Fitbit Accuracy, eating back calories?

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jessicaconine
jessicaconine Posts: 10 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello all! So I recently got a Fitbit Flex and have been tracking my daily activity, as the tracker on the MFP app always seemed to miss the mark for me. I've recently been taking high intensity cardio classes (kickboxing etc) with high calorie burn yields, and have been eating back my calories based on my Fitbit. Needless to say, I'm hitting a weight loss plateau. What's the best way to manage this?!
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  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    How long has it been since you lost weight?
  • jessicaconine
    jessicaconine Posts: 10 Member
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    I've lost about 17 lbs since Match of this year, all quite gradually.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    Can you clarify -- are you saying you have stopped losing weight since you have been eating back the calorie adjustments from your Flex? When did you begin eating them back?
  • jessicaconine
    jessicaconine Posts: 10 Member
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    Yes, I've noticed the plateau over the last month, since I got the Fitbit. I was previously going off my calorie goals on MFP, adjusting for workouts where I could. I guess the larger question is how accurate the Fitbit is, or should I be sticking with the MFP goals?
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    jessicaconine wrote: »
    Yes, I've noticed the plateau over the last month, since I got the Fitbit. I was previously going off my calorie goals on MFP, adjusting for workouts where I could. I guess the larger question is how accurate the Fitbit is, or should I be sticking with the MFP goals?

    I don't have a Flex, but a Charge HR. I eat back my calorie burns with no problem, but the proof is really in your results. If you are doing everything else the same (food intake, activity, etc) and have stopped losing weight due to eating more calories, I would eat back fewer and see if that makes a difference.
  • Artemiris
    Artemiris Posts: 189 Member
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    I have been eating exactly what FitBit says, for three weeks now, and it seems to be accurate. The weight keeps going down, on average 1.5/2 kg a month.

  • Kimberly_Harper
    Kimberly_Harper Posts: 409 Member
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    I wear a fitbit flex. I love it, but I think it is important to know that these activity trackers of any brand are not 100% accurate. If you have not lost weight eating back your fitbit calories try only eating back half of the calories. If that doesn't work, try just not counting your fitbit calories as extra calories.
  • jeepinshawn
    jeepinshawn Posts: 642 Member
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    You have lost 14lbs and have 8 more to go. I can't tell what your current weight to height ratio is, but are you already at a healthy weight? I have heard over and over the last 10lbs is the hardest and can take a long time to loose....That said I have a fitbit charge and have switched to using the TDEE estimates it gives, Im in maintenance mode now so I try to eat within a couple hundred calories of my total burn, and (knock on wood) I'm maintaining well. I had concerns about the accuracy initially, but every study I have read said that when the fitbit errors it seems to error by underestimating your total burn.

    Depending on your situation your body could be saying I've had enough and you could benefit from eating closer to maintenance and building some muscle for a few months then you could switch back and slowly try cutting out a few hundred calories per week,
  • jessicaconine
    jessicaconine Posts: 10 Member
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    Thanks all for your feedback! (I also misspoke, it is in fact a Charge HR). I may be expecting results too quickly, can't rush these things of course :)
  • dubird
    dubird Posts: 1,849 Member
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    What I ended up having to do was experiment a bit. Even the Fitbits with HRs aren't 100% accurate, though they are close. Best thing I've found to do is enter all my food only on MFP, and enter any exercise only through Fitbit. I also ended up tracking my daily calories for a couple weeks to get an average, and entered custom calorie goals. That gave me better results overall. Granted, what I did was use the exercise mode on Fitbit and subtracted that so I got a total without exercise, but if you exercise every day, then you don't need to do that.
  • LovingLife_Erin
    LovingLife_Erin Posts: 328 Member
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    I eat back the large majority of my fitbit calories and have lost 100+ lbs doing so. Give it some time and if still no changes (after a month) adjust as you need to. Let time and results guide you.
  • jessicaconine
    jessicaconine Posts: 10 Member
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    I'm 5'11 and 183 lbs. I want to get closer to 175 for a healthy BMI. I think my body composition is switching to more muscle and less fat, which could account for the plateau, too.
  • tqdillon
    tqdillon Posts: 1 Member
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    jessicaconine wrote: »
    Hello all! So I recently got a Fitbit Flex and have been tracking my daily activity, as the tracker on the MFP app always seemed to miss the mark for me. I've recently been taking high intensity cardio classes (kickboxing etc) with high calorie burn yields, and have been eating back my calories based on my Fitbit. Needless to say, I'm hitting a weight loss plateau. What's the best way to manage this?!

    Have you adjusted your macro nutrients to match your weight goals?
  • youdontknowwhatyousaw
    youdontknowwhatyousaw Posts: 221 Member
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    Make sure that you are entering any exercise at the correct time, so, you are overwriting the correct Fitbit estimates.
  • MorganMoreaux
    MorganMoreaux Posts: 691 Member
    edited November 2015
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    I have a Fitbit Charge HR. I let it do all the tracking - I don't add additional excersize. I also feel like MFP way overestimates the calories burned, so I usually only eat back half, unless I've had an exceptionally lazy day and then ignore it all together lol. If I've been extremely active for consecutive days, I may eat at maintenance every couple of days. This works well for me. I'm 38, 5'2 120lbs. I'm currently in maintenance mode but will be starting back up within a week or so to lost the last 10, but have found I was having difficulties staying on course with the deficit so I took a little break.
  • totaldetermination
    totaldetermination Posts: 1,184 Member
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    Have you entered your personal details into your fitbit to make its estimates as accurate as possible ?
    height, weight, age, stride length etc
  • vespiquenn
    vespiquenn Posts: 1,455 Member
    edited November 2015
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    jessicaconine wrote: »
    I'm 5'11 and 183 lbs. I want to get closer to 175 for a healthy BMI. I think my body composition is switching to more muscle and less fat, which could account for the plateau, too.

    Just so it's kind of clear so you don't end up misguided, it is unlikely that this is happening. You don't build muscle in a deficit. In fact, strength training is used to keep your lean muscle. Building muscle typically requires a calorie surplus.

    With that being said, are you taking measurements with a tape measure or photos every few weeks/months? There are times that you may be decreasing fat, but water weight may be masking the progress. If you are not, I definitely suggest starting.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    drunknfreaky wrote: »
    Make sure that you are entering any exercise at the correct time, so, you are overwriting the correct Fitbit estimates.

    With a Fitbit, OP shouldn't be entering exercise at all.
  • amyepdx
    amyepdx Posts: 750 Member
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    Enter in non-step based excercise like elliptical, water aerobics, etc since Fitbit doesn't measure those.
  • pineygirl
    pineygirl Posts: 322 Member
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    I don't usually eat back all of my exercise calories that fitbit calculates. I recently got a Charge HR and I don't think it's really that accurate. I'm 5'1 and 126lbs and 34 years old. Some days it says I burn over 2800 calories. Usually it's around 2300. But on more active days with exercise it can be easily over 2500.

    With my old fitbit one I hardly ever burned that much. Maybe like 2200 or 2300 on a really active day. I was about 110 to 115lbs then though. I have it on my non dominant hand set to dominate so it doesn't pick up as many fake steps.

    I usually eat back about 60 to 75% of them.

    I spend a lot of time on my feet at work and I'm a mom of a 15 month old little boy. I take about 15,000 to 21,000 steps a day.

    So far I haven't lost anything but I've only been at it for 3 weeks.

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