TDEE/Fitbit/Daily Calorie intake

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skinny4me2be
skinny4me2be Posts: 358 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I broke down and got myself a FITBIT. I love it and don't get anywhere with out. I'm finding my average daily calorie burn is an average of 2400 calories for 24hours. My TDEE on these online calculators calculate anywhere from 1577 to 1927--so I'm burning way more than it predicted for me.

My weight is 194, I'm 5' 61/2inches tall, with a goal weight (right now) of 165 and I have a desk job. I do work out 3-5x a week-lifting weights and do a LOT of walking. Most online calculators say my BMR is 1570 to 1607.

When I set up everything in MFP-it gave me a calorie goal of 1430 (which is below my BMR according to these calculators). If I eat 1430, that's 970 calories below my TDEE and lower than my BMR. If I eat back some of my exercise calories, which is what I have been doing, I'll normally average 1700-1800 a day. I'm not seeing a whole lot of weight loss and very little inches moved...not sure what to do.

Do I eat 1430 and leave it at that? Do I eat at least my BMR? Do I stick to the 1700/1800 range? Anyone else experience this? What did you do? Any helpful suggestions are welcome?

Replies

  • skinny4me2be
    skinny4me2be Posts: 358 Member
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    Bump...anyone? :smile:
  • meggs9605
    meggs9605 Posts: 55 Member
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    I have the very same question. I am trying to lose weight the "right" way.....but I am so confused by so many conflicting numbers and calculators!
  • Tigg1011
    Tigg1011 Posts: 146
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    I have nearly the same exact question and problem! I hope someone can give you (us) some good answers!
  • Bekahmardis
    Bekahmardis Posts: 602 Member
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    When I set up my MFP account linked to my FitBit, I entered my goal for MFP as my BMR and then let the FitBit tell me how many more calories I can eat. If I NET over my BMR, I don't sweat it as long as it's still below my TDEE according to the FitBit.

    Does that help?

    Other people simply put their MFP goal set at the FitBit TDEE minus 20% and leave it at that. The choice is yours. Either way, you need to at least your BMR?

    According to my FitBit profile/overview page, over the past 30 days, I have been burning an average of 1633 calories per day, but only eating an average of 1524. Considering I'm at my goal weight right now, I'd say that's pretty darned close?
  • smn76237
    smn76237 Posts: 318 Member
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    If your Fitbit is accurately calculating calories, then you should be losing about a pound a week eating 1800 calories a day based off a TDEE of 2400. How are you measuring the food you eat?
  • skinny4me2be
    skinny4me2be Posts: 358 Member
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    Most often I use measuring cups and spoons, when it comes to meats I use a scale, but we camp a lot over the summer so sometimes I don't have access to that, so then I use the hand/fist method of measuring food and maybe that's way off. Now grant it most days I'm at 1700/1800. I may have one day out of the week where I'm at 2100/2200 due to circumstances out of my control (graduation parties and such where I don't know how many calories are in things). But that amount should not cause me to not lose weight. I'm just confused. The fitbit seems fairly accurate to me, its been giving me very close to that number all month. If I don't work out / walk as much its more like a 1900-2100 calorie 24 burn. Then i try to eat less.

    So I see there are two other people like me out there. I saw the one suggestion about entering my BMR and NET calories. I just don't know where to go from here.
  • coffee4me57
    coffee4me57 Posts: 195
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    Other people simply put their MFP goal set at the FitBit TDEE minus 20% and leave it at that.

    This is what I do.
  • mogz36
    mogz36 Posts: 38 Member
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    I've always eaten back my fitbit calories and have lost 70 pounds. If you're not seeing results, try eating less than 30% of your calories at night. Also eating a low glycemic index at night has helped me too.

    Good luck.
  • Bekahmardis
    Bekahmardis Posts: 602 Member
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    So I see there are two other people like me out there. I saw the one suggestion about entering my BMR and NET calories. I just don't know where to go from here.

    Not quite: enter your BMR or your TDEE-20% and then eat what it says you have remaining. Your "Net" number is merely the equation: Goal minus food plus exercise = net. You don't fill it in, it fills it in for you.

