Is the Fitbit Calorie Adjustment preventing me from losing the wieght I want?

Ordep81
Ordep81 Posts: 3 Member
edited December 2 in Social Groups
So on mfp app I had it set to lose 1lb/week and with my workouts of weight training, 15min hiit cardio, and 40min steady state cardio everyday 5x/week, i figured that this would be no problem to lose the 1lb/week. Well I started 215lbs 3months ago and today sit at 207lbs. The progress has been frustrating to say the least. About 3 weeks ago, unhappy with results up to that point, decided to set the app to lose 1.5lbs/week. Since then I have been stuck at 207.
What I have been suspecting is that the Fitbit Calorie Adjustment, is adding too many calories. For example if I have a 1670cal goal and the Fitbit Calorie Adjustment adds another 1000 calories in the exercise portion then I have 2670calories I can eat for the day. Now if I eat say only 2000 calories for the day, im technically over my 1670 goal and at the mercy of the adjustment being correct in order to be still be in a caloric deficit for the day. Can this adjustment be completely off that when I rely on the adjustment I eat over my original goal and therefore eat too many calories for the day and reason why Im not losing weight that I would like??

Example from yesterday.
xoeddhtcponu.png

Replies

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Yeah I totally get where you're coming from. I lost weight easily before I got my fitbit.

    I weigh and log everything! There are some days I have 500-1000 calories left over by the end of the day. I have around 5lbs left to lose and it is just NOT shifting, i am seriously close to giving up.
    Fitbit says my TDEE is 2500, and i never eat that much, so I should be losing something..
  • I eat what mine gives me and I've had no problems. Just eat less back and see what happens.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I eat what mine gives me and I've had no problems. Just eat less back and see what happens.

    Do you eat back 100% of your exercise calories? What model do you have?
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Yeah I totally get where you're coming from. I lost weight easily before I got my fitbit.

    I weigh and log everything! There are some days I have 500-1000 calories left over by the end of the day. I have around 5lbs left to lose and it is just NOT shifting, i am seriously close to giving up.
    Fitbit says my TDEE is 2500, and i never eat that much, so I should be losing something..

    Keep in mind that when you have 5-10Lbs left to lose the margin of error is TINY. You have to keep tweaking things until you find the perfect window. And it's tiny.
  • joegibbs2112
    joegibbs2112 Posts: 41 Member
    I only use fitbit to track foot steps ( miles) I walk 3 1/2 miles on the walk with my dog and takes an hour. I log that in MFP and it registers as a loss of 400 calories. As far as the food part on MFP its important to keep the calories in line BUT just as important is to keep everything else in line too ( carbs, fat, protein and also sodium and sugar) "Let your food be your drug and your drug be your food" I have dropped 40 lbs since November down from 225lbs.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Ordep81 wrote: »
    So on mfp app I had it set to lose 1lb/week and with my workouts of weight training, 15min hiit cardio, and 40min steady state cardio everyday 5x/week, i figured that this would be no problem to lose the 1lb/week. Well I started 215lbs 3months ago and today sit at 207lbs. The progress has been frustrating to say the least. About 3 weeks ago, unhappy with results up to that point, decided to set the app to lose 1.5lbs/week. Since then I have been stuck at 207.
    What I have been suspecting is that the Fitbit Calorie Adjustment, is adding too many calories. For example if I have a 1670cal goal and the Fitbit Calorie Adjustment adds another 1000 calories in the exercise portion then I have 2670calories I can eat for the day. Now if I eat say only 2000 calories for the day, im technically over my 1670 goal and at the mercy of the adjustment being correct in order to be still be in a caloric deficit for the day. Can this adjustment be completely off that when I rely on the adjustment I eat over my original goal and therefore eat too many calories for the day and reason why Im not losing weight that I would like??

    Example from yesterday.
    xoeddhtcponu.png

    So is this a typical day where you leave 400-500 uneaten - along with the built in deficit of 500, now 750?

    Bigger isn't better - your body will fight you and adjust itself.

    The less you have to lose, the smaller the deficit should be by purpose choice - or else your body will force it to happen anyway - but the stress from what you are doing can easily cause water weight gain.

    When was the last time you ate without being in a diet?

    It's very beneficial to take diet breaks. At this point though, I'm betting you'd freak out over the 1-2 lb water weight gain from eating more, even if it meant your body getting healthy and speeding up again.
  • jmayerovitch
    jmayerovitch Posts: 71 Member
    In my non-expert estimation, 55 min of cardio shouldn't equal more than about 550 calories unless it's super intense (heart rate above 160 the whole time.) Some of the 1200 calorie bonus your Fitbit is giving you is probably other activity (such as extra moving around and walking) but it does seem extremely high with just 55 minutes of cardio.

