Which Fitbit device do you use?
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nutmegoreo wrote: »I clip mine onto my bra, so it's hidden. By 200 under, I mean that if at the end of the day, it says I burned 1800 calories for the day, my history with logging compared to expected weight loss and what FitBit gives me, I have determined that I have actually burned about 2000 calories that day.
This is super helpful! 👏
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Unlike most people, after the initial upgrade from Zip to One. I kept downgrading and downgrading. The first wrist-worn tracker I got was the Charge HR. Didn't like the bulkiness and how heavily it inflated my calories. I downgraded to Alta (no HR). After a good lifespan it started having charging problems, so instead of buying a new one I just downgraded again to Flex 2. I noticed the only option I use consistently is the activity calorie sync, and I don't even look at it anymore, so why not go for something even smaller and cheaper?1
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Tolstolobik wrote: »nutmegoreo wrote: »I have a Zip, and not likely to upgrade. I do swim as exercise, but logging that manually is easy enough, same with weight lifting. I find it's about 200 under per day. I'm happy enough with it.
Thank you for your helpful reply nutmegoreo! I haven't done any manual logging with my Zip...I have been using it to mainly track my steps and to see how many calories I burn. When you say it's 200 under per day, do you mean it underestimates by 200 calories per day from tracking steps or overall? Also, where do you wear yours?
It's important to realize that all of these devices are estimating calories burned, not measuring them. A person can use them perfectly, but still get an inaccurate estimate. Tracking intake plus weight changes, as accurately as possible, for a couple of months or so should make it very clear whether the device is accurate for you, or not. If it's not, you can estimate what adjustment to make, and keep using the device as the base estimate, if you like.
Mine underestimates my all day calorie burn by more like 500 calories +/-, or about 30% or so of my NEAT (let alone TDEE), based on comparison with nearly 4 years of MFP logging data & weight changes. But that error is consistent with the estimating error from MFP's built-in calculations, and most TDEE calculators, so it wasn't a big surprise. I don't sync it to MFP, because it would create more fuss than it would help, for me. Most people seem to find a tracker beneficial for all-day calories.
The devices will be close for most people (because the estimates rely on research studies with numerous participants; these data tend to have a small-ish standard deviation). But they'll be further off for a few people, even with perfect settings and correctly used. That's just the nature of statistical estimates.4 -
charge 3 yo1
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Tolstolobik wrote: »nutmegoreo wrote: »I have a Zip, and not likely to upgrade. I do swim as exercise, but logging that manually is easy enough, same with weight lifting. I find it's about 200 under per day. I'm happy enough with it.
Thank you for your helpful reply nutmegoreo! I haven't done any manual logging with my Zip...I have been using it to mainly track my steps and to see how many calories I burn. When you say it's 200 under per day, do you mean it underestimates by 200 calories per day from tracking steps or overall? Also, where do you wear yours?
It's important to realize that all of these devices are estimating calories burned, not measuring them. A person can use them perfectly, but still get an inaccurate estimate. Tracking intake plus weight changes, as accurately as possible, for a couple of months or so should make it very clear whether the device is accurate for you, or not. If it's not, you can estimate what adjustment to make, and keep using the device as the base estimate, if you like.
Mine underestimates my all day calorie burn by more like 500 calories +/-, or about 30% or so of my NEAT (let alone TDEE), based on comparison with nearly 4 years of MFP logging data & weight changes. But that error is consistent with the estimating error from MFP's built-in calculations, and most TDEE calculators, so it wasn't a big surprise. I don't sync it to MFP, because it would create more fuss than it would help, for me. Most people seem to find a tracker beneficial for all-day calories.
The devices will be close for most people (because the estimates rely on research studies with numerous participants; these data tend to have a small-ish standard deviation). But they'll be further off for a few people, even with perfect settings and correctly used. That's just the nature of statistical estimates.
Ann, thank you so much for chiming in! I just recently started participating in this forum. I've read many posts by you. I highly esteem your opinion!
I just recently entered maintenance. I don't have enough data yet. Looking forward to figuring out my TDEE based on my own experience. Right now I don't know where to start. Would you recommend first trying out Fitbit's estimate of my TDEE for couple of months and see where it takes me?0 -
Tolstolobik wrote: »Tolstolobik wrote: »nutmegoreo wrote: »I have a Zip, and not likely to upgrade. I do swim as exercise, but logging that manually is easy enough, same with weight lifting. I find it's about 200 under per day. I'm happy enough with it.
