Diary/Sanity Check?

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keithcw_the_first
keithcw_the_first Posts: 382 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm always a little concerned that I'm going too low on calories. I'm getting 1900-2100 a day. My fitbit has me averaging close to 3200 TDEE. If true, that's kind of a big gap. But my average loss is on track.

Should I just stick with what the scale is saying?

I'd be willing to listen to someone talking about macros, too.

Replies

  • eeejer
    eeejer Posts: 339 Member
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    your loss is on track because fitbit is lying to you. As long as the weight is following the correct trajectory ignore fitbit. It is useless for calorie burn, it is just a general activity tracker.
  • brb_2013
    brb_2013 Posts: 1,197 Member
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    eeejer wrote: »
    your loss is on track because fitbit is lying to you. As long as the weight is following the correct trajectory ignore fitbit. It is useless for calorie burn, it is just a general activity tracker.

    Where do you see that? Mine is kind of right on target, given how much I eat and how my weight is coming off. Such a broad statement to make that may or may not be true for every one.

    I have been eating about what you do OP and I have an average burn of 2700-3200 depending on how many steps I get and if I do any exercise. I tend not to eat them back out of habit, because sure maybe the fitbit is off and I don't want to be wasting time gaining weight. But I find my fitbit burn amount matches the weight I have lost now. It took a while for my body to show the loss but I stuck with it and there it was. I like that big gap, and have been adjusting my calories down lately so I can attempt banking them for macaroni.
  • keithcw_the_first
    keithcw_the_first Posts: 382 Member
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    I guess if it's not immediately concerning I'll just keep rolling with what's working, and try to reconcile the FitBit difference later.
  • eeejer
    eeejer Posts: 339 Member
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    brb_2013 wrote: »
    eeejer wrote: »
    your loss is on track because fitbit is lying to you. As long as the weight is following the correct trajectory ignore fitbit. It is useless for calorie burn, it is just a general activity tracker.

    Where do you see that? Mine is kind of right on target, given how much I eat and how my weight is coming off. Such a broad statement to make that may or may not be true for every one.

    I have been eating about what you do OP and I have an average burn of 2700-3200 depending on how many steps I get and if I do any exercise. I tend not to eat them back out of habit, because sure maybe the fitbit is off and I don't want to be wasting time gaining weight. But I find my fitbit burn amount matches the weight I have lost now. It took a while for my body to show the loss but I stuck with it and there it was. I like that big gap, and have been adjusting my calories down lately so I can attempt banking them for macaroni.

    Looking at your diary I can tell there is a discrepancy there. If you think it is accurate great. I and everyone I know agrees it is totally in lala-land for calories burned. Every time I mention that in the forum someone says "it is exact for me", but then you look closer and no, they are not losing the 2+lbs a week their diary says they should according to their fitbit calories.

    Fitbit is made to overblow calories to give you positive reinforcement. If you want to eat those back, fine. All the people in my friend list that are successful set their TDEE properly then ignore fitbit adjustments. You already accounted for them in your TDEE.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    eeejer wrote: »
    brb_2013 wrote: »
    eeejer wrote: »
    your loss is on track because fitbit is lying to you. As long as the weight is following the correct trajectory ignore fitbit. It is useless for calorie burn, it is just a general activity tracker.

    Where do you see that? Mine is kind of right on target, given how much I eat and how my weight is coming off. Such a broad statement to make that may or may not be true for every one.

    I have been eating about what you do OP and I have an average burn of 2700-3200 depending on how many steps I get and if I do any exercise. I tend not to eat them back out of habit, because sure maybe the fitbit is off and I don't want to be wasting time gaining weight. But I find my fitbit burn amount matches the weight I have lost now. It took a while for my body to show the loss but I stuck with it and there it was. I like that big gap, and have been adjusting my calories down lately so I can attempt banking them for macaroni.

    Looking at your diary I can tell there is a discrepancy there. If you think it is accurate great. I and everyone I know agrees it is totally in lala-land for calories burned. Every time I mention that in the forum someone says "it is exact for me", but then you look closer and no, they are not losing the 2+lbs a week their diary says they should according to their fitbit calories.

    Fitbit is made to overblow calories to give you positive reinforcement. If you want to eat those back, fine. All the people in my friend list that are successful set their TDEE properly then ignore fitbit adjustments. You already accounted for them in your TDEE.

    I agree with you that there are some people who receive inflated burns from their Fitbit, but there are people who find it to be accurate. I've been eating back the adjustments from my Fitbit since last July and have lost/maintained exactly as expected. I was nly losing weight for two months of that time -- the rest is maintaining. If the Fitbit was wrong, I would have gained weight.

    This doesn't mean it will work for everyone. But it's equally untrue that the Fitbit is "totally in lala-land" for everyone.
  • no_day_but_2day
    no_day_but_2day Posts: 222 Member
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    keithcw_the_first wrote: »
    I'm always a little concerned that I'm going too low on calories. I'm getting 1900-2100 a day. My fitbit has me averaging close to 3200 TDEE. If true, that's kind of a big gap. But my average loss is on track.

    Should I just stick with what the scale is saying?

    I'd be willing to listen to someone talking about macros, too.

    Did you just get your fitbit? I know the first day my fiance tried his on, it said he burned 4000 calories that day and he didn't work out that day. It takes a couple weeks for fitbit to accurately (at least as good as it can) figure out how much you're burning on a day to day basis.
  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,646 Member
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    My fitbit says I have a TDEE of 5800 kcal... so not accurate for me. I'm not sure how or why, and I've even contacted their support over it. They told me that it was accurate even though I know for a fact I maintain at 2800-3000

    *shrug*
  • heatherheyns
    heatherheyns Posts: 144 Member
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    Fitbit is a tool, like anything else. It is accurate for some, not so for others. The only way to be sure is to make your logging perfect and see if you lose what it says you should. That will tell you how accurate it is for you.

    For me, I have found it overestimates my burn. When I don't walk much it hits on target at 2k or so, but on higher activity days it believes I burned over 3k and that hasn't seemed accurate to me. It will have very large burns for very slow walks. I have heard that the more overweight you are the more it over estimates the burns, but I think it really just depends for each person.

  • eeejer
    eeejer Posts: 339 Member
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    BecomingBane wrote: »
    My fitbit says I have a TDEE of 5800 kcal... so not accurate for me. I'm not sure how or why, and I've even contacted their support over it. They told me that it was accurate even though I know for a fact I maintain at 2800-3000

    *shrug*

    same here, according to fitbit I should lose a pound a day pretty much. I think it may be more accurate for females of normal-ish BF%. For guys it seems totally off.

    I've used mine for over 2 years and it has never been close. I would be 400lbs if I ate what it tells me to.

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