Negative net calories ?

tyleremersonn
tyleremersonn Posts: 5 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm negative about 700 calories about 1600 in over 2000 out according to my Fitbit almost 30,000 steps ( I move ALOT at work)

Plus a round of p 90

Should I be concerned? Eating more? Or am I fine?

I've had similar step days and have been eating similar and doing p 90 and have had great results down almost 25 pounds!

But just noticed the negative net calories today... probably cause all the steps that synced in mfp from Fitbit I know it's not entirely accurate but..

Any feedback? Thank you!!

Replies

  • crb426
    crb426 Posts: 661 Member
    So you are eating 1600 calories, but fitbit says you're burning over 2000? It seems likd a huge overestimated burn. I would unsync your fitbit and just raise your activity level.

    Keep an eye on how fast you are losing and if it's not 1-2 pounds/week, adjust accordingly.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    crb426 wrote: »
    So you are eating 1600 calories, but fitbit says you're burning over 2000? It seems likd a huge overestimated burn. I would unsync your fitbit and just raise your activity level.

    Keep an eye on how fast you are losing and if it's not 1-2 pounds/week, adjust accordingly.

    Fitbit gives you your total calorie burn for the day. If this is what the OP is talking about, then 2000 is not remotely outside the realms of possibility, especially with that step count. As long as I'm hitting ~12k steps a day I'm over 2000 cals out.

    OP, how long did it take to lose that 25 lbs? And how much do you have to lose? While it's possible that your Fitbit is overestimating, it shouldn't be overestimating that much, certainly not to the point where you are in negative net cals. And if you're routinely doing that much exercise and incidental activity, then yes, you very likely should be eating more than 1600 cals per day. You may feel fine now, but that won't last.
  • tyleremersonn
    tyleremersonn Posts: 5 Member
    I would say about 2 months 2 1/2 that's with p90 and clean eating nothing but water , hardly any junk.. I would say averaging about 1800 calories per day, plus my activity at work..

    My start weight was 218 im down to about 192

    So would it be a good idea to maybe try to eat around 2000 and keep my same activity levels?

    And weigh myself each week and see if I'm loosing the 1-2 pounds and adjust from there??

    Thank you for all the input!
    Much appreciated
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    For comparison, I started at 240 lbs; and am now in maintenance. When I NET fewer than 1800 Cals I lose weight. As a male, you should be netting no fewer than 1500 Cals per day to ensure you get proper nutrients and to minimize muscle loss - your heart is a muscle. When you lose weight too fast, your body can not metabolize all of the Calories it needs from just fat; it will increase the rate of muscle loss.

    I am 55, 5'8", 150 lbs, in maintenance at 1820 net Calories, have a Fitbit Charge 2 with HR, and have MFP set at Sedentary. The last time I got 17,858 steps, I earned 1950 extra Calories as my Fitbit Calorie adjustment (that was above my goal of 1820 Cals per day). The effort put in, such as number of stairs or how hilly the terrain, factors into the Fitbit estimates.

    I always eat back 100% of my earned Calories. I ate back 90% of them when I was losing a few pounds and had no problem netting 1700 Cals per day to lose those pounds. I do use a food scale to weigh all solids, measuring cups and spoons to measure liquids, and verify all food items I log through outside web sources and Nutrition Facts labels. I trust that my Calorie Intake is pretty accurate, and I trust my Calories Out is pretty accurate using the Fitbit.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,332 Member
    Yes, you should be concerned
  • scarlett_k
    scarlett_k Posts: 812 Member
    Surely that means your total for the day according to FitBit is that you're at a 700 kCal deficit? Perhaps I'm not understanding correctly though.
  • Silentpadna
    Silentpadna Posts: 1,306 Member
    edited June 2017
    tyleremersonn wrote: »
    I'm negative about 700 calories about 1600 in over 2000 out according to my Fitbit almost 30,000 steps ( I move ALOT at work)

    Plus a round of p 90

    Should I be concerned? Eating more? Or am I fine?

    I've had similar step days and have been eating similar and doing p 90 and have had great results down almost 25 pounds!

    But just noticed the negative net calories today... probably cause all the steps that synced in mfp from Fitbit I know it's not entirely accurate but..

    Any feedback? Thank you!!

    You need to add a little more context.