Thank you for your helpful reply nutmegoreo! I haven't done any manual logging with my Zip...I have been using it to mainly track my steps and to see how many calories I burn. When you say it's 200 under per day, do you mean it underestimates by 200 calories per day from tracking steps or overall? Also, where do you wear yours?
It's important to realize that all of these devices are estimating calories burned, not measuring them. A person can use them perfectly, but still get an inaccurate estimate. Tracking intake plus weight changes, as accurately as possible, for a couple of months or so should make it very clear whether the device is accurate for you, or not. If it's not, you can estimate what adjustment to make, and keep using the device as the base estimate, if you like.
Mine underestimates my all day calorie burn by more like 500 calories +/-, or about 30% or so of my NEAT (let alone TDEE), based on comparison with nearly 4 years of MFP logging data & weight changes. But that error is consistent with the estimating error from MFP's built-in calculations, and most TDEE calculators, so it wasn't a big surprise. I don't sync it to MFP, because it would create more fuss than it would help, for me. Most people seem to find a tracker beneficial for all-day calories.
The devices will be close for most people (because the estimates rely on research studies with numerous participants; these data tend to have a small-ish standard deviation). But they'll be further off for a few people, even with perfect settings and correctly used. That's just the nature of statistical estimates.
Ann, thank you so much for chiming in! I just recently started participating in this forum. I've read many posts by you. I highly esteem your opinion!
I just recently entered maintenance. I don't have enough data yet. Looking forward to figuring out my TDEE based on my own experience. Right now I don't know where to start. Would you recommend first trying out Fitbit's estimate of my TDEE for couple of months and see where it takes me?
Sure, that's fine. If you've been logging as you lost weight, and MFP's calorie estimates were close to accurate for you (in terms of how fast you lost weight), then it's probably likely that your device will be close, too. If the Fitbit is new, it may take some time to "learn" you, but as long as you're still paying attention to intake and scale weight (without freaking out about it!
) during that couple of months, you'll be fine.
If you've been logging as you lost weight, you can also use that data to estimate maintenance calories. That approach (among others) is described in more detail in this thread:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10638211/how-to-find-your-maintenance-calorie-level0 -
Sure, that's fine. If you've been logging as you lost weight, and MFP's calorie estimates were close to accurate for you (in terms of how fast you lost weight), then it's probably likely that your device will be close, too. If the Fitbit is new, it may take some time to "learn" you, but as long as you're still paying attention to intake and scale weight (without freaking out about it! ) during that couple of months, you'll be fine.
If you've been logging as you lost weight, you can also use that data to estimate maintenance calories. That approach (among others) is described in more detail in this thread:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10638211/how-to-find-your-maintenance-calorie-level
Thanks you!
For the most part my fat loss was non-linear without MFP logging. I started wearing a Fitbit in December. Since then my weekly calories have been anywhere between 1450-2000. My weight has been bouncing up and down +/- 5 lbs. Last week I decided that I am happy with my weight and that I want some hard data to know where I stand in terms of TDEE....hence the start of this thread. This morning my Fitbit's weekly report showed that I burned 13,769 calories purely based on my step count. My intake was 13090. To give this experiment a fair trial, I decided to carry over 650 calories I didn't eat this past week to this week(I sure can use these calories today...I woke up very ravenous). Do you ever do that?0 -
Tolstolobik wrote: »A question for you- when you swim, how does it track your activity? Do you manually have to enter that you are swimming or does the device detects it without you doing anything?
It will track distance both ways - I can go in and start it manually, which I do if there are a lot of kicks on the board so that I can pause it when I'm doing the kicking (it will NOT count the kick laps). Doing it this way won't give you any heart rate info but apparently it's not that accurate in the water anyway. It will give you your average per 100 (or whatever you set it to).
I will let it track automatically otherwise. The catch here is you have to swim 10 mins consistently before it autodetects. One night I missed a portion of the warm ups and it never went into swim mode so I just entered the workout manually after the fact.1 -
stephaniek511 wrote: »Tolstolobik wrote: »A question for you- when you swim, how does it track your activity? Do you manually have to enter that you are swimming or does the device detects it without you doing anything?