    Do this: Go to your Settings, then click on "Goals" and change your goals to Custom, then set your calories at a specific number - *either* your BMR or your TDEE-20%. That's all.

    Your FitBit will add or subtract the calories needed based on your exercise for the day so all you have to do is follow what your "goal" on your diary says for the day. You will see underneath of your bottom line somehting that says, "You have earned XXX calories from exercise today"....this is NOT because you have entered any exercise into MFP. This is because your FITBIT has entered the exercise FOR YOU.
  • skinny4me2be
    skinny4me2be Posts: 358 Member
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    I am probably WAY over thinking this, but if I enter my BMR as my goal-lets say 1570 + then eat my exercise calories-is one number.
    If I enter my TDEE - 20% that's like 1920 or something similar to that. Would I not eat the exercise calories then? Because if I did-that number would be way different that BMR+exercise. My guess is if I do the TDEE-20% number-from what I read you would not eat any of the FITBIT exercise calories given. Correct?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I broke down and got myself a FITBIT. I love it and don't get anywhere with out. I'm finding my average daily calorie burn is an average of 2400 calories for 24hours. My TDEE on these online calculators calculate anywhere from 1577 to 1927--so I'm burning way more than it predicted for me.

    My weight is 194, I'm 5' 61/2inches tall, with a goal weight (right now) of 165 and I have a desk job. I do work out 3-5x a week-lifting weights and do a LOT of walking. Most online calculators say my BMR is 1570 to 1607.

    When I set up everything in MFP-it gave me a calorie goal of 1430 (which is below my BMR according to these calculators). If I eat 1430, that's 970 calories below my TDEE and lower than my BMR. If I eat back some of my exercise calories, which is what I have been doing, I'll normally average 1700-1800 a day. I'm not seeing a whole lot of weight loss and very little inches moved...not sure what to do.

    Do I eat 1430 and leave it at that? Do I eat at least my BMR? Do I stick to the 1700/1800 range? Anyone else experience this? What did you do? Any helpful suggestions are welcome?

    Keep it simple. Making it way too complicated for you.

    Set up MFP with Lightly Active level to minimize daily adjustments.

    Select 1 lb weight loss goal weekly. 500 cal deficit daily will be applied to get your Net eating goal.

    Set FitBit option to sync negative and positive.

    Only log exercise FitBit is terrible at estimating, like lifting or spin class, to keep your 500 cal deficit in place.

    Eat back your positive adjustments, leave out the negative.
  • appifanie
    appifanie Posts: 95 Member
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    Keep it simple. Making it way too complicated for you.

    Set up MFP with Lightly Active level to minimize daily adjustments.

    Select 1 lb weight loss goal weekly. 500 cal deficit daily will be applied to get your Net eating goal.

    Set FitBit option to sync negative and positive.

    Only log exercise FitBit is terrible at estimating, like lifting or spin class, to keep your 500 cal deficit in place.

    Eat back your positive adjustments, leave out the negative.

    I am so confused too, so I'm going to try it this way. Thanks! I just learned about TDEE like 2 weeks ago and I'm 5' so I've been eating 1200 cals for YEARS. Excited to eat more, quite frankly :)
  • kstoyko
    kstoyko Posts: 5
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    I've never gotten anything like a FitBit, but sometimes I think all those calculations can be quite helpful, but also confusing! Perhaps you are eating the proper amount of calories, but just need to change up the ways in which you are getting your exercise. When I hit my first plateau at 130 pounds it took me a few months before I figured out that I needed to really switch up my cardio and strength workouts to drop the next ten pounds. After what was really a small change, the weight really came off! I'm sure the muscle confusion and probably the added muscle from those work outs aided in my extra calorie burn (since the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn).

    Sometimes the simplest fix isn't over analyzing what our little fitness aides compute, it's simply giving our body some variety! I can almost promise you, you will see a change if you switch up your workouts. Even change only two of the 4-5 days you workout to something different. All the best to you!

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