FITBIT confusion!

tiatiamaria
tiatiamaria Posts: 40 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm super confused. I wore my fitbit for the first time today. My calorie goal I set was 1200. I have eaten 1274 in food and somehow still have 1069 calories left. Yes, I'm hungry. I walked around 13000 steps today and swam for like 20 min. Am I supposed to eat those calories or should I leave them remaining so I have a calorie deficit? I'm not sure if the numbers are showing what my body burns or just exercise and actually thinking about that just makes me more confused :) How does everyone else do it? Which number am I supposed to follow? Will eating the calories remaining still make me lose weight? Should I eat my goal plus my exercise? Did I really burn that many calories? thanks :)

Replies

  • wftiger
    wftiger Posts: 1,283 Member
    MFP adjusts with your steps on fitbit. The problem with this is if you put in that you were active MFP already gave you extra calories so if you eat those and now the "extra" you won't lose.

    I used my fitbit as a motivator to walk more. I never ate back exercise calories because that is already built into MFP.
  • PayneAS
    PayneAS Posts: 669 Member
    If MFP says eat them back, eat them back. The deficit is already built in. If you are going off the FitBit site then I'm not sure if you would or not. I don't use the FitBit site, only to check my steps and log my sleep. I let MFP handle food & exercise.
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
    Yes, I'm hungry

    My first thought is: Eat. Have something high protein. 13,000 steps a day is awesome! As well as adding 20 minutes of swimming.

    I wait tables for 5 hours on Sunday and only logged 10,000 steps.

    I lost 36 pounds eating my exercise calories, which were 200-500 a day. With the 1250 normal calories in order to lose 1 pound a week, I ate 1500 or so a day and lost all that weight.

    Now I want to lose the last 20 pounds and am using the Fit Bit, which I love:love:
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
    If MFP says eat them back, eat them back. The deficit is already built in. If you are going off the FitBit site then I'm not sure if you would or not. I don't use the FitBit site, only to check my steps and log my sleep. I let MFP handle food & exercise.

    And it works!! Good for you in 18 pounds gone forever!! WOOT!
  • literatelier
    literatelier Posts: 209 Member
    If you are logging your exercise on MFP, be sure to include your start time and your calories (for things like elliptical, etc). The fitbit will always underestimate calories for cardio because it can't measure intensity. So logging your calories on MFP overrides the calories counted by the fitbit. MFP will then automatically re-adjust the "FitBit Adjustment" that is already in there after you log your exercise.

    I firmly believe you should eat back these calories, depending on how high you want your deficit. The FitBit tracks your TDEE, so then you would eat below that however many calories you need to to create the proper deficit. For example, today my TDEE is going to end up being approximately 3000 calories, including 255 calories from the elliptical that I logged manually on MFP. So I am going to eat 2000 calories to create a deficit of 1000 calories. I do this daily, so at the end of the week I have a deficit of 7000 or two pounds.

    I have been using my fitbit this way for several weeks now and consistently losing weight. Hopefully this is clarifying and not confusing!
  • jmp1031
    jmp1031 Posts: 95 Member
    the fitbit counts all the calories you burn during the day- your BMR (what your body burns every day just to keep functioning) and any you burn for activities. my food log also says i have over 1000 calories left for today, which i will not be eating! i still try to stick close to the 1500 calories a day i'm supposed to be eating, but then i don't worry on days i go over a little cus i know i've got a huge buffer. if you are actually still hungry though, i'd try about a 200 calorie snack that has lots of protein and/or fiber.
  • tiatiamaria
    tiatiamaria Posts: 40 Member
    Thanks everyone. I ended up leaving about 750 calories and I liked what it said I would weight in 5 weeks... I hope its accurate. I have myfitnesspal set at "sedentary" for my activity but I am really trying to get 10k-15k steps. I just wonder how much I can leave without messing with my metabolism. I also don't really know how many calories I can eat to lose the maximum weight because I put in the 1200 on my own. I just keep thinking about the people the extreme weightloss shows who can lose a pound a day because they are so big. I'm pretty big too but probably 100 pounds less than most of them, so I wonder if I can lose that too..
  • NewChristina
    NewChristina Posts: 250 Member
    Have you checked out the section on the FB website that has your calories in/ calories out. This is usually pretty close to what MFP calculations are. But I try to go with the FB site because the calories left to eat are usually lower. You'll also get a weekly progress report. The report indicates if you've had a deficit. (I'm aiming for a 7000 calorie deficit, or two pounds.)

