Fitbit sabotage??

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  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Sabotage???
  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,646 Member
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  • trina1049
    trina1049 Posts: 593 Member
    edited February 2016
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    Mine is accurate, with loss and I'm currently maintaining. Make sure that you have your MFP calories and your Fitbit calories the same. The longer you wear your Fitbit the more accurate it becomes. Also, make sure that you've set your stride on the Fitbit correctly (under settings) for more accuracy. Nothing is totally accurate, it's all a guesstimate but if you're not losing it might be because of inaccurate logging. We've all been there especially with the last few pounds which take forever to disappear.
  • emmycantbemeeko
    emmycantbemeeko Posts: 303 Member
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    Mine mostly underestimates. I eat back the adjustments it sends to MFP when I'm hungry, but there are plenty of days when it tells me I haven't even reached what most formulas say is my BMR- yet I'm eating more than that and still losing.

    I love it for steps and flights, I mostly ignore the calories.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 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 have. The zip and flex underestimated for me by an average of 200 calories a day. The Surge has been much closer to being accurate for me. I've been using various Fitbit models since 2013 to improve my activity level and adjust my calories accordingly.
  • ParadiseLost91
    ParadiseLost91 Posts: 28 Member
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    I find it to slightly overestimate, but this is based on NOTHING other than my gut feeling.
    I did a one hour spinning class and my cardio is not very good atm and I'm out of shape. My Fitbit Charge HR told me I burned almost 630 calories which I could NOT believe. Sure, I was sweating as a pig, I gave it my all and couldn't even ride my bike home from the gym from exhaustion, but six HUNDRED?
    No way, my gut tells me it can't be for real.
    I ate 500 of those calories.

    For other activities like walking, I find it to be very fair and give a precise calorie estimate.

    Generally, I eat my FitBit calories because I would faint otherwise lol (I'm on 1200 calories). But for my spinning classes I eat around 500 of them, ignoring that my FitBit says I burned more. Even though I worked beyond hard, I don't believe I'm good enough to burn over six hundred, so yeah. But that's just my gut feeling.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,739 Member
    edited February 2016
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    eeejer wrote: »
    eeejer wrote: »
    Yes, it is sabotage. Ignore the calorie adjustment completely, it is ridiculously inflated.
    Never heard anyone say it is accurate. So, you eat all the calories fitbit says you should and still lose weight?
    Today is your lucky day: Fitbit's TDEE estimation IS quite accurate and when I eat all the calories it says I do lose weight!

    After 1.1 years of use, 5 DXA scans to account for body composition changes in addition to weight changes, and extensive contemplation, my Charge HR has proven to estimate TDEE with an error rate that has ranged from -0.5% to +5.5%. This assumes MFP logging perfection... which is unlikely.

    Assume your Fitbit TDEE is correct. Track your weight trend changes by connecting your fitbit.com account to www.trendweight.com.

    After you have a few weeks worth of data, compare your MFP-Fitbit estimated deficits to your Trendweight deficits and make decisions/adjustments based on the comparison.
  • Pawsforme
    Pawsforme Posts: 645 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 think you must not have been on here very long then!

    I've had my Fitbit Charge HR for about seven months. The TDEE it gives me seems to be right on target.
  • ACSL3
    ACSL3 Posts: 623 Member
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    I have the fitbit One and find it very accurate. I log my food on MFP because I like the database here better, but go by what fitbit tells me for how much to eat. I have a tendency to stay the same weight for several days/week and then drop on the scale randomly one day - but my account is synced to Trendweight and I'm losing weight at the rate my deficit from fitbit says I should be losing, so that tells me that fitbit is very accurate.

    I know my stride length on fitbit is wrong because the distances are off (especially when I have longer runs/walks), but since fitbit gives me calories based on steps I don't really pay much attention - I use my GPS watch or an app on my phone if I really want to know the correct distance.
  • cms723
    cms723 Posts: 1 Member
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    To maintain, I eat what my FitBit says to eat. I find it to be extremely accurate.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    eeejer wrote: »
    Yes, it is sabotage. Ignore the calorie adjustment completely, it is ridiculously inflated.

    I find that my Fitbit is actually pretty close. I'm basing that off my average calorie intake plus exercise and my actual weight loss progress. If anything, it's a little low. I've had to override the MFP settings to create a better balance for myself.

    OP, time and experience will tell if it's accurate for you. Many people find that it is. Until you know, maybe eat about 75% of that back. This is assuming that your logging is accurate. Are you weighing all solid foods? I would look at those things first.
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,195 Member
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    Is your FitBit making you eat?

    I think that the numbers are probably right on if you are a young, healthy person with no metabolic issues. For me...ha! My FitBit tells me to eat about 1400 calories/day over what I know is maintenance on most days. YMMV.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 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 find my fitbit calories underestimate my actual burn and generally have to eat about 150-200 calories per day more than my fitbit adjustments to remain in maintenance.

    When I was losing I ate to my fitbit adjustments.

    I do not like, nor have, an HRM Fitbit - those I am wary of. But the basic pedometer ones have always proved accurate for me.
  • katkins73
    katkins73 Posts: 416 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 do! It has been a godsend for me! I'm less than 10lbs from goal and have lost over 40 and most of my consistent progress has been since I got my Fitbit Zip :)

  • dollydiva2
    dollydiva2 Posts: 71 Member
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    I ignore the calorie adjustment on MFP from fitbit but use the actual calories on fitbit and work out my deficit from there rather than on what MFP tells me to eat. I'm losing steadily.
    On a non workout day fitbit tells me I burn around 1900, pretty much the same as a TDEE calculator.
    I've got a charge HR.
  • Mischievous_Rascal
    Mischievous_Rascal Posts: 1,791 Member
    edited February 2016
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    My take on it is this. It's based on BMI, right? (Which is a great tool when looking at a population, but individuals vary.) I've been pretty inactive for the past year nursing various injuries, but maintaining my actual weight. However, my body fat percentage has increased about 4%. When I used my Fitbit at 18% BF (low BMI for my age) I found it gave me too few calories to maintain. Now at 22% BF (normal BMI) it's spot on.

    (I don't plan on increasing my BF to be above a normal BMI to see if it starts giving me too many calories, however. :p )
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    I'm sad this is not the repraise version (it has all the outtakes from the making of the video, and it's hilarious). My favorite is the guy who busts through the chain link gate; they locked it and he just bounced off.
  • majigurl
    majigurl Posts: 660 Member
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    Mine is very accurate. If you eat back all my calories I wont drop the weight.. you will only maintain. :/ But if I listen to how much my deficit is for that day, I drop pretty much exactly what I would expect from it.

  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    Oh, and I'll add that I've found mine to be pretty accurate. I pick up several hundred steps from inconsistent things like driving, but it seems to balance out with things that it under counts (like weight lifting).
  • jlahorn
    jlahorn Posts: 377 Member
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    My 5-year-old One was always way off if I was doing specific activities, specifically hiking and cardio classes on the second floor of a building, for some reason.

    However, I've had used a Charge HR and a Surge over the last few years, and they've both been really accurate.