Help! I don't trust my Fitbit.
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I agree with a previous poster that this only makes sense if you at one point manually adjusted your calories down. Otherwise, moving to sedentary would have made the calories go down. I do fitbit adjustment with a lightly active setting and negative adjustments enabled. I am usually in negative adjustments until I have finished my morning coffee, but once I get up and moving, it starts ramping up. I also have problems with it counting my exercise. It hardly ever recognizes my Insanity workouts, but in the grand scheme of things, those calories are fairly minor so I don't sweat it.
Just to clarify, my overall calorie allotment did decrease to 1200, but my overall calories remaining increased when switching to sedentary because, as @kaylajane11 said, I get added calories around ~2500. This works for me since I start the day with a lengthy HIIT session, but have an otherwise sedentary day.
I'll try to update in a week just to confirm this is all working. I really appreciate everyone's help! This forum is great.0 -
kaylajane11 wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »kaylajane11 wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »bearclanfit wrote: »Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Change your MFP setting to sedentary. Then you'll get more fitbit calories. And turning off the negative adjustments will also help.
Changing my mfp setting to sedentary just boosted my remaining calories from ~450 to 917 which is more than enough to survive the rest of my at-the-desk day! I'm not going to eat all of those, but that's definitely the difference between making it to dinner with a snack and passing out.
It seems like dropping my weight loss goal to 1 lb per week would probably have a similar effect on remaining calories available, but I haven't tested this. But either way it seems that calorie allotment with this workout plan just isn't cutting it.
Then something was wrong with your settings (which likely got fixed by some reset that happened when you changed your activity level). Changing from "lightly active" to "sedentary" should never *increase* how many calories you get to eat.
That's what I was thinking at first too, but actually it would. At lightly active you wouldn't get more calories until you reached a certain amount of steps/activity. At sedentary you get more calories sooner, as your calories are originally set lower, as you would be moving less. I typically get extra calories once I reach about 2,500 steps.
Maybe if negative adjustments were off? But not if they're on. And I still think that the decrease in "projected burn for the rest of the day" would be a bigger factor.
I'm not sure how the "projected burn" works, because I've always had mine set to sedentary. I prefer it this way, because it doesn't take away calories later in the day - it only adds calories once I've hit the ~2,500 step mark. I do have negative adjustments enabled, but it only comes into play if I don't hit that mark. So if I sync early in the day before I've moved around much, I do get a negative adjustment, but it always goes up once I get more steps in.
I'm set at sedentary and average 15-20k steps a day and i STILL get calories taken away every night, usually around 60. When i was set at lightly active it was closer to 200 calories taken away every night.
I'm an early to bed, early to rise which makes a difference.
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Christine_72 wrote: »kaylajane11 wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »kaylajane11 wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »bearclanfit wrote: »Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Change your MFP setting to sedentary. Then you'll get more fitbit calories. And turning off the negative adjustments will also help.
Changing my mfp setting to sedentary just boosted my remaining calories from ~450 to 917 which is more than enough to survive the rest of my at-the-desk day! I'm not going to eat all of those, but that's definitely the difference between making it to dinner with a snack and passing out.
It seems like dropping my weight loss goal to 1 lb per week would probably have a similar effect on remaining calories available, but I haven't tested this. But either way it seems that calorie allotment with this workout plan just isn't cutting it.
Then something was wrong with your settings (which likely got fixed by some reset that happened when you changed your activity level). Changing from "lightly active" to "sedentary" should never *increase* how many calories you get to eat.
That's what I was thinking at first too, but actually it would. At lightly active you wouldn't get more calories until you reached a certain amount of steps/activity. At sedentary you get more calories sooner, as your calories are originally set lower, as you would be moving less. I typically get extra calories once I reach about 2,500 steps.
Maybe if negative adjustments were off? But not if they're on. And I still think that the decrease in "projected burn for the rest of the day" would be a bigger factor.
I'm not sure how the "projected burn" works, because I've always had mine set to sedentary. I prefer it this way, because it doesn't take away calories later in the day - it only adds calories once I've hit the ~2,500 step mark. I do have negative adjustments enabled, but it only comes into play if I don't hit that mark. So if I sync early in the day before I've moved around much, I do get a negative adjustment, but it always goes up once I get more steps in.
I'm set at sedentary and average 15-20k steps a day and i STILL get calories taken away every night, usually around 60. When i was set at lightly active it was closer to 200 calories taken away every night.
I'm an early to bed, early to rise which makes a difference.
