Do you trust Fitbit for calories per day burned? Seems off...
Verity1111
Posts: 3,309 Member
At first I thought it was saying 1300 calories per day, which seemed very low. I was reading it wrong because now it is saying I burn 1800-2100 calories per day and I'm considered sedentary (based on what it reads as my steps per day). 1300ish seemed low, but 2198 (what it says now after me wearing it all day) seems very high. I exercise rarely right now because I have aspiration pneumonia and I have only exercised a couple times in the time I've had it (since the 14th because I got sick on the 16th). I am 5'4" and weight between 195-200lbs. I'm 26. I have a FitBit Charge 2 btw.
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That's your total burn including your BMR. We are the same height and I burn 1900-2200 depending on how many steps I get in.
It seems accurate to me.
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leanjogreen18 wrote: »That's your total burn including your BMR. We are the same height and I burn 1900-2200 depending on how many steps I get in.
It seems accurate to me.
Do you use that amount for setting your calorie deficit? I seriously only walk around 3,000 steps per day...unless I go to school (3 days per week). I walk 1-3 miles extra per day on those days. I don't think I've worn my Fitbit to school though. Most people move more than I do.0 -
If your heart rate is relatively high in general it may overstate calories more than otherwise. It may take a few weeks to a month for your Fitbit to settle down, to figure out what your resting heart rate is and what is exercise for you and what isn't.
You meet the MFP definition of sedentary at about 3500 steps a day.
For most people more steps than that mean that they get more calories than MFP sedentary.
The TDEE of 2198 that you show is just below the 2217 that is the expected TDEE of a lightly active female of your age and height @ 195lbs. At 200lbs that number jumps to 2248.
I don't see anything wrong or out of whack here.
ETA: if you got that on 3000 steps potentially the amount of time you were standing in the day or your heart rate may be contributing.
frankly, at your age, try to move more my friend. It will do you good, assuming that you don't have health problems that prevent you from doing so.
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I found mine was well overestimating what I did on a day to day basis. I wear it on my non-dominant arm but have it set to dominant, and it is a lot more realistic.
I'm 37, 5'4, 185lbs and walk 13k-18k steps a day and my total daily burn is between 2500 and 3000 according to Fitbit.1 -
I synced my Fitbit to mfp and still use mfp calorie goal, I get adjustments under the exercise field because after 2500 steps I think you're actually lightly active vs sedentary.
I'm still learning so you may want to join the Fitbit group there is a lot of help there.0 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »I found mine was well overestimating what I did on a day to day basis. I wear it on my non-dominant arm but have it set to dominant, and it is a lot more realistic.
I'm 37, 5'4, 185lbs and walk 13k-18k steps a day and my total daily burn is between 2500 and 3000 according to Fitbit.
Maybe it's my HR making it that way? My HR tends to jump very easily because of w.e. reason be it my health or my being way out of shape. I have a resting heartrate around 70-75 but if I even walk a few steps or try to open a taped up box it will go up to 100bpm and I have heavy breathing lol Im not joking... I did the dishes earlier and for 2 minutes of it the fitbit though I was doing "intense" activity lol In it's defense I did feel like I would faint... Lol0 -
If your heart rate is relatively high in general it may overstate calories more than otherwise. It may take a few weeks to a month for your Fitbit to settle down, to figure out what your resting heart rate is and what is exercise for you and what isn't.
You meet the MFP definition of sedentary at about 3500 steps a day.
For most people more steps than that mean that they get more calories than MFP sedentary.
The TDEE of 2198 that you show is just below the 2217 that is the expected TDEE of a lightly active female of your age and height @ 195lbs. At 200lbs that number jumps to 2248.
I don't see anything wrong or out of whack here.
ETA: if you got that on 3000 steps potentially the amount of time you were standing in the day or your heart rate may be contributing.
frankly, at your age, try to move more my friend. It will do you good, assuming that you don't have health problems that prevent you from doing so.
My resting HR is not high (70-75) but my HR jumps easy and I huff and puff easily as stated in the last comment. It sees doing dishes as moderate to intense activity based on my HR. I did not intended exercise today and it said I was active over 1.5 hours.0 -
If your heart rate is relatively high in general it may overstate calories more than otherwise. It may take a few weeks to a month for your Fitbit to settle down, to figure out what your resting heart rate is and what is exercise for you and what isn't.
You meet the MFP definition of sedentary at about 3500 steps a day.
For most people more steps than that mean that they get more calories than MFP sedentary.
