Fitbit steps and extra calories!

latheron
latheron Posts: 5
edited November 10 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hi. I use MFP to maintain my weight. I recently got a fitbit charge and have synced it with MFP. I am confused though. It is adding over 1000 calories a day in exercise from the steps recorded, which range from 10,000 to 16,000 a day. This is giving me around 3,500 calories to eat. Of this right?

Replies

  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    I need more info. Are you male first of all? 3500 would sound pretty ok if you are for 16000 steps. Have you your setting set to sedentary or active etc on MFP? have you calculated your TDEE online to see what the average amount is for your height/weight/age?
    Are you eating the same ? staying the same weight?
    I know, a lot of questions but as I said, more information is required before I can say that all is ok :)
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    ps there is a group for Fitbit users on here, if you join you will get any questions answered.
  • jasonp_ritzert
    jasonp_ritzert Posts: 357 Member
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

    I'm a member and it offers some info. However, that said, I have a FitBit and here is what I do. I set MFP to be 'sedentary' to provide the bare minimum calories for the day for me. Then I let my FitBit add in any extra due to walking, running, etc. I'm a male, 6'2'', 211 lbs and on days when I average 14-16,000 steps, it adds in about 1,000 calories. It has been fairly close and I've even lost 4 lbs so far using the FitBit for about 4 weeks now, so the math must be working out.
  • latheron
    latheron Posts: 5
    RunRutheeRun wrote: »
    I need more info. Are you male first of all? 3500 would sound pretty ok if you are for 16000 steps. Have you your setting set to sedentary or active etc on MFP? have you calculated your TDEE online to see what the average amount is for your height/weight/age?
    Are you eating the same ? staying the same weight?
    I know, a lot of questions but as I said, more information is required before I can say that all is ok :)

    I a female, 5ft 6 and 37 years old. I have the activity as sedentary.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited January 2015
    ok, then that's high. I am very active and Fitbit averages my daily burn at 2300 which I am finding to be right. I'm only 5ft 2" and average 17000 steps, 45 yrs old.
    Theres something not right in your settings. In Fitbit have you put in your information, height,weight etc? I never had any issue with mine giving too high a burn.

    Ask this same question on the Fitbit forum as there are some really helpful and knowledgeable folk on there.
  • ski0721
    ski0721 Posts: 109 Member
    latheron wrote: »
    Hi. I use MFP to maintain my weight. I recently got a fitbit charge and have synced it with MFP. I am confused though. It is adding over 1000 calories a day in exercise from the steps recorded, which range from 10,000 to 16,000 a day. This is giving me around 3,500 calories to eat. Of this right?

    Same here. Confusing...

  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    ps my husband just got his Fitbit Charge this week and its underestimating his total burn compared to the Flex that he previously had.
  • latheron
    latheron Posts: 5
    RunRutheeRun wrote: »
    ok, then that's high. I am very active and Fitbit averages my daily burn at 2300 which I am finding to be right. I'm only 5ft 2" and average 17000 steps, 45 yrs old.
    Theres something not right in your settings. In Fitbit have you put in your information, height,weight etc? I never had any issue with mine giving too high a burn.

    Ask this same question on the Fitbit forum as there are some really helpful and knowledgeable folk on there.

    Yes all my info is correct on fitbit. Don't get it.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    Then, no I don't get it either, sorry. Please do ask this on the group Fitbit forum on here.
  • latheron
    latheron Posts: 5
    RunRutheeRun wrote: »
    Then, no I don't get it either, sorry. Please do ask this on the group Fitbit forum on here.
    RunRutheeRun wrote: »
    Then, no I don't get it either, sorry. Please do ask this on the group Fitbit forum on here.

    Thanks. I have posted it on the fitbit group page.
  • sizzle74
    sizzle74 Posts: 858 Member
    I don't sync my fitbit to MFP. If I do, I delete the calories burned it gives me from fitbit on MFP.....but that drives me crazy to do all day, so I count steps on my fitbit and use MFP for food/calories. I don't sync. HTH
  • laineybz
    laineybz Posts: 704 Member
    jezebelgirl wrote: »
    I don't sync my fitbit to MFP. If I do, I delete the calories burned it gives me from fitbit on MFP.....but that drives me crazy to do all day, so I count steps on my fitbit and use MFP for food/calories. I don't sync. HTH

    I do this too. Keeping them separate works for me.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited January 2015
    I find it to be accurate, although I found to get the exact right burn I need to add 3-4 incline to my walks, so it may be over-estimating by a bit, at least for me. OP are you sure you have your MFP account set to sedentary? For MFP to be accurate, it needs to be. If it is, then you probably are burning 3500 or close. Keep in mind the intensity of your steps counts. If you are a fast walker, or tend to run, then that may be why you are burning a lot.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    edited January 2015
    For the fitbit calories to work you need to be set to sedentary. You also need to add any additional exercise HERE, not there, so it only counts once. Make sure an additional exercise has the right time so the steps only count once too.

    I get around 350 calories from 10K steps and I am 5'10" and weight 148. My husband often walked 13K and gets like 500 calories I think (I'd have to check).

    It's pretty straightforward to check it. 10,000 steps is approximately 5 miles. So if you put in 1.25 hours of walking at 4 mph, you'll get the approximate calories you should earn from that.
  • scrittrice
    scrittrice Posts: 345 Member
    nxd10 wrote: »
    For the fitbit calories to work you need to be set to sedentary. You also need to add any additional exercise HERE, not there, so it only counts once. Make sure an additional exercise has the right time so the steps only count once too.