Just out of curiosity, do you have Fitbit calculate your calorie goal, or do you have it manually set? I have set mine manually and I have never had a negative adjustment later in the day. Just wondering if that affects it?0 -
Do you think Fitbit is giving you more calories than you've burned? If so then leave 200-300 of the Fitbit calorie adjustment uneaten.
Do you think the Fitbit is adding too little for exercise? If so, then log that and as others have explained the logged activity will override the Fitbit data for the time period.
Ultimately, time will be your guide. Choose a path and stick to it for 4-8 weeks. Judge by your results if you need to adjust.bearclanfit wrote: »Please help me figure out an appropriate calorie intake!
I started working out and started dieting at the same time. My daily calorie intake goal is 1290 and my mfp setting is lightly active. I'm doing a 45 minute HIIT workout and a 30 minute yoga workout each day. It's a lot. Much more than I'm used to.
My Fitbit is enabled to make negative adjustments on mfp. The problem is I get sweaty and it rarely continues monitoring my heart rate throughout my HIIT workout. When I do both workouts but have very little "steps" each day, I'm STARVING as Fitbit makes adjustments that counter any manual entries I make in mfp for the HIIT and yoga. If I do the same workouts but get more steps in--lightly active stuff in my opinion--I end up with huge deficits. Like 800 calories under my goal.
Now I get that walking more should end up having an impact on my overall calorie deficit, but my point here is that I don't feel the calories I burn in my workouts are being adequately accounted for. Should I turn off negative adjustments for my Fitbit and just enter my workouts manually? I have no idea how to reconcile this!
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kaylajane11 wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »kaylajane11 wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »kaylajane11 wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »bearclanfit wrote: »Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Change your MFP setting to sedentary. Then you'll get more fitbit calories. And turning off the negative adjustments will also help.
Changing my mfp setting to sedentary just boosted my remaining calories from ~450 to 917 which is more than enough to survive the rest of my at-the-desk day! I'm not going to eat all of those, but that's definitely the difference between making it to dinner with a snack and passing out.
It seems like dropping my weight loss goal to 1 lb per week would probably have a similar effect on remaining calories available, but I haven't tested this. But either way it seems that calorie allotment with this workout plan just isn't cutting it.
Then something was wrong with your settings (which likely got fixed by some reset that happened when you changed your activity level). Changing from "lightly active" to "sedentary" should never *increase* how many calories you get to eat.
That's what I was thinking at first too, but actually it would. At lightly active you wouldn't get more calories until you reached a certain amount of steps/activity. At sedentary you get more calories sooner, as your calories are originally set lower, as you would be moving less. I typically get extra calories once I reach about 2,500 steps.
Maybe if negative adjustments were off? But not if they're on. And I still think that the decrease in "projected burn for the rest of the day" would be a bigger factor.
I'm not sure how the "projected burn" works, because I've always had mine set to sedentary. I prefer it this way, because it doesn't take away calories later in the day - it only adds calories once I've hit the ~2,500 step mark. I do have negative adjustments enabled, but it only comes into play if I don't hit that mark. So if I sync early in the day before I've moved around much, I do get a negative adjustment, but it always goes up once I get more steps in.
I'm set at sedentary and average 15-20k steps a day and i STILL get calories taken away every night, usually around 60. When i was set at lightly active it was closer to 200 calories taken away every night.
I'm an early to bed, early to rise which makes a difference.
Just out of curiosity, do you have Fitbit calculate your calorie goal, or do you have it manually set? I have set mine manually and I have never had a negative adjustment later in the day. Just wondering if that affects it?
I have both fitbit and mfp calculate my goal, Nothing manual.
Have you written down how many calories you have left when you go to bed, and then go back and check if it's the same number the next morning? The lowering of calories happens to me even when i disable negative adjustments, i just dont wake up to a negative number, which is the only difference between neg ad being on or off.0 -
That is so weird! I'm also an early bird (last night I was heading to bed at 8:03! I have toddler twins,don't judge me lol! ) and this morning I have the same calories left that I did last night. The last hour before bed I do get pretty sedentary, once the babies go to bed I pretty much crash on the couch. I would be a little grumpy to lose calories just because I was sleeping lol.Christine_72 wrote: »kaylajane11 wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »kaylajane11 wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »kaylajane11 wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »bearclanfit wrote: »Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Change your MFP setting to sedentary. Then you'll get more fitbit calories. And turning off the negative adjustments will also help.