The TDEE of 2198 that you show is just below the 2217 that is the expected TDEE of a lightly active female of your age and height @ 195lbs. At 200lbs that number jumps to 2248.
I don't see anything wrong or out of whack here.
ETA: if you got that on 3000 steps potentially the amount of time you were standing in the day or your heart rate may be contributing.
frankly, at your age, try to move more my friend. It will do you good, assuming that you don't have health problems that prevent you from doing so.
I do have some health issues actually. I have an ankle with hardware, I just had a couple procedures for biopsies and I ended up with complications that gave me aspiration pneumonia. lol. So as of right now I am kind of not too active except on days where I feel better. I also tend to break out in hives often and have severe allergic reactions every few days. I try to move more except that I get chest pain and my breathing quickens easily. Even bending over too long I feel like I will pass the heck out sometimes (especially now with being sick). I miss being healthier and able to exercise more. Thank you for all the information! It helped put things into perspective in another way.0 -
I use it as a rough guide, but take what it says with a grain of salt, especially since my Flex doesn't know how to count when it comes to my deficit. Example: my deficit is set to 500. Yesterday my deficit was 725 cals (2258 out, 1533 in), but the app simultaneously tells me "You are under budget" AND "169 calories over". I don't know if it's because the Fitbit meal plan settings clash with my MFP goals (I log all my food in MFP since there's no local database for food on the FB side) or if the mobile app is buggy. The browser dashboard/Windows app seems to get it right most of the time, which is even more confusing. If it can't get my deficit right, can I trust the burn count?1
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How long have you been wearing the Fitbit? Mine is pretty much spot on, unless I do high intensity workout then the numbers are inflated3
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Based on your heart rates there is a possibility that there is a slight over-estimation. HOWEVER, the numbers are sufficiently in the ballpark that they are not too far off. I would provisionally accept them and move on to seeing if you can get corresponding real life results after trusting them for a month.4
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lemonychild wrote: »How long have you been wearing the Fitbit? Mine is pretty much spot on, unless I do high intensity workout then the numbers are inflated
Very new! Does it make a difference? It's been a week or two only.0 -
Fitbit is much more generous than my Garmin Fenix .... it should not really matter, but I do like the bigger numbers1
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Yes it makes a big difference ... once you put on the Fitbit for the first time it's trying to learn your heart rate at resting and at activity so that it can make the accurate calculations you are looking forVerity1111 wrote: »lemonychild wrote: »How long have you been wearing the Fitbit? Mine is pretty much spot on, unless I do high intensity workout then the numbers are inflated
Very new! Does it make a difference? It's been a week or two only.
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If you were to stay in bed ALL DAY you would use about 1610 calories just for bodily functions. For your heart, lungs, brain to function. For your body to maintain its temperature and such. Then a sedentary person uses 20-25% of their BMR at least to move thru their day.
So yes, your Fitbit read seems accurate, at least within 5-10% which is the best we can hope for I think. Round down to 2000 TDEE for days you don't have class and eat 1500 to aim for 1 pound per week.
Note that as you lose weight, these things will consume less energy.Verity1111 wrote: »At first I thought it was saying 1300 calories per day, which seemed very low. I was reading it wrong because now it is saying I burn 1800-2100 calories per day and I'm considered sedentary (based on what it reads as my steps per day). 1300ish seemed low, but 2198 (what it says now after me wearing it all day) seems very high. I exercise rarely right now because I have aspiration pneumonia and I have only exercised a couple times in the time I've had it (since the 14th because I got sick on the 16th). I am 5'4" and weight between 195-200lbs. I'm 26. I have a FitBit Charge 2 btw.
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I don't rely on mine, but when I do check it's usually pretty accurate. It gives me about 1800-2000 which is about what I average for maintenance.1
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Mine seems a little high to me as well. I've had a Charge 2 for about 2-3 weeks now and it estimates I burn 1800 calories a day (most calculators put me at 1600-1550, 1400-1350 for BMR). However, I do seem to walk a lot (average of 8,000 steps a day, 5 miles a day). I just changed the handiness on it though to see if that feels more accurate. I don't know, I just don't see myself as being that active. I sit at a desk for about 6.5 hours a day (and spend the other 30 minutes either standing or walking around the building). I walk to and from the parking lot (which is only about .25 miles one way, .5 both ways). And when I get home, while I am mostly on my feet doing chores and what not, it's all stuff I feel like anyone else would be doing (going up and down stairs with laundry, walking the dogs, dishes).
