Fitbit Making Me Fat?

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  • shellma00
    shellma00 Posts: 1,684 Member
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    2030 is your daily burn.. if you want to lose weight you need to eat less than that.. 2030 would be your maintenance calories. -500 would have you losing 1 lbs a week. -750 would be 1.5 lbs a week..

    didnt you post about your fitbit on another thread and I explained that you have to set your goals on your fitbit dashboard so that you are eating at a deficit and not eating at maintenance??
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
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    I ignore anything my Fitbit says as far as TDEE calories. I follow MFP's NEAT recommendations and eat back about 2/3 of my earned calories from my Fitbit. The only exercise I log anywhere is my lap swimming and water aerobics, and I only log them into MFP. I then eat back about 1/3 of those calories unless I am hungry, then it might be 1/2 or a little more.

    As far as the mileage thing, that is determined by how you set up your stride length. I calculated mine by using a GPS and walking a mile. I synced my fitbit before taking the first step, then again after the mile and figured out my average step length based on how many steps I took in that mile. I have tested the numbers on a track using how many steps to go 100 meters also.
  • fitnessbugg
    fitnessbugg Posts: 141 Member
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    I read this post entirely different than all of the people who replied. I don't think the OP is saying she wants to lose weight. I think she's trying to maintain and upped her calories because the FitBit said she could but now she's having a hard time keeping to the upped calories and thus gaining weight. Now, I could be totally wrong about all that. Anyway, if I was the OP, I would go back to the 1850 a day she was eating if she was maintaining at that weight. Obviously the FitBit is only an estimate or you need to recallibrate.
  • marcolbmp
    marcolbmp Posts: 92 Member
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    @JessaLee0324 If you're trying to lose weight, you need to adjust your calorie goal to closer to 1500/day. That should be your base. If you do cardio, record only 80% of what you actually did (record 30 minutes of running as 24 minutes), if you do strength training, do not record anything.
    Eat/drink lots of protein.
    Lose the fit bit.
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,196 Member
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    [quote="marcolbmp;31359207"}it appears that it may only be good for counting steps. [/quote]

    Yes.
  • TinaGA2015
    TinaGA2015 Posts: 83 Member
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    I use a heart rate monitor and never eat my exercise calories back
  • JessaLee0324
    JessaLee0324 Posts: 118 Member
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    The Fitbit messes with me. Now I "think" I can eat up to 2030 and maintain or eat less and start losing a little. My diary has been at or over each day because of this :( and the more I walk the higher my burn is.

    I'm thinking I need to get rid of this thing. The only issue is that it does help me get more steps in.
  • Iron_Feline
    Iron_Feline Posts: 10,750 Member
    edited February 2015
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    JessaLee0324 wrote: »
    The Fitbit messes with me. Now I "think" I can eat up to 2030 and maintain or eat less and start losing a little. My diary has been at or over each day because of this :( and the more I walk the higher my burn is.

    I'm thinking I need to get rid of this thing. The only issue is that it does help me get more steps in.

    You need to weigh your food = spoons of peanut butter and butter, cups of mac and cheese. That is not accurate,

    You're eating more than you think.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    My Fitbit was messing with my head a bit when I first got it, so I set my MFP calories to 1200 and eat back up to 1500 (which was my pre-Fitbit calorie goal). I believe it over-estimates my burns so I compensate.

    I guess the trick is to just be aware of it and compensate? And agree with the above - weigh solids rather than measure in cups, spoons etc.
  • yellowlemoned
    yellowlemoned Posts: 335 Member
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    From what I've heard all of these fitness watches/armbands are basically just overpriced pedometers because everything else ends up inaccurate.
  • williamwj2014
    williamwj2014 Posts: 750 Member
    edited February 2015
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    I wouldn't trust an electronic device to calculate burn..waaay too inaccurate. You should weigh your food to make sure your accurate.

    Also, DRINK LOTS OF WATER! It helps a lot.
  • lizek316
    lizek316 Posts: 76 Member
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    I've only had my FitBit for one day and I already know that it's over estimating my steps. I was (still am) using the Pacer app on my phone and it's steps and calorie burn seem much more accurate. I'm still going to use both. I might need to make some tweets to my settings which what it sounds like you need to do. I have already changed my stride, my calorie intake and set it for my dominant hand when I don't actually wear it on that hand. It's also more likely to become more accurate the more you use it and log not only your food on the app or website, but also your activity. I'm hoping that's true anyway. I still have Pacer linked to MFP and will probably go off of those calories burned rather than what my FitBit says.
  • Dragn77
    Dragn77 Posts: 810 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Fitbit consistently tells me to eat *less* than what MFP has as my calorie allowance per day.. if I ate what Fitbit told me to, I don't think I would be getting enough!!!

