Fitbit/MFP Calories - accurate deficit?

Seems possibly high but without knowing any details it's hard to say. Your calorie burn would partly depend on your stats, which would be helpful to know. Also, what kinds of steps were these...daily work/ activity? Working out?

Without knowing these, it would just be purely guesswork on anyone's part.

What is your MFP activity level set at? IF at sedentary and you spent 11 hours on your feet moving, it could be quite possible you have burned that amount on top of your basic sedentary (sitting and doing nothing but walking to the bathroom) rate of caloric burn. That being said it also has a lot to do with your fitness level and heart rate (assuming you have a model that tracks that). Anything from hormones to dehydration to anxiety can effect your heart rate which can cause an over estimation on caloric burn on a wrist fitness tracker which has a hard time telling the difference between say a steady paced medium difficulty walk and a dehydrated pace around a restaurant floor serving with a lot of standing time. As for fitness level, if you are new on your fitness journey it is much more likely to be closer to correct than if you have been regularly exercising at moderate to intense levels often enough to gain cardiovascular endurance. I burn 100-300 less calories now than I did a couple years ago doing the same 45-60 minute workouts both due to weight loss as well as a higher fitness level. I tend to err on the side of caution and not eat back all my fitbit calories especially when I know they are from a busy day more than intentional exercise. It might have to be something you play with a little and look at all your settings and in the end see how you feel.

I had a concern that my FitBit was overestimating my calories burned.

If I have a totally inactive day, literally at home all day, sat down aside from the odd few minutes wandering around the house, I have a burn rate of about 2200, and if I take a long, moderate intensity walk (90 minutes, moderate pace) it can go up to 3000. I was sceptical that a walk - even a long moderate intensity one - could burn 800 calories.

So I did some calculations. Over the past six weeks, I've logged 65513 calories on MFP. My fitbit says I've burned 120,623. That would imply a deficit of 55,110 calories, which should imply a loss of 15.75 lbs. Over that same six weeks, I've lost 10.8 lbs. That suggests that my CICO formula is out by about 400 calories a day.

Now - that's a crude measure. My rate of loss could mask some water weight fluctuations. My logging might not have been 100% accurate. But certainly, these figures suggest that some of my Calories Out calculated through Fitbit must also be out a bit as well.

I'm still happy with my rate of loss. But certainly viewing my Fitbit calories burned with some moderate scepticism.

I've wondered this myself. I have a Fitbit Versa Lite. It seems some days it's fairly accurate, and others not so much. On days I strength train and time the workout on my Fitbit with "weights," the calorie burn is way higher than I think it should be. I wish it were accurate because I'd be losing weight more quickly, but unfortunately I don't think that's the case.

Also keep in mind, elevated heart rates throughout each day translate into more calories burned, caffeine and taurine (coffee and energy drinks) contribute to that rate, not just exercise or NEAT activity.

eringrace95_ wrote: »

201 active minutes!? I was on my feet alot today but what!? 1200 calories left today... Seems super high. Thoughts?

If you click on the food section, it will take you into a more detailed report. Just because the dashboard says you have calories left over, doesn’t mean you actually do. The dashboard is showing me the calories MFP says I should have, but once I go into it, I see the calories Fitbit says I should have.

crb426 wrote: »

This happened to me! Your fitbit is malfunctioning.

My fitbit started getting weird about a year in. It started raising my heart rate to around 175bpm, thought I was having an anxiety attack because I was stressed at work, but it was just the fitbit. Made it seem that I was active for exaggerated amounts of time and calculating a huge calorie burn each day. It looked a lot like yours seem to be doing. And it just got worse and worse each day. I just completely stopped using it because it was throwing me off so much.

Hate to say it, but it may be time for a new one.

Mine started doing this, too. Because I had had it less than a year, I returned it to Fitbit and they replaced it for me.