The only thing I notice is I tend to do everything either very fast or with a lot of force (for example, I run up and downstairs with the laundry and scrub hard when I do dishes. I also fast walk in the grocery store). I fidget a lot too which I've heard burns an extra 50 or so calories a day. So maybe if you find that you do things with a certain gusto, you end up burning an extra 100 calories a day as well. I would use my best judgement I guess. If you know you're slow and not doing very much, maybe ignore what your Fitbit says. If you know you're a busy bee, maybe it's only wrong by 100 calories.0 -
Verity1111 wrote: »At first I thought it was saying 1300 calories per day, which seemed very low. I was reading it wrong because now it is saying I burn 1800-2100 calories per day and I'm considered sedentary (based on what it reads as my steps per day). 1300ish seemed low, but 2198 (what it says now after me wearing it all day) seems very high. I exercise rarely right now because I have aspiration pneumonia and I have only exercised a couple times in the time I've had it (since the 14th because I got sick on the 16th). I am 5'4" and weight between 195-200lbs. I'm 26. I have a FitBit Charge 2 btw.
Nah I don't go by any of these estimators.0 -
It doesn't seem off to me. I've been using a Fitbit since July 2015. First the Charge HR, then the Charge 2 when it came out. I'm 5'3" and between 111 and 112 pounds. My TDEE via Fitbit is, on average, 2396 calories. I've been following that ever since I've entered maintenance and I have not gained any weight whatsoever.1
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I've read a few different articles that all agree that Fitbit overestimates calories burned for ambulatory acivities like walking and running, but understimates for household activities like vaccumming and laundry. The consensus is that it all averages out to be fairly accurate up to +10% (compared to lab quality equipment). It does get more accurate the more you wear. I've had mine for 2 months and my calorie estimates match up with what most online calculators give me as an estimate. I think you should be able to trust it after a month or two of regular wear.
This article broke down what activity level you should use to estimate calories based on your step counts.
https://www.acsm.org/docs/brochures/selecting-and-effectively-using-a-pedometer.pdf
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I don't trust it too much. No possible way that I get an extra 800 calories for walking an hour and riding a stationery bike for 45 minutes, plus extra hundred+ calories for not being as sedentary as mfp thinks I am? I'm 5'2" and 160 lbs. I eat a third of my calories after midnight (night owl!) so I knew exactly what I had left for the day. I lost almost 200 lbs., so I kinda know what I can eat and what my rate of loss should be for the most part. I have a charge 2 that seems to only count 75% of my steps if walking over 3 mph, so why should I trust it at all? This is my second charge 2 btw - both had this problem. Plus it counts a lot of steps just by doing something like tying my shoe and gave me like 3000 extra steps for the bike yesterday even using the spinning session function. Maybe I just don't have any luck with them.
But I really do wish I could trust it because wow, that would be a lot more food that I could eat!
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All of these things give you a general ball park estimate...I wouldn't expect any of them to be highly accurate.1
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I think mine is off (I do have a metabolic disorder) due to the fact that it tells me I burn 2200 calories on a slow day,on a very active day(15k steps and exercise) It shows 3000. most days its 2400-2500. I eat 1712 calories and weight loss is really really slow(even dropping calories down lower than that,its always been slow going). thats with weighing everything too.
Ive had mine a little over 2 years too. wear it religiously. I know it wont take into effect my metabolic disorder but, it would be nice if it was even in the ballpark. even my heart rate can be off by 5 or 10 even at rest(I test it manually to see the difference). my heart rate is low at rest.I have a charge HR.2 -
My FitBit TDEE is within 5% of my actual TDEE so I would say it is fairly accurate.2
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Since you have a metabolic disorder, it makes sense yours would be 'off'. You could try to compensate by adjusting your stats. Such as tell your Fitbit profile that you weigh 25 pounds less than you do. That would reduce the BMR that Fitbit uses for you, and reduce calories overall for your activity.CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »I think mine is off (I do have a metabolic disorder) due to the fact that it tells me I burn 2200 calories on a slow day,on a very active day(15k steps and exercise) It shows 3000. most days its 2400-2500. I eat 1712 calories and weight loss is really really slow(even dropping calories down lower than that,its always been slow going). thats with weighing everything too.
Ive had mine a little over 2 years too. wear it religiously. I know it wont take into effect my metabolic disorder but, it would be nice if it was even in the ballpark. even my heart rate can be off by 5 or 10 even at rest(I test it manually to see the difference). my heart rate is low at rest.I have a charge HR.
