Apps & Devices: question on calories in vs out

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Sandy0523
Sandy0523 Posts: 19 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Does anyone else have a problem understanding information from multiple apps or devices? What I'm having trouble with is calories in vs out on my Fitbit device - basically just today I've lowered my MFP calories to 1200 (previously 1620 at maintenance, but now I'm back to working on losing.) So far I've eaten 748 calories for the day. Fitbit is set at a high calorie deficit, 1000. It says I've burned only 1366 today, so essentially I am "over" my budget by 382 calories, yet the app says "I've Nailed It" giving me Kudos and two different answers! It also bugs me that Fitbit basically says I'm "over my limit" when I haven't even reached the guidelines for a safe calorie intake limit! I feel like that definitely gives the wrong message! Maybe I'm just misunderstanding or have the app set wrong, but Fitbit is really starting to annoy me - for several reasons I'm not going to get into right now! Anyway does anyone have any advice about calories in/out, or setting the device better, maybe I should just ignore the calories in vs out altogether, or possibly a different device that works better!

Replies

  • Lynnmi07
    Lynnmi07 Posts: 131 Member
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    Not sure if this is the answer to your problems or not but Fitbit adds calories burned throughout the day. So if you look at it at like 1159pm you will see your total calories burned and hopefully calories in vs out will be more accurate.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    In vs Out shows you the comparison of how much you have eaten compared to what you have burned up to your last sync. It does not account for the calories you will burn the rest of the day.

    The food plan section, estimates how many calories it thinks you will burn by the end of the day based on your history and bases how much you can eat off of that number.

    Example:

    Food Plan tile says I can eat 1402.
    This means Fitbit expects me to burn 1652 calories by midnight based on my 250 calorie deficit. I have Fitbit turned to Sedentary, so this is it's guess if I don't do anything else today. If you have it on personalized (default setting) it will look at what you typically do and take a guess at your full day calorie burn from what it's seen so far and what your history is like.

    In vs Out
    I've burned 1389 so far today
    I've consumed 1550 so far today
    This panel is saying I'm over because I am not at a 250 calorie deficit from 1389.

    Now if we look at yesterdays in vs out
    Food tile says Nailed It (was under goal by 8 calories)
    The In vs Out says I'm under target, because at midnight my deficit ended up larger than 250 calories. However if I had looked at the In vs Out at say 10 pm, it would have said I was over, because at that point in time my calorie burn wasn't high enough for a 250 calorie deficit based on what I had consumed.

  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    I am noticing with my FitBit that it isn't taking into account the 1200 calorie lower limit. So yesterday, for example, to get my 1000 calorie deficit, I would have had to eat only 600 calories (I was really sedentary, plus I am short and older). I ignore what FitBit gives me as a daily goal, I ate my MFP target. I am not concerned about it taking longer to get there. I would rather be healthy and happy. Plus, as already said, the FitBit calorie burn will continue to climb through the day.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    shadow2soul wrote: »
    In vs Out shows you the comparison of how much you have eaten compared to what you have burned up to your last sync. It does not account for the calories you will burn the rest of the day.

    The food plan section, estimates how many calories it thinks you will burn by the end of the day based on your history and bases how much you can eat off of that number.

    Example:

    Food Plan tile says I can eat 1402.
    This means Fitbit expects me to burn 1652 calories by midnight based on my 250 calorie deficit. I have Fitbit turned to Sedentary, so this is it's guess if I don't do anything else today. If you have it on personalized (default setting) it will look at what you typically do and take a guess at your full day calorie burn from what it's seen so far and what your history is like.

    In vs Out
    I've burned 1389 so far today
    I've consumed 1550 so far today
    This panel is saying I'm over because I am not at a 250 calorie deficit from 1389.

    Now if we look at yesterdays in vs out
    Food tile says Nailed It (was under goal by 8 calories)
    The In vs Out says I'm under target, because at midnight my deficit ended up larger than 250 calories. However if I had looked at the In vs Out at say 10 pm, it would have said I was over, because at that point in time my calorie burn wasn't high enough for a 250 calorie deficit based on what I had consumed.

    Cool! I didn't know the different areas calculated partial day versus whole day! Nice to know, thank you.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    I am noticing with my FitBit that it isn't taking into account the 1200 calorie lower limit.

    Yep. Fitbit does not have a minimum calorie goal like MFP does.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    They are all taking shots in the dark with partial information. Pick one and adjust as necessary.
  • charlieandcarol
    charlieandcarol Posts: 302 Member
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    I avoid the confusion by logging my food in MFP and purposeful exercise in Fitbit.
    I have them synced and run off the MFP numbers for calories in/out totals.
    That way I have nice charts etc in Fitbit and only one set of totals for the day in MFP.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    shadow2soul wrote: »
    In vs Out shows you the comparison of how much you have eaten compared to what you have burned up to your last sync. It does not account for the calories you will burn the rest of the day.

    The food plan section, estimates how many calories it thinks you will burn by the end of the day based on your history and bases how much you can eat off of that number.

    Example:

    Food Plan tile says I can eat 1402.
    This means Fitbit expects me to burn 1652 calories by midnight based on my 250 calorie deficit. I have Fitbit turned to Sedentary, so this is it's guess if I don't do anything else today. If you have it on personalized (default setting) it will look at what you typically do and take a guess at your full day calorie burn from what it's seen so far and what your history is like.

    In vs Out
    I've burned 1389 so far today
    I've consumed 1550 so far today
    This panel is saying I'm over because I am not at a 250 calorie deficit from 1389.

    Now if we look at yesterdays in vs out
    Food tile says Nailed It (was under goal by 8 calories)
    The In vs Out says I'm under target, because at midnight my deficit ended up larger than 250 calories. However if I had looked at the In vs Out at say 10 pm, it would have said I was over, because at that point in time my calorie burn wasn't high enough for a 250 calorie deficit based on what I had consumed.

    Cool! I didn't know the different areas calculated partial day versus whole day! Nice to know, thank you.

    NP.

    Updating my today example.
    Food Plan says nailed it.
    In vs Out
    Burned 1645
    Consumed 1550
    Still showing as over :wink:
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,245 Member
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    charlieandcarol wrote: »
    I avoid the confusion by logging my food in MFP and purposeful exercise in Fitbit.
    I have them synced and run off the MFP numbers for calories in/out totals.
    That way I have nice charts etc in Fitbit and only one set of totals for the day in MFP.

    Fitbit is not for "purposeful exercise" it is for all day Total Daily Energy Expenditure calculation. That number is then taken into account in how it relates to your daily calorie goal here. If you are going to use a tool it is important to use it correctly.
  • Sandy0523
    Sandy0523 Posts: 19 Member
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    Thanks everyone!

    I would normally check around midnight and I was usually over! Yesterday I did record only the partial day because according to Fitbit I was done for the day or needed to burn a serious # of calories if I wanted to eat 1200. Since it was a rest day that wasn't going to happen! That's just stupid and annoys me! Anyways I'm not sure if it was on default or because I had my deficit set for 1000 but Fitbit decided I should only be having a calorie intake of around 628 a day! Crazy. So I readjusted it manually and put in 1200. Now it's only registering whether I'm under/at/over that 1200 calorie intake goal. I'm not going to worry about the deficit anymore, if I focus on my daily goals I should be meeting that deficit anyway!

    Thanks again!
  • daniwilford
    daniwilford Posts: 1,030 Member
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    I ran my stats in a separate spreadsheet for 3 months before syncing mfp and fitbit. It helped me to understand how things worked. I am still playing around some with the fitbit settings and tiles until I get the information to show, I want, for proper motivation.

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