Fit bit is giving me 1427 exercise calories?!
Molly_234
Posts: 89 Member
Goal is 1210 calories and I've gotten 8300 steps. I am 5'2 amd 145 pounds. I have mfp set to sedentary since I work in an office. I ride my bike about 10 mins back and fourth to work everyday. My calorie adjustment is 1427 just from 8300 steps. There's no way that I should have over 2000 calories with a 1lb a week goal. I would be gaining weight?! ( I have my goal set to 1200 a day because I often go over on the weekends by going out to eat or drink)
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Replies
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Ignore what your Fitbit is "giving" you. Eat only what you need to eat, to lose a pound a week. How long have you been eating at 1210 cal a day? Are you losing?1
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Is it possible that you're misreading and that your total with adjustment is 1427? That sounds much more reasonable.5
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It says 1425 remaining. And I just started counting calories again after stopping for a few months during a big move. So It's too soon to see any results1
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That's why I un-synced fitbit from MFP. It kept adding an insane amount of exercise calories I could "eat back". Just no.10
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Yes, i've had the same problem with fitbit and garmin adding my TOTAL calories burned for the day to my MFP as an adjustment.
Honestly, I'm in agreement with fitmom, I think using the fitbit to be conscious of how much your moving is great; but i'd eat the same amount of calories to reach your goals regardless. Unless you have a day where you just go way way over your normal range.4 -
It says 1425 remaining. And I just started counting calories again after stopping for a few months during a big move. So It's too soon to see any results
Do you have negative adjustment calories checked? Also, the fitbit calories will adjust throughout the day. Only eat back your actual exercise calories (or half), not the standard amount of walking you'd do at work or throughout the day. You'll see toward the end of the day that those calories will adjust back down and may even take away calories from your workout calorie burn so just be aware.2 -
I mostly eat back my fitbit calories and am still losing 1kg a week.
Fitbit works on intensity of the steps, not just how many steps you've done. So if you did 8k steps really quickly you will burn more calories than if you slow ambled them across the whole day.1 -
Yep I unsynced too. I felt like mine was overestimating burns, and giving me way more calories to eat back.4
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I mostly eat back my fitbit calories and am still losing 1kg a week.
Fitbit works on intensity of the steps, not just how many steps you've done. So if you did 8k steps really quickly you will burn more calories than if you slow ambled them across the whole day.
that's not true. you burn the same amount of calories for the same distance regardless of how fast you got there.2 -
It says 1425 remaining. And I just started counting calories again after stopping for a few months during a big move. So It's too soon to see any results
so if you started with 1200 remaining and now you have 1425 remaining. that would be 225 calories back. Have you logged any food yet?3 -
I'm 5'3 and when I was at 145, I ate close to 2000 calories to lose weight. Doesn't seem that unreasonable to me.
Make sure you have the same goal settings in MFP and Fitbit. Then try eating half of what Fitbit gives you and see what happens for at least 3 weeks.
Do not just ignore your Fitbit calories. Losing weight too fast isn't good for you! You're being somewhat aggressive already aiming for 1lb a week at your weight (I was doing .5lbs a week). Losing too quickly will cause you to lose a higher percentage of muscle than losing slowly.1 -
rainbowbow wrote: »I mostly eat back my fitbit calories and am still losing 1kg a week.
Fitbit works on intensity of the steps, not just how many steps you've done. So if you did 8k steps really quickly you will burn more calories than if you slow ambled them across the whole day.
that's not true. you burn the same amount of calories for the same distance regardless of how fast you got there.
yes and no...depends on the type of fitbit you have. If you have an HR you'll get more calories back for having a higher heart rate.2 -
Goal is 1210 calories and I've gotten 8300 steps. I am 5'2 amd 145 pounds. I have mfp set to sedentary since I work in an office. I ride my bike about 10 mins back and fourth to work everyday. My calorie adjustment is 1427 just from 8300 steps. There's no way that I should have over 2000 calories with a 1lb a week goal. I would be gaining weight?! ( I have my goal set to 1200 a day because I often go over on the weekends by going out to eat or drink)
If it has a HR-monitor on it, I would guess you possinly had some artificial HR spikes in the data or high anxiety all day. That number of steps still fits in with a mostly sedentary workday (and since you are not obese, a bit of extra walking in the office wouldn't amount to much calorie burn), so I would probably ignore the Fitbit and log the 10 minute bike rides instead. If it is a new fitbit, it perhaps might still be adjusting your HR-max number/base activity level for its algorithms.0 -
Wait, it says 1425 remaining at 9:30 in the morning? Before you logged food?
