FitBit, Daily Steps?

Bump! I wanna know too x

I've had my Fitbit one for a little less than a year. I generally don't eat back the calories it gives me, unless I've been active that day and not logged it. Like, if I'm running around the house all day, doing a bit of gardening, walk around town but don't log "cleaning 1 hour," "walking 30 min." etc., then I will take the adjustment. So basically, if I feel I've earned it and I'm starving, I'll take it. If I don't feel like I need to eat more, then I don't.

On non-working days I get about 8000-10,000, but on working days I get 12k-20k (I have a desk job but teach dance at night).

For me fitbit underestimates my calorie burn by roughly 250 - 500 calories per day. I know this because of my average weekly loss is greater than it should be. It's the same for my husband as well (actually his underestimates even more than mine).

If you get 10,000 steps in a day, you are no longer sedentary. If you bumped your MFP activity level to say lightly active, you wouldn't receive such a big adjustment.

I believe the activity levels based on steps are as follows:

Sedentary : less than 5000 steps
Low Active: 5000 - 7499 steps
Somewhat Active : 7500 - 9999 steps
Active: greater than or equal to 10000 steps
Highly Active: equal to or greater than 12500 steps
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14715035

Keep in mind your fitbit calorie burn is for the whole day (not just when you exercise). Your adjustment on MFP is determined by:

MFP Estimated daily calorie burn - Fitbit Tracked calorie burn = (+ or - ) adjustment

I simply love mine!

I got my fitbit for easter.. since then, I have only had 1 day that I didn't get 10k steps
my dialy min goal is 10k steps.. my overage is probably closer to 11k
between jan to june, I was highly cal deficient while cutting weight.. dropped from 218 to 158
then started my process of recomp.. trying to gradually add weight back on, the right way..
during the weight loss process.. I was getting a lot of my steps by running.. most nights I would do about a 5k on the treadmill..
after reaching my weight loss... Im trying to make my daily activity get me close and only hitting the treadmill when I need some extra steps..
I definitely can tell a difference in my weight loss between when I was running for my steps vs getting my steps through my daily activity and walking... I lost weight running.. Im maintaining/gaining slightly, by just walking..

I never was one to eat back my cals... I always figured I worked too hard to get those additional deficit calories, was hardly worth it for a handful of skittles..

10k is a pretty arbitrary number.. but I think its still a pretty good goal for most people...
try to setup your stride at least semi close on the fitbit though... sucks to find out later that you have been cheated out of hundreds (or thousands) of steps a day, by using defaults..

I can never understand why people pair up their fitbit and MFP accounts in the first place if they have no intention of eating back the calories.

It's an adjustment tool when synced. Why eat at sedentary rates when you're active and need a lot more?


.

First off, if you're using MFP then you chose the level that would describe your work day. Desk job = sedentary. It's not an indication of your exercise. MFP expects you to add your exercise separately and eat back those calories. I find my Fitbit is pretty accurate with calories. I've worn my HRM and my FitBit while running and they are pretty close most of the time. If anything I think FitBit is a bit less which is fine because a big problem with eating back exercise is eating too much.

I use the FitBit exclusively now for any walking type exercise. I only put on my HRM for cycling but that's about it.

I have it paired up in a bid to neither under nor over eat but without knowing the accuracy or what settings to use to optimise performance I feel a bit in the dark!

Eating back 100% of your exercise calories is likely wrong .............BUT eating back 0% of your exercise calories is likely wrong TOO. MFP gave you a calorie deficit with ZERO exercise. Losing too fast is not healthy weight loss as a portion of the "weight" will be lean muscle.

Many people on MFP don't have heart rate monitors, or FitBits. They eat a percentage of their calories.....if weight loss stalls, they eat a bit less, if weight loss is too fast (or you are tired) ....you eat a bit more

Neither FitBits nor HRMs are exact. This is trial and error. But you do have one tool .....I would eat at a more active level. See how it goes.....if you are tired add in some exercise calories too.

I've found my fitbit pretty accurate and since I'm in maintenance i just look at it throughout the day to make sure i'm staying on track with maintenance levels.

I love my Fitbit! I go to the gym every other day, run 5k on the treadmill, do a bit of rowing and cycling. The Fitbit only registers the trreadmill but tends to over-estimate the calories burned when compared to the readout on the treadmill (which I've always thought is pretty accuate?) However, the thing it does best is motivates you to move more. On my non-gym days I now walk to and from work, I'm more likely to walk to the shops at the weekend or just take a walk to get the numbers up! I've always considered myself to be pretty active, on a work day I'll hit 13-15,000 steps but at weekends I really need to be reminded to move more. I've stopped eating back my Fitbit calories though, it seemed to make my weight loss plateau :frown: But overall I think the Fitbit is pretty useful.

Thanks for sharing all your experiences and guidance so far ! Please keep them coming ! I think so far I've decided from whaf people have said to set my mfp activity level to lightly active and then know I can eat back some, maybe up to 75% but probably not all, of the extra cals burned without too much worry of overrating. Does that sound about right ?

Do you have your FitBit synched with MFP? If you do (it's the easiest way to make use of it) then just set yourself at sedentary and the Fitbit will tell MFP how many extra calories you've earned over and above what MFP set for you. You can then choose whether you want to eat any of those back. It's really simple and doesn't require any messing around with guessing at numbers. There's really no point in having the Fitbit if you aren't going to make use of the information it's giving you.