Calorie intake and Fitbit reliability
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There is an article of about Fitbit users gaining weight after relying on Fitbit too heavily. Personally I don'teat back any steps Fitbit gives me anymore. I was hovering at the same weight eating Fitbit Walking calories. Only manually log purposely exercise now.0
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Mine is very accurate. I'm convinced people who say it's way off for them either aren't using it properly i.e. trying to use it to measure stuff like weight lifting, HIIT, cycing (things it's not designed for) etc, horribly inaccurate with their tracking or they just have a faulty unit.6
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nosebag1212 wrote: »Mine is very accurate. I'm convinced people who say it's way off for them either aren't using it properly i.e. trying to use it to measure stuff like weight lifting, HIIT, cycing (things it's not designed for) etc, horribly inaccurate with their tracking or they just have a faulty unit.
Yes, or the settings don't match the MFP settings and it gives back too many calories. If you have MFP set to a 750 deficit and FitBit to a 250 deficit (and maybe dont even realize they're out of sync), then someone will get back way more calories, because FitBit thinks they have a smaller deficit.1 -
I have been wearing my Fitbit One a little over 3 years, and it is extremely accurate for me. I gain/lose/maintain as expected. I do think it is confusing for people how the adjustments appear compared to their activity settings in MFP.4
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StaciMarie1974 wrote: »Your diary is closed, so standard/generic areas where you could be missing calories in your log - as you indicate you do use a scale.
Do you weigh everything solid, even pieces of fruit, slices of bread, etc.?
Do you account for cooking oils, condiments, beverages?
How often do you eat food not made by you? That is, restaurants or food prepared by family, friends where you can't weigh the ingredients?
Do you enter your own recipes, or use similar entries from the database?
Do you log everyday?
Do you tend to taste things while cooking, or have a bite of this & that from someone else's food?
You indicate you've compared weight change over the past 3-4 weeks. And that our access to a scale prior was limited. Do you weigh yourself at approximately the same time of day, same level of clothing? Have you started a new workout routine in the past 3-4 weeks?
I always weigh myself in the same manner, in the mornings. I have recently started lifting weights, however that started about two weeks ago so I expected any excess water weight to have dissipated.
In terms of logging, I tend to avoid eating out as I prefer to be able to weigh/count0 -
I don't know if it's my phone or not, but the reply looks like it missed so of what I wrote. But for the logging, I don't eat as I cook unless it's already been weighed, and I do weigh everything - even my diluting juice.
I do think it is most likely my Fitbit that's causing me to stall. I had previously lost a further 10 pounds (which I'll have to lose again haha) but once I got the Fitbit, (I did eat extra to gain those pounds back) it helped me to maintain but not to lose.
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Not sure how exactly Fitbit calculates daily activity, but 10,000 walking steps is likely around 200 calories, and nowhere near 500.
Fitbit Alta HR gives me silly amounts of calorie burn for walking, but I've found it to be quite close to the mark for cycling. I've also got a Polar monitor (with a chest strap) and the Fitbit generally gives well over double the figure of the Polar for walks, but very close for bike rides.
Fitbit inform me that if you are manually entering its burn numbers, you need to subtract your basic maintenance rate for the time involved. Even so, the numbers given for walks are quite silly. eg 895 calories for 98 minutes. Approximately 750 if BMR is subtracted (Male, age 62, 186cm, 118kg). Mind you, MFP's numbers are similarly outrageous. I don't use the Polar much for walks but it returns a figure well under half of the Fitbit or MFP.
I'm sure the Fitbit uses a completely different algrithm for walks compared to rides.0 -
nosebag1212 wrote: »Mine is very accurate. I'm convinced people who say it's way off for them either aren't using it properly i.e. trying to use it to measure stuff like weight lifting, HIIT, cycing (things it's not designed for) etc, horribly inaccurate with their tracking or they just have a faulty unit.
^This.
I'm 5'2 and average 15k steps per day but that has increased steadily in the 3 years since I got my FitBit. My total calories burned/day is 2200, and since I'm active, I have my activity level set accordingly in MFP. Mine has been accurate enough to help me lose the weight I set out to lose and maintain with no issues by trusting and eating back the calorie adjustments from the two systems working together.
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I eat back half what fit bit gives. Lose 1lb a week!0
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So do you 'eat back' all the Fitbit adjusted calories? If yes, start by eating back 0.25 - 0.5 the 'extra' calories, and see how you go. Adjust as necessary.
Apparently the wrist HRM devices can be a bit unreliable when it comes to weights etc (to do with the movement of your wrist, how the device sits on it etc) so keep that in mind. Also water retention and muscle gain with weights too, but as you say you should see that start to even out over time.0 -
My charge HR is accurate for me. I eat all my exercise calories and daily activity calories (I use the exercise settings to log Zumba, elliptical time, running and even (shock, horror) weight lifting).