If that's the case, its working just like its supposed to. It didn't "add 1425 calories" from your steps, it added about 200 calories to reflect that you're not "sedentary" and will burn a few hundred calories more per day than someone who *is* sedentary.
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I have mine set to lightly active and I don't start getting more cals till about 7-8K. That does seem like a lot but are you very heavy?0
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I was almost 19,000 steps on Saturday and it added 1700 extra calories...which i ate in the form of a Funnel Cake and Hot Sausage Sammich with a side of Haluski and Peirogis.7
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Tomk652015 wrote: »I was almost 19,000 steps on Saturday and it added 1700 extra calories...which i ate in the form of a Funnel Cake and Hot Sausage Sammich with a side of Haluski and Peirogis.
I got a whopping 600 for 18K... jealous lol3 -
I am actually finding my charge 2 is extremely accurate. I am also finding that I need to eat back some of those calories because im dropping weight pretty quickly (which is nice, but being set to 1.5 lbs a week and losing 3-5 means im doing something wrong) Sometimes you need to experiment and see if what your doing is working or not for several weeks and make adjustments from that. I'd say if your set to 1,200 calories you will probably wind up getting a bigger adjustment if you are active. Yesterday I took a walk in the morning, then another one at night and during the day was running around my house cleaning and having guests over, I got a huge adjustment, over 1,000 calories, im not saying it will be accurate for you, but keep an eye on it, and try eating back some of the calories and see whta happens.4
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I have a Charge HR. It's really, really accurate.3
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I'd make sure my Fitbit had accurate height/weight/gender/age info. Fitbit estimates your calorie burn based on your movements, so if it has your info wrong, then it would be going off an erroneous BMR and that could affect what Fitbit thinks you have burned during the day.
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Note also that one detail about how MFP relays Fitbit's info, is that MFP assumes you will be sedentary/active/whatever-you-selected for the rest of the day. So if you ARE highly active in the morning, some of that adjustment will go away as the day moves on. And overnight.
Example... Assume my bmr is 50/hour. And based on my activity level setting, MFP expects me to burn 1800 per day. Which works out to 75/hr.
I wake up at 6am. I sync. Fitbit tells MFP that I've burned 300 so far. (BMR) MFP says I am behind schedule, I should be at 450 so its a -150 adjustment.
Maybe I eat a snack and then go for a 10k run which takes me about 70 minutes and burns 630 calories. I shower, get ready for work so I'm moving around the house. As of 8am Fitbit says I have now burned 1000 calories. MFP expected 600 by 8am, so now its +400.
I don't do much movement thru my commute/lunch/workday. At 6pm Fitbit says I have burned a total of 1650. MFP expected 1350, so now my adjustment drops to +300.
Grocery shopping and whatnot after work, and I walk the dogs. At 9pm I'm ready for bed and Fitbit says I have burned 1850. Now the adjustment is +275. Keep in mind that MFP expects me to still burn 75/hr until midnight but I'm going to bed. I will only burn a tad over BMR. So tomorrow when I sync Fitbit will show my prior day total as 2015. and the adjustment changes to +215.
That is how they work together. MFP always taking Fitbit's data for what you've burned so far, then estimating how much more you will burn.5 -
rainbowbow wrote: »I mostly eat back my fitbit calories and am still losing 1kg a week.
Fitbit works on intensity of the steps, not just how many steps you've done. So if you did 8k steps really quickly you will burn more calories than if you slow ambled them across the whole day.
that's not true. you burn the same amount of calories for the same distance regardless of how fast you got there.
