Long time user new fitbit

loulouowens
loulouowens Posts: 103 Member
edited November 17 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all

Ive been using mfp since july last year and so fat lost 80lb. Ive always just eaten what mfp said because i didn't really exercises when I was bigger. Recently taken up running and got a fitbit, ive now linked the two and im very confused over my calories. Im down to my last 28lb to lose and set to sedentary (not always consistent in exercise) my loss rate is set at 1lb per week.

Today fitbit has adjusted my calories by over 500+ i know the deficit is already built in, but this seems really high! Can i really eat calories earned from just moving about? Walking the dog? Etc? I thought it had to be purposeful exercise? Like when i run 3.5 mile 3 times a Week that earns me about 300 calories, so i sometimes eat back 150 of those beacuse i am hungrier in run days.

Im so confused now, and feel like disconnecting the accounts!

Thank you x

2w39ep56sg71.png
0jj8mnsmoee4.png

Replies

  • loulouowens
    loulouowens Posts: 103 Member
    I know, but I don't always hit steps that high (desk job) so I don't want to change from sedentary. Is it okay to eat Fitbit adjustments?
  • RAinWA
    RAinWA Posts: 1,980 Member
    I have found my fitbit to be pretty accurate and eat up to the adjustments it gives me (I've been maintaining for around 3 years). If your fitbit is new you might just eat a portion until you have a few weeks of data to see how accurate it is for you.
  • CoachJen71
    CoachJen71 Posts: 1,200 Member
    Yes, eat your Fitbit adjustment back. Good job on the loss so far, and good luck on finishing. It's great that you have taken up running​. Wish my joints​ would go for that!

    ____________________________________________

    Down 140lbs: My story.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    My fitbit overestimates my calories by about 250cal per day. On days where I walk more it can overestimate by as much as 400. If I ate according to it I would be gaining about 3lbs per month. (I tried the first few months). So now I only use it to track my sleep. Useless otherwise sadly.

    All other pedometers I use give the same calories and fitbit gives double that.

    Try it and see how things go for you and adjust accordingly.
  • loulouowens
    loulouowens Posts: 103 Member
    Thank You all for your replies. I guess I will just see how it goes!

    tbh on non run days I am okay at 1450kcal, but on run days I could really do with eating more than the 150kcal extra i have been allowing myself.

    I suppose i really need to get used to tracking and eating exercise cals ready for maintenance, I don't want to have to eat such a small amount for the rest of my life!
  • lemonychild
    lemonychild Posts: 654 Member
    Fitbit is very accurate for me. I love it...
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,140 Member
    Eat 50% back, monitor for 4 weeks, see if you're hitting your weight loss rate of a 1lb per week and adjust up or down accordingly. If you have a HR model, it is likely to be more accurate than a non-HR model. On days that I hit 13000 steps (which is most days) I get about 800 calories from my Garmin, I am set to Lightly Active in MFP and eat them all back and still losing around the loss rate that I have set up.
  • inertiastrength
    inertiastrength Posts: 2,343 Member
    I have a desk job but through the week get about 10K and weekends 13K, those numbers look pretty accurate to me if I'm honest.
  • inertiastrength
    inertiastrength Posts: 2,343 Member
    edited April 2017
    That being said, if you're USED to eating say 1500 (like me) then you WILL see glycogen gains if you just eat 500 extra calories, so while you're losing fat and in a deficit it's important to note any sudden change in your eating and macros will do that. I'd eat back a couple hundred and don't panic about it if you don't lose or even gain a bit if you're good and under that figure anyhow. You'll see the downward trend over time.
  • caloriemuse
    caloriemuse Posts: 18 Member
    First and foremost congrats on the accomplishment so far, great work. Whatever you have been doing is working. It might make some sense to keep doing what you have been doing and only use the fit bit info as an interesting new perspective but not some adjustment to your plan. That said I have had this very same question, here's the best explanation I've found. Interestingly it aligns with my experience as well.

    On exercise calories and a diet : Yoni Freedhoff. This guy seems to have a pretty good story to tell in the video. His blog is insightful as well. http://www.weightymatters.ca/
    video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7FK8noIc5I
    The one thing that I'd like to see added to this is what the supposed science is, the biochemistry. From the video, it seems like the most sensible explanation is that exercise induces your body to subsequently slow down energy expenditure; example you may without exercise burn your natural 2500 calories in energy in a day. Add exercise and although you burn 500 calories at that activity, the body, following exercise, slows down its energy expenditure such that at the end of the day you are still right around the 2500. If there is any, and there is a question in the data if there is, the effective calorie deficit from exercise is probably in the single digits %'s.
  • YalithKBK
    YalithKBK Posts: 317 Member
    How long have you been using your Fitbit? It has a break-in period where it learns to adjust your calorie burn over time looking at your weight and your calorie intake. I'd give it a month to get to know you.

    I track my calories differently than most people. I looked at how many calories I burned, on average, for three weeks (2200 cals/day). Then I told MFP I was going to eat 1600 cals/day because I know I burn 2200 cals/day on average (I leave a 100 calorie wiggle room as my FItbit is not 100% accurate). This smooths out your day to day fluctuations with exercise and gives you a single, steady number to aim for.

    If you think your activity will vary a LOT you can also keep track cals in/out for the past 7 days:
    80cvov600fvb.png
    Here's mine. The cals out is what my Fitbit says at the end of the day. My cals in is what I reported to MFP. Over these 7 days, I've averaged about 1600 cals/day in and 2200 cals/day out even though the numbers are quite different from day to day. This is probably more work than people want to put into this, but it's what works for me. I also reevaluate how many calories I'm burning every 5-7 pounds to stay accurate.
  • xLyric
    xLyric Posts: 840 Member
    I've always disliked my Fitbit being connected to MFP, mostly because it's not very good at guessing, and half the time doesn't actually sync correctly.

    Instead, I look at what Fitbit says I burned, total, for yesterday. Subtract 1000 (or whatever your deficit may be) and that's what I'll eat today. So yesterday, I burned 2398, so today my food calorie goal is 1398.

    I know ignoring MFP's goal is sort of against the point of using MFP, but I still use it for the food database and community.
  • loulouowens
    loulouowens Posts: 103 Member
    Thanks for all the replies. It's all so blumin confusing!

    I may just go back to mfp eat what it tells me and just track my runs and eat half of those! It's worked all this time for me.

    If I happen to have a super busy day and do 16000 steps I'll just class it as a plus for that week and it will make up for when I'm less active!
This discussion has been closed.

Categories