Changing my mfp setting to sedentary just boosted my remaining calories from ~450 to 917 which is more than enough to survive the rest of my at-the-desk day! I'm not going to eat all of those, but that's definitely the difference between making it to dinner with a snack and passing out.
It seems like dropping my weight loss goal to 1 lb per week would probably have a similar effect on remaining calories available, but I haven't tested this. But either way it seems that calorie allotment with this workout plan just isn't cutting it.
Then something was wrong with your settings (which likely got fixed by some reset that happened when you changed your activity level). Changing from "lightly active" to "sedentary" should never *increase* how many calories you get to eat.
That's what I was thinking at first too, but actually it would. At lightly active you wouldn't get more calories until you reached a certain amount of steps/activity. At sedentary you get more calories sooner, as your calories are originally set lower, as you would be moving less. I typically get extra calories once I reach about 2,500 steps.
Maybe if negative adjustments were off? But not if they're on. And I still think that the decrease in "projected burn for the rest of the day" would be a bigger factor.
I'm not sure how the "projected burn" works, because I've always had mine set to sedentary. I prefer it this way, because it doesn't take away calories later in the day - it only adds calories once I've hit the ~2,500 step mark. I do have negative adjustments enabled, but it only comes into play if I don't hit that mark. So if I sync early in the day before I've moved around much, I do get a negative adjustment, but it always goes up once I get more steps in.
I'm set at sedentary and average 15-20k steps a day and i STILL get calories taken away every night, usually around 60. When i was set at lightly active it was closer to 200 calories taken away every night.
I'm an early to bed, early to rise which makes a difference.
Just out of curiosity, do you have Fitbit calculate your calorie goal, or do you have it manually set? I have set mine manually and I have never had a negative adjustment later in the day. Just wondering if that affects it?
I have both fitbit and mfp calculate my goal, Nothing manual.
Have you written down how many calories you have left when you go to bed, and then go back and check if it's the same number the next morning? The lowering of calories happens to me even when i disable negative adjustments, i just dont wake up to a negative number, which is the only difference between neg ad being on or off.
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That is so weird! I'm also an early bird (last night I was heading to bed at 8:03! I have toddler twins,don't judge me lol! ) and this morning I have the same calories left that I did last night. The last hour before bed I do get pretty sedentary, once the babies go to bed I pretty much crash on the couch. I would be a little grumpy to lose calories just because I was sleeping lol.Christine_72 wrote: »kaylajane11 wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »kaylajane11 wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »kaylajane11 wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »bearclanfit wrote: »Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Change your MFP setting to sedentary. Then you'll get more fitbit calories. And turning off the negative adjustments will also help.
Changing my mfp setting to sedentary just boosted my remaining calories from ~450 to 917 which is more than enough to survive the rest of my at-the-desk day! I'm not going to eat all of those, but that's definitely the difference between making it to dinner with a snack and passing out.
It seems like dropping my weight loss goal to 1 lb per week would probably have a similar effect on remaining calories available, but I haven't tested this. But either way it seems that calorie allotment with this workout plan just isn't cutting it.
Then something was wrong with your settings (which likely got fixed by some reset that happened when you changed your activity level). Changing from "lightly active" to "sedentary" should never *increase* how many calories you get to eat.
That's what I was thinking at first too, but actually it would. At lightly active you wouldn't get more calories until you reached a certain amount of steps/activity. At sedentary you get more calories sooner, as your calories are originally set lower, as you would be moving less. I typically get extra calories once I reach about 2,500 steps.
Maybe if negative adjustments were off? But not if they're on. And I still think that the decrease in "projected burn for the rest of the day" would be a bigger factor.
I'm not sure how the "projected burn" works, because I've always had mine set to sedentary. I prefer it this way, because it doesn't take away calories later in the day - it only adds calories once I've hit the ~2,500 step mark. I do have negative adjustments enabled, but it only comes into play if I don't hit that mark. So if I sync early in the day before I've moved around much, I do get a negative adjustment, but it always goes up once I get more steps in.
I'm set at sedentary and average 15-20k steps a day and i STILL get calories taken away every night, usually around 60. When i was set at lightly active it was closer to 200 calories taken away every night.
I'm an early to bed, early to rise which makes a difference.
Just out of curiosity, do you have Fitbit calculate your calorie goal, or do you have it manually set? I have set mine manually and I have never had a negative adjustment later in the day. Just wondering if that affects it?
I have both fitbit and mfp calculate my goal, Nothing manual.
