Fitbit sync changing daily calorie goal...how to stop this?

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evilqueenT
evilqueenT Posts: 28 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I just got a new fitbit Alta. I'm still reducing not in maintenance and my only regular exercise is walking and occasionally swimming or biking because I have a lot of arthritis so no big workouts like most people do. Basically, I'm not eating back exercise calories and my fitbit seems to be adding back a ton more calories than I could eat at my activity level and loose weight or even maintain my current weight. I know I can keep going in and deleting my exercise for the day but that seems silly. Is there a way to set it so it keeps my set daily calorie goal or would I have to stop the sync between my fitbit and myfittness pal? Thanks :)

Replies

  • Heartlight441
    Heartlight441 Posts: 278 Member
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    I just ignore the exercise part of the calories. I like to see what I earn but rarely 'eat' those.
  • LazSommer
    LazSommer Posts: 1,851 Member
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    Pay for premium.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    You're supposed to eat back your exercise calories. That's how the plan works. When you signed up you established weight loss goals and a rate you'd like to achieve them at. Weight loss comes from maintaining a calorie deficit. That's all. If your calorie deficit is supposed to be 500 kCal and you do 100 kCal of exercise, you then eat 100 kCal of food and still have a 500 kCal deficit. That's the way it's designed to work.

    If you'd like to change all that, you can remove the pairing between your Fitbit and MFP so no exercise comes across. That isn't recommended, and if you do it you have to wonder why you paid for the Fitbit, but it would accomplish your goal.
  • evilqueenT
    evilqueenT Posts: 28 Member
    edited May 2016
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    It's just weird. I'm basically sedentary and when I'm reducing I drop about a pound a week sometimes less on 1200 calories doing the very things it's trying to give me credit back for with lots of exercise calories. If I regularly eat around 1300-1400 I'll maintain and anything above that and I gain really quick yet if I were to eat back what they're calculating for me to eat back 1200-1400 calories above my 1200 calories. Just seems like waaaay to much imo. Thanks for everyone's input.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    You'll lose weight if you burn more calories than you eat; how fast you lose it depends how many calories. (A pound of fat is about 3,500 cal, so a 500 cal/day deficit gets you 1 pound per week.)

    It sounds like your Fitbit is "giving/awarding" you too many calories for what you're doing.

    Fitbits are estimating your calories, not measuring them with medical grade accuracy. It's the best they can do, and it's good enough for most people but apparently it doesn't work very well for you. Detailed knowledge of yourself is better than general rules any day. Sounds like you're keeping tabs on how many cals you're eating and on the scale, these are the tools you really need, and it sounds like you're using them correctly.
  • LuckyAndi
    LuckyAndi Posts: 203 Member
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    evilqueenT wrote: »
    It's just weird. I'm basically sedentary ... if I were to eat back what they're calculating for me to eat back 1200-1400 calories above my 1200 calories.

    How are you sedentary and walking enough to earn 1200-1400 calories? Or did I misunderstand? That would be walking off all of your calories, so you'd absolutely have to eat them back.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    Unless you pay for premium your option is to either disconnect or ignore them.

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    How many steps a day are you getting?
    Do you use a food scale to weight out all solid foods? (Basically what I'm getting at here is that if you aren't, you could be actually eating closer to 1400 when you think your eating 1200 and closer to 1600 when you think your eating 1400. It's really not that hard to do. I had a box of protein bars that every one was more than a serving. It was to the point that if I wasn't weighing them, just eating one would be an extra 13-56 calories not logged. Have something like that happen multiple times in a day can easily add up to several hundred extra calories.)
  • marm1962
    marm1962 Posts: 950 Member
    edited May 2016
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    I had to set my fitbit at being on my dominate hand and registering movement as "normal" instead of sensative, this way it doesn't over calculate what I'm burning. I don't know if the Alta gives you those kinds of options in it's settings
  • Oishii
    Oishii Posts: 2,675 Member
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    If you think you know what you have to eat there is no point at all having your Fitbit sync with mfp.

    My personal experience is the exact opposite in that I can lose on Fitbit maintenance calories, so that's what I do.
  • Yisrael1981
    Yisrael1981 Posts: 132 Member
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    Do not eat back your calories or you will allow your progress or perhaps even gain weight.
    When the calories are added back in it does not account account for the calories you would have burned either way during that time had you been lying in a coma which is the majority of your calories burn for the day.
    MFP calculated calories based upon your tdee which takes into consideration your activity level. When fitbit adds in calories it's on top of that, a big mistake

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