FitBit adding an insane amount of calories...?

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RealLifeDaria
RealLifeDaria Posts: 22 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been logging in MFP for a few weeks and just decided to sync up my FitBit. I just started using it a few days ago, but I generally log 12K-19K steps a day. I've had my goal in MFP set to 1350 cals/day, but now that I've linked my FitBit its adding and INSANE amount of calories to my adjustment--like over a thousand. That doesn't seem like it can be right?! Any insight? If it's going to say I'm 1,000+ calories under each day by having them linked, I'd rather keep them separate.
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  • Cheriesaurus
    Cheriesaurus Posts: 92 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Do you have goals set to sedentary?

    I got a fitbit recently and still trying to work it out :/ it only calculated I burnt my BMR that day..
  • RealLifeDaria
    RealLifeDaria Posts: 22 Member
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    I think I have my goals set to "lightly active".
  • FrugalMomsRock75
    FrugalMomsRock75 Posts: 698 Member
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    I love my fitbit adjustments. On a day that I am at my goal of at least 13,000 steps, it adds on a good amount of calories. I noticed today that when I got home from the gym (I did arc and elliptical today, so it tracked "steps"), the adjustment was almost exactly what it should have been according to my HRM's reading on my gym time. When I got home from taking my dog for a 15-20 minute walk this morning, it gave me 70 calories. I think that's probably about right too.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    Mfp isn't double upping your calories burned?
  • Cheriesaurus
    Cheriesaurus Posts: 92 Member
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    I saw this on spark people, dunno how accurate it is though.

    Pedometer Steps Classifications
    Sedentary: less than 5,000 steps per day
    Low Active: .5,000-7,499 steps per day
    Somewhat Active: 7,500-9,999 steps per day
    Active: 10,000-12,500 steps per day
    Highly Active: 12,501+ steps per day

    Maybe since you should be set to active it's recalculating your daily calorie goals.
  • RealLifeDaria
    RealLifeDaria Posts: 22 Member
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    I just don't think I could possibly be burning 1,000+ more calories than I have been accounting for. I have my goals in MFP set to an aggressive but reasonable loss of 1 lb/week--I'm already at a healthy weight and am not looking to lose much. If there were a magical extra thousand calories burned per day that I hadn't been accounting for up until now, I would have noticed significantly more weight lost than the <1lb/week I've seen, right?
  • honkytonks85
    honkytonks85 Posts: 669 Member
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    I'd be making sure of the the following:
    - set your MFP to sedentary
    - don't add exercise calories

    Though if it is adding calories then that's probably fair enough and you've burned those. esp if you're walking like 16k plus steps. You can always ignore them or desync.
  • Cheriesaurus
    Cheriesaurus Posts: 92 Member
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    I don't reach 5k steps a day unless I log an exercise so mines set to sedentary and I dont get given any calories extra since my exercise logged already does it. I'm hoping this is how it works otherwise I got no idea lol.
  • sodakat
    sodakat Posts: 1,126 Member
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    Have you looked at the Fitbit daily log? It will show exactly how many calories you burn every half hour. You can then figure out when the activity occurs that is adding so many calories and determine if it is caused by some movement beside exercise. I drive school bus. That adds thousands of fake steps every day that I have to adjust out.
  • higgins8283801
    higgins8283801 Posts: 844 Member
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    Cheriesaurus wrote: »
    I saw this on spark people, dunno how accurate it is though.

    Pedometer Steps Classifications
    Sedentary: less than 5,000 steps per day
    Low Active: .5,000-7,499 steps per day
    Somewhat Active: 7,500-9,999 steps per day
    Active: 10,000-12,500 steps per day
    Highly Active: 12,501+ steps per day

    Maybe since you should be set to active it's recalculating your daily calorie goals.

    this is about right, I think. I am in the highly active group as I average about 15,000-20,000 steps a day (7-10 miles) Even if it isn't true exercise, I am moving a lot throughout the day.

