Fitbit calories

adcook1981
adcook1981 Posts: 27 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I love my Fitbit! Since I synced it with MyFitnessPal it adds calories for exercise. Do I have to eat these?

Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Do you *have* to?

    No.

    Could it be a good idea to eat them?

    Maybe. If your calorie goal comes from MFP, it's not accounting for exercise. If you're trying to lose weight, your MFP calorie goal gives you a deficit. Any additional exercise increases the size of this deficit. If it isn't many calories, this is no big deal. But a bigger deficit isn't always better -- we need proper nutrition to fuel our health and fitness. And having a deficit that is too large will cause our body to target muscle instead of fat -- and most of us want to lose fat, not muscle.

    So, depending how many extra calories you're being given, you may want to eat some of them.
  • adcook1981
    adcook1981 Posts: 27 Member
    Thank you for responding! I'm given 1200 calories a day. Yesterday my Fitbit added 300. I wasn't really hungry but I want to stay healthy. I'm very active at work and usually get my 10,000 steps during the day. I would rather lose a lot of fat than muscle! :)
  • Myryguy98
    Myryguy98 Posts: 1 Member
    How did you get your fitbit to sync with my fitness pal? I has it synced last spring but now it is not and I can not for the life of me figure it out.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    adcook1981 wrote: »
    Thank you for responding! I'm given 1200 calories a day. Yesterday my Fitbit added 300. I wasn't really hungry but I want to stay healthy. I'm very active at work and usually get my 10,000 steps during the day. I would rather lose a lot of fat than muscle! :)

    Since you've got a very low calorie goal (1,200 is the lowest recommended for women), I would recommend that you eat at least some of them back. Otherwise your net calories (what your body has to fuel your activities and your basic bodily processes) go very low. If your Fitbit gave you 300 calories, that means it thinks your net consumption -- without eating those -- would just be 900 calories. You might be able to function for a little while on 900 net, but it wouldn't be great for you.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    Myryguy98 wrote: »
    How did you get your fitbit to sync with my fitness pal? I has it synced last spring but now it is not and I can not for the life of me figure it out.

    Not sure but I think you may need to do it through the Fit Bit app
  • one2bskiny
    one2bskiny Posts: 35 Member
    Great post I've been wondering the same thing since I got my Fitbit HR. This just answered my questions about the calories. Ty ladies
  • xLyric
    xLyric Posts: 840 Member
    Myryguy98 wrote: »
    How did you get your fitbit to sync with my fitness pal? I has it synced last spring but now it is not and I can not for the life of me figure it out.

    At the top of MFP under "Apps." Search for Fitbit and add it, then do the same through Fitbit.

    For the first week or so I recommend going back and looking at your total daily burn from Fitbit and your calorie goal from MFP and make sure the math makes sense. I regularly burn 2500 calories, which at a 1k deficit means I should eat 1500. MFP wants to give me 1600 instead. I do eat the Fitbit calories, but if I wasn't paying attention and ate that extra 100 calories, I wouldn't lose as fast. It wouldn't be the end of the world, but it's kind of annoying.

    So yes, eat them, just make sure you pay attention to both sides.
  • adcook1981
    adcook1981 Posts: 27 Member
    edited January 2016
    I would have had 1500 total calories to eat that day. 300 was from exercise. I actually gained weight going by my Fitbit calories. I have a VERY slow metabolism. I always have. My Fitbit almost synced itself! Lol.. It's under apps on MFP. It will redirect you to another site to add and authorize the Fitbit.
  • amyr271
    amyr271 Posts: 343 Member
    adcook1981 wrote: »
    I would have had 1500 total calories to eat that day. 300 was from exercise. I actually gained weight going by my Fitbit calories. I have a VERY slow metabolism. I always have.

    Has this been tested?
  • adcook1981
    adcook1981 Posts: 27 Member
    When I first got my Fitbit I was doing weight watchers and points. I decided to go strictly by the calories on the Fitbit and I gained 5-7 pounds almost immediately! I was devastated. It's hard to lose.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,313 Member
    adcook1981 wrote: »
    Thank you for responding! I'm given 1200 calories a day. Yesterday my Fitbit added 300. I wasn't really hungry but I want to stay healthy. I'm very active at work and usually get my 10,000 steps during the day. I would rather lose a lot of fat than muscle! :)

    Yes, based on 10000 steps at work, it would likely be a good idea to eat them assuming you are measuring your food eaten carefully. If you are estimating, not logging everything you eat, or not making sure that the database entries match up with what you actually ate, then maybe not, because then you might be eating more than you think already.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,313 Member
    edited January 2016
    amyr271 wrote: »
    adcook1981 wrote: »
    I would have had 1500 total calories to eat that day. 300 was from exercise. I actually gained weight going by my Fitbit calories. I have a VERY slow metabolism. I always have.