That's untrue. How many calories you burn is based off your heart rate.0 -
If it was giving you 1427 extra calories you'd have 2627 calories remaining - minus any calories you actually ate today. Are you saying you've eaten your 1200 calories and still have 1427 remaining???0
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RAD_Fitness wrote: »rainbowbow wrote: »I mostly eat back my fitbit calories and am still losing 1kg a week.
Fitbit works on intensity of the steps, not just how many steps you've done. So if you did 8k steps really quickly you will burn more calories than if you slow ambled them across the whole day.
that's not true. you burn the same amount of calories for the same distance regardless of how fast you got there.
That's untrue. How many calories you burn is based off your heart rate.
Nope, heart rate is only an indicator of work being done.
Think about it this way, you weigh x and you go x distance. Regardless of the variable of time, the amount of energy required for both is the same. Edit: Imagine you're driving a car 10 miles. You drive at 60 MPH and complete this in 10 minutes. Then you drive at 30 miles per hour and complete it in 20 minutes. Do you need more energy to go 10 minutes at 60 or 20 minutes at 30? The answer is it takes the same amount of energy to do the work regardless of speed.
Now running is mechanically different than walking, that in and of itself will require more energy, but not by much.
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RAD_Fitness wrote: »rainbowbow wrote: »I mostly eat back my fitbit calories and am still losing 1kg a week.
Fitbit works on intensity of the steps, not just how many steps you've done. So if you did 8k steps really quickly you will burn more calories than if you slow ambled them across the whole day.
that's not true. you burn the same amount of calories for the same distance regardless of how fast you got there.
That's untrue. How many calories you burn is based off your heart rate.
NOPE, a 200 lb fit man running a mile in 7 minutes burns very nearly the same calories as a 200 lb less fit man running a mile in 10 minutes. Even if HR for 1 is 150 and HR for 2 is 175
There are some minor increases based on cadence, but they're truly minor, unless you're walking 4.5-6 mph.
http://www.runnersworld.com/peak-performance/running-v-walking-how-many-calories-will-you-burn4 -
rainbowbow wrote: »RAD_Fitness wrote: »rainbowbow wrote: »I mostly eat back my fitbit calories and am still losing 1kg a week.
Fitbit works on intensity of the steps, not just how many steps you've done. So if you did 8k steps really quickly you will burn more calories than if you slow ambled them across the whole day.
that's not true. you burn the same amount of calories for the same distance regardless of how fast you got there.
That's untrue. How many calories you burn is based off your heart rate.
Nope, heart rate is only an indicator of work being done.
Think about it this way, you weigh x and you go x distance. Regardless of the variable of time, the amount of energy required for both is the same.
Now running is mechanically different than walking, that in and of itself will require more energy, but not by much.
So if you and I are the exact same person for examples sake. Same gender, lean mass, fat mass, weight, everything. You're super fit, marathon runner, and I'm just a regular guy that trains a couple times a week. We go out on a run together, keeping the same pace. My heart rate is hanging out at 170-175 the entire time and yours is staying at 145-150 the entire time, we burn the same amount of calories in a 5 mile run? That's ridiculous. Your heart rate determines how many calories you burn, not the distance you've covered, just because a treadmill gives you more calories for going farther doesn't mean that's what causes you to burn more calories. If you wear a heart rate strap, it doesn't need to know how far you've gone, what you've done. It just needs to know your basic information, your height, weight, gender, etc. as well as your heart rate.
Heart rate determines calories burned.1 -
RAD_Fitness wrote: »rainbowbow wrote: »RAD_Fitness wrote: »rainbowbow wrote: »I mostly eat back my fitbit calories and am still losing 1kg a week.
Fitbit works on intensity of the steps, not just how many steps you've done. So if you did 8k steps really quickly you will burn more calories than if you slow ambled them across the whole day.
that's not true. you burn the same amount of calories for the same distance regardless of how fast you got there.