Have you written down how many calories you have left when you go to bed, and then go back and check if it's the same number the next morning? The lowering of calories happens to me even when i disable negative adjustments, i just dont wake up to a negative number, which is the only difference between neg ad being on or off.
Ha my kids are grown and moved out, and i go to bed at that time too
Last night i had 559 calories remaining. This morning it had gone down to 512 cals. Not a big deal, but annoying none the less. Like i said, i turned negative adjustments OFF to see what would happen, and i lose the same amount either way.1 -
@Christine_72 the adjustment between MFP and Fitbit happens because MFP assumes you will be active every hour.
Example, MFP expects me to burn 1771 calories total per day which is ~74 per hour. So if I sync at 9pm, and Fibit says I have burned 1700 already, here is how MFP thinks:
Well, you've burned 1700 so far and there are 3 hours left today. So you will burn another 74 x 3 before midnight, putting you at 1922. So you'll have 151 more than the 1771 we thought. Bon Apetite!
Except if I'm in bed at 9pm, and my BMR is about 52 calories per hour, I'm going to burn 22 calories less per hour than MFP projects. So in the morning when I sync - MFP will show actual burned of 1856 (or maybe a few calories higher, but not much) data from Fitbit, so the adjustment is down to 85.
This adjustment will be bigger if you have a higher activity level. I'm set to lightly active. If I increased it then MFP would expect me to burn more per hour. If I decreased to sedentary, MFP would expect me to burn less per hour.
If you want to understand your adjustment better, figure out how many calories MFP expects you to burn in a day. Divide by 24. (Take your calorie goal and add back your deficit. My calorie goal is 1521 and I have a 250 deficit.) Look up your BMR, divide that by 24. The difference in the two numbers is how far off, per hour, you'll be at most.1 -
I had to disconnect my FitBit from MFP - it was way too confusing for me! LOL1
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I've never been a fan of the wrist HRMs for this reason. These are inaccurate (compared to the chest models) and you are better off with manual estimations. HRMs are designed for long sustained steady state cardio - all calorie estimations are based on this base data.
In short - running, biking, swimming - HRMs good. HIIT - HRMs bad.1 -
I enter my work outs on the fitbit app. It will increase your burn there and rollover to MFP. I found fitbit estimates to be more accurate. As much as I would love to believe I burn over 400 cals doing Insanity Max30 like MFP says I believe the 200-280 I get on fitbit is more realistic.
On here I'm set to sedentary with negative adjustments. I only log food on MFP and only log activity into fitbit. It works for me.1 -
@StaciMarie1974 thank you. I was always under the impression that you wouldn't get negative adjustments if you disabled the feature here on mfp, Obviously i was wrong.
I know all about the projected activity level, I am set at sedentary. I pretty much stop moving after dinner at around 6pm and go to bed around 8. So that's 6 hours at or around BMR levels
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Anecdotally regarding Fitbit....After doing TDEE calcs over 7 different sites (yes I'm a geek that way - I like data), the moderate TDEE and Active TDEE estimates for me were roughly between 3100 (moderate) and 3400 (Active). BMR's are around 1900, which is where MFP starts with me.
Fitbit is telling me that I hit between those numbers pretty much every day. I'm a 54 yo male, 5'11" and about 226, down about 14 lbs so far, but only tracking Fitbit calories closely for a couple of weeks (when I started I was all over the place before settling on my tracking method). I've been generally eating about 1950 a day and intending to bump that up a little so as not to under-eat.
Anyway, the point of the post is say that Fitbit seems to say that my TDEE is about what the estimates are, i.e. fairly close. Over time we'll see how close it is. I don't have enough personal weight loss data yet to make a claim on it, but I think I trust it more than when I started.3 -
@Silentpadna I'd be very interested in hearing your results.
Fitbit overestimated for me, so i had to tweak stride length, age and height a bit, and now it gives me more realistic numbers.0 -
I've never been a fan of the wrist HRMs for this reason. These are inaccurate (compared to the chest models) and you are better off with manual estimations. HRMs are designed for long sustained steady state cardio - all calorie estimations are based on this base data.
In short - running, biking, swimming - HRMs good. HIIT - HRMs bad.
