Fitbit Overestimating Calories?

meerkatable
meerkatable Posts: 12 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,

So about a month ago I got a Fitbit, and despite netting the amount of calories that should be letting me lose 1/2 lb a week, I've been maintaining. So I am eating maybe 1700-1800 calories a day when walking 10,000 steps, and the fitbit will tell me I've burned an extra 200-300 calories above BMR, so I'm netting usually 1500 calories a day. But I'm not losing any weight. I also haven't changed in body fat.

Does anyone else using fitbit have this problem? I think it's saying I'm burning more calories than I actually am.

Replies

  • BoxerBrawler
    BoxerBrawler Posts: 2,032 Member
    It's hard to say with a Fitbit. I have learned to use my Fitbit, Nano/Nike, the machine itself with my stats punched in and the information from MFP database to come up with an average. I have to say that all of the numbers from the various systems are fairly accurate. I do tend to think the Fitbit and MFP over estimates slightly. Plus with the Fitbit it only counts steps so if you're on an elliptical or bike it's not going to give you an accurate count.

    When I do Zumba there are thousands of steps and I get a much higher reading from Fitbit than I do from my Nike/Nano tracker. Also MFP will give me a higher burn based on the time and duration.

    I usually just round down on all accounts just to be on the safe side.

    At the end of the day I wouldn't rely on just the Fitbit by itself. It works very well in conjunction with other systems.
  • brayman1701
    brayman1701 Posts: 76 Member
    have you enabled negative calorie adjustments ?
  • WaterBunnie
    WaterBunnie Posts: 1,371 Member
    have you enabled negative calorie adjustments ?

    This will help you if you haven't.


    Also, are you sure you are weighing your foods and counting all dressings and oils etc? It may not be the FB
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    If you go to your fitbit dashboard, what does it say? What's the deficit between that number and what you're eating?

    And do you weigh your food?
  • smithem65
    smithem65 Posts: 7
    I love my Fitbit. Although I manually track all my exercise and let the Fitbit make any other adjustments as I go on throughout the day. I also try to get my 10,000 steps in as well. I also experienced little to no weight loss for about 4 weeks and decided to switch up my exercise and do a different workout. I also changed my profile from sedentary and MFP projected my weightloss to be 1.6 pounds a week. These last two weeks have been on the mark! I really love my Fitbit as it inspires me to move more. I feel really good and am just now starting to see improvement in my clothes as well as my weight. Good luck.
  • Cathalain
    Cathalain Posts: 424 Member
    My FitBit and MFP only have maybe a 60 calorie gap between them, so I'm confident that it's actually pretty much on target, for me.

    Have you set your activity level correctly in both places?
  • RedneckChicana
    RedneckChicana Posts: 20
    Get a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) best investment I made so far, well next to the food scale! All FitBit and MFP can do is "estimate" your calories burned.
    Also what are you eating? If you jsut changed your diet you may not see any results until your body adjusts to less calories and healthier foods.
    1/2 a pound a week isnt gonna show much results. Try going for like 2 lbs a week and see if it makes a difference. Make sure you have body fat measures and take measurements of your body, waist, hips, butt, legs, arms. Not all victories are won on a scale.
    Remember too, If we change our eating habits and exercise more we replace fat with muscle. No muscle does not weigh more than fat..its jsut more dense and takes up less space is all :wink:
  • meerkatable
    meerkatable Posts: 12 Member
    When you changed your profile from sedentary, it gave you even more calories, right?

    And for the question about oils/dressings, I generally eat food that's pre-packaged or from a recipe with calories on it. Sometimes I break down food that doesn't have a set calorie and enter it as individual ingredients, but that's not often. If I'm off with calories, it shouldn't be by 200 or whatever that's keeping me at maintenance. I'm gonna keep an eye on that more, though.
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
    You also can manually change your stride length in fitbit. You may have to test to see if you need to shorten it or lengthen it, I've tweeked my FitBit so I estimate it's +/- 70 calories for my average activities based on my long-term charts I've made (biking and swimming I'd have to manually add, though)
  • cpiton
    cpiton Posts: 380 Member
    Not sure which Fitbit you have, but if it's the flex, you might try changing the dominant hand setting so it's more conservative on steps.
  • WaterBunnie
    WaterBunnie Posts: 1,371 Member
    Not sure which Fitbit you have, but if it's the flex, you might try changing the dominant hand setting so it's more conservative on steps.