    I get around 350 calories from 10K steps and I am 5'10" and weight 148. My husband often walked 13K and gets like 500 calories I think (I'd have to check).

    It's pretty straightforward to check it. 10,000 steps is approximately 5 miles. So if you put in 1.25 hours of walking at 4 mph, you'll get the approximate calories you should earn from that.

    I think you don't necessarily need to be set to sedentary, as long as you enable negative calorie adjustments. But you do need to be using the MFP method (adding back exercise calories) for it to work, and you definitely need to be recording your non-step exercise on MFP and getting the time right.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    edited January 2015
    That's true. But they do recommend you set to sedentary in the instructions on integrating the two. That way you have a base that is always safe and you go up from there, instead of assuming you can eat XXXX calories and then finding out at 5:00 that you're not going to make your goal and they drop your calories down at that point.

    It also depends WHEN you get your steps. In the winter, I do 5 miles of walking at lunch and fitbit estimates I'm going to have tons of extra calories that it adds in. I have to be careful that it doesn't readjust later. In the summer, I walk 5 miles after dinner, and I will suddenly get dumped a lot of extra calories at 8PM. Because my exercise pattern changes a lot, it works better for me to set to sedentary and turn off the negative adjustments.

    The negative adjustments are also really problematic if you don't put it on until later some days or forget to wear it. I rarely do that, but when I do, it completely screw me up. At sedentary that's not a problem.
  • EmilyJackCO
    EmilyJackCO Posts: 621 Member
    This is how I made it easier for myself. I used my Fitbit for a month of normal activities. Then, I went through my Fitbit reports and averaged out all of my daily calories burned for the month (by the weekly reports, this was easy). Then I subtracted 500 from there, and set my custom goal in MFP for that - which gives me around 1800 this go-round. That might be an idea.
  • sugardetox
    sugardetox Posts: 149 Member
    I have them synced but I don't eat back the extra calories. I just keep an eye on what it says for food for the day and go off that.
  • FitnessNole
    FitnessNole Posts: 1
    Latheron, maybe try setting your MFP activity to active instead of sedentary and see what happens.
  • scrittrice
    scrittrice Posts: 345 Member
    nxd10 wrote: »
    That's true. But they do recommend you set to sedentary in the instructions on integrating the two. That way you have a base that is always safe and you go up from there, instead of assuming you can eat XXXX calories and then finding out at 5:00 that you're not going to make your goal and they drop your calories down at that point.

    It also depends WHEN you get your steps. In the winter, I do 5 miles of walking at lunch and fitbit estimates I'm going to have tons of extra calories that it adds in. I have to be careful that it doesn't readjust later. In the summer, I walk 5 miles after dinner, and I will suddenly get dumped a lot of extra calories at 8PM. Because my exercise pattern changes a lot, it works better for me to set to sedentary and turn off the negative adjustments.

    The negative adjustments are also really problematic if you don't put it on until later some days or forget to wear it. I rarely do that, but when I do, it completely screw me up. At sedentary that's not a problem.

    That makes sense. I never realized that it instructs you to set yourself to sedentary, or if I did, I read it a long time ago and forgot. I have myself set to lightly active, but I'm really somewhere between active and very active, so I rarely have calories subtracted at the end of the day, and if I have extra, I'm happy to spread them out over the following days. I think the most important thing is to know your own pattern, which takes a little time. I agree that I don't like a "surprise" late in the day (and I work at home, so I sync all day long), though after more than a year with FB/MFP, I kind of know without looking how many steps/calories I have. I bet you do, too.
  • squirrelzzrule22
    squirrelzzrule22 Posts: 640 Member
    My boyfriend is 6'2" and about 210 pounds. On a day he exercises at all and gets to about 15,000 his chargeHR will say he burned about 3500 calories. It seems very accurate. Depending on your size and activity level it may very well be right.

    I use a fitbit flex. on days I go for a run or take more than 15,000 steps I burn about 2800 calories. That so far has seemed accurate as well.

    If you're concerned it is too high, eat according to it for a couple days and if you put on weight set your calories to about 200 under TDEE and go from there.
  • squirrelzzrule22
    squirrelzzrule22 Posts: 640 Member
    latheron wrote: »
    RunRutheeRun wrote: »
    I need more info. Are you male first of all? 3500 would sound pretty ok if you are for 16000 steps. Have you your setting set to sedentary or active etc on MFP? have you calculated your TDEE online to see what the average amount is for your height/weight/age?
    Are you eating the same ? staying the same weight?
    I know, a lot of questions but as I said, more information is required before I can say that all is ok :)

    I a female, 5ft 6 and 37 years old. I have the activity as sedentary.

    Your weight will play a big role in how many calories you burned. Make sure your weight is input into fitbit properly
  • squirrelzzrule22
    squirrelzzrule22 Posts: 640 Member
    also, if it is the charge HR, it is possible that you have a higher than average resting heart rate and it is measuring calories based on that. Just a thought, doesn't mean there is anything wrong with you.
  • Wantingtolose1
    Wantingtolose1 Posts: 139 Member
    I had the fitbit zip while losing and it seemed to be pretty spot on as I usually ate back exercise calories (may not all it depended on day) and was losing at the rate I should.
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