Fitbit Calorie Adjustment
joshuaherd
Posts: 28 Member
I was just curious as to how accurate this usually is. I just synced my fitbit with the app and under the exercise tab I have a 266 calorie adjustment for the day so far. I don't attempt to eat these calories back or anything just curious if anyone else use the automatic sync with their fitbit and how accurate they found it to be in their weight loss effort?
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Fitbit adjustments are pretty accurate (around 90% imo) and if it's syncing with mfp and you're set to lose you can eat most of those calories back.
The way I look at it is if I was wanting to lose weight, I would eat at 10-15% deficit of the average calories fitbit gives me.
Been in maintenance for 3 + years and fitbit has always kept me right.
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I eat back my Fitbit calories, too. As long as I am logging accurately I can eat back 75-100% of my calorie adjustment and still lose. The only time I don't is when I am not logging everything and that has nothing to do with Fitbit.2
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That's good to know, I just a little leary or the accuracy because fitbit says my body burns almost 3800 calories a day with seems so high to me. But at 260 I guess possible. I am allowed 1600 calories a day according to MFP do that's a pretty Hugh gap, then add in the adjustments and I'm almost 3k deficit daily, something just isn't right lol
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I'm 5"8 147lbs and fitbit says my average TDEE is around 2500. So your number sounds pretty accurate.1
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I found that the Zip and Flex underestimated my calorie burn by about 200 calories per day on average. The Surge and Blaze have been spot on.
When I'm logging accurately (food scale...making sure the entries I use are accurate) with the Zip/Flex, I lose faster then planned and with the Blaze/Surge, I lose exactly what I would expect.
When I'm not logging accurately is when I run into trouble. That however isn't a fault with the Fitbit, but with my logging.
As far as your calorie burn being high, I'm 5'4.5", in the 120's and typically have a calorie burn of 2000-2500 depending on the day (sometimes a little lower and sometimes a little higher) with the 30 day average usually falling between 2200-2400.0 -
Wow guys, great info. I appreciate the help. I feel a lot better about the numbers now. I'll just stick to it and with the added adjustments I'll be loosing more then planed I guess haha1
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I have the Charge HR and I've been losing weight eating back about 90-95% of my adjustment. I leave a few extra calories as a buffer if I'm going to be sedentary later in the evening.0
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Could someone tell me if this is accurate?
I work in a supermarket and for my job I'm almost constantly walking for 5.5 hours at a reasonably quick pace. My Fitbit calorie adjustment only gives my between 80-110, whereas when I put the exercise into MFP separately it gives me around 800-1000
I'm not sure which to follow0 -
Follow what Fitbit says, as work should already be included in your MFP activity level and not logged as exercise.zoerainbows wrote: »Could someone tell me if this is accurate?
I work in a supermarket and for my job I'm almost constantly walking for 5.5 hours at a reasonably quick pace. My Fitbit calorie adjustment only gives my between 80-110, whereas when I put the exercise into MFP separately it gives me around 800-1000
I'm not sure which to follow
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zoerainbows wrote: »Could someone tell me if this is accurate?
I work in a supermarket and for my job I'm almost constantly walking for 5.5 hours at a reasonably quick pace. My Fitbit calorie adjustment only gives my between 80-110, whereas when I put the exercise into MFP separately it gives me around 800-1000
I'm not sure which to follow
What did you set your activity level to?
Another thing, when looking at the Fitbit adjustment have you already logged your walking as exercise at MFP?
One reason you could be seeing a low adjustment from Fitbit is that your activity level is already set high enough to include your work activity and by logging it you are doubling the calorie burn for that.
Another is that if your seeing a low adjustment from Fitbit after logging the exercise is that your Fitbit calorie burn is only 80-110 calories higher then MFP's estimate with logged exercise (BMR x activity level multiplier + logged exercise).1 -
With being active in your job, set your activity level to active and only log exercise that isn't step related. Log food on MFP and exercise on Fitbit.
