Need help figuring out your TDEE? Get a Fitbit.

jody664

I'm considering getting one. Any thoughts on FitBit Zip (~$50) vs. FitBit One (~$90) I think the FitBit Ultra is discontinued, right? Does the extra $40 gain me anything useful?

ozigal

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

ozigal

I'm considering getting one. Any thoughts on FitBit Zip (~$50) vs. FitBit One (~$90) I think the FitBit Ultra is discontinued, right? Does the extra $40 gain me anything useful?

http://www.fitbit.com/uk/comparison/trackers

That should help

jrbb03092

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

Also, it even says on the fitbit site and this one that you should log exercises that fitbit doesn't track well like rowing, biking, lifting, etc. - anything that's not step-based (walking, running, aerobics).

jonnythan

I'm considering getting one. Any thoughts on FitBit Zip (~$50) vs. FitBit One (~$90) I think the FitBit Ultra is discontinued, right? Does the extra $40 gain me anything useful?

I had a Zip then I returned it and got the One.

The One does sleep tracking, which can be marginally useful. The floor counting is much more substantial though. It encourages me to use the stairs, which is something I never used to do.

jonnythan

The fitbit one estimates your TDEE just like every website does with your vital stats. Then it divides that by 24 and uses that value when you're not doing anything. It's just a glorified pedometer so it can only measure what a pedometer can. It does vertical too, which is a bonus.

A heart rate monitor is way more accurate.

It's not a glorified pedometer. There's no reason in the world to think that it's less accurate than an HRM and a million reasons an HRM is far less accurate.

However, this thread is not about HRM vs Fitbit. The Fitbit is a device designed to be worn 24/7 in order to give you a TDEE. HRMs are not.

This thread is about how people struggling to figure out their TDEE can make it a lot easier by getting a Fitbit and removing most of the guesswork.

Going4Lean

I bought a fitbit flex and i couldn't understand the connection between FB and MFP so i disconnected them.
I have been wearing it for almost 5 days and it has calculated my TDEE is between 2700-3200 and i am considering raising my calories, but i am not sure.

iysys

fitbit is on my list of items to buy it seems like a great tool.

but mostly i want to comment on that you are a cutey with a kitty who spends hours shoe shopping...that's kinda dreamy.

edited for a question - the fitbit tracks workout activity also? will it count my calories burned on the stationary bike?

da_bears10089

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

you... my friend... are a genius.

aliciab307

Interesting topic. Question, would the fitbit track hiit work outs like turbofire or insanity well?

mag2906

Yes, fitbit rocks!
I wear it all day long - except for exercise (use HRM for that).
It really eliminated the guess work for me, plus it gives you a little bit of motivation - sitting on your butt all day does not burn many calories lol

Sassounette

I bought a FitBit for my husband and I about 3 weeks ago. I haven't put it down since. I have been enlightened on how sedentary a desk job is!!

I never, ever thought something this small would be so motivational. I'm not the kind of person who goes after badges and accomplishments, but you have no idea how many times we've walked up and down our cellar stairs just to get in one more flight. We've even walked around the neighborhood in the rain just to get 10,000 steps before bed.

I've become obsessed with it, and I didn't think I would.

With that all said, it took about a week for me to understand what the numbers meant between MFP and the FitBit dashboard. I did a LOT of forum reading here and within a week, everything became crystalline clear.

If you're frustrated with your FitBit, don't give up just yet! I considered returning mine about 4 times in the first week because I got very aggravated, and I thought $100 was a lot for something that seemed so useless.

3-4 weeks later, I won't leave the spot I'm standing in without it (save for showers LOL)

jonnythan

fitbit is on my list of items to buy it seems like a great tool.

but mostly i want to comment on that you are a cutey with a kitty who spends hours shoe shopping...that's kinda dreamy.

edited for a question - the fitbit tracks workout activity also? will it count my calories burned on the stationary bike?

