Fitbit calories, not losing anymore

candistyx
candistyx Posts: 547 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Before I started using my fitbit I was losing about 2lbs a week even though I set my deficit to 1lb a week. Since I started using it I have more or less remained the same weight, I have been eating some but not all of the exercise calories it gave me and just to be on the safe side I switched to a 1000 calorie deficit. MFP gives me less calories even with the adjustment I try and stay under that limit.

Is 2 weeks long enough to assume that the fitbit just gives me way way too many calories? Should I just set a hard limit and ignore "exercise" calories?

Replies

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    If you have a fair bit to lose you could adopt a fixed intake and take the extra exercise deficit as a bonus when it happens.

    How much is Fitbit adding ?
  • candistyx
    candistyx Posts: 547 Member
    Yesterday it added 848 calories (all these are after I turned off calorie estimation)
    The day before it added 1193 calories
    Saturday it added 1408 calories and I ended up netting 987 calories because of how ridiculous the exercise calories were. That day I had 24570 steps and 63 floors because I climbed up a hill, I'm 250ish lbs right now so it might be hard to walk up a hill but the evidence from my weight seems to be that it isn't that hard and it was wishful thinking to hope it was.

    I always stay above 10k steps (easily because I don't have a car) and I try to aim for at least 15k in a day. But I have no idea how many calories that realistically means.
  • rubbersoul84
    rubbersoul84 Posts: 23 Member
    I'm in the same boat. Got a fitbit and stopped losing. I've been stuck for two weeks. So frustrating! I started wearing mine just as the school year ended. Since then I've gone from working out 3-4 days a week for 45 minutes or so to 6 days a week of serious cardio and additional weight training. I'm going with the fact that I'm not eating enough and hope adding calories jump starts me again. I try to eat 1200-1400 calories regardless of what the fitbit says.
  • Maitria
    Maitria Posts: 439 Member
    That's strange, my Fitbit always gives me less than MFP does. (For some strange reason, my page refuses to scroll down, so apologies if you already said this.) Do you have your Fitbit set to a deficit as well as MFP? Do you have negative calorie adjustment enabled on MFP?
  • candistyx
    candistyx Posts: 547 Member
    That's strange, my Fitbit always gives me less than MFP does. (For some strange reason, my page refuses to scroll down, so apologies if you already said this.) Do you have your Fitbit set to a deficit as well as MFP? Do you have negative calorie adjustment enabled on MFP?
    yeah I enabled negative calorie adjustment and set a 1000 calorie deficit on both. Looking now fitbit is giving me less calories but I've not walked much today yet because I am expecting a phone call and have been waiting for it. When I'm out and about all day mfp is usually the lower number.
  • BoxerBrawler
    BoxerBrawler Posts: 2,032 Member
    I also get a ridiculous amount of calories burned at the end of the day. Most days it's over a thousand... although that is certainly legit since I work out a few times a day and get well over 10,000 steps a day. Most days I don't bother too much with the NET number because I don't trust it and I just eat up to my calorie range which is set for 1200 (give or take). I think MFP and Fitbit are fairly accurate for the most part. As long as you are logging all of your exercise into MFP and putting in the time (important), the Fitbit adjustment shouldn't be that big. For example... I burned 100 on the elliptical this morning and did some sit ups, push ups etc... Before I logged it to MFP, my Fitbit gave me 154 exercise calories. That seems about right (100 from the elliptical and 54 from general morning moving around) Once I logged the exercise on MFP and refreshed it gave me the 100 calories burned and a Fitbit adjustment of 54. So I know the systems are crossing information correctly.

    I don't really understand how the negative calorie adjustment works... can someone explain that? I don't have mine turned on at the moment. Not sure what it's all about....
  • hbrittingham
    hbrittingham Posts: 2,518 Member
    I have a fitbit now and had a Bodymedia Fit before. The BMF grossly overestimated the calories I was burning and I ended up gaining weight when I followed what it said I could eat and what I had burned.

    With the fitbit, I do feel like it's overestimating my overall burn, so I allow myself a net 1300-1500 calories a day and I am finally losing again. I think I just have a slower metabolism than the average woman my age, weight and activity level, so I have to adjust for that.
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
    It took some tweaking, but I personally got my FitBit to a long-term accuracy rate of +/- 70 calories (based on detailed intake and scale weight info I've charted). I personally have calorie estimation ENABLED on the FB settings and have left "Enable Negative Adjustments" on MFP UNchecked. And I also shortened my "stride length" on the FB settings, and since I'm between inches on height, I rounded DOWN my height setting.

    That being said, if it's up to 70 calories off, no matter how strictly I track my intake, I may be up to 500 calories off per week. YMMV.
  • EmmaEVille13
    EmmaEVille13 Posts: 69 Member
    My first question is:

    Do you drink enough? At least 2L per day


    I have a fitbit one, am 270lbs, eat 1500 kcal per day and loose about 2lbs per week. My fitbit gives me an idea of what I need to do if I haven't been too active but in general I do not eat all my exercise calories.
    My fitbit knows my weight and I believe it does calculate the burned calories quite well. I don't think a plateau has got something to do with wearing your fitbit.