    I was getting an average of about 15,000 steps and did a round of P90 (not X) also, finishing that up last month. I was consistently burning about 3500 calories per day - eating up to 2500 +/- 300 during that time. I can't tell whether your 2000 is total burn or what you are counting for exercise. [ETA - I lost about 27 pounds in the P90 round - or a little over 2 lbs / week on average.]

    What is your height, age and what was your starting weight? Current weight?

    If I had to guess, I would guess you are undereating, but I can't know without the additional information.
  • cityruss
    cityruss Posts: 2,493 Member
    2000 out, 1600 in.
    400 calories daily deficit.
    Super job.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    I am confused. You've burned a total of 2000 calories for the day? That doesn't seem right-at 30,000 steps shouldn't it be much higher than that???
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    I am confused. You've burned a total of 2000 calories for the day? That doesn't seem right-at 30,000 steps shouldn't it be much higher than that???

    I am pretty sure the OP is describing the Fitbit Calorie Adjustment of 2000 extra Calories added to MFP's daily Calorie goal. A substantial portion of those extra Calories should be eaten back, because they represent the amount of activity above the desired MFP daily goal.

    In my example above, my MFP daily goal at Sedentary is 1820 Calories at maintenance. When I did nearly 18,000 steps, my Fitbit Calorie Adjustment was 1950 Calories. That means those 1950 extra Calories were added to my base MFP daily goal of 1820 Calories, resulting in an adjusted goal for that day of 3770 Calories (1820 Cals base at Sedentary + 1950 Cals for lots of movement above Sedentary). For me, that day was exceptionally busy. I could not eat back 100% of them on that day, but I did eat more Calories for the next few days to make up that day's deficit so that I would stay in maintenance.
  • tyleremersonn
    tyleremersonn Posts: 5 Member
    So I'm 26 male 5'10 starting weight was 218

    Today I weighed in at 189.8

    Basically with the 30,000 steps plus my p 90 workout Fitbit said I was out over 4000 calories

    I use Fitbit to track my steps and exercise mostly
    And I use MFP to log my food and water when I synced them together the steps from Fitbit amounted to about 2200 exercise calories in MFP
    That's on top of may daily intake goal of 2000

    I had only 1600 intake calories therefore I was - net

    So I should be eating more on account of my daily activity level I average a lot of steps each day I work in reatail in a big store.. so I walk around a lot plus my exercise of p 90(not x)
  • scarlett_k
    scarlett_k Posts: 812 Member
    I'm not sure you should be adding together your MFP and FitBit calories together. It sounds like you should either pay attention to MFP *or* FitBit.
  • kpkitten
    kpkitten Posts: 164 Member
    Depending how quickly you've lost your 25lbs (congrats on that by the way!) I would recommend upping your calories. If fitbit reckons you burned 4000 calories, even if it's overestimating by 20-30%, you've probably got a deficit of about 1500 (2400 if Fitbit is spot on and your logging is tight) and that's well over the recommended maximum 1000 calorie deficit for those with 75+ lbs to lose. 4000 calories doesn't sound that absurd if you're very overweight. I'm a 5'2 girl at 230lbs and I can easily burn 3500 calories if I hit 20,000 steps and do a bit of planned exercise as well. If my Fitbit tells me I burned that much, there's no way I'm going to eat fewer than 2000 calories that day.

    If you lose too quickly, not only will you start to feel quite weak and less alert during the day, you risk losing a lot of muscle mass. So you really don't want to be losing more than about .5lb per week for each 25lbs you have left to lose.

    If you're losing faster than your Fitbit expects and you often have adjustment calories left over, then eat more. If you're losing at your expected pace with adjustment calories left over, then sticking to your current intake might be OK, but it might just mean your logging is off.
  • AngelaNoriega78
    AngelaNoriega78 Posts: 10 Member
    I've been dieting for 2yrs now lost a total of 105lbs. I try to stick to a 1200cal diet but recently have found it hard to stay motivated with the diet. I'm also having problems with becoming inconsistent with exercising. I was walking at least 4 miles a day burning 600cals a day. I was not eating back the calories I burned. I guess I'm looking for some advise on how to get back the motivation I used to have. I've noticed that with the lack of exercise I've gained 8lbs back. Need some suggestions.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    1600?! When your TDEE is 4000? Even if that's overestimated you need to eat more. That said, your losses seem to be about 2.5lbs per week. Would that be right? So you could 500-1000 calories a day more, improve the preservation of muscle mass and still lose at a good clip.
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