them are good. Some of them are not so good. All of them involve a whole bunch of guesswork and estimation.

My suggestion is to forget all that and just spend $60-$100 on a Fitbit. The method I used for a long time, to great effect, was to estimate BMR using an online calculator, multiply by 1.2 to get a sedentary TDEE, and simply add exercise calories on top of it. It was the exercise calories that were the huge question mark - where do I draw the line between exercise calories and sedentary activity level? How many calories did I burn while walking through the mall for a few hours shoe shopping? Etc.

I got a Fitbit at the beginning of February and have implicitly trusted it ever since. I add a few extra calories for things the Fitbit can't really estimate well, like strength training, but other than that I just have it on my waist and let it do its thing. It connects to MFP and just automatically and brainlessly tells me how many calories I have to eat.

There's a bit of a learning curve getting all the numbers to sync between the sites, but once it's set up it's kind of amazing.

And if you're wondering how accurate/effective it really is, let my results speak for themselves:

THIS!!! Love my FitBit!!!!

sgbarela

Make sure you are only imputing the food into MFP if you have them connected. It will move it over to your device dashboard but not vise versa. If you input into your device dashboard it wont count in your MFP so the numbers will all be off.