Fitbit and map help

calebmichael1
calebmichael1 Posts: 2 Member
edited November 20 in Food and Nutrition
I'm a pretty chunky guy. I had to go on medication a while back that caused me to gain a lot of weight and ever since I've been struggling to lose it. Mfp has helped a bit but it always seems to come back not soon after despite me not changing my activity level or exercise.

So I got a fitbit to help track my heart rate and steps to see if it would help. Three days in and I'm a little confused.

I'm 23, only 5'5 and weigh about 175. I have a very active job that hi has me lifting and moving constantly, and even with the Mfp food tracker it didn't seem to feel much even on the highest weight loss setting. After using fitbit I've discovered I walk on average 25k steps a day and burn 3 to 4k calories a day, According to my charge hr. I knew I walked a lot but the calorie burn being so high had me shocked. It also wants me to eat about 3k calories a day to compensate. This seems like a ton and on average I probably eat more like 1.5 to 1.8k a day. Does this sound right? Should I try to eat more on the days I work, especially when it says that much?

Replies

  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Your Fitbit burn is TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, eating your adjustments means your're eating TDEE minus deficit.

    You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
    Well, I would say to first make sure your logging is accurate. Weigh abd log every morsel you're eating. From your post, it doesn't sound like you are being completely accurate. If you are being accurate, I would say that it should be relatively safe to eat more calories. On thing to keep in mind is that if you gained a lot of water weight from your medication, your daily calorie burn might not be accurate because water weight is not going to burn calories like muscle and even fat do. Keep a tight log of intake for a month or so, then reevaluate. If you are losing very quickly, then you could eat more.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    First of all, 3 days isn't enough for Fitbit to correctly estimate your burn. It is still calculating off of averages. The more you wear it, the more accurate the numbers will become because it will have your actual steps counted, calories eaten, and weight loss data to work with. Give it a few weeks.

    In the meantime, go with your MFP settings and eat back only about half of the calories earned that Fitbit gives you. For now, ignore the actual calories burned that you get on the Fitbit site and stick with MFP data until you have a better feel for things. It sounds like you should set yourself as "active" (or even "very active") here. Most start as sedentary, but if you are getting 25k steps a day, that is definitely too low.

    It is a learning experience and you have to play with the numbers a bit when you start out. Be patient, they will all fall into place as you continue onward.
  • calebmichael1
    calebmichael1 Posts: 2 Member
    Yeah, I know that 3 days isn't much to go off of. And yes my food is accurate,or as accurate as I can make it. I've been switching to healthier foods and eating more than I was on days I'm very active. It just surprised me to see it think I was burning so much. I know I'm very active at work but didn't think that it was THAT much. I eat when I'm hungry and usually then I don't eat that much since Ifeel full quickly.

    I've been sticking around 2200 on days in active and less than that on days I'm not. I'll just keep an eye on it and see what I need to adjust then. Thanks for the replies.
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