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StaciMarie1974 wrote: »Since you have a metabolic disorder, it makes sense yours would be 'off'. You could try to compensate by adjusting your stats. Such as tell your Fitbit profile that you weigh 25 pounds less than you do. That would reduce the BMR that Fitbit uses for you, and reduce calories overall for your activity.CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »I think mine is off (I do have a metabolic disorder) due to the fact that it tells me I burn 2200 calories on a slow day,on a very active day(15k steps and exercise) It shows 3000. most days its 2400-2500. I eat 1712 calories and weight loss is really really slow(even dropping calories down lower than that,its always been slow going). thats with weighing everything too.
Ive had mine a little over 2 years too. wear it religiously. I know it wont take into effect my metabolic disorder but, it would be nice if it was even in the ballpark. even my heart rate can be off by 5 or 10 even at rest(I test it manually to see the difference). my heart rate is low at rest.I have a charge HR.
I could but that would put me at a really low calorie goal. I have tried eating at 1500 calories or less(on 1712 atm), I just end up tired and with no energy,I cant even get anything done around the house when I feel like that. If I told it I weighed 25lbs less that would put me at my goal weight.which is in the healthy BMI range. so if I told it I needed to lose 22lbs it would probably give me very low calories to eat. Im going to check it out to see what it says though. *added*so I went back and checked it out. I put in me weighing 25lbs less,and how much I need to lose. it said 1300+ (too low for me).and said it would also take me a year to lose 20lbs..but if I put in my weight now and what I want to lose it gives me 1800+ basically around what MFP gave me. I lowered mfp to 1712(due to macro changes) and Im feeling good eating at this level,more energy,etc. I have lost some a few weeks ago netting lower than that. which I guess would basically be the same but then I plateau again and it could be another 6 months before I lose again. Id rather have energy and be able to do things then eat so little and feel like Im dying lol0 -
My FitBit is accurate for me - and also, the numbers are much higher than what calculators (including MFP and Scooby) would predict for a person of my height (5'2) and with a desk job. Turns out that even though I'm petite, over 40, and have a desk job - you cannot underestimate the impact of NEAT on the total calories burned (TDEE). I don't run marathons, I don't lift heavy things - I walk (13-15K steps/day) and do circuit training with dumbbells - yet my total calories burned is about 2100-2200 in the winter (about 100 cals/higher in the spring/summer).
I got my FitBit about 3.5 years ago, and at the time was still set at sedentary on MFP. I was averaging at that time, 8K-10K steps/day. I got the good advice on these boards that wasn't sedentary. I raised my activity level to lightly active (now active as I am averaging even more steps) and my baseline calories went up, the exercise adjustments became more realistic - and I continued to lose weight on a pace I wanted (0.5lb/week at that point) until the time I changed to maintenance. During that time, I have trusted the numbers from FitBit and I have lost at the rate I wanted to lose, and now maintain with no significant challenges.
I do think that FitBit becomes more accurate over time - so I would give it longer than 1-2 weeks to figure out your patterns and your overall calorie burn.
TL/DR - for your stats, I don't think those FitBit estimates are off base. They seem feasible to me.1 -
Don't do it here at MFP. Continue eating the ~1700 if that is what you think you need. Just change it thru your Fitbit profile so that the Fitbit burn is decreased.CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »StaciMarie1974 wrote: »Since you have a metabolic disorder, it makes sense yours would be 'off'. You could try to compensate by adjusting your stats. Such as tell your Fitbit profile that you weigh 25 pounds less than you do. That would reduce the BMR that Fitbit uses for you, and reduce calories overall for your activity.CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »I think mine is off (I do have a metabolic disorder) due to the fact that it tells me I burn 2200 calories on a slow day,on a very active day(15k steps and exercise) It shows 3000. most days its 2400-2500. I eat 1712 calories and weight loss is really really slow(even dropping calories down lower than that,its always been slow going). thats with weighing everything too.
Ive had mine a little over 2 years too. wear it religiously. I know it wont take into effect my metabolic disorder but, it would be nice if it was even in the ballpark. even my heart rate can be off by 5 or 10 even at rest(I test it manually to see the difference). my heart rate is low at rest.I have a charge HR.