It will track distance both ways - I can go in and start it manually, which I do if there are a lot of kicks on the board so that I can pause it when I'm doing the kicking (it will NOT count the kick laps). Doing it this way won't give you any heart rate info but apparently it's not that accurate in the water anyway. It will give you your average per 100 (or whatever you set it to).
I will let it track automatically otherwise. The catch here is you have to swim 10 mins consistently before it autodetects. One night I missed a portion of the warm ups and it never went into swim mode so I just entered the workout manually after the fact.
Thank you Stephanie for your thorough answer to my question!0 -
Tolstolobik wrote: »
Sure, that's fine. If you've been logging as you lost weight, and MFP's calorie estimates were close to accurate for you (in terms of how fast you lost weight), then it's probably likely that your device will be close, too. If the Fitbit is new, it may take some time to "learn" you, but as long as you're still paying attention to intake and scale weight (without freaking out about it! ) during that couple of months, you'll be fine.
If you've been logging as you lost weight, you can also use that data to estimate maintenance calories. That approach (among others) is described in more detail in this thread:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10638211/how-to-find-your-maintenance-calorie-level
Thanks you!
For the most part my fat loss was non-linear without MFP logging. I started wearing a Fitbit in December. Since then my weekly calories have been anywhere between 1450-2000. My weight has been bouncing up and down +/- 5 lbs. Last week I decided that I am happy with my weight and that I want some hard data to know where I stand in terms of TDEE....hence the start of this thread. This morning my Fitbit's weekly report showed that I burned 13,769 calories purely based on my step count. My intake was 13090. To give this experiment a fair trial, I decided to carry over 650 calories I didn't eat this past week to this week(I sure can use these calories today...I woke up very ravenous). Do you ever do that?
Because, as a confirmed hedonist, I enjoy a very indulge-y day now and then, I routinely eat a bit under my maintenance calories most days, to "bank" calories for an indulgence once a week or so. I admit to being up a few pounds from my favorite weight, but am still at BMI 22-point-something well into year 3 of maintenance, so I don't think it's working out all that badly.3 -
Tolstolobik wrote: »
Sure, that's fine. If you've been logging as you lost weight, and MFP's calorie estimates were close to accurate for you (in terms of how fast you lost weight), then it's probably likely that your device will be close, too. If the Fitbit is new, it may take some time to "learn" you, but as long as you're still paying attention to intake and scale weight (without freaking out about it! ) during that couple of months, you'll be fine.
If you've been logging as you lost weight, you can also use that data to estimate maintenance calories. That approach (among others) is described in more detail in this thread:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10638211/how-to-find-your-maintenance-calorie-level
Thanks you!
For the most part my fat loss was non-linear without MFP logging. I started wearing a Fitbit in December. Since then my weekly calories have been anywhere between 1450-2000. My weight has been bouncing up and down +/- 5 lbs. Last week I decided that I am happy with my weight and that I want some hard data to know where I stand in terms of TDEE....hence the start of this thread. This morning my Fitbit's weekly report showed that I burned 13,769 calories purely based on my step count. My intake was 13090. To give this experiment a fair trial, I decided to carry over 650 calories I didn't eat this past week to this week(I sure can use these calories today...I woke up very ravenous). Do you ever do that?
Because, as a confirmed hedonist, I enjoy a very indulge-y day now and then, I routinely eat a bit under my maintenance calories most days, to "bank" calories for an indulgence once a week or so. I admit to being up a few pounds from my favorite weight, but am still at BMI 22-point-something well into year 3 of maintenance, so I don't think it's working out all that badly.
Love it! I am pretty excited about this "banking" concept. 😊1 -
Short term banking is good
Don't borrow or lend too long term though... that would just be called gaining and losing weight...
<this is coming from someone who has a short-term loan out for about 10K calories and the money mart interest rate in the form of baklava delivered by the downstairs lady is just killing me!
> 3 -
Short term banking is good
Don't borrow or lend too long term though... that would just be called gaining and losing weight...
