Fitbit question?
loulouowens
Posts: 103 Member
Im set to sedentary and 1lb loss rate. Im only 24lbs from goal (80 lost) 
Ive started wearing my fit bit, my activity is all over the place some days i struggle to hit 5000 steps, some days im 13/14k when my days are 13/14 this include my run (twice weekly) usally 3mile.
So today ive been glued to my desk, and im only on 5000 steps, but fitbit has sync and mfp is saying i have 200 calories from "exercise " (just walking around/living) no purposeful exercise so do I eat these? On run days i will eat roughly half of what i burned on the run (run only cals not total day) should i be eating my normal day to day extra it gives me?
Sorry hope this makes sense! Im confused, dont know what to do for best!
Ive started wearing my fit bit, my activity is all over the place some days i struggle to hit 5000 steps, some days im 13/14k when my days are 13/14 this include my run (twice weekly) usally 3mile.
So today ive been glued to my desk, and im only on 5000 steps, but fitbit has sync and mfp is saying i have 200 calories from "exercise " (just walking around/living) no purposeful exercise so do I eat these? On run days i will eat roughly half of what i burned on the run (run only cals not total day) should i be eating my normal day to day extra it gives me?
Sorry hope this makes sense! Im confused, dont know what to do for best!
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Replies
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Because you are set to sedentary any activity you do should result in an increase in calories. It is up to you whether you want to eat them or not. (Taking into consideration what your calorie goal is set at to begin with, how hungry you feel, and what your weight loss has been like in the past.)4
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Same as you I have a desk job, my steps can be anywhere from 3000-14000, I set MFP to Sedentary and let my vivosmart estimate what my burn will be for the day. I eat back some, it really depends on how I feel hunger wise, but I stick to 2000 cals max regardless of what is added back.1
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Be sure to enable negative calorie adjustments too4
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I do the same thing. It adds calories on to my goal and I eat them sometimes, sometimes I don't. Depends how hungry I am.0
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You walked two and a half miles (roughly). Of course that uses energy. I'm not really sure what a good argument is for pretending it doesn't.1
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loulouowens wrote: »
Even MFP's sedentary setting includes a few thousand steps. If you have a sick day where you stay in bed and aren't set to the calorie minimum, negative adjustments will take away calories to make sure you don't overeat since you won't be burning enough to hit maintenance.5 -
Quick Google search, not sure what MFP uses though.
Tudor-Locke's research established these categories for healthy adults based on the steps per day they logged.
Sedentary Lifestyle Index: Under 5000 steps per day is an indicator of being inactive and sitting too much, which raises health risks.
Low Active: 5,000 to 7,499 steps per day is typical of daily activity excluding sports and exercise and might be considered low active. The average American walks 5,900 to 6,900 steps per day, putting the majority in the low active category.
Somewhat Active: 7,500 to 9,999 steps per day likely includes some exercise or walking (and/or a job that requires more walking) and might be considered somewhat active.
Active: 10,000 steps per day indicates the point that should be used to classify individuals as active. This makes it a good daily goal for healthy people who want a quick indicator they are getting in their daily exercise.
Highly Active: Individuals who take more than 12,500 steps/day are likely to be classified as highly active.0 -
Wow I am confused. You all are saying sedentary includes a few thousand steps but mine starts adding calories even after a thousand (or less). I guess I don't understand how this thing works.0
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Mine is all over the place too. I wake up with a negative adjustment. Some days I only get 5000-8000 steps and a 200-300 calorie adjustment. On days I go to boxing class and hit my steps I can get an extra 800-1000. I eat most activity calories depending on how hungry I am.0
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Assuming the both mfp and Fitbit are setup using the same parameters (not custom goals, different heights, ages or other tweeks), mfp assigns BMR x 1.25 to every minute of the day.
Fitbit is more variable and can assign BMR during periods of no activity detection. When it does detect activity I believe it tends to average in five minute increments and assign a premium to mid level movement. The averaging of all that yields pretty good results for many people. People who are extremely active are more likely to be overestimated than people who are in the sub 15k step levels. At least based on what I've seen
Another complication is that Fitbit does not have a 1200 floor but mfp does.
What I do is pick the setting closest to reality for MFP activity level (with 5000 I would pick sedentary or lightly actice), with 14k active or very active), set things so that adjustments happen automatically (which means enabling both positive and negative adjustments) eating most if not all of your adjustment and evaluating your progress by comparing your trending weight (www.trendweight.com connected to fitbit.com) and spot weight actual results to your expected results based on (believed) achieved deficit after a period of several weeks and adjusting based on that....2 -
Wow I am confused. You all are saying sedentary includes a few thousand steps but mine starts adding calories even after a thousand (or less). I guess I don't understand how this thing works.
Are you positive? I start getting positive adjustments from 2000 steps. I'm set at sedentary.
