Fitbit Calorie Adjustment question

jec228
jec228 Posts: 67 Member
edited November 17 in Health and Weight Loss
First off, my apologies if this question has already been asked. I just recently got a fitbit (which I am loving!) and linked it to MFP. It updates in real time and gives me a calorie adjustment based on my steps/heart rate. The calorie adjustment it provides always seems so high. (most days giving me an additional 700 - 1,000+ calories/day). I have the Alta HR so it measures my heart rate which is why I wanted it to see my workout data. Does this sound correct?

I used to just wear an HRM during my workouts and would never really burn more than 650ish calories that I would manually enter back into MFP. I get that this is tracking my entire day but I am wondering everyone's thoughts on accuracy and what I should take into consideration for eating back some of these calories?

My base is set to 1500/day. Desk job but workout up to 6 days/week. mix of cardio (run, walk or spin class)/weights, & recently started yoga. Still looking to lose 15-20 lbs.

TIA

Replies

  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    If you just got your Fitbit, you should give it some time to settle in and get to "know you" before trusting the adjustment. Especially with the HR devices (about three weeks to a month).

    Most importantly, do you have MFP set correctly for your daily activity level? You could be getting enough extra incidental activity in your life that you need to bump up your activity setting.

    What's your step count like?

    For now, try eating back just a portion of your exercise adjustment until you've had your Alta a while.
  • sllm1
    sllm1 Posts: 2,130 Member
    edited April 2017
    My adjustment is correct, but I've been tracking for years so I know this from keeping a careful eye on my intake and weight loss.

    How many steps do you typically take?

    I would probably get 700 on a day with 10,000 steps and a CrossFit class.
  • arya8
    arya8 Posts: 316 Member
    Mine does the same thing and I've had mine since january. If I ate all the calories that it gives me I'd be gaining weight. I just don't have it synced to mfp. I just transfer my workout calories to mfp manually.
  • jec228
    jec228 Posts: 67 Member
    I have MFP set to sedentary. I get in a workout most days but I sit at a desk for work and in my car for a longer commute. I didn't want MFP to factor anything in for me automatically.

    Right now my average steps are around 14k but it ranges from day to day. I have only had it for about 3 weeks so I will take all of that into consideration. Just mostly worried it is really overestimating.

    If it is accurate then most days I am coming in well below 1200 cals (but eating 1800). If it's not accurate then I worry I'm eating too much.
  • jec228
    jec228 Posts: 67 Member
    sllm1 wrote: »
    My adjustment is correct, but I've been tracking for years so I know this from keeping a careful eye on my intake and weight loss.

    How many steps do you typically take?

    I would probably get 700 on a day with 10,000 steps and a CrossFit class.

    That sounds similar to when I was using an HRM. On a day I would run/walk and do a full body circuit or something I could easily break 600 cals burned on my HRM (which, also... who knows how spot on it is with accuracy). So maybe now that it is counting the rest of my steps and movement an extra 800-1000 cals to eat could be correct?
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,254 Member
    edited April 2017
    Depending on HOW and WHEN in the day you get your 14k steps and assuming you are not an outlier your total daily energy expenditure is likely close to an amount that could be expressed as "beyond the MFP active setting" but probably "not beyond the MFP very active setting".

    Depending on deficit setting and amount of fat available to lose and how close to MFP expectations I had been losing, based on exercise and activities yielding approximately 14k steps a day, i would be tempted to set myself at either very active or active and not enter any additional exercise...
  • TheCupcakeCounter
    TheCupcakeCounter Posts: 606 Member
    I have the Charge 2 and in the beginning I also thought the calorie credits they were giving me were quite high. It did seem to calm down after a few weeks but I still have some higher days that are in the realm of 800-1000. I only eat back a portion of my exercise calories (25-50% depending on my hunger and what activities I did that day) as a buffer.
  • macchiatto
    macchiatto Posts: 2,890 Member
    I used a Fitbit Flex before (a while back; it was a hand-me-down and didn't last long) but I'm so glad you asked this because I just got a Charge 2 last week and have been wondering the same thing. I love that it has an HRM but I also feel like it's giving me a ton of calories and I'm wondering how accurate it is! (Not sure if it matters that I'm reverse dieting on MFP so my default is set to only 1450 calories at this point but Fitbit "knows" I want to maintain now.)
  • jec228
    jec228 Posts: 67 Member
    Hmm, all good points. I guess I just need to kind of wait it out and see if it levels off and play with how much I want to eat back. I don't think I can consistently eat over 2400 Cals/day every day which is what it would require if I ate everything back. My guess based on your suggestions is that I am better off just taking some of them back (2-300) and figuring it is a small overestimation.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    The thing to realize is that if you're awake for 14 hours, a 1,000 calorie adjustment is still less than 100 calories/hour. It seems like a lot because it's been bunched together, but being ~70 calories/hour more active than sedentary isn't actually that hard.
  • JaydedMiss
    JaydedMiss Posts: 4,286 Member
    SusanMFindlay wrote: »
    The thing to realize is that if you're awake for 14 hours, a 1,000 calorie adjustment is still less than 100 calories/hour. It seems like a lot because it's been bunched together, but being ~70 calories/hour more active than sedentary isn't actually that hard.

    never thought about it that way haha
  • RosieS_1980
    RosieS_1980 Posts: 61 Member
    My Fitbit is pretty accurate. I get about 20,000 steps a day then my workouts are recorded on top of that. At the end of the day my calories 'left' are the same within 20 cals on mfp and Fitbit. I've had the Fitbit for about 10 weeks now and it took a bit of fiddling with my activity level on here and making sure the goals are the same on Fitbit to get the data to match up!

    I'm down 22lbs since the end of Jan :)
  • jec228
    jec228 Posts: 67 Member
    SusanMFindlay wrote: »
    jec228 wrote: »
    I have MFP set to sedentary. I get in a workout most days but I sit at a desk for work and in my car for a longer commute. I didn't want MFP to factor anything in for me automatically.

    Right now my average steps are around 14k but it ranges from day to day. I have only had it for about 3 weeks so I will take all of that into consideration. Just mostly worried it is really overestimating.

    If it is accurate then most days I am coming in well below 1200 cals (but eating 1800). If it's not accurate then I worry I'm eating too much.

    If you are averaging 14,000 steps/day, you are dramatically more active than the typical North American. And if you're set to sedentary, it's no surprise that you're getting very large adjustments.

    For context, I'm 5'4 (almost), 152 lbs and 41 years old. In the last month, I've averaged ~17,000 steps/day without any significant "working out". My average daily calorie burn has been about 2,600 cals/day according to FitBit (Charge 2). Eating about 2,300 cals/day, I'm down 8 pounds since the beginning of January. So, my FitBit numbers are pretty much perfectly accurate. I've set myself to "active" and I still get a positive adjustment of at least 300 cals almost every day (sometimes much more than that). If I were set to "sedentary", I'd easily be getting adjustments in the 1,000 cals/day range.

    This is SO helpful. On Monday, I took just over 18,000 steps with my workout included and the fitbit recorded 997 calories into my MFP bank. I suppose I just thought it was overestimating drastically but knowing I make the conscious effort to exercise and move throughout the day, although a desk job and commute, I am doing better than I initially thought. My h & w stats are similar to yours although I will be 30 in a few months. Makes me think I could maybe be eating a bit more....
  • Misskcm
    Misskcm Posts: 143 Member
    If I went by what my Fitbit says I would be eating close to 3000 calories a day and still losing 2 pounds a week. Personally I can only eat about 1500 to maybe 1750 a day and still drop pounds while highly active. I just don't eat back any of my exercise calories.
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