Define "manual estimations". There are exactly zero online calculators that have an option that remotely resembles my life (on my feet a ton; typically getting 15,000-20,000 steps/day; chasing and carrying young children; but *not* doing large amounts of high intensity cardio). They all assume that as you start spending more hours doing physical activity, that physical activity gets more intense. That's the main reason I use a FitBit. My actual weight loss results showed me that my best guess based on the online calculators was miles off for me. Conveniently, the FitBit numbers match my actual weight loss results.2 -
I didn't trust my FitBit, either. It was wildly inaccurate as far as measuring calories I burned, always way too low for the activity I'd performed while wearing it. Fortunately for me, mine was a gift, so I didn't lose any money.
Ditch the Fitbit, find a fitness calculator that seems reliable, and use an accurate calorie needs calculator. I use one based on the Mifflin-St.Jeor formula, which I've found is pretty accurate. (I wish I could connect you with one online, but the one I'm using was given to me by a friend. It uses M-SJ and multiplies my BMR by an activity factor of 1.6 for slow/sedentary job.) As for exercise, even if you find a calculator that you think is reliable, don't eat back all of your exercise calories on most days (aim for 50% until you get a feel for how accurate your calculator is). That will give you a little cushion of insurance, because it probably won't be an exact calculation of what you've burned.1 -
I think you misunderstand what negative adjustments are.
If synced, MFP compares what it expects you to burn (total, all day) to what Fitbit says you burned (total, all day). If your actual is less than MFP expected, this is where negative adjustments matter.
Lets say you are supposed to burn 2000 and you have a 500 calorie deficit, so MFP tells you 'eat 1500'. But you have a lazy day and Fitbit says you only burned 1800. If you do not have negatives enabled, your Fitbit adjustment is 0 because its not allowed to go negative. MFP still tells you to eat 1500, and you have a smaller deficit but if you're not paying attention you may not realize it. If you have negatives enabled, your Fitbit adjustment is -200 and MFP tells you to eat 1300. Deficit intact.
Negative adjustments only matter if your actual burn is lower than projected. And MFP still will not go below 1200 on its recommendation of what to eat.Christine_72 wrote: »@StaciMarie1974 thank you. I was always under the impression that you wouldn't get negative adjustments if you disabled the feature here on mfp, Obviously i was wrong.
I know all about the projected activity level, I am set at sedentary. I pretty much stop moving after dinner at around 6pm and go to bed around 8. So that's 6 hours at or around BMR levels
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I enter my work outs on the fitbit app. It will increase your burn there and rollover to MFP. I found fitbit estimates to be more accurate. As much as I would love to believe I burn over 400 cals doing Insanity Max30 like MFP says I believe the 200-280 I get on fitbit is more realistic.
On here I'm set to sedentary with negative adjustments. I only log food on MFP and only log activity into fitbit. It works for me.
Exactly what I do. Before my Fitbit I was logging my boot camp workouts manually and estimating calories burned. Since I started using my Fitbit I just use the calorie estimate from that, which is typically lower than what I had estimated in the past, so even if it's not 100% accurate, it's still better than me guessing. And when I'm on point with my diet, using my Fitbit to track my calorie output seems to be pretty on target, as I lose weight steadily.0 -
I didn't trust my FitBit, either. It was wildly inaccurate as far as measuring calories I burned, always way too low for the activity I'd performed while wearing it. Fortunately for me, mine was a gift, so I didn't lose any money.
Ditch the Fitbit, find a fitness calculator that seems reliable, and use an accurate calorie needs calculator. I use one based on the Mifflin-St.Jeor formula, which I've found is pretty accurate. (I wish I could connect you with one online, but the one I'm using was given to me by a friend. It uses M-SJ and multiplies my BMR by an activity factor of 1.6 for slow/sedentary job.)
Looks like the problem wasn't your FitBit - but that you are on the higher end of the normal distribution for metabolism. An average person would only multiply their BMR by 1.2 for a sedentary lifestyle. If multiplying by 1.6 is right for you, you're burning quite a few more calories than the average person - which is why your FitBit was underestimating (because it uses formulas for the average person).
The other possible explanation is that you're overestimating the calories you consume.
None of which really matters because you've found the right match between calorie intake and burn - but I mention it because it's not common for people to find that their FitBit seriously underestimates their burn.0 -
I enter my work outs on the fitbit app. It will increase your burn there and rollover to MFP. I found fitbit estimates to be more accurate. As much as I would love to believe I burn over 400 cals doing Insanity Max30 like MFP says I believe the 200-280 I get on fitbit is more realistic.
On here I'm set to sedentary with negative adjustments. I only log food on MFP and only log activity into fitbit. It works for me.
I didn't know you could log your workouts there, aside from tracking exercise. But I like the sound of this! I just have to figure out how to do it lol.0
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