I'm set to sedantary with a 1lb per week rate of loss although I usually get 10K+ steps and let it do it's thing regarding adjustment and I'm losing a steady 0.5- 0.4kg a week. Perfect.2 -
@InkAndApples how many calories do you get sent over to mfp for 10k steps. I know height/weight etc makes a difference in comparing, just curious.
So far today I've done 13k ateps and have an extra 594 calories for those. I'm 5"8 and 150lbs.0 -
@Christine_72 just checked my last few 10K days, somewhere between 550-650 calories for 10K steps it seems. I have noticed it seems to vary depending on flights of stairs and active minutes, I sometimes get slightly more calories on days when I do fewer steps.
I'm 5'3" and 150ish for comparison1 -
Mine remains ridiculously high. No way I could eat that massive amount of calories and not gain. I mean, I was eating a similar amount of calories over the past 7 months and gained 8kg (I was depressed). So no, this certainly is not working for me and there's no way I'm going to trust it. I mean, fitbit gave me 2800 kcal on a day where I walked 18km. That's 600kcal more than I probably burned that day.0
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Mine remains ridiculously high. No way I could eat that massive amount of calories and not gain. I mean, I was eating a similar amount of calories over the past 7 months and gained 8kg (I was depressed). So no, this certainly is not working for me and there's no way I'm going to trust it. I mean, fitbit gave me 2800 kcal on a day where I walked 18km. That's 600kcal more than I probably burned that day.
As I mentioned previously in thread, you probably have MFP and FitBit set at different goals. If the two apps don't match, then FitBit WILL try to give you back more calories than you need.
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MommaGem2017 wrote: »Mine remains ridiculously high. No way I could eat that massive amount of calories and not gain. I mean, I was eating a similar amount of calories over the past 7 months and gained 8kg (I was depressed). So no, this certainly is not working for me and there's no way I'm going to trust it. I mean, fitbit gave me 2800 kcal on a day where I walked 18km. That's 600kcal more than I probably burned that day.
As I mentioned previously in thread, you probably have MFP and FitBit set at different goals. If the two apps don't match, then FitBit WILL try to give you back more calories than you need.
a) I've not linked both
b) I'm not logging food on fitbit
c) I know what my maintenance calories are and how much calories certain activities burn for me thanks to years of calorie counting and book keeping
=> fitbit is off on estimate calorie burns, both normal daily sedentary calorie expenditure and especially on exercise calories. There is no special setting that increases burn because I'm eating on maintanence or dieting very mildly.0 -
MommaGem2017 wrote: »Mine remains ridiculously high. No way I could eat that massive amount of calories and not gain. I mean, I was eating a similar amount of calories over the past 7 months and gained 8kg (I was depressed). So no, this certainly is not working for me and there's no way I'm going to trust it. I mean, fitbit gave me 2800 kcal on a day where I walked 18km. That's 600kcal more than I probably burned that day.
As I mentioned previously in thread, you probably have MFP and FitBit set at different goals. If the two apps don't match, then FitBit WILL try to give you back more calories than you need.
a) I've not linked both
b) I'm not logging food on fitbit
c) I know what my maintenance calories are and how much calories certain activities burn for me thanks to years of calorie counting and book keeping
=> fitbit is off on estimate calorie burns, both normal daily sedentary calorie expenditure and especially on exercise calories. There is no special setting that increases burn because I'm eating on maintanence or dieting very mildly.
Then it sounds like you have a bum FitBit and you should call tech support. Most of the Fitbit population reports that the Fitbit is very accurate.
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MommaGem2017 wrote: »People, please don't forget that fitness websites state that 10,000 steps a day is considered "Active"
Careful. 10k steps of walking about is not "active". Anybody assuming that will likely end up with a significant over-estimate on calories burned.
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MommaGem2017 wrote: »MommaGem2017 wrote: »Mine remains ridiculously high. No way I could eat that massive amount of calories and not gain. I mean, I was eating a similar amount of calories over the past 7 months and gained 8kg (I was depressed). So no, this certainly is not working for me and there's no way I'm going to trust it. I mean, fitbit gave me 2800 kcal on a day where I walked 18km. That's 600kcal more than I probably burned that day.
As I mentioned previously in thread, you probably have MFP and FitBit set at different goals. If the two apps don't match, then FitBit WILL try to give you back more calories than you need.
a) I've not linked both
b) I'm not logging food on fitbit
c) I know what my maintenance calories are and how much calories certain activities burn for me thanks to years of calorie counting and book keeping
=> fitbit is off on estimate calorie burns, both normal daily sedentary calorie expenditure and especially on exercise calories. There is no special setting that increases burn because I'm eating on maintanence or dieting very mildly.
Then it sounds like you have a bum FitBit and you should call tech support. Most of the Fitbit population reports that the Fitbit is very accurate.
Yeah, Fitbit can be off for some but I always question those who claim it's ridiculously off. It's usually due to user error in those cases and in extreme cases some people are outliers with super slow metabolisms.0
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