    How have your eating habbits changed since you started wearing it?
  • 257_Lag
    257_Lag Posts: 1,249 Member
    I love my FitBit but no longer have it linked to MFP. I had a huge stall when I had them linked.

    I thought I was sedimentary sitting at a desk all day long. Turns out I was walking 6000 steps anyway just from daily activity. This was working great until FitBit started giving me more calories for those steps initial 6000 steps! I didn't realize this for two months until I analyzed all my data trying to figure out why I was stalled.

    Now I manually log steps. I give myself 15 minutes walking when I get 10,000 steps and 20 minutes walking when I get 12,000 steps. Anything else like dedicated walks or activity I log for what it really was. I hope this helps.
  • Chellody22
    Chellody22 Posts: 95 Member
    Two weeks isn't long enough to know for sure if you have stopped losing. I can go three weeks or more at the same weight, or up a few pounds, then drop three or four pounds in one week.
  • candistyx
    candistyx Posts: 547 Member
    My first question is:

    Do you drink enough? At least 2L per day
    My goal for water is 2L and I usually meet it, I also sometimes drink caffeinated beverages on top. I don't think I actually need that much water but I need more than I would drink without a goal because I tend to reach for the caffine and it never seems to really quench my thirst the same.

    I have a fitbit one, am 270lbs, eat 1500 kcal per day and loose about 2lbs per week. My fitbit gives me an idea of what I need to do if I haven't been too active but in general I do not eat all my exercise calories.
    My fitbit knows my weight and I believe it does calculate the burned calories quite well. I don't think a plateau has got something to do with wearing your fitbit.

    How have your eating habbits changed since you started wearing it?
    yes, I have started eating more because it said I could. I didn't really want rapid loss, but I wanted to lose something and I have not lost anything since then. Previously I was losing 2lbs a week on 1800-2100 calories a day, now I'm losing nothing on 2300-2500 calories a day.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    MFP has a Fitbit Users group: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/1307-fitbit-users

    I eat back all my Fitbit adjustments, and I lost weight. Open your diary for personalized advice, but you're probably underestimating your food. Do you weigh everything you eat—even packaged food?

    The advice in the Sexypants post worked for me: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-Sexypants
  • GeekAmour
    GeekAmour Posts: 262
    I have lost all my weight using the fitbit calorie estimates; I have found it to be so close to my TDEE that it's honestly like magic!

    I agree that you might have to tweak it some; stride length maybe? But do be careful about trying to cheat yourself out of calories that you have "earned" through activity - you have MFP set to a deficit already, no need to try to shortchange yourself further - you need to fuel that body!

    Two weeks is nothing. There are all sorts of factors that could come in to play - is your activity the same as before or did it increase with the fitbit? Hormones, muscle building if you are starting strength training, the way the wind is blowing from the north... ;)
  • SingRunTing
    SingRunTing Posts: 2,604 Member
    I love my fitbit and use it everyday, but I disconnected it from MFP. I don't log the steps in MFP and just use it as my justification for my "lightly active" setting and as a buffer for calorie counting and eating back my purposeful exercise calories.

    I also check to see what the fitbit says my calorie goal is that day and it makes me feel better on days that I go over my MFP calories (which isn't often, but does happen).
  • sati18
    sati18 Posts: 153 Member
    My first question is:

    Do you drink enough? At least 2L per day
    My goal for water is 2L and I usually meet it, I also sometimes drink caffeinated beverages on top. I don't think I actually need that much water but I need more than I would drink without a goal because I tend to reach for the caffine and it never seems to really quench my thirst the same.

    I have a fitbit one, am 270lbs, eat 1500 kcal per day and loose about 2lbs per week. My fitbit gives me an idea of what I need to do if I haven't been too active but in general I do not eat all my exercise calories.
    My fitbit knows my weight and I believe it does calculate the burned calories quite well. I don't think a plateau has got something to do with wearing your fitbit.

    How have your eating habbits changed since you started wearing it?
    yes, I have started eating more because it said I could. I didn't really want rapid loss, but I wanted to lose something and I have not lost anything since then. Previously I was losing 2lbs a week on 1800-2100 calories a day, now I'm losing nothing on 2300-2500 calories a day.

    Double check your time zones on MFP and on Fitbit as i had problems with mine giving me too many calories when the time zones didn't match because it thought i was being super active first thing in the morning and assumed the rest of the day would be more of the same.

    Also, if you were losing at a steady and comfortable rate before on 1800 - 2100 calories then go back to that and just count the fitbit calories as an added bonus.

    I think mine is pretty accurate and it definitely doesn't over estimate for me - i think it's brilliant. but i try not to keep a buffer of 100-200 calories less than MFP thinks i should eat just to accomodate underestimating of sauces or anything i might have nibbled and forgotten to log
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    I was losing 2lbs a week on 1800-2100 calories a day, now I'm losing nothing on 2300-2500 calories a day.
    If you were losing at a steady and comfortable rate before on 1800 - 2100 calories then go back to that.
    ^This.