If you are set to active on MFP then you wont see much of an adjustment during the day. I find I have to do 15k steps+ to see any adjustments for calorie burns - I'm set as active here.0 -
Okay thank you all! I need to double check my activity level but I think it's set to active so I just need to remember not to add it in1
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lauraesh0384 wrote: »I have the Charge HR and I've been losing weight eating back about 90-95% of my adjustment. I leave a few extra calories as a buffer if I'm going to be sedentary later in the evening.
I also have the Charge HR. I am just new to this fitbit thing. I don't really trust the heart rate so much either I was walking around the park yesterday and it said my HR was 104, then I did 3o minutes of Insanity Maxx 30 and the whole time it said my HR was 110. I was killing myself so I really thought it should have been higher. I guess I got to learn to trust it more. Lol0 -
joshuaherd wrote: »lauraesh0384 wrote: »I have the Charge HR and I've been losing weight eating back about 90-95% of my adjustment. I leave a few extra calories as a buffer if I'm going to be sedentary later in the evening.
I also have the Charge HR. I am just new to this fitbit thing. I don't really trust the heart rate so much either I was walking around the park yesterday and it said my HR was 104, then I did 3o minutes of Insanity Maxx 30 and the whole time it said my HR was 110. I was killing myself so I really thought it should have been higher. I guess I got to learn to trust it more. Lol
Well, see, that doesn't sound right, though. Did you count your pulse manually to compare? While my Charge HR seems to do a good job of tracking my HR, I keep hearing that they can be pretty iffy for that. I'm pale with not much hair on my arm, which gives me a much higher likelihood of getting a good reading. You may also need to adjust the placement and tightness of the band during exercise to get a better reading.0 -
I bought mine at best buy and the guy who sold it to me was wearing one. He told me in everyday activity like walking or working or whatever that it sound be a little loose and able to move. Then when your actually exercising that it should be tight so not able to move. So that's what I have been doing.
I did not do it manually after working out. I did manually check it at a resting heart reattach the other day and it was spot on. I do Day 3 of Insanity tonight. I'm going to check it manually.
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joshuaherd wrote: »I bought mine at best buy and the guy who sold it to me was wearing one. He told me in everyday activity like walking or working or whatever that it sound be a little loose and able to move. Then when your actually exercising that it should be tight so not able to move. So that's what I have been doing.
I did not do it manually after working out. I did manually check it at a resting heart reattach the other day and it was spot on. I do Day 3 of Insanity tonight. I'm going to check it manually.
If your HR isn't tracking well during your workout, you could consider adjusting it back to "daily wear" position and see if that gives better results. I know that's opposite what I just said (and what Fitbit recommends) but I'm not tightening mine before a run, and like I said - it seems to work well. If that doesn't help, you could try a little temporary hair removal on your wrist and see if that works?
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I will leave it alone tonight when I go to exercise and leave it a little looser. Hopefully it works. Thanks for the advice. I will keep you updated0
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I actually just switched from the Charge to the Charge HR and after a 30 min walk outside at work, which I do quite frequently, the calorie burn per minute was calculated as slightly less than it has been by the Charge. It was a difference of about 1.1-1.3 cal/min. Minimal for sure, but in a longer workout it will make a difference. I'm interested to see what kind of change I notice, if any, in my rate of weight loss.1
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joshuaherd wrote: »lauraesh0384 wrote: »I have the Charge HR and I've been losing weight eating back about 90-95% of my adjustment. I leave a few extra calories as a buffer if I'm going to be sedentary later in the evening.
I also have the Charge HR. I am just new to this fitbit thing. I don't really trust the heart rate so much either I was walking around the park yesterday and it said my HR was 104, then I did 3o minutes of Insanity Maxx 30 and the whole time it said my HR was 110. I was killing myself so I really thought it should have been higher. I guess I got to learn to trust it more. Lol
My HR when walking is generally around 110-120, but if I really push myself and pick up the pace I can get a reading of around 130. When I play DDR and I'm on a more difficult song I can push 140-145. I always wear it tighter during exercise, and I wear it one wrist band width above my wrist bone. I've also read that the HR might not be as accurate for high intensity when your heart rate is consistently changing.
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Well I moved it up above my wrist and there you have it. 145 HR Most of the workout. I guess I just had it to low.1
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I'm glad you've found a solution. Congratulations!1
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