    Maybe you've done it already, but you can also adjust your steps goal. I changed mine to 12000. Again, if I take a day off, FB will show the weekly progress, so I know if I've got some making up to do.
  • literatelier
    literatelier Posts: 209 Member
    Thanks everyone. I ended up leaving about 750 calories and I liked what it said I would weight in 5 weeks... I hope its accurate. I have myfitnesspal set at "sedentary" for my activity but I am really trying to get 10k-15k steps. I just wonder how much I can leave without messing with my metabolism. I also don't really know how many calories I can eat to lose the maximum weight because I put in the 1200 on my own. I just keep thinking about the people the extreme weightloss shows who can lose a pound a day because they are so big. I'm pretty big too but probably 100 pounds less than most of them, so I wonder if I can lose that too..

    The people who lose a pound a day probably have a base bmr that is very very high, so they can realistically eat less than 3500 calories per day what they burn if they are exercising a lot. Have you tried calculating your bmr? There are tons of websites that will do it. You really shouldn't eat below it for extended periods of time, you can endanger the way your body functions.
  • debraleebonamo
    debraleebonamo Posts: 1
    I too am confused. I worked out spinning and it gave me 579 extra calories and I do not understand because it keeps going up as the night goes on. I guess cause I am movin about. But in all honesty, I am going to stay within the 1200 to see how it goes before indulging in those extra calories. I am just as confused. Sorry I am no help
  • Graelwyn75
    Graelwyn75 Posts: 4,404 Member
    If you are set to sedentary, then yes, you are meant to eat the additional calories, preferably, or certainly check your net and try and keep it at 1200, no less. I use the fitbit, am set to sedentary, log my elliptical/cycling, and let the fitbit adjust for any extra walking outside of that. An hour and a half on the elliptical and some extra walking generally pushes me up an extre 1000+ calories a day. I would certainly suggest trying not to leave anymore than 500 calories over as you already have a deficit built in, as others have said, and 1200 is below most peoples' bmr to start with(the calories you need simply being in a coma)
  • sionnain
    sionnain Posts: 96
    MFP only lets me set my calories to 1200 which is less than 1/2 pound a week for me, so I let it stay at that. FitBit I've got set to "medium" which is a 500 calorie deficit. On days I exercise I try to follow what Fitbit says, but on other days I follow MFP. Sometimes what you enter in MFP doesn't transfer over to FitBit right away so you just want to make sure it has.

    Often I've really only burned, say, 400-500 calories but then my FitBit Adjustment will add that ON TOP of that, claiming I burned 1000 in that exercise, even though I entered the exercise correctly in MFP. So that's also why I try and follow what FitBit says, since it's less.
  • IrishHarpy1
    IrishHarpy1 Posts: 399 Member
    There are currently major issues with the syncing between the Fitbit site and MFP... you should check out the Fitbit Users group here for more info.

    The problem had been identified and Fitbit is admitting the problem, but they have yet to upload a "fix" for the issues.
  • dfair1967
    dfair1967 Posts: 91
    The problem had been identified and Fitbit is admitting the problem, but they have yet to upload a "fix" for the issues.
    [/quote]


    If you are having a problem with syncing fitbit with mfp email them personally and tell them to look into it mine was fixed three days after the big attack on go daddy servers.
  • dfair1967
    dfair1967 Posts: 91
    Sometimes the biggest problem syncing fitbit with mfp is that you can only log food and exercise into mfp site only after the accounts are synced. If you do both you will totally screw it up.
  • jwaitman
    jwaitman Posts: 367 Member
    I think the fitbit estimates calories burned too high. I never eat all mine back.
  • IrishHarpy1
    IrishHarpy1 Posts: 399 Member
    The problem had been identified and Fitbit is admitting the problem, but they have yet to upload a "fix" for the issues.



    If you are having a problem with syncing fitbit with mfp email them personally and tell them to look into it mine was fixed three days after the big attack on go daddy servers.

    I *have* been... this is info I received in an email from Fitbit yesterday, and I have been in contact with Scott here at MFP. This problem had nothing to to with the GoDaddy server issues, but has been going on for over a month now.

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