Fitbit and maintenance

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mamadon
mamadon Posts: 1,422 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Just curious about others experience with this. Every week fit bit sends a weekly report. It says how many calories were burned versus eaten that week. So far, it still shows me in a little bit of a deficit every week. Has any one else noticed if this is very accurate for them?

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  • einzweidrei
    einzweidrei Posts: 381 Member
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    LOL. No I had the opposite problem.

    I actually ended up desyncing my FitBit because it told me I was always overeating. I had been maintaining on a certain amount of calories for a few months without gaining weight. (Actually more than MFP even told me to maintain at so I upped it and changed my calories manually.) I'm only lightly active. But FitBit had my calories set at an even lower level than MFP.

    Now I'm pretty much using it as a glorified pedometer and I'm not even sure where it is right now! I don't like when things tell me to eat less.
  • mamadon
    mamadon Posts: 1,422 Member
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    Lol. Thanks!
  • schnarfo
    schnarfo Posts: 764 Member
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    I dunno about anyone else but I find it useful for maintaining - I use a hrm for exercise tho and then add that.
  • bkw61
    bkw61 Posts: 29 Member
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    I use the fitbit to gage my steps and encourage me. I got tired of logging food and exercise in mfp, so i let fitbit give me a general number of exercise calories burned.

    So far Im still loosing a bit. But since Im having trouble eating more calories.( Ive been increasing by 50 a week to get up to where I should be at some point.) It has been accurate in the intake vs outtake thing.

    Fitbit gives me the encouragement by not only the daily steps challenge but by logging those as calories burned in MFP. I never eat them back anyway so that wasnt a concern of mine.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    I use my fitbit to add calories from steps into MFP so I don't have to log my walking. I just log big extra exercise it doesn't measure well (like the 3 hours I spent shoveling chicken manure and compost Saturday).

    I ignore everything except the step report from them. It might or might not be accurate, but if I eat back what they give me I don't gain weight, so that's good enough for me.
  • pinkpolkadots25
    pinkpolkadots25 Posts: 101 Member
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    Mine puts me at a slight deficit, too. Not huge but I figure it's okay -- I'm sure my calculations for calories aren't 100% correct and that I underestimate some things. I like the wiggle room. I've been maintaining while eating almost all of the extra calories that the Fitbit gives me, though (for me, that's around 2100 total per day).
  • 4ever420
    4ever420 Posts: 4,088 Member
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    Bumping cause I'm curious too.
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
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    Yeah, Fitbit does the same thing for me. For instance my deficit last week was 223 calories. I took the calories that I logged into MFP and the calories that Fitbit said I burned and came up with that number. When I received my weekly report Fitbit said my calorie deficit was 930 calories. I know that's wrong.

    I think it has something to do with how you set your daily calorie goal on the Fitbit dashboard. I'm not positive that's the case, but it's all that I can figure out.
  • Kevalicious99
    Kevalicious99 Posts: 1,131 Member
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    I determined my maintenance calorie target manually and that is what I eat ... I don't let Fitbit or MFP determine that level. I have set that as my target at both FItbit .. and MFP so there is not an issue. I never rely on these sites to tell me how much to eat.

    I have been at maintenance and have found my sweet spot .. and I am staying at a consistent weight now.
  • slimmerang
    slimmerang Posts: 79 Member
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    I also have a deficit every week but really haven't lost weight the last two weeks so I am not sure how accurate it is. I mostly use it for steps. My active mins don't seem to be correct either but I log my exercise into MFP so I feel like its accounted for some where...
  • greenolivetree
    greenolivetree Posts: 1,282 Member
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    I'm currently set to a deficit to lose a few pounds I've gained, so not maintenance. But last week fitbit said I was over by 357 calories. MFP said 321. That's close enough for me over the course of a week. I have both set right now to lose .5 pound per week, and both are set as being sedentary - I let the fitbit give me the extra calories burned and I eat them all back :) Averages to about 350 a day exercise cals earned. I do know fitbit has different settings - one they give you a certain amount of calories based on what you've been averaging (burning), the other gives you a set amount and then adds if you burn extra. The latter seems to work better with MFP.

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