Fitbit calories burned? MFP logging questions
Kristendcampbell
Posts: 786 Member
I just got a new Fitbit flex Friday. I set up my stride and weight on it. I did not set up a food plan on it at this point. I log in MFP and set MFP to maintain, I also log excercise in MFP and did not sync the Fitbit to MFP. I wanted to see steps and calories burned.
So yesterday the fitbit said I burned 2798 calories , the two days previous 2219 and 2295. Am I really burning that many calories? How good are these estimates?
My TDEE is 2290 with light excercise which is 1-3 hours a week. I do 3- 30 minutes weight workouts and 2- 45 mintue elliptical/treadmill workouts a week. Depending on the week I will not be hugely active after work during the week. Weekend I am doing open houses, so sitting, but up and down short moving around times. Unless weeding some weekends, or going dancing.
So I think the 3 hours time is correct.
I have been doing this Since Jan. 31st. I have not lost inches or weight. I feel more muscular in my arms and legs, but nothing is looser.
If I am eating 2000-2200 and I am burning the 2200 on the average. That would mean I won't lose weight right?
I am trying to figure out why I don't even have inches lost yet.
So yesterday the fitbit said I burned 2798 calories , the two days previous 2219 and 2295. Am I really burning that many calories? How good are these estimates?
My TDEE is 2290 with light excercise which is 1-3 hours a week. I do 3- 30 minutes weight workouts and 2- 45 mintue elliptical/treadmill workouts a week. Depending on the week I will not be hugely active after work during the week. Weekend I am doing open houses, so sitting, but up and down short moving around times. Unless weeding some weekends, or going dancing.
So I think the 3 hours time is correct.
I have been doing this Since Jan. 31st. I have not lost inches or weight. I feel more muscular in my arms and legs, but nothing is looser.
If I am eating 2000-2200 and I am burning the 2200 on the average. That would mean I won't lose weight right?
I am trying to figure out why I don't even have inches lost yet.
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That's exactly right. If you've balance in & out you should be at maintenance. An easy (and fun
) way to check is to increase calories by 250/day for a week. If you were truly at maintenance, then you will gain about 1lb. 0 -
Ok, but what seems weird is if I take 10% cut from TDEE I am to eat at 2061. So lets say some days I eat 2061, another day that week I eat 1800, and another 1950 and then another at 2200 etc. I would have to see what my deficit would be to see if I should be losing. If it still ends up being just lower I should still lose even if pathetically slowly. So I wonder why I am losing nothing still?0
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Are you adjusting the Fitbit for exercise it cannot estimate well - non-step based stuff?
You have to manually log the following on Fitbit - swimming obviously, rowing, biking, elliptical, stair climber, ARC, weights.
If not, that will make your TDEE higher.
That's the burn side of the equation - how about the intake side?
Logging by weight everything you eat, confirming labels to database entries are correct and serving size by weight?
Fitbit actually is going to underestimate.
It assigns BMR level burn to ALL non-moving time, and that's just not true.
When awake you burn more - RMR.
When standing not moving you burn even more.
When eating you burn about 10% of calories in digesting/processing food.
So your guessed from 5 rough levels TDEE is 2290.
Your Fitbit with corrections will be much closer to your real TDEE.0 -
I log in fitbit my elliptical and weights. I don't log food in fitibit though. have only had this fitbit a week. I used the scooby calculatore to get my TDEE and used the light excercise 1-3 hours a weeks. I do move afterwork and on weekends but I didn't think that would put me into the 3-5 hours a week of activity. I would have a TDEE of over 2500 if that happened0
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Kristendcampbell wrote: »I log in fitbit my elliptical and weights. I don't log food in fitibit though. have only had this fitbit a week. I used the scooby calculatore to get my TDEE and used the light excercise 1-3 hours a weeks. I do move afterwork and on weekends but I didn't think that would put me into the 3-5 hours a week of activity. I would have a TDEE of over 2500 if that happened
TDEE should include all daily activities, so if you average 3-5 hours per week, use that or you're underestimating. As far as fitbit numbers, give it at least a week to adjust, look at the weekly reports, and use the calories burned number, once you've had you fitbit for a month you can use the monthly reports and they should be relatively accurate if you are on average doing the same activity level weekly.0 -
Ok that makes sense. I am concerned though just as an average on non cardio days it says about 2225 burned, even though I log weight lifting on a few of those days. I will give it another week of tracking and then see what it says. Should I be logging in calories burned for lifting as well as the time? I am not sure that it will be accurate since when I search it says 130-170 calories for 30 minutes of lifting.0
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For the non-moving time Fitbit sees because of no or few steps - you are given sleeping BMR level calorie burn.
Are you burning more doing your lifting than when sleeping?
I thought so - log your Weights workout in Fitbit. Be accurate with the time, you don't want to overwrite any warm-up or cool-down cardio you are doing.
Why are you concerned that Fitbit says you burned more than you guessed from a rough 5 level TDEE chart that only talks about exercise and not daily life?
And that's about right for lifting.
Traditional progressive overload, sets and rests of 2-4 min, reps 5-15, is about 3.5 x BMR. Circuit training with rests less than 1 min, reps 15 or over, is about 8 x BMR.
Oh, my question/comment about logging food wasn't about doing it on Fitbit, but the accuracy in general, on MFP.
Food in fitbit doesn't effect the TDEE figure at all - and that's all that matters. So no need.
And if you have the time of workout correct - you can backlog. Though the emailed report may not reflect corrections after a certain point, of course not after being emailed.0 -
Thanks Heybales.
My question about burned calories was to just understand how it was getting that. So the calories burned by fitbit is basically BMR calorie burn and additional based on steps and excercise? I am logging the weights and cardio on fitbit manually. I just wanted to see where I need to tweak things. Since I am not losing and not getting tighter I am a bit concerned. I do feel stronger and a friend or two say my arm looks firm. However, my pants seem tighter.
So really just wanted to get info to help me analysis what I need to do.0 -
That's basically it exactly.
Steps = distance.
Distance / time = pace.
Pace & weight = calories by some very accurate formulas.
But notice what is involved in getting that accuracy - steps and distance.
So just confirm there are steps where they should be, using the Fitbit daily 5 min block graph. No excess steps during activity that shouldn't have it, no lack when it should.
Confirm the distance Fitbit sees is pretty close by treadmill test (it shouldn't be 100% at exercise pace, or then daily walking is inflated).
Fitbit FAQ has test protocol for getting a good stride length manually.
Then it's a matter if the BMR appears close enough. They use similar to Mifflin, but if you are working on a bigger % of BF to lose, your actual BMR could be lower, and for Fitbit that affects non-moving and moving calorie burn.
Where is the calorie burn for cardio coming from you manually log, and what is the cardio being done?
Have you ever compared to what Fitbit came up with on it's own for that cardio?
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I didn't manually test what fitbit did, but I can. Today I plan to do 45 minutes of Elliptical, I can look at it when I get done and before logging. I need to do the stride length again, I did it quite a few years ago with my original clip and my stride is longer 33, which is what I set it at. Body fat I had it tested at 35% but that was in late Nov. I should be under 24%.0
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Elliptical isn't actually step-based - because the energy use per "step" if actually all seen is not the same as walking or running.
The formulas for pace & weight don't apply to elliptical.
Actually, studies have found NO good formulas, because there are too many variable not only on the machines, but on how a person does the rotation.
Same problem with the walking/running up steeper inclines, the formulas become inaccurate because personal differences in going up can be very different for people.
So don't worry about those stats - indeed good to manually log, so correct usage there.
Stride length also changes as weight loss happens, easier to hit better form. So another good reason to update.0