<this is coming from someone who has a short-term loan out for about 10K calories and the money mart interest rate in the form of baklava delivered by the downstairs lady is just killing me! >
PAV, thank you for your sage advice! I like your sense of humor!👌 A family member of mine is an expert at baking baklava and all things buttery-flaky philo dough. Trust me, I know how much self-control has to be executed around those delicious calorie-bombs! 😆
I haven't done any calorie banking until this week. Do you think one week's savings rolled over to the following week is a safe practice?0 -
Tolstolobik wrote: »Short term banking is good
Don't borrow or lend too long term though... that would just be called gaining and losing weight...
<this is coming from someone who has a short-term loan out for about 10K calories and the money mart interest rate in the form of baklava delivered by the downstairs lady is just killing me! >
PAV, thank you for your sage advice! I like your sense of humor!👌 A family member of mine is an expert at baking baklava and all things buttery-flaky philo dough. Trust me, I know how much self-control has to be executed around those delicious calorie-bombs! 😆
I haven't done any calorie banking until this week. Do you think one week's savings rolled over to the following week is a safe practice?
Most people do a week, but I personally average my calories over a month. More chance for saving for something very high in calories without starving myself for a week or leveling out high days without stressing myself out. I even have an excel sheet that calculates automatically how much I can eat (my current allowance plus savings/debts). What is maintenance for most people but a mini yoyo?3 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »Tolstolobik wrote: »Short term banking is good
Don't borrow or lend too long term though... that would just be called gaining and losing weight...
<this is coming from someone who has a short-term loan out for about 10K calories and the money mart interest rate in the form of baklava delivered by the downstairs lady is just killing me! >
PAV, thank you for your sage advice! I like your sense of humor!👌 A family member of mine is an expert at baking baklava and all things buttery-flaky philo dough. Trust me, I know how much self-control has to be executed around those delicious calorie-bombs! 😆
I haven't done any calorie banking until this week. Do you think one week's savings rolled over to the following week is a safe practice?
Most people do a week, but I personally average my calories over a month. More chance for saving for something very high in calories without starving myself for a week or leveling out high days without stressing myself out. I even have an excel sheet that calculates automatically how much I can eat (my current allowance plus savings/debts). What is maintenance for most people but a mini yoyo?
Thank you for your support and counsel! How long did it take you to figure out maintenance calories? Is your Fitbit pretty close at estimating your TDEE? I am thankful that I am finally at a place where I can experiment, track, observe and adjust accordingly.0 -
Tolstolobik wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Tolstolobik wrote: »Short term banking is good
Don't borrow or lend too long term though... that would just be called gaining and losing weight...
<this is coming from someone who has a short-term loan out for about 10K calories and the money mart interest rate in the form of baklava delivered by the downstairs lady is just killing me! >
PAV, thank you for your sage advice! I like your sense of humor!👌 A family member of mine is an expert at baking baklava and all things buttery-flaky philo dough. Trust me, I know how much self-control has to be executed around those delicious calorie-bombs! 😆
I haven't done any calorie banking until this week. Do you think one week's savings rolled over to the following week is a safe practice?
Most people do a week, but I personally average my calories over a month. More chance for saving for something very high in calories without starving myself for a week or leveling out high days without stressing myself out. I even have an excel sheet that calculates automatically how much I can eat (my current allowance plus savings/debts). What is maintenance for most people but a mini yoyo?
Thank you for your support and counsel! How long did it take you to figure out maintenance calories? Is your Fitbit pretty close at estimating your TDEE? I am thankful that I am finally at a place where I can experiment, track, observe and adjust accordingly.
I'm not in final maintenance, but I'm an on/off dieter and I'm currently dieting. I mean, I would diet a bit, then maintain anywhere from a week to several months, then diet again. The longest time I maintained before dieting again was about 14 months.
I figured out my Fitbit when I was losing, not while I was maintaining. It over-estimates a bit for me, so I just made myself shorter/older on the Fitbit app and kept playing with those numbers every month until it was spot on for my loss, and I just trusted those numbers in maintenance. It was about 90%-95% accurate which was good enough, as I could pick up the slack by having a weight I can never go over. If I found myself crossing that line for whatever reason (knowingly overeating or the accumulation of that margin of error for several months), I semi-dieted for a couple of weeks to a month until I was back within safe range.
