Calorie Goal: MFP vs Fitbit

donyellemoniquex3
donyellemoniquex3 Posts: 2,384 Member
edited February 23 in Health and Weight Loss
IPOARM says 1600
Doctor says 1800
Fitbit says 2500

A little help please ?

Replies

  • Nedra19455
    Nedra19455 Posts: 241 Member
    Are you talking about a "calories burned" goal or a "calories eaten" goal? If you are trying to lose weight, you want your calories burned to be higher than your calories eaten. Fitbit tracks my calories burned and there is a goal that I try to hit for that (2,603 for me). MFP tracks my calories eaten and has a goal for that (1,750).
  • donyellemoniquex3
    donyellemoniquex3 Posts: 2,384 Member
    Calories to eat.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    Calories to eat.

    Is fit bit telling you the amount of calories to eat to lose weight or the amount of calories you require to MAINTAIN your weight. My guess is it is telling you the number of calories you maintain at in which case eating 1800 calories a day as your doctor suggested seems reasonable for weight loss.
  • sympha01
    sympha01 Posts: 942 Member
    My experience is that Fitbit tends to overestimate the number of calories I can eat (both based on overestimating my exercise burn, and seeming to overestimate my BMR a bit). Given that your Fitbit number is so much higher than the IPOARM and doctor recommendations, I'd be inclined to ignore the Fitbit recommendation. UNLESS you really do think you've been super-duper active in a way that neither your doctor nor your IPOARM inputs are aware.

    So between IPOARM and your doctor

    1) Does your doctor know absolutely all the same stuff that you input into IPOARM?
    2) Is your doctor a weight loss specialist? (My doctor is fantastic, but he's definitely not a weight loss specialist and frankly isn't very up-to-date on exercise and calories and nutrition. Which he admits. But he also tends to underestimate the number of calories I should eat. Last year he suggested I eat 1500 calories a day. I ended up eating about 1850 instead, based on a lot of research and calculators. I just had a checkup last week and he was all shocked at my >100-pound weight loss and the fact that I've kept up losing at a rate of about 2 lbs a week for over a year. He didn't really think that was possible, especially given that he had prescribed a lower calorie target for me).

    But final thought: 1600 seems low to me for anyone with the amount of weight to lose as you've indicated. (I started in pretty much the same boat last year, FWIW). If you have a lot of weight to lose, starting with 1800 - 1900 calories a day sounds perfectly reasonable. Try that for a month or two and assess your results. You can always adjust downward later. It's going to take a long time regardless and you DON'T want to make yourself miserable right up front by eating too restrictively. It'll only make you desperate for it to be over. Your game plan at first should really be about establishing some sustainable healthy habits you can enjoy sticking to. Trust me, you'll see results. :flowerforyou:
  • conqueringsquidlette
    conqueringsquidlette Posts: 383 Member
    I don't trust fitbit's calorie goals at all. It had me at <1000 calories a day for a while.
  • manicautumn
    manicautumn Posts: 224 Member
    IPOARM says 1600
    Doctor says 1800
    Fitbit says 2500

    A little help please ?

    I'd say go with the doctor.

    But, also, what did you set your FitBit weight loss goal to? Perhaps 2500/day is for 0.5lb/wk loss while the others are for higher like 1.5 or 2lb/wk?
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