    I don't trust my Fitbit for high-intensity cardio activities. If I'm racewalking or running, it WAY overestimate the calories and if I'm biking or doing any other activity where my arms aren't swinging as much, it way underestimates. I use a real HRM (Polar) to track my calories burned for cardio and then input that into MFP. The synch works really well when you add the time-started: Fitbit will replace the calories burned for that period of time with the "real" calories burned. Which, unfortunately, is often less than what Fitbit is telling me.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    In my non-expert estimation, 55 min of cardio shouldn't equal more than about 550 calories unless it's super intense (heart rate above 160 the whole time.) Some of the 1200 calorie bonus your Fitbit is giving you is probably other activity (such as extra moving around and walking) but it does seem extremely high with just 55 minutes of cardio.

    I don't trust my Fitbit for high-intensity cardio activities. If I'm racewalking or running, it WAY overestimate the calories and if I'm biking or doing any other activity where my arms aren't swinging as much, it way underestimates. I use a real HRM (Polar) to track my calories burned for cardio and then input that into MFP. The synch works really well when you add the time-started: Fitbit will replace the calories burned for that period of time with the "real" calories burned. Which, unfortunately, is often less than what Fitbit is telling me.

    Is this one of the cheaper Polar's that only has your height/weight and age/gender - or nicer one with VO2max self-test?

    If cheaper one - the Fitbit with HRM is better estimate using better formula compared to assumptions that Polar is using.
    IF, if, it is decently accurate with reading the HR at higher levels anyway.

    Also - 10 cal/min isn't that high if you are moving around a lot of mass. Walking true not likely, other stuff could easily.
    That figure of rate of burn is highly dependent on weight.

    Also, it's not the arm swing that matters - it's the ability to read impacts despite the arm swinging - biking has no leg impacts usually, just road vibration. Besides, if this is a step-based device, distance seen biking has no relation to calorie burn anyway based on walking/running formula and distance.

    That's probably why the rate could be off race-walking and jogging - if you never tweaked the stride-length so the distance seen is correct.

    You might want to compare your Polar - because if you are just looking at that without comparing it to something - then it's hard to say it's more accurate. It's different, but different doesn't mean more accurate.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/774337/how-to-test-hrm-for-how-accurate-calorie-burn-is/p1
  • liznickerson4
    liznickerson4 Posts: 2 Member
    Ordep81 wrote: »
    So on mfp app I had it set to lose 1lb/week and with my workouts of weight training, 15min hiit cardio, and 40min steady state cardio everyday 5x/week, i figured that this would be no problem to lose the 1lb/week. Well I started 215lbs 3months ago and today sit at 207lbs. The progress has been frustrating to say the least. About 3 weeks ago, unhappy with results up to that point, decided to set the app to lose 1.5lbs/week. Since then I have been stuck at 207.
    What I have been suspecting is that the Fitbit Calorie Adjustment, is adding too many calories. For example if I have a 1670cal goal and the Fitbit Calorie Adjustment adds another 1000 calories in the exercise portion then I have 2670calories I can eat for the day. Now if I eat say only 2000 calories for the day, im technically over my 1670 goal and at the mercy of the adjustment being correct in order to be still be in a caloric deficit for the day. Can this adjustment be completely off that when I rely on the adjustment I eat over my original goal and therefore eat too many calories for the day and reason why Im not losing weight that I would like??

    Example from yesterday.
    xoeddhtcponu.png

    You're better off to go by macros then calories.
  • liznickerson4
    liznickerson4 Posts: 2 Member
    Go by macros.. Not calories
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    So you are saying who cares how much you eat - as long as the macros are right?

    That should end well...
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    Ordep81 wrote: »
    So on mfp app I had it set to lose 1lb/week and with my workouts of weight training, 15min hiit cardio, and 40min steady state cardio everyday 5x/week, i figured that this would be no problem to lose the 1lb/week. Well I started 215lbs 3months ago and today sit at 207lbs. The progress has been frustrating to say the least. About 3 weeks ago, unhappy with results up to that point, decided to set the app to lose 1.5lbs/week. Since then I have been stuck at 207.
    What I have been suspecting is that the Fitbit Calorie Adjustment, is adding too many calories. For example if I have a 1670cal goal and the Fitbit Calorie Adjustment adds another 1000 calories in the exercise portion then I have 2670calories I can eat for the day. Now if I eat say only 2000 calories for the day, im technically over my 1670 goal and at the mercy of the adjustment being correct in order to be still be in a caloric deficit for the day. Can this adjustment be completely off that when I rely on the adjustment I eat over my original goal and therefore eat too many calories for the day and reason why Im not losing weight that I would like??

    Example from yesterday.
    xoeddhtcponu.png

    So is this a typical day where you leave 400-500 uneaten - along with the built in deficit of 500, now 750?

    Bigger isn't better - your body will fight you and adjust itself.

