Fitbit calories seem way too high

jaredsoster wrote: »

I spent about 30 minutes jogging today with a heart rate of 150 bpm. I also spent a few hours changing out power outlets around my house, not very heavy in activity. After about 15000 steps today, fitbit has adjusted my calories by 1520 calories. That's how much I start with every day. This seems way too high to me, is there something I'm doing wrong?

Depending on your weight and your MFP settings for Activity Level and weekly loss rate, I would say the estimated adjustment is within a reasonable amount.

Last July, I was 54, 5'8" and 150 lbs. I had MFP set to Sedentary/Not Very Active and had negative adjustments enabled. My half-pound per week loss goal was 1610 Calories. That is 1860 Calories maintenance with a 250 Calorie per day deficit.

On days when my Fitbit Charge HR logged 13,000 steps, my total Fitbit projection was 2600 Calories. That resulted in MFP giving me a Fitbit Adjustment of 980 Calories.

I lost weight at the desired weekly rate eating back 95% of those Calories. For me the Fitbit and MFP integration was very accurate.

Note that I have been logging food and drink in MFP for over three years, so I am confident that my intake is as accurate as I can estimate it to be. I use a food scale to weigh all solids and measuring cups to measure all liquids, I verify any new food items I log using the nutrition facts on package labels or from other website sources.

I use the fitbit charge 2 HR. I trip out because I'm burning around 3000 calories a day. My fitness pal makes its adjustments, according to how many calories burned, how much macro and micro nutrients I should be taking in. The one thing I'm tripping on is that although the adjustments made are lower in calories than I'm burning. I'm eating around 300 more calories than what fitness pal tells me to because I'm trying to gain some additional weight that I didn't want to lose. I'm 38 yrs old male, 5'11", 165 lbs, and 17.8% body fat. How do I lower my body fat percentage but still gain weight?

jraper78 wrote: »

I use the fitbit charge 2 HR. I trip out because I'm burning around 3000 calories a day. My fitness pal makes its adjustments, according to how many calories burned, how much macro and micro nutrients I should be taking in. The one thing I'm tripping on is that although the adjustments made are lower in calories than I'm burning. I'm eating around 300 more calories than what fitness pal tells me to because I'm trying to gain some additional weight that I didn't want to lose. I'm 38 yrs old male, 5'11", 165 lbs, and 17.8% body fat. How do I lower my body fat percentage but still gain weight?

Have you measured your stride length? If so, have you changed the Fitbit settings from the default? That could account for a part of those 300 Cals, but not really all of them.

You may want to check out the Recomposition thread, then if you have more questions, post a new discussion in either the "Maintaining Weight" or "Gaining Weight" board.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat

Just don't eat all your calories back. I usually just try to eat up to 50% of the extra calories Fitbit give me for the day.

Remember the sync assumes you'll continue to burn at that rate for the rest of the day so adjusts down when you become sedentary giving you the accurate additional calories at the end of the day, around midnight rather than when you synced.

Part of it is knowing how exact your logging is. Are you achieving your desired weight loss goals with this data? If not, then tweak the response you have--how much you eat back.

I had a Garmin with a chest strap--no optical HRM. I upgraded to a Vivoactive HR. Without the optical HRM, i would get about 270 exercise calories for 20,000 steps with a setting of sendentary in MFP. That seemed way too low.

Now i get about 50-80 calories per 1000 steps, which for me is more accurate. My walking during the day is usually running across a hilly campus in heels carrying a 20 lb briefcase. Now I feel I'm getting more "credit" for what I'm doing. I eat back about 75% of my step calories. And 100% of my exercise calories. They are in line with other website like SparkPeople when I enter in my stats. But it does depend on the day. A cup of caffeinated tea before I spring to my 8:30 am meeting and I know my heart rate will be higher and the calorie projection may be too high. but this works better for me than being too low, like my previous tracker.

If you're still getting into shape, your heart rate may be high and thus the calorie burn may be over estimated. Can you calibrate a Fitbit for heart rate? Do the stride length--customize anything you can to your body and fitness level.

Look at the data. Make sure your logging is tight. Give things some time and make adjustments.