I could but that would put me at a really low calorie goal. I have tried eating at 1500 calories or less(on 1712 atm), I just end up tired and with no energy,I cant even get anything done around the house when I feel like that. If I told it I weighed 25lbs less that would put me at my goal weight.which is in the healthy BMI range. so if I told it I needed to lose 22lbs it would probably give me very low calories to eat. Im going to check it out to see what it says though. *added*so I went back and checked it out. I put in me weighing 25lbs less,and how much I need to lose. it said 1300+ (too low for me).and said it would also take me a year to lose 20lbs..but if I put in my weight now and what I want to lose it gives me 1800+ basically around what MFP gave me. I lowered mfp to 1712(due to macro changes) and Im feeling good eating at this level,more energy,etc. I have lost some a few weeks ago netting lower than that. which I guess would basically be the same but then I plateau again and it could be another 6 months before I lose again. Id rather have energy and be able to do things then eat so little and feel like Im dying lol
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StaciMarie1974 wrote: »Don't do it here at MFP. Continue eating the ~1700 if that is what you think you need. Just change it thru your Fitbit profile so that the Fitbit burn is decreased.CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »StaciMarie1974 wrote: »Since you have a metabolic disorder, it makes sense yours would be 'off'. You could try to compensate by adjusting your stats. Such as tell your Fitbit profile that you weigh 25 pounds less than you do. That would reduce the BMR that Fitbit uses for you, and reduce calories overall for your activity.CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »I think mine is off (I do have a metabolic disorder) due to the fact that it tells me I burn 2200 calories on a slow day,on a very active day(15k steps and exercise) It shows 3000. most days its 2400-2500. I eat 1712 calories and weight loss is really really slow(even dropping calories down lower than that,its always been slow going). thats with weighing everything too.
Ive had mine a little over 2 years too. wear it religiously. I know it wont take into effect my metabolic disorder but, it would be nice if it was even in the ballpark. even my heart rate can be off by 5 or 10 even at rest(I test it manually to see the difference). my heart rate is low at rest.I have a charge HR.
I could but that would put me at a really low calorie goal. I have tried eating at 1500 calories or less(on 1712 atm), I just end up tired and with no energy,I cant even get anything done around the house when I feel like that. If I told it I weighed 25lbs less that would put me at my goal weight.which is in the healthy BMI range. so if I told it I needed to lose 22lbs it would probably give me very low calories to eat. Im going to check it out to see what it says though. *added*so I went back and checked it out. I put in me weighing 25lbs less,and how much I need to lose. it said 1300+ (too low for me).and said it would also take me a year to lose 20lbs..but if I put in my weight now and what I want to lose it gives me 1800+ basically around what MFP gave me. I lowered mfp to 1712(due to macro changes) and Im feeling good eating at this level,more energy,etc. I have lost some a few weeks ago netting lower than that. which I guess would basically be the same but then I plateau again and it could be another 6 months before I lose again. Id rather have energy and be able to do things then eat so little and feel like Im dying lol
I could try that and see what happens I guess.1 -
I use it as a rough guide, but take what it says with a grain of salt, especially since my Flex doesn't know how to count when it comes to my deficit. Example: my deficit is set to 500. Yesterday my deficit was 725 cals (2258 out, 1533 in), but the app simultaneously tells me "You are under budget" AND "169 calories over". I don't know if it's because the Fitbit meal plan settings clash with my MFP goals (I log all my food in MFP since there's no local database for food on the FB side) or if the mobile app is buggy. The browser dashboard/Windows app seems to get it right most of the time, which is even more confusing. If it can't get my deficit right, can I trust the burn count?
I'm not sure if I'm understanding your post completely but it sounds like you are trying to analyze and align all the numbers in both MFP and FitBit. One thing I learned early on, was trying to understand and match up the numbers (deficits, adjustments, etc) is just not going to work. They operate under different algorithms and the numbers are never going to match.
My advice:
Use MFP to set your overall goals (if trying to lose, choose a reasonable rate of loss to get an appropriate deficit)
Choose an activity level that is appropriate for your full day, not going by default rules like desk job = sedentary
Set up FitBit to sync with MFP and enable negative calorie adjustments
Make sure goals are aligned in both systems (lose 1 lb/week in both for example)
Track food in MFP (ideally using a food scale for accuracy)
Log any exercise above and beyond step based activities in FitBit
Monitor how your calories are allocated and reconciled throughout the day - if you work out early in the day, you may see an initial spike but as the day goes on, your adjustment may get smaller. If you work out late in the day, the opposite may be true and you may find a big adjustment to work with at the end of the day.
If you have questions about whether everything is jiving - look at the total calories burned and what MFP estimates you burn in a day excluding exercise (this is shown in the MFP app, not sure about the desktop). The difference between these two numbers is the overall exercise adjustment.
If you have concerns - eat back only a portion of the exercise adjustments, and monitor your actual results over time.1
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