I used my monthly trend weight to gauge maintenance. I had a soft limit (1 kg over and 1 kg under) and a hard limit (2.5 kg over and 2.5 kg under). If my monthly trend weight went over the soft limit, I just became more careful not to overeat often and had the odd deficit day here and there when my appetite is low until I'm back within soft limit. If it went over the hard limit, I dieted. I allowed losses but didn't allow gains because I was still technically wanting to lose, but a true maintainer would be careful with both ends.
It took about 4 months of number tweaking to get my Fitbit right, but the effort was worth it because I didn't have to think about my TDEE ever again after that. I just eat back all the calories my Fitbit gives me, and trust it will be accurate. My activity is predominantly step-based, though. Not sure how my method would work for someone who does other kinds of activity.
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Garmin Vivoactive HR here 1
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amusedmonkey wrote: »Tolstolobik wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Tolstolobik wrote: »Short term banking is good
Don't borrow or lend too long term though... that would just be called gaining and losing weight...
<this is coming from someone who has a short-term loan out for about 10K calories and the money mart interest rate in the form of baklava delivered by the downstairs lady is just killing me! >
PAV, thank you for your sage advice! I like your sense of humor!👌 A family member of mine is an expert at baking baklava and all things buttery-flaky philo dough. Trust me, I know how much self-control has to be executed around those delicious calorie-bombs! 😆
I haven't done any calorie banking until this week. Do you think one week's savings rolled over to the following week is a safe practice?
Most people do a week, but I personally average my calories over a month. More chance for saving for something very high in calories without starving myself for a week or leveling out high days without stressing myself out. I even have an excel sheet that calculates automatically how much I can eat (my current allowance plus savings/debts). What is maintenance for most people but a mini yoyo?
Thank you for your support and counsel! How long did it take you to figure out maintenance calories? Is your Fitbit pretty close at estimating your TDEE? I am thankful that I am finally at a place where I can experiment, track, observe and adjust accordingly.
I'm not in final maintenance, but I'm an on/off dieter and I'm currently dieting. I mean, I would diet a bit, then maintain anywhere from a week to several months, then diet again. The longest time I maintained before dieting again was about 14 months.
I figured out my Fitbit when I was losing, not while I was maintaining. It over-estimates a bit for me, so I just made myself shorter/older on the Fitbit app and kept playing with those numbers every month until it was spot on for my loss, and I just trusted those numbers in maintenance. It was about 90%-95% accurate which was good enough, as I could pick up the slack by having a weight I can never go over. If I found myself crossing that line for whatever reason (knowingly overeating or the accumulation of that margin of error for several months), I semi-dieted for a couple of weeks to a month until I was back within safe range.
I used my monthly trend weight to gauge maintenance. I had a soft limit (1 kg over and 1 kg under) and a hard limit (2.5 kg over and 2.5 kg under). If my monthly trend weight went over the soft limit, I just became more careful not to overeat often and had the odd deficit day here and there when my appetite is low until I'm back within soft limit. If it went over the hard limit, I dieted. I allowed losses but didn't allow gains because I was still technically wanting to lose, but a true maintainer would be careful with both ends.
It took about 4 months of number tweaking to get my Fitbit right, but the effort was worth it because I didn't have to think about my TDEE ever again after that. I just eat back all the calories my Fitbit gives me, and trust it will be accurate. My activity is predominantly step-based, though. Not sure how my method would work for someone who does other kinds of activity.
Thank you for your detailed response! I like your relaxed non-hurried approach to fat loss. You get to practice the art of maintenance before your next phase. I am sure your body's hormones are quite happy!
I need to get to know my Fitbit to figure out my TDEE. My activity is step based as well with some occasional resistance exercises to keep bones happy and muscle mass challenged a bit.2 -
I upgraded from Charge HR to Alta and now to Charge 2. Steps seems accurate. Hope this works for years though, my alta was broken and they advised me to purchase a new one. They don't have a repair center, just replacement if you are within warranty.1
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Using an old, barely working Fitbit One. Mostly because I dont want to wear a watch on my wrist, especially at work where it would take a beating. I can keep my One in my pocket. Sadly, they dont seem to make anything like it anymore.
That aside, it seems to track my steps well enough. I mostly use it to track my daily activity and see how well I did, or if I need to cut back on what I eat that day.
@colorfan have you seen the new Fitbit Inspire? looks like it has the function to clip on to a pocket, as well as be worn on your wrist!0
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