It's really only good for tracking activities where your torso is moving, like jogging or tennis or that kinda thing. It won't really know you're cycling. You can just add those calories in manually.

mzteebell

bump...Love my Fitbit

KCDown

Don't waste your money on the Fitbit Flex. It is less accurate than the Fitbit One and was rushed to market too soon to compete with Nike device. I don't like how the Flex got rid of all of the display itiems on the One either. To keep from losing my Fitbit I put a piece of string on clip and loop it to my belt, I leave it in my pocket all day.

zyxst

When I decided to go with the TDEE - % idea, I never felt comfortable with what the online TDEE calculators would tell me. Was I lightly or moderately active? I bought my Fitbit last May just to have something that would be with me 24/7, something I could be fairly confident would give me an accurate (as accurate as any machine can be) account of my calories/activity. After a week, I compared the FB data to the online calculators and I fell right in the middle of lightly/moderately active.

I love my FB. I'ts the second best item I've bought for my weight loss (food scale being #1).

The reason I went with FB over BMF or BodyBugg is that FB website is free.

iysys

It's really only good for tracking activities where your torso is moving, like jogging or tennis or that kinda thing. It won't really know you're cycling. You can just add those calories in manually.

thanks

Ash_ah_lee

I love my fitbit.

BarbieAS

The fitbit one estimates your TDEE just like every website does with your vital stats. Then it divides that by 24 and uses that value when you're not doing anything. It's just a glorified pedometer so it can only measure what a pedometer can. It does vertical too, which is a bonus.

A heart rate monitor is way more accurate.

It's not a glorified pedometer. There's no reason in the world to think that it's less accurate than an HRM and a million reasons an HRM is far less accurate.

However, this thread is not about HRM vs Fitbit. The Fitbit is a device designed to be worn 24/7 in order to give you a TDEE. HRMs are not.

This thread is about how people struggling to figure out their TDEE can make it a lot easier by getting a Fitbit and removing most of the guesswork.

Agree. Here's why a Fitbit is better than both a pedometer AND an online TDEE calculator:

When you estimate your TDEE, you're usually given 4 or 5 options for activity level. Who knows what "moderate" really means? 3-5 workouts per week? Is that 3-5 half hour walks at 3mph or 3-5 heavy lifting sessions or 3-5 90 minute cardio classes? Even if you manage to choose the one that truly is the closest to your actual activity level, there's no way in heck you're going to burn that exact same number of calories every day or even every week. You could easily be off by several hundred calories in a day based simply on if you went out for lunch instead of eating at your desk or if you went to the grocery store after work. A Fitbit will take all of that daily activity PLUS your exercise (of course taking into consideration anything, like swimming, you may need to log separately, as noted in posts above) and give you a much more accurate TDEE. Yes, that TDEE is still based on estimations given your weight, height, age, sex, etc. But it takes all of the guesswork out of, IMO, the most essential component of that calculation - the activity level.

Personally, I've used my Fitbit to generate now 7 weeks of data on my average daily calorie burn, and used that to come up with my TDEE that I based my goal upon, and I update it every couple of weeks with new data. I feel a lot more comfortable with the TDEE method knowing that my activity level isn't a shot in the dark.

duckiec

I've had my Flex for 4 days. So far, so good, although I don't trust it 100%, just like I don't trust anything in this process 100% (amount of calories in anything, calories burned by exercise, my true TDEE, etc). That's just the inherent nature of estimating things that aren't absolute.

From the past four days:

- The calories burned during exercise seem to more-or-less match up with my HRM. This is for cardio (30DS, C25K, Zumba), primarily.

- Mileage between my exercise routes and fitbit mileage also seem to be within a half mile of each other. Not bad.

- It hasn't counted me sitting here typing all day as steps yet, which people have complained of. I can tell how many times I get up to use the restroom, my steps go up those minutes.

- It's nice that i get some "extra calories" after going grocery shopping, cleaning, walking around, playing with kids, etc. Fitbit is just telling me I burned more calories that day so can eat a little more, but I wouldn't have considered those activities exercise (and wouldn't have worn my HRM for them, either). Encourages me to be more active overall.

