Fitbit sabotage??

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Has anyone had their weight loss counter balanced or even straight up sabotaged by using a Fitbit for calories in vs. out? It says I have a deficit and I have only really been using it to count steps and calories from that so how accurate is this?
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Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    I'm not 100% sure what you're asking. If you have Fitbit synced with MFP, it's totally possible that you will get an adjustment based on the activity that Fitbit tracks. That's the whole point of the sync.

    It counts your steps. If your activity goes over the activity estimated for your activity level, you will begin to see adjustments. Is this what you're seeing?

    This isn't sabotage.
  • eeejer
    eeejer Posts: 339 Member
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    Yes, it is sabotage. Ignore the calorie adjustment completely, it is ridiculously inflated.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    eeejer wrote: »
    Yes, it is sabotage. Ignore the calorie adjustment completely, it is ridiculously inflated.

    Some people do find the calorie adjustment to be inflated. Others (including myself) find it to be very accurate.
  • eeejer
    eeejer Posts: 339 Member
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    eeejer wrote: »
    Yes, it is sabotage. Ignore the calorie adjustment completely, it is ridiculously inflated.

    Some people do find the calorie adjustment to be inflated. Others (including myself) find it to be very accurate.

    Never heard anyone say it is accurate. So, you eat all the calories fitbit says you should and still lose weight?
  • WholeFoods4Lyfe
    WholeFoods4Lyfe Posts: 1,518 Member
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    eeejer wrote: »
    Yes, it is sabotage. Ignore the calorie adjustment completely, it is ridiculously inflated.

    Some people do find the calorie adjustment to be inflated. Others (including myself) find it to be very accurate.

    Add me to this list as well. Based on my rate of weight loss and my calculated calorie deficit, my FitBit numbers are right on.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    i go by tdee but find (most of the time) fitbit to be, if anything, slightly more accurate than the mfp calculations regarding calories burned.

    no, you should not eat all of them back (whether from mfp or fitbit) as they are still inflated. if you are using the NEAT (mfp) method, you should be able to eat back roughly half.

    this is assuming your input activity level is correct.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    eeejer wrote: »
    eeejer wrote: »
    Yes, it is sabotage. Ignore the calorie adjustment completely, it is ridiculously inflated.

    Some people do find the calorie adjustment to be inflated. Others (including myself) find it to be very accurate.

    Never heard anyone say it is accurate. So, you eat all the calories fitbit says you should and still lose weight?

    I eat back all my activity adjustments from my Fitbit. I'm currently maintaining, but I lost weight when I was doing this and am maintaining doing this. I've been doing it since last July. I'm not the only person -- there are several other people around the forums who eat their Fitbit activity adjustments and still lose or maintain as expected.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    eeejer wrote: »
    eeejer wrote: »
    Yes, it is sabotage. Ignore the calorie adjustment completely, it is ridiculously inflated.

    Some people do find the calorie adjustment to be inflated. Others (including myself) find it to be very accurate.

    Never heard anyone say it is accurate. So, you eat all the calories fitbit says you should and still lose weight?

    Yes. I have had my FitBit for about 2.5 years. I used it to help manage my weight loss, eating back all of the adjustments I got from it on MFP, and am now using it to successfully maintain my weight doing the same.
  • acheben
    acheben Posts: 476 Member
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    eeejer wrote: »
    eeejer wrote: »
    Yes, it is sabotage. Ignore the calorie adjustment completely, it is ridiculously inflated.

    Some people do find the calorie adjustment to be inflated. Others (including myself) find it to be very accurate.

    Never heard anyone say it is accurate. So, you eat all the calories fitbit says you should and still lose weight?

    I got my fitbit a few months after I started maintaining my weight, but I eat all of the exercise calories that it gives me and it has worked for me for the last 8 months. Most of my exercise calories are from walking/running or volleyball.
  • kellykneppergrundy
    kellykneppergrundy Posts: 234 Member
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    Mine's accurate. I'm even more sedentary than I thought.
  • UpEarly
    UpEarly Posts: 2,555 Member
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    I do not find the calorie adjustment from Fitbit to be inflated AT ALL. On a day I get my full 10,000 steps, my Fitbit might say I burned about 200 calories more than if I sat on my rear end the whole day. I actually manually log all my exercise and let those higher calorie burn estimates override what my Fitbit said.

    My Fitbit usually says I burn about 1800 calories on a typical day (averaging 10,000 steps), but in reality -- I'm eating more like 2200-2400 and still maintaining my goal weight easily.
  • kristinhowell
    kristinhowell Posts: 139 Member
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    I never found mine to be inflated. As long as I was accurate in my calories in, I never had an issue losing weight while eating back all or at least most of my exercise calories.
  • williams969
    williams969 Posts: 2,528 Member
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    eeejer wrote: »
    eeejer wrote: »
    Yes, it is sabotage. Ignore the calorie adjustment completely, it is ridiculously inflated.

    Some people do find the calorie adjustment to be inflated. Others (including myself) find it to be very accurate.

    Never heard anyone say it is accurate. So, you eat all the calories fitbit says you should and still lose weight?

    Yep. I eat every one (at least within the week, I calrie cycle). Actually, Fitbit UNDERestimates for me, to the tune of ~150-200cals/day. Had one for 18 months now. I lose slightly faster than expected, and eat over my MFP goal to maintain.
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
    edited February 2016
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    Mine is super accurate as well. I have mine synced with MFP set to sedentary and use MFP to log all my food, and I log non-step exercise (bike, swim, etc) into the Fitbit app (and use it to track my runs as well.) It's helped me maintain/eat enough to support my activity level for several months now and I find it almost dead-on.
  • RachaelWinston
    RachaelWinston Posts: 41 Member
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    Thank you guys for all the input! I'm just trying to lose the last 10 pounds or so and didn't want to be messed up by the extra calories I'm getting to eat from more walking and such.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    My Fitbit has been accurate thus far. There will always be a margin of error and nothing is perfect, but I suspect that some people who find it to be highly inaccurate to the tune of hundreds of calories are probably eating more than they think.
  • kirstenb13
    kirstenb13 Posts: 181 Member
    edited February 2016
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    Fitbit underestimates for me too, but the easiest way to find out is really just to try and see what happens if you eat those calories back for a few weeks. But you have to be strict about your logging otherwise you will never find out.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    I've been eating an average of 500 under total calories burned, per Fitbit, and losing an average of 1 pound per week.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,135 Member
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    Only the Zip was inaccurate for me. TDEE was accurate with the Ultra and One.
  • blues4miles
    blues4miles Posts: 1,481 Member
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    UpEarly wrote: »
    I do not find the calorie adjustment from Fitbit to be inflated AT ALL. On a day I get my full 10,000 steps, my Fitbit might say I burned about 200 calories more than if I sat on my rear end the whole day. I actually manually log all my exercise and let those higher calorie burn estimates override what my Fitbit said.

    I wish my UP3 were this conservative. It's giving me about 900 EXTRA calories per 10k steps right now.