Fitbit and extra calories

airbent wrote: »

Elisabuffy19 wrote: »

thankyou4thevenom wrote: »

You can do it via the app or the Fitbit website.

Thanks! I just turned it off. On days that I walk over 10k, it only gives me about 50 extra calories. Does that sound right to you? Is it because I am logging exercise in mfp? Or because i have Lightly Active in my profile?

You need to set both MFP and Fitbit to sedentary for fitbit step-based adjustments to be meaningful (where's editorgrrl with that helpful post of hers lol), you also need to have negative calorie adjustments enabled. That's how you get your real TDEE minus deficit from fitbit/MFP. If you have MFP set to lightly active it's going to be estimating your TDEE, but the good thing about having a fitbit is knowing exactly what your TDEE is..

Where do you adjust the setting in Fitbit to sedentary or active or whatever?

I'm still confused by all this, I admit.

I changed MFP to lightly active because I was getting such huge Fitbit adjustments, and I still am.

The only step-based exercise I log over on Fitbit is water-jogging. I wear my Flex while I do it and it records my steps, but I note the times and it overwrites that time frame in my activity log. I do all my resistance/strength exercise logging over there.

I get about 20K or so steps a day.

editorgrrl wrote: »

PeachyCarol wrote: »

Where do you adjust the setting in Fitbit to sedentary or active or whatever?

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, choosing an activity level is a matter of personal preference when you connect a Fitbit to MFP. At lightly active, you start with more calories in the morning, but get smaller adjustments.

Until you understand how everything works, set your activity level to sedentary.

I had it at sedentary when I first got the Fitbit back in mid-July. I've enabled negative calorie adjustments.

I was set here for sedentary from the time I started dieting. I've gotten incredibly active lately though, and Fitbit was giving me anywhere from 750 to over 1,000 calories a day. It would go down because I go to bed early, but just a little.

I raised my activity level to lightly active and don't eat back all of my adjustment because I still can't quite believe what Fitbit says my TDEE is.

I guess I'm sort of doing TDEE with it since I can't suss out what to do with the adjustments. I've worked out a deficit from what it says my TDEE is and eat within a range of it. It's within 100-200 calories of MFP's setting for lightly active for me, depending on how much activity I've had that day.

I'm going to have to wrap my head around this in a better fashion looking ahead to maintenance, though... aren't I?

editorgrrl wrote: »

PeachyCarol wrote: »

I don't eat back all of my adjustment because I still can't quite believe what Fitbit says my TDEE is.

Your Fitbit burn is TDEE—way more accurate than any online calculator. The only way to gauge the accuracy is to trust your Fitbit burn for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress.

I was shocked how many calories Fitbit said I could eat, but I've eaten back 100% of my Fitbit burns for two years, lost the weight, and kept it off.

YMMV. I also:
• log everything I eat & drink accurately & honestly;
• enabled negative calorie adjustments; and
• log exercise in Fitbit—never MFP.

I log VERY accurately, for sure.

I'll need more time to average out data. So far, due to the nature of how water weight plays games when you take on new activities, it's hard to gauge whether I'm losing at a rate completely commensurate with the deficit I'm allowing or not.

I'm going by what you're saying though, since it's taken until just today for my TDEE estimate in Fitbit to stop climbing daily.

Time will tell.

Thanks for the advice.

At the end of the day, I'm still amazed I've raised my TDEE that much!

ps... I just looked, Barre class is in the data base over on FB.