    Weight loss takes a whole lot of trial & error to find what works for you. If what you're doing now doesn't work, then go back to what does.
  • jkal1979
    jkal1979 Posts: 1,896 Member
    Have you been exercising and walking a lot more since you started using it? It could possibly be temporary water retention.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    Those calorie adjustments are huge. Your step counts are huge, though. I've never walked 25,000 steps in a day unless I'm running around Disneyland for 14 hours. Is that real? Do you wear a Flex?

    Calorie Estimation only applies to days you don't wear your Fitbit. Also, the 'floors' don't count into the calorie estimate.
  • candistyx
    candistyx Posts: 547 Member
    Those calorie adjustments are huge. Your step counts are huge, though. I've never walked 25,000 steps in a day unless I'm running around Disneyland for 14 hours. Is that real? Do you wear a Flex?

    Calorie Estimation only applies to days you don't wear your Fitbit. Also, the 'floors' don't count into the calorie estimate.
    I have a fitbit one.

    That particular day I went for a walk up the aforementioned hill, I also went back and forth between my parents and my boyfriends parents houses and the shops for various things and to meet with various people.

    Maybe it's a miscounting steps but it seems fairly accurate, when I walk a 2 miles it says it's 5000 steps. When I did an 8 mile walk last week it was saying 20,000 which was my first 20000 day. Neither of those days did I use public transport but yesterday I went on the train and obsessively checked it and it didn't count any steps the whole time. When I walk and watch it at the same time it counts in time with the steps.

    I don't have a car at all and I rarely use public transport, it's about 2 miles to the supermarket and back and similar to get into the town centre for shopping or the laundrette, seems pretty easy for someone as absent minded as me to rack up steps and I try and get a "recreation" walk in at least 3 times week.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    You calorie burns sound realistic then. But if you started eating a lot more once you started seeing them come to MFP that means you were eating at the right level to lose 2lbs/week before, regardless of what the numbers say now. So if you preferred that weight loss rate, I think you'll have to go back to that eating level, unless you think this is something that is just a normal plateau (not related to change in intake) and can be waited out. But it sounds like you started eating a lot more, right?

    A rough estimate for calories to 'sanity check' your Fitbit is around 100 calories per mile walked, above your RMR rate. So if on a sedentary day you walk 4000 (say 2 miles) and that burns say 2000 calories, then on an active day where you walk 10,000 (more like 5 miles vs. 2) you might expect to burn about 2300 (2000 sedentary + 300 for the 3 extra miles of activity). This is just a rough estimate. I wouldn't expect it to be lower than 50 calories a mile or over 150.
  • candistyx
    candistyx Posts: 547 Member
    Yeh I was hoping it meant I could eat more and I figured that since I was losing 2lbs not 1lb before it meant I could. I guess 1lb is somewhere between the two.

    I guess I've got more fat to lean mass than average for my weight and height and before I was only losing because I was claiming to be sedentary but probably could have used one of the other activity levels.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    If you're walking 10-25k steps a day and claiming sedentary that would explain higher than predicted losses. If you use the Fitbit burn it should be a better estimate but you could also not lose the expected rate because maybe your BMR and other calorie estimates don't fit you well (we're not all 'average') and/or because your food tracking is a bit off. We all have that to varying degrees. Good luck!
  • EmmaEVille13
    EmmaEVille13 Posts: 69 Member
    it really depends on what works for you. I would put weight on if I started eating back my exercise calories.

    If you don't lose then lower your calorie intake and watch out for food that is high in sodium (I tend to put on if I eat food that is high in sodium).
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    Here is how the negative calorie adjustment works, I'll use my current #s as an example.

    Based on my stats, and my MFP settings MFP thinks I will burn a total of 1892 calories today. As of my last sync, because its early in the day and I haven't moved much yet, the reading from Fitbit looks like I'm only going to hit 1744. So that's a negative adjustment of 148. Meaning I'm on course to burn less than MFP thinks. Result: to meet my deficit goal I need to eat less, or move more.

    For yesterday, final #s as the day is over, MFP expected me to burn 1892. According to Fitbit, I burned 2258. So I earned an adjustment for an extra 366 calories.

    My advice for Fitibt + MFP:

    1. do not log step-based activity, let Fitbit calculate that for you. So if you go for a walk, run, etc. you do not log it in MFP. MFP is reported to use high values for burn rate. If you log a walk from 4-5pm, MFP will replace your Fitbit data from 4-5pm with its new info.

    2. do not log food, etc. in Fitbit. Use MFP for that.

    3. set a goal in Fitbit for how many calories to burn total per day. Make sure you hit that # each day. That goal should make sense based on your MFP food goal. Such as if you want a 500 calorie deficit and your target is to eat MFP calories of 1500, then you'd want the Fitbit total calories burned to be over 2000. Personally I like having a little spare deficit, an extra 50-100 calories, since I know Fitbit isn't 100% accurate.

    4. eat the extra calories, based on your goals, depending on how you feel. If your consumption goal is 1500 and your burn goal is 2100 then stick around 1500 in. If you actually burn 2500 though, consider eating some of the extra if you feel you need it.

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