    Has this been tested?

    I second that, how do you know you have a slow metabolism? While there are some people who do, it is not really that common, and often enough it is that a person is eating more than they think they are, yes, even if they are logging there food, as even then there can be issues depending on how carefully a person measures, whether they verify the food entry in the database, and the like.

    Added to this is the potential, if you have been eating 1200 or less a day, for your weight to go up eating 1500, not because you are putting on fat, but because you are temporarily retaining water because of glycogen increases in your muscle and the like.
  • xLyric
    xLyric Posts: 840 Member
    edited January 2016
    adcook1981 wrote: »
    When I first got my Fitbit I was doing weight watchers and points. I decided to go strictly by the calories on the Fitbit and I gained 5-7 pounds almost immediately! I was devastated. It's hard to lose.

    What was the time frame in which you gained the 5-7 pounds? I second rileysowner; it was likely water retention. You can't gain 5-7 pounds of fat just by eating 300 extra calories. You'd have to eat 3500 extra calories a week (500 extra a day) just to gain 1lb, and that's on top of whatever your maintenance would be, not your MFP goal.

    Could you try going by your Fitbit calories for 5 weeks? I bet you'd be pleasantly surprised, especially because you'd still be losing but you'd get to eat more!
  • adcook1981
    adcook1981 Posts: 27 Member
    Slow thyroid runs on both sides of my family. I have been tested and it's slow but not enough for medication. And my metabolic rate has been tested.
  • xLyric
    xLyric Posts: 840 Member
    adcook1981 wrote: »
    Slow thyroid runs on both sides of my family. I have been tested and it's slow but not enough for medication. And my metabolic rate has been tested.

    Do you mean low thyroid? I've heard of low thyroid (I'm hypothyroid myself) but never heard of slow. If it's not bad enough for medication it's probably not bad enough to affect your weight loss. I'm not a doctor though, so if they said it was affecting it they know better than I do.
  • adcook1981
    adcook1981 Posts: 27 Member
    xLyric wrote: »
    adcook1981 wrote: »
    When I first got my Fitbit I was doing weight watchers and points. I decided to go strictly by the calories on the Fitbit and I gained 5-7 pounds almost immediately! I was devastated. It's hard to lose.

    What was the time frame in which you gained the 5-7 pounds? I second rileysowner; it was likely water retention. You can't gain 5-7 pounds of fat just by eating 300 extra calories. You'd have to eat 3500 extra calories a week (500 extra a day) just to gain 1lb, and that's on top of whatever your maintenance would be, not your MFP goal.

    Could you try going by your Fitbit calories for 5 weeks? I bet you'd be pleasantly surprised, especially because you'd still be losing but you'd get to eat more!
    adcook1981 wrote: »
    Slow thyroid runs on both sides of my family. I have been tested and it's slow but not enough for medication. And my metabolic rate has been tested.

    It was 3 weeks. I did enjoy eating more. Maybe I rely on the scale too much. That time of the month may have had an effect too. Thank you for helping!
  • adcook1981
    adcook1981 Posts: 27 Member

    rileysowner wrote: »
    adcook1981 wrote: »
    Thank you for responding! I'm given 1200 calories a day. Yesterday my Fitbit added 300. I wasn't really hungry but I want to stay healthy. I'm very active at work and usually get my 10,000 steps during the day. I would rather lose a lot of fat than muscle! :)

    Yes, based on 10000 steps at work, it would likely be a good idea to eat them assuming you are measuring your food eaten carefully. If you are estimating, not logging everything you eat, or not making sure that the database entries match up with what you actually ate, then maybe not, because then you might be eating more than you think already.

    Thank you for the advice!
  • adcook1981
    adcook1981 Posts: 27 Member
    xLyric wrote: »
    adcook1981 wrote: »
    Slow thyroid runs on both sides of my family. I have been tested and it's slow but not enough for medication. And my metabolic rate has been tested.

    Do you mean low thyroid? I've heard of low thyroid (I'm hypothyroid myself) but never heard of slow. If it's not bad enough for medication it's probably not bad enough to affect your weight loss. I'm not a doctor though, so if they said it was affecting it they know better than I do.

    Yeah. Sorry. I'm at work and I was in a hurry. Thanks for the advice.

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