- The sync between MFP and Fitbit has been fine. I don't love the auto-calculation of the extra calories, as I generally have a separate goal I've set, but it's nice to guesstimate that I'm within a good rage of deficit. Even better, it's helping me feel okay about eating more, as I set my fitbit for 1000 under/daily (2lbs/week) and came in under that with the MFP goals I'd set. I don't eat all those extra sync calories, but it leaves me wiggle room.

- My TDEE for the past four days of wearing it constantly are pretty much on par with what the many calculators spit out; fitbit is about 100/day higher than the “moderate” exercise level for most calculators/methods. When I completed them in the past, I wasn’t sure if I was “light” or “moderate” level, so that was helpful to know at least.

I agree, it's a helpful tool, and a motivator (I'll move more if I'm under a step goal, for example), but I don't think it's absolutely necessary- you can get close enough with the Interwebs, and a calculator. And, while knowledge is power, our bodies don’t always cooperate. According to my reports, I’m running around 4k deficit for the past four days (which is right since I’m aiming for 1000/day). So that should be about a pound down, but this morning I weighed a pound *more* than Monday. Having all this data just makes me say WTF even louder, and while the scale isn’t the only measurement of success…. still annoying!

grantdumas7

Here is one for free. You input how active or sedentary you are in a typical day.
http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html

mag2906

Interesting topic. Question, would the fitbit track hiit work outs like turbofire or insanity well?

I use HRM for that.
It is very basic HRM (spent $35 on it...). It only gives me average and maximum heart rate, and the minutes the activity lasted.
I use online calculator to figure out how many calories I've burned.
Fitbit calculates how much you burn based on amount of steps and intensity. So 1000 steps in 1 hour gives you less calories than 1000 steps in 10 minutes.
Personally, I think that it is a good idea to use HRM on exercises other than walking or running.

ETA: When I compare my calorie deficit over a specific time period and weight loss for that period, it seems to be pretty accurate.

jonnythan

Fitbit calculates how much you burn based on amount of steps and intensity. So 1000 steps in 1 hour gives you less calories than 1000 steps in 10 minutes.

Not sure where you got this information, but it's wrong. The Fitbit basically tries to measure actual energy expenditure by estimating how much energy it takes to move your body in the way that you're moving it. 1000 steps in 1 hour will be the same as 1000 steps in 10 minutes, if the steps are identical (and not running vs walking).

sunshinesquared

Well I do suggest you stick with one or the other. MFP calculates "calories remaining" its own way based on the current number given to it by the other app/device.

I would suggest you look at previous, completed days and compare the MFP target calories to the target calories given by the other app. If they're far apart, you may want to adjust one or the other.

Let me give you a for instance. Looking at yesterday, MFP wanted me to eat 2073 calories. Fitbit wanted me to eat 1963 calories. That's because Fitbit is set for a 500 calorie deficit and I set a custom goal on MFP that's a little bit less than that. That's fine. They don't need to match up perfectly.

The most useful thing for adjusting is how Fitbit's site shows me calories eaten versus calories burned by day. It also shows an exact calorie deficit on a daily basis. I look primarily at that to see how big of a deficit I'm running. If the deficit is too big I'll raise MFP's goal a bit. If the deficit is too small I lower MFP's goal a bit.

Either way, stick with MFP for meal planning. Just adjust your MFP goal up or down to make sure you're running an appropriate deficit.

Thanks. I've had the UP for a while now, but just recently MFP allowed them to be synced. I really wasn't sure what syncing was going to do, but I don't like the fact it messes with my calories.

Yesterday, my daily burn according to UP was 1695, I eat 1600 a day total on MFP, however it gave me 364 extra calories from activities. My active burn for the day was 533 on the UP. No clue where the 364 came from. I eat 1600 no matter what and don't eat back calories burned.