  • RealLifeDaria
    RealLifeDaria Posts: 22 Member
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    sodakat wrote: »
    Have you looked at the Fitbit daily log? It will show exactly how many calories you burn every half hour. You can then figure out when the activity occurs that is adding so many calories and determine if it is caused by some movement beside exercise. I drive school bus. That adds thousands of fake steps every day that I have to adjust out.
    I have checked out the steps breakdown and when it says I'm doing most of my steps seems accurate. I haven't checked out the cals/30min breakdown yet though.
  • RealLifeDaria
    RealLifeDaria Posts: 22 Member
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    After looking at it, it seems to be giving me WAY more calories/step than it should. For the ~20 minutes I walked my dog this evening at about a 3.0 mph pace, it gave me more than 150 cals. That's WAY too much for a 20 minute walk! I have my height and weight entered in correctly, so I'm not sure why its burn estimate seems so off.
  • higgins8283801
    higgins8283801 Posts: 844 Member
    edited January 2015
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    RealLifeDaria wrote: »
    After looking at it, it seems to be giving me WAY more calories/step than it should. For the ~20 minutes I walked my dog this evening at about a 3.0 mph pace, it gave me more than 150 cals. That's WAY too much for a 20 minute walk! I have my height and weight entered in correctly, so I'm not sure why its burn estimate seems so off.

    when it syncs to MFP, it adjusts for what it thinks you'll use by the end of the day; if you look tomorrow you'll notice that it will take back ones you really didn't burn. I try and just eat back a little bit of them for this reason
  • RealLifeDaria
    RealLifeDaria Posts: 22 Member
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    higgins8283801 wrote: »
    RealLifeDaria wrote: »
    After looking at it, it seems to be giving me WAY more calories/step than it should. For the ~20 minutes I walked my dog this evening at about a 3.0 mph pace, it gave me more than 150 cals. That's WAY too much for a 20 minute walk! I have my height and weight entered in correctly, so I'm not sure why its burn estimate seems so off.

    when it syncs to MFP, it adjusts for what it thinks you'll use by the end of the day; if you look tomorrow you'll notice that it will take back ones you really didn't burn. I try and just eat back a little bit of them for this reason

    Even for "actual calories" burned so far today FitBit is giving me what seems to be a wildly inflated number--something like 2,500 cals.
  • RealLifeDaria
    RealLifeDaria Posts: 22 Member
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    karahm78 wrote: »
    That number that your Fitbit returns is including your BMR (i.e. your body has burned 2,500 calories since midnight, including exercise).

    Yes, but I think even including BMR+steps, that number is WAY too high. The rate of my weight loss (<1lb/week) supports a number closer to what MFP has been giving me (BMR around 1850 for "lightly active", eat at 1350). I've been keeping close to that number, and the math is adding up. If I were really at a deficit of more than 1k cals a day, I would be losing at a MUCH faster rate.
  • sshintaku
    sshintaku Posts: 228 Member
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    I've also been wondering about this. I set MFP to sedentary and linked my Fitbit. I have anywhere between 13,000 and 25,000 steps a day (average at about 17000). Today I was around 16000 and it said I have 2100 calories. That seems like a lot to me as well. On really busy days, I'll end up with something like 3500 calories. Am I really supposed to be able to eat all that?
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    I just got a Fitbit Flex as a gift and I'm trying an experiment: Without linking Fitbit to MFP, I'm tracking 30 days worth of Fitbit calorie estimates against my observed TDEE for the same time period. My theory is that Fitbit is overestimating my calorie burns by quite a bit, but I'm interested to see how much.

    (I'm not eating back any Fitbit calories. The Fitbit is actually completely irrelevant to my plan. This is purely out of weird data geek interest.)
  • RealLifeDaria
    RealLifeDaria Posts: 22 Member
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    segacs wrote: »
    I just got a Fitbit Flex as a gift and I'm trying an experiment: Without linking Fitbit to MFP, I'm tracking 30 days worth of Fitbit calorie estimates against my observed TDEE for the same time period. My theory is that Fitbit is overestimating my calorie burns by quite a bit, but I'm interested to see how much.

    (I'm not eating back any Fitbit calories. The Fitbit is actually completely irrelevant to my plan. This is purely out of weird data geek interest.)

    I would be interested to see how it works out for you! The FitBit was also not part of my plan, but my boyfriend had one lying around that he wasn't using so I figured why not? In the past year I switched from a very active job in a city where I didn't have a car and walked/biked everywhere, so a more sedentary job in a city with a lot of sprawl that requires a car. I was interested to see just how active I was given the change (turns out...still more active than I thought!).
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    I'll post about it when I get there. So far I only have a little under a week's worth of numbers, so not enough to really go on just yet.

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