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Christine_72 wrote: »Wow I am confused. You all are saying sedentary includes a few thousand steps but mine starts adding calories even after a thousand (or less). I guess I don't understand how this thing works.
Are you positive? I start getting positive adjustments from 2000 steps. I'm set at sedentary.
I start getting positive adjustments at around 2000 also and am set as sedentary.
I did learn that my fitbit thinks my BMR is 1310. I was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago and didn't have my fitbit for 2 days and both days it said I burned 1310.1 -
Christine_72 wrote: »Wow I am confused. You all are saying sedentary includes a few thousand steps but mine starts adding calories even after a thousand (or less). I guess I don't understand how this thing works.
Are you positive? I start getting positive adjustments from 2000 steps. I'm set at sedentary.
I start getting positive adjustments at around 2000 also and am set as sedentary.
I did learn that my fitbit thinks my BMR is 1310. I was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago and didn't have my fitbit for 2 days and both days it said I burned 1310.
Identical for me with Fitbit / calorie adjustments, I'm set to sedentary as well.
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Thanks for all the replies. Still not sure lol I've walked today and upto 9900 steps, now usually I wouldn't eat these because it's just me walking about my everyday life and not purposely exercising. So I would be okay to eat these and still lose my 1lb?0
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Yes it's ok to eat those, as long as you really did walk them. (Sometimes a Fitbit can be fooled by driving. Etc.)
It takes X energy to move Y weight Z distance. Your walking around for no particular purpose steps burn as many calories as your going for a walk ones. Your body doesn't know why your leg muscles are demanding energy, it just supplies it. You really do burn calories walking to the bathroom or kitchen or whatever. (That's one of the things I've learned through this journey, so, now, when I'm making a phone call, I tend to pace, might walk a mile and burn 75 calories while I'm on hold.)
When you sign up here at MFP, you fill out a profile with a goal and it sets a calorie level for you to lose weight, it expects some walking of you but you've gone above that. Which means you have a larger deficit than you signed up for, and can get away with eating a bit more and still lose weight at the 1 pound per week rate you wanted.3 -
I unsynced by fitbit from mfp for that reason. I don't need it telling me I can eat more just from daily activity. If I walk for exercise rather than just what the fitbit shows from walking around daily then I will add that in manually.0
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I think a lot of people don't understand how FitBit works with MFP. When you enter your stats and activity level in MFP it calculates an estimate of your NEAT calorie maintenance, and then the selection of a goal rate Of loss (1 lb/week, etc) then calculates a calorie target at a deficit. When you have MFP and FitBit synced, FitBit tell MFP how many cals you are actually burning (estimate of your TDEE). The difference between what MFP thinks you burn based on info your provided, and what FitBit says you burned, is the exercise adjustment you see. It's a true up essentially.
So people that see exercise adjustments when they haven't done much in the way of exercise, are usually a sign that they've provided info to MFP that suggests they are far less active than they actually are.
And for what it's worth I lost the weight I set out to lose, the last 20 lbs of which were with a FitBit, and am currently a few years into maintenance trusting and eating back the exercise adjustments. I'm 5'2 and 118, I have a desk job but average 15k steps/day so my activity level is set to active. MFP thinks my maintenance cals are 1830, but my TDEE from FitBit is 2200-2300 so my adjustments are in the neighborhood of 400-500 cals. I eat them all back and continue to have predictable results.7 -
WinoGelato wrote: »I think a lot of people don't understand how FitBit works with MFP. When you enter your stats and activity level in MFP it calculates an estimate of your NEAT calorie maintenance, and then the selection of a goal rate Of loss (1 lb/week, etc) then calculates a calorie target at a deficit. When you have MFP and FitBit synced, FitBit tell MFP how many cals you are actually burning (estimate of your TDEE). The difference between what MFP thinks you burn based on info your provided, and what FitBit says you burned, is the exercise adjustment you see. It's a true up essentially.
So people that see exercise adjustments when they haven't done much in the way of exercise, are usually a sign that they've provided info to MFP that suggests they are far less active than they actually are.
And for what it's worth I lost the weight I set out to lose, the last 20 lbs of which were with a FitBit, and am currently a few years into maintenance trusting and eating back the exercise adjustments. I'm 5'2 and 118, I have a desk job but average 15k steps/day so my activity level is set to active. MFP thinks my maintenance cals are 1830, but my TDEE from FitBit is 2200-2300 so my adjustments are in the neighborhood of 400-500 cals. I eat them all back and continue to have predictable results.
Thank you so much this is really helpful. I've never bothered before but as goal gets nearer (24lbs) I've slowed my weigh loss to 1lb per week, I'm moving more and was feeling hungry. But scared to eat them in case I gained!
I've been going nearly 12 months now (breaks for Christmas and holiday) and I'm really ready to eat as much as I can whilst continuing to lose the last bit. My hair isn't great and I think this has to do with being at deficit for so long.