    The less you have to lose, the smaller the deficit should be by purpose choice - or else your body will force it to happen anyway - but the stress from what you are doing can easily cause water weight gain.

    When was the last time you ate without being in a diet?

    It's very beneficial to take diet breaks. At this point though, I'm betting you'd freak out over the 1-2 lb water weight gain from eating more, even if it meant your body getting healthy and speeding up again.

    Additional add - you don't say and I can't figure it out - what device _exactly_ are you using?
    Can make a big difference.

    2 of your workouts - lifting and HIIT - are terrible estimates of calories by HRM - known to be inflated calorie burn because the HR is actually inflated.
    But depends on how much time you are doing them.
    Step based lifting is underestimated - so you could have even bigger deficit than you planned and additional you cause.

    Also how long you've had your device if HR-based type? - takes a good week for it to adjust itself to your usage and stats for like resting HR.

    Also - those above workouts are high carb burning - just begging the body to store more carbs. Carbs store in muscles with water.
    The longer cardio is going to ask for more blood volume, and if sweating a lot - even more. More water weight.

  • jmayerovitch
    jmayerovitch Posts: 71 Member
    heybales wrote: »

    Is this one of the cheaper Polar's that only has your height/weight and age/gender - or nicer one with VO2max self-test?

    If cheaper one - the Fitbit with HRM is better estimate using better formula compared to assumptions that Polar is using.
    IF, if, it is decently accurate with reading the HR at higher levels anyway.

    Also - 10 cal/min isn't that high if you are moving around a lot of mass. Walking true not likely, other stuff could easily.
    That figure of rate of burn is highly dependent on weight.

    Also, it's not the arm swing that matters - it's the ability to read impacts despite the arm swinging - biking has no leg impacts usually, just road vibration. Besides, if this is a step-based device, distance seen biking has no relation to calorie burn anyway based on walking/running formula and distance.

    That's probably why the rate could be off race-walking and jogging - if you never tweaked the stride-length so the distance seen is correct.

    You might want to compare your Polar - because if you are just looking at that without comparing it to something - then it's hard to say it's more accurate. It's different, but different doesn't mean more accurate.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/774337/how-to-test-hrm-for-how-accurate-calorie-burn-is/p1

    It's the one with VO2max (RS300X).

    I agree that 10 cal/min isn't unreasonable. But 1200 calories in 55 minutes is (that's 21 cal/min.)

  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Well, the Fitbit calorie adjustment is NOT the calories from a workout.

    It is merely the difference between what Fitbit is reporting with all activity minus what MFP thought you'd do at your self-selected activity level and NO exercise.

    That would be easy to hit 1200 with a small workout and being set to Sedentary but being active all day long.

    That adjustment may be put under Exercise for the math to be done with it correctly - but it's not just or possibly not at all exercise.
  • jmayerovitch
    jmayerovitch Posts: 71 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    Well, the Fitbit calorie adjustment is NOT the calories from a workout.

    It is merely the difference between what Fitbit is reporting with all activity minus what MFP thought you'd do at your self-selected activity level and NO exercise.

    That would be easy to hit 1200 with a small workout and being set to Sedentary but being active all day long.

    That adjustment may be put under Exercise for the math to be done with it correctly - but it's not just or possibly not at all exercise.

    That's true, but keep in mind that 1200 calories extra would bet he equivalent of about two hours of intense cardio and the fact that Ordep isn't getting the results anywhere near expected suggests that could be the culprit. 2,500 calories a day seems very high (to me) if 1 lb/week is the goal unless the workout regime is extremely intense.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    207 lbs for an estimated 2670 TDEE isn't really that high at all with even an average amount of exercise and average amount of daily movement - and most people aren't really sedentary as they discover with Fitbit's, even before they start trying to move more to get step counts higher.
    Read more of the threads - you'll find that isn't a high figure at all. Perhaps for your size it is - but not in general.

    In fact with just a little increased daily movement of that mass you'll get a higher TDEE figure.
    The potential inaccuracy in only the 1 hr or so of exercise is not where the problem is going to lie if indeed the math is wrong.

    Just pointing out you can't go by much of anything without further info from OP - because the stats shown in the picture are really about worthless.
    And they have yet to return to answer any if they truly want some suggestions.

    Body slowing down so it's not really burning as much as Fitbit estimates is one easy potential. Fitbit's math is based on healthy body - many make their body unhealthy by taking too large a deficit and slowing down their rate of loss.

    Other potential is steps is inflated.
    Or stride length is wrong and distance is inflated.
    Or both.
    That would lead to increased daily burn that is inflated.
  • medlana
    medlana Posts: 1 Member
    I personally only eat the calories the MFP gives me to eat (1670 in your case) and on days, when I exercise, I just know that if I want, I can eat a bit more, like 300 kcal max.
This discussion has been closed.