That's untrue. How many calories you burn is based off your heart rate.
Nope, heart rate is only an indicator of work being done.
Think about it this way, you weigh x and you go x distance. Regardless of the variable of time, the amount of energy required for both is the same.
Now running is mechanically different than walking, that in and of itself will require more energy, but not by much.
So if you and I are the exact same person for examples sake. Same gender, lean mass, fat mass, weight, everything. You're super fit, marathon runner, and I'm just a regular guy that trains a couple times a week. We go out on a run together, keeping the same pace. My heart rate is hanging out at 170-175 the entire time and yours is staying at 145-150 the entire time, we burn the same amount of calories in a 5 mile run? That's ridiculous.
Nope, that's science.
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stanmann571 wrote: »RAD_Fitness wrote: »rainbowbow wrote: »RAD_Fitness wrote: »rainbowbow wrote: »I mostly eat back my fitbit calories and am still losing 1kg a week.
Fitbit works on intensity of the steps, not just how many steps you've done. So if you did 8k steps really quickly you will burn more calories than if you slow ambled them across the whole day.
that's not true. you burn the same amount of calories for the same distance regardless of how fast you got there.
That's untrue. How many calories you burn is based off your heart rate.
Nope, heart rate is only an indicator of work being done.
Think about it this way, you weigh x and you go x distance. Regardless of the variable of time, the amount of energy required for both is the same.
Now running is mechanically different than walking, that in and of itself will require more energy, but not by much.
So if you and I are the exact same person for examples sake. Same gender, lean mass, fat mass, weight, everything. You're super fit, marathon runner, and I'm just a regular guy that trains a couple times a week. We go out on a run together, keeping the same pace. My heart rate is hanging out at 170-175 the entire time and yours is staying at 145-150 the entire time, we burn the same amount of calories in a 5 mile run? That's ridiculous.
Nope, that's science.
Find something that says regardless of heart rate, your body will burn the equivalent amount of calories at a given distance.
That's like saying running 4 x 400m sprints and running a mile, you burn the same amount of calories. It's crazy the false information that gets passed around and people believe it to be true.1 -
RAD_Fitness wrote: »rainbowbow wrote: »RAD_Fitness wrote: »rainbowbow wrote: »I mostly eat back my fitbit calories and am still losing 1kg a week.
Fitbit works on intensity of the steps, not just how many steps you've done. So if you did 8k steps really quickly you will burn more calories than if you slow ambled them across the whole day.
that's not true. you burn the same amount of calories for the same distance regardless of how fast you got there.
That's untrue. How many calories you burn is based off your heart rate.
Nope, heart rate is only an indicator of work being done.
Think about it this way, you weigh x and you go x distance. Regardless of the variable of time, the amount of energy required for both is the same.
Now running is mechanically different than walking, that in and of itself will require more energy, but not by much.
So if you and I are the exact same person for examples sake. Same gender, lean mass, fat mass, weight, everything. You're super fit, marathon runner, and I'm just a regular guy that trains a couple times a week. We go out on a run together, keeping the same pace. My heart rate is hanging out at 170-175 the entire time and yours is staying at 145-150 the entire time, we burn the same amount of calories in a 5 mile run? That's ridiculous. Your heart rate determines how many calories you burn, not the distance you've covered, just because a treadmill gives you more calories for going farther doesn't mean that's what causes you to burn more calories. If you wear a heart rate strap, it doesn't need to know how far you've gone, what you've done. It just needs to know your basic information, your height, weight, gender, etc. as well as your heart rate.
Heart rate determines calories burned.
No, metabolic efficiency determines calories burned.
You can't compare apples (a marathoner) to oranges (an unfit person) that just doesn't make sense.
You'd have to compare the SAME PERSON doing both. HR is an indicator of effort, yes, but that doesn't mean you burned more calories for the same amount of work. Read my example above for the logic behind that.
I would (for your own sake) understand that HR is not how one determines energy used.
If you want to get serious about determining calories burned you would need to know precisely your VO2 MAX. 5
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