Maybe ive been too hard on myself, even when I run (2/3 times a week) I do 5k I burn about 350 calories but only eat half as extra. And never eat more than MFP says even through j always have adjustments from Fitbit
But I will be healthy and slim soon! Bald but slim lol
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WinoGelato wrote: »I think a lot of people don't understand how FitBit works with MFP. When you enter your stats and activity level in MFP it calculates an estimate of your NEAT calorie maintenance, and then the selection of a goal rate Of loss (1 lb/week, etc) then calculates a calorie target at a deficit. When you have MFP and FitBit synced, FitBit tell MFP how many cals you are actually burning (estimate of your TDEE). The difference between what MFP thinks you burn based on info your provided, and what FitBit says you burned, is the exercise adjustment you see. It's a true up essentially.
So people that see exercise adjustments when they haven't done much in the way of exercise, are usually a sign that they've provided info to MFP that suggests they are far less active than they actually are.
And for what it's worth I lost the weight I set out to lose, the last 20 lbs of which were with a FitBit, and am currently a few years into maintenance trusting and eating back the exercise adjustments. I'm 5'2 and 118, I have a desk job but average 15k steps/day so my activity level is set to active. MFP thinks my maintenance cals are 1830, but my TDEE from FitBit is 2200-2300 so my adjustments are in the neighborhood of 400-500 cals. I eat them all back and continue to have predictable results.
Yep, this cost me 3 months of anguish, I have a desk job, but I am active, workout 5x a week pretty consistently, so silly me chose moderately active in MFP, then I would add activities to MFP and eat back, anyhow I was overeating for months and not losing anything while working my butt off, once I learned the above, I set MFP to Sedentary and let my Gamin do negative calorie adjustments, down ~5 lbs in 4 weeks. I should have known better when MFP said 2000 calories for me to lose 1 lbs a week... oh well back on track.0 -
loulouowens wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »I think a lot of people don't understand how FitBit works with MFP. When you enter your stats and activity level in MFP it calculates an estimate of your NEAT calorie maintenance, and then the selection of a goal rate Of loss (1 lb/week, etc) then calculates a calorie target at a deficit. When you have MFP and FitBit synced, FitBit tell MFP how many cals you are actually burning (estimate of your TDEE). The difference between what MFP thinks you burn based on info your provided, and what FitBit says you burned, is the exercise adjustment you see. It's a true up essentially.
So people that see exercise adjustments when they haven't done much in the way of exercise, are usually a sign that they've provided info to MFP that suggests they are far less active than they actually are.
And for what it's worth I lost the weight I set out to lose, the last 20 lbs of which were with a FitBit, and am currently a few years into maintenance trusting and eating back the exercise adjustments. I'm 5'2 and 118, I have a desk job but average 15k steps/day so my activity level is set to active. MFP thinks my maintenance cals are 1830, but my TDEE from FitBit is 2200-2300 so my adjustments are in the neighborhood of 400-500 cals. I eat them all back and continue to have predictable results.
Thank you so much this is really helpful. I've never bothered before but as goal gets nearer (24lbs) I've slowed my weigh loss to 1lb per week, I'm moving more and was feeling hungry. But scared to eat them in case I gained!
I've been going nearly 12 months now (breaks for Christmas and holiday) and I'm really ready to eat as much as I can whilst continuing to lose the last bit. My hair isn't great and I think this has to do with being at deficit for so long.
Maybe ive been too hard on myself, even when I run (2/3 times a week) I do 5k I burn about 350 calories but only eat half as extra. And never eat more than MFP says even through j always have adjustments from Fitbit
But I will be healthy and slim soon! Bald but slim lol
With less than 25 lbs to lose you could almost move to 0.5 lb/week even. How much have you lost so far, and how rapidly were you losing over the last year? What calorie target did MFP provide? I were losing hair I would definitely look at increasing calories and making sure to fuel the activity. It does sound like you might want to back off a little, it will make the transition to maintenance smoother as well, in my opinion. A lot of people that have an aggressive deficit struggle when trying to find maintenance cals and often gain back a little in the process.0 -
In the last 3 months I've lost 17.5lbs. I'm set to sedentary , 1lb per week loss and my current calories from MFP are 1440 I'm 5ft 9" age 38 currently weigh 177 target is 154ish.
I started at 268 x1 -
Wow I am confused. You all are saying sedentary includes a few thousand steps but mine starts adding calories even after a thousand (or less). I guess I don't understand how this thing works.
Does yours have a heart rate monitor? If so, you'll tend to get more credit for high intensity steps that raise your heartrate more (e.g. going up stairs). I think I even get a tiny bit of credit for standing vs. sitting and for heavy lifting. So, it could be something like that.
Alternatively, one or both of MFP/FitBit might have the wrong stats for you. So, I'd definitely check that they're both assuming the same height, weight, age, gender, etc. If there's a mismatch, that could cause the issue you're describing.0
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