    Also, when it says you burned 2080 calories, thats just telling you what you burned...which is not the same as what you should be eating. If you put in that your goal is to lose weight and how aggressively, it will calculate what your deficit should be. That is what you should be eating...

    Anyway, because I have mine set to custom..and use what I actually burn instead of a set number, the amount I burn / should eat changes throughout the day, every day. Every so often, Fitbit is close to the same calories MFP tells me I have left to eat, but usually its lower by 100-200 calories. Check your goal settings on Fitbit maybe?
  • TheVirgoddess
    TheVirgoddess Posts: 4,535 Member
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    JessaLee0324 wrote: »
    The Fitbit messes with me. Now I "think" I can eat up to 2030 and maintain or eat less and start losing a little. My diary has been at or over each day because of this :( and the more I walk the higher my burn is.

    I'm thinking I need to get rid of this thing. The only issue is that it does help me get more steps in.

    I'd start weighing and measuring your food first - see what happens.
  • JAT74
    JAT74 Posts: 1,078 Member
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    I set MFP for the amount I can eat to still be able to lose 1lb per week without any exercise. For me that's my sedentary TDEE of 1500-500 = 1000 calories.

    That way if there are calories added on to that amount based on my exercise I know I can eat this extra amount and still lose, but generally, whatever the total says even if it comes to 2000 I usually cap the total I eat at 1500-1600 maximum to allow for overestimation by the Fitbit or my workouts. If I only end up at 1500 for the daily burn, I'll eat no more than 1300 and so on.
  • JessaLee0324
    JessaLee0324 Posts: 118 Member
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    Ok perfect example. I set my Fitbit so that I'm at maintenance. I want to see exactly where I am at and since I do the deductions on MFP it's all good. Here is what Fitbit says

    I ate 1682
    I burned 2030
    Cals left 704

    WHAT??????
  • TheVirgoddess
    TheVirgoddess Posts: 4,535 Member
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    JessaLee0324 wrote: »
    Ok perfect example. I set my Fitbit so that I'm at maintenance. I want to see exactly where I am at and since I do the deductions on MFP it's all good. Here is what Fitbit says

    I ate 1682
    I burned 2030
    Cals left 704

    WHAT??????

    Okay, I just looked at your diary. It looks like you're getting a FitBit credit every day, and it's throwing you off? Because based on MFP, you have 153 calories left, not 704.

    What I recommend doing is picking a website to track your calories. Either FitBit or MFP - don't use both. I use MFP, with FitBit as an accessory to keep me active. I don't log or track anything on FitBit. In fact, I mostly ignore it.

    If you choose MFP, you need to adjust your activity level (sedentary, lightly active, active, etc) to better match your actual activity level, instead of getting different adjustments every single day. This way your calorie target will be more fixed, and easier to meet.
  • Xineoph
    Xineoph Posts: 38 Member
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    You sound like me when I first started using fitbit 2 years ago.
    As in most things keeping it simple helps. Work out your calories for the day in MFP and don't try to figure out fitbit adjustments.

    In my case I have set my food intake to 1700 calories in MFP. Fitbit says I've earned an extra 760 from exercise, giving me a total of 2460 calories for the day. Ignoring Fitbit I'll eat my 1700 calories (or maybe only 1500) and see how that works out. As I see it while I'm trying to lose a few pounds, why on earth would I want to eat (or drink as the case might be) in excess of 2400 calories?
  • shellma00
    shellma00 Posts: 1,684 Member
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    JessaLee0324 wrote: »
    Ok perfect example. I set my Fitbit so that I'm at maintenance. I want to see exactly where I am at and since I do the deductions on MFP it's all good. Here is what Fitbit says

    I ate 1682
    I burned 2030
    Cals left 704

    WHAT??????

    Because your day does not rest until midnight. Even if you sleep for the remainder of your day you still burn calories just by breathing. Fitbit is estimating what it thinks you will have burned for the whole entire 24 hours based on your previous history. So therefore it estimates how many more calories you can eat to never even for that whole 24 hours. I hope this made sense.


  • shellma00
    shellma00 Posts: 1,684 Member
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    Sorry was responding on my phone so I see that it mistyped one of my words. Never should be "become".

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