    This is why I favour the FitBit one over the wrist worn devices. I'd never be completely convinced on my steps.
  • Swiftdogs
    Swiftdogs Posts: 328 Member
    My Fitbit adjustment understates slightly. If your food log is as close to accurate as possible, you may need to adjust your targets slightly. The calculations are based on averages, so individuals vary somewhat.
  • Blokeypoo
    Blokeypoo Posts: 274 Member
    I have used my Fitbit religiously for 15mths and it seems bang on otherwise my maintenance would have been horribly blown!

    MFP overestimates vs my Fitbit by 50-100 cals.

    ETA - when clipped to bra, boob jiggleage added extra steps so mine goes on my waistband now as my boobs clearly walk independently of my legs!! :bigsmile:
  • debrakgoogins
    debrakgoogins Posts: 2,033 Member
    Hi,

    So about a month ago I got a Fitbit, and despite netting the amount of calories that should be letting me lose 1/2 lb a week, I've been maintaining. So I am eating maybe 1700-1800 calories a day when walking 10,000 steps, and the fitbit will tell me I've burned an extra 200-300 calories above BMR, so I'm netting usually 1500 calories a day. But I'm not losing any weight. I also haven't changed in body fat.

    Does anyone else using fitbit have this problem? I think it's saying I'm burning more calories than I actually am.

    In your profile, do you have your activity level set at sedentary? If it isn't, you may be getting credit for calories that were already accounted for in your activity setting.
  • RozayJones
    RozayJones Posts: 409 Member

    ETA - when clipped to bra, boob jiggleage added extra steps so mine goes on my waistband now as my boobs clearly walk independently of my legs!! :bigsmile:

    I am so happy someone posted this :) I am getting a fitbit next week and that was a question I had!
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    Hi,

    So about a month ago I got a Fitbit, and despite netting the amount of calories that should be letting me lose 1/2 lb a week, I've been maintaining. So I am eating maybe 1700-1800 calories a day when walking 10,000 steps, and the fitbit will tell me I've burned an extra 200-300 calories above BMR, so I'm netting usually 1500 calories a day. But I'm not losing any weight. I also haven't changed in body fat.

    Does anyone else using fitbit have this problem? I think it's saying I'm burning more calories than I actually am.

    When you say "So I am eating maybe 1700-1800 calories a day", what does that mean? How accurate are you logging? Do you log everything? How do you measure your food?

    It may be that Fitbit is overstimating. You didn't give your stats so it is hard to say based on the calorie goal.
    It also may be a food estimation error.
  • caseythirteen
    caseythirteen Posts: 956 Member
    I generally eat food that's pre-packaged or from a recipe with calories on it. Sometimes I break down food that doesn't have a set calorie and enter it as individual ingredients, but that's not often. If I'm off with calories, it shouldn't be by 200 or whatever that's keeping me at maintenance.
    I disagree! Two hundred calories in a day is really not hard to achieve if you aren't logging accurately. When I make a recipe, I always enter it myself. I can tell you that it has never matched up to whatever site had the recipe in the first place. Ingredients are different, portions could be different - it all matters and it doesn't take take long for it to add up. I would highly recommend trying to be a bit more on point with your logging first. Enter all your own recipes and weigh your food if you aren't. Very often even something that is pre-packaged isn't the same weight as the listed serving. This happens all the time with bread just as one example.
  • HardyGirl4Ever
    HardyGirl4Ever Posts: 1,017 Member
    Mine's very accurate. But I find MFP overshoots a lot. There are times when I wonder if my fitbit is calculating too low, but then figure that I'm just not working out intensely enough.


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  • Graelwyn75
    Graelwyn75 Posts: 4,404 Member
    No issues with mine now. I have mfp set to sedentary, I have fitbit set to sedentary, and negative adjustments disabled because I cannot afford to go below my sedentary calories given my low bodyfat %. I would imagine the issue lays more in your food logging/accuracy than fitbit.

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