What I just wrote doesn't even make sense to me, so I don't plan on it making sense to anyone else. Thanks for attempting to help though!

If you go to your Exercise tab, you can click the "i" icon next to the adjustment and it'll show you exactly how it calculated the 364.

Crazy!!!! I've seen that "i" a gazillion times and have never clicked on it! LOL Holy cow....thanks for sharing this!

Lrdoflamancha

Bump... Good info here...

Does anyone use the friend feature on Fitbit? I find it to be very helpful.

mdcoug

This is really good to hear. I just received my Body Media armband in the mail yesterday! What you stated is the exact reason I decided I needed one for Mothers' Day. ;-) I'm hoping it will be a bit more reliable for my strength training than my HRM was. That, and my head was spinning, trying to decide which source I was going to follow for my calorie goals.

elyelyse

There's no reason in the world to think that it's less accurate than an HRM.

well, except for the part where fitbit has to kind of guess things based on your stats and steps, and a HRM monitors your physical exertion based on actual physical changes right? like, measuring your actual heart rate? not sure how that would make the fitbit more accurate.

I'm not putting down the fitbit, i have one and LOVE it, but I use the calorie burn number it generates as a guesstimate. Take today for example... I was in a bumpy car... lol it thinks i walked 13000 steps today.. but that's mostly just my um... bounce. The way I see it, the more tools and guides i have the better. I look at the fitbit, i check out what my TDEE is every few weeks based on my weight, calculate my BMR every few weeks too. I use all those things to come up with a number, still an estimate of course, but it's working for me!

FrenchMob

Don't kid yourselves. Fitbit is a gloried pedometer with algorithms. The fact that it only works for walking based movements is proof of that. Anybody that thinks this is more accurate to determine cals burnt than a HRM is delusional.

If you use online calculators to calculate TDEE, just use Sedentary as your activity level then add all your exercise cals from a HRM to get your TDEE.

hifi898

BUMP for later

jonnythan

There's no reason in the world to think that it's less accurate than an HRM.

well, except for the part where fitbit has to kind of guess things based on your stats and steps, and a HRM monitors your physical exertion based on actual physical changes right? like, measuring your actual heart rate? not sure how that would make the fitbit more accurate.

I'm not putting down the fitbit, i have one and LOVE it, but I use the calorie burn number it generates as a guesstimate. Take today for example... I was in a bumpy car... lol it thinks i walked 13000 steps today.. but that's mostly just my um... bounce. The way I see it, the more tools and guides i have the better. I look at the fitbit, i check out what my TDEE is every few weeks based on my weight, calculate my BMR every few weeks too. I use all those things to come up with a number, still an estimate of course, but it's working for me!

Heart rate is only loosely associated with calorie burn. Many things change heart rate without increasing energy output/calorie consumption. Calories, anxiety levels, ambient temperature, etc, all affect heart rate without affecting how many calories you're burning.

On top of that, from a baseline level, the relationship between an individual's heart rate and calorie consumption is basically a function of VO2max - the ability of their cardiovascular systems to delivery oxygen to the tissues. Do you know what your VO2max is? Probably not. You probably have no idea whatsoever. VO2max even changes quite significantly as you get more fit; that's what makes it easier to run a mile the tenth time you try it versus the first time, even though you're really burning about the same calories . Polar (or whoever) has no idea what your VO2 max is either. So they sorta randomly guess.

It's a 100% total myth that the HRM is actually measuring anything that allows it to calculate your calorie expenditure. That's why we see people with ridiculous HRM-calculated calorie burns. One guy a few weeks ago had his HRM tell him that he burned like 1300 calories walking 3 miles. Well it just turned out that he was out of shape so his heart was racing the whole time. He probably burned more like 350-400.

The Fitbit is, basically, measuring the amount of energy you need to expend to move the mass of your body in the way that it's been moved. The Fitbit is literally measuring how your body moves, and estimating your calorie burn based on how much energy it takes to move your body in that fashion.