Fitbit Burn

deannasawyer
deannasawyer Posts: 47 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Stats: Female, 128lbs, 5'4"

Hey all. I've put my activity level in as Sedentary and am allowing Fitbit to add to my calorie estimate on top of that. On a day when I take 14k steps, it adds a little more than 500 calories to my calorie goal for the day. Does that seem high?

I do walk fast, at 3.5mph unless at home (smaller space), but the steps I take around the house are only around 1k or so of my total.

Asking because I haven't been losing in the last few months and I'm wondering if maybe eating back exercise calories is the culprit. My deficit is only 250 calories/day (can't go lower, that puts me at 1200) so it would be easy for overestimated exercise calories to wipe that out.
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Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,420 Member
    edited June 2022
    1200 seems very low in general. Do you work or go to school or take care of kids at home? Set your Goals here to, "Lose 1/2 pound per week," then go from there. Your fitbit may or may not be close enough. Have you recently lost a lot of weight? Have you taken Maintenance Breaks?

    Here, the first page of this thread is helpful:
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

    You are at 22 BMI. I personally have a lot of trouble getting below 22 BMI. It's dead center of a healthy weight range, and my body doesn't like it if I try to go lower. In order to go lower I have to really be persistent and use a digital food scale on every thing I eat. I have to prepare all my own food and exercise daily. Is there some reason you need to go lower in weight?
  • deannasawyer
    deannasawyer Posts: 47 Member
    edited June 2022
    My sedentary maintenance is about 1400 calories because of my high body fat % and low tested BMR. 1200 is 1/2lb per week loss for me. But like I said, I'm eating back exercise calories, so my actual intake has been higher. I do use a food scale.

    I take 1 week of maintenance per month, but haven't lost since the beginning of April. I do go based on a weekly average rather than eating the same amount every day.

    I'm wanting to get back down to 113lbs, which was my weight throughout my teenage years and 20s. I have a small frame and find that weight to be best for me.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,420 Member
    edited June 2022
    At 128 and 5'4" I doubt you have a very high body fat percentage. All women need some fat in order to balance hormones.

    If you feel like you have an excess of body fat my suggestion would be to start doing a progressive weight lifting program. That is how you will lower body fat while not losing a lot more weight.

    Here's more reading material!

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,845 Member
    deannasawyer wrote: »
    Stats: Female, 128lbs, 5'4"

    Hey all. I've put my activity level in as Sedentary and am allowing Fitbit to add to my calorie estimate on top of that. On a day when I take 14k steps, it adds a little more than 500 calories to my calorie goal for the day. Does that seem high?

    I do walk fast, at 3.5mph unless at home (smaller space), but the steps I take around the house are only around 1k or so of my total.

    Asking because I haven't been losing in the last few months and I'm wondering if maybe eating back exercise calories is the culprit. My deficit is only 250 calories/day (can't go lower, that puts me at 1200) so it would be easy for overestimated exercise calories to wipe that out.

    Sure, your active calories could be overestimated. Or you could simply have an 'un-average' metabolism, since both MFP and Fitbit spit out numbers based on population averages. Or perhaps your logging isn't entirely accurate. People are often quick to blame it on the exercise calories :smile: 500 calories doesn't sound crazy high, but as you say, you don't have much margin aiming for a 250 calorie deficit.

    If it really has been months, then you might simply be eating at maintenance. No matter what the cause (exercise adjustment, lower metabolism, food logging) you could try eating 100-150 cal less and see what happens over the coming month or two? How much are you actually eating on average per day (incuding your adjustment)?
  • deannasawyer
    deannasawyer Posts: 47 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    At 128 and 5'4" I doubt you have a very high body fat percentage. All women need some fat in order to balance hormones.

    If you feel like you have an excess of body fat my suggestion would be to start doing a progressive weight lifting program. That is how you will lower body fat while not losing a lot more weight.

    Here's more reading material!

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1

    When I was 10lbs higher my body fat was tested by my doctor and was at 34.7%, which she said put me bordering on normal weight obesity. My BMR was 1186 as well. My doctor advised me that I needed to lose body fat. My guess would be that most of the weight I gained over the last few years was fat and my muscle is still much the same as it was when I was 113lbs.
    Lietchi wrote: »

    Sure, your active calories could be overestimated. Or you could simply have an 'un-average' metabolism, since both MFP and Fitbit spit out numbers based on population averages. Or perhaps your logging isn't entirely accurate. People are often quick to blame it on the exercise calories :smile: 500 calories doesn't sound crazy high, but as you say, you don't have much margin aiming for a 250 calorie deficit.

    If it really has been months, then you might simply be eating at maintenance. No matter what the cause (exercise adjustment, lower metabolism, food logging) you could try eating 100-150 cal less and see what happens over the coming month or two? How much are you actually eating on average per day (incuding your adjustment)?

    Including my adjustment, I've been eating between 1000-1700 calories (some days that's under my exercise-adjusted goal, some days it's over). There are weeks when I'll have one day netting 2400 calories and then 3 or so days netting 500-800. I will be the first to admit my eating is very inconsistent, which is why I rely on my weekly average.

    I'm just wondering now whether I should forget about my exercise calories and aim for an average total 1200/day as opposed to net 1200/day. I could try what you suggest though and simply aim for 100-150 less/day.

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,845 Member
    edited June 2022
    I really don't think 1200 total is a good idea. 1200 calories is low for anyone, let alone for someone active. That would just be asking for more muscle loss, which is not what you want.
    If your activity level is quite consistent on a weekly basis, just look at how much you've been consuming per week and aim for 750 to 1000 calories less for the week in total.
    Your net intake is extremely variable, perhaps a bit too much to be ideal, but as a principle looking at your numbers from a weekly perspective is not bad inherently. My intake and activity level fluctuates from day to day, but as long as the average is okay, it's not a problem.
  • CeeBeeSlim
    CeeBeeSlim Posts: 1,348 Member
    May I ask your age? Because I could have written your post!
  • deannasawyer
    deannasawyer Posts: 47 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    I really don't think 1200 total is a good idea. 1200 calories is low for anyone, let alone for someone active. That would just be asking for more muscle loss, which is not what you want.
    If your activity level is quite consistent on a weekly basis, just look at how much you've been consuming per week and aim for 750 to 1000 calories less for the week in total.
    Your net intake is extremely variable, perhaps a bit too much to be ideal, but as a principle looking at your numbers from a weekly perspective is not bad inherently. My intake and activity level fluctuates from day to day, but as long as the average is okay, it's not a problem.

    That sounds like a good idea. I'll give that a try and see how it goes.
  • WholeFoods4Lyfe
    WholeFoods4Lyfe Posts: 1,518 Member
    How did your doctor measure your BFP? Because unless it was a DEXA scan, I have a very hard time believing that at 5'4" and 128lbs that your BFP was 34%. A healthy weight for a woman your height is between 110-144 lbs and you are smack in the middle of that range.

    That said, unless you are very small framed, I'm not sure that weight loss is the best course of action for you and would recommend instead that you look into body recomposition.
  • deannasawyer
    deannasawyer Posts: 47 Member
    edited June 2022
    WholeFoods4Lyfe wrote: »
    How did your doctor measure your BFP? Because unless it was a DEXA scan, I have a very hard time believing that at 5'4" and 128lbs that your BFP was 34%. A healthy weight for a woman your height is between 110-144 lbs and you are smack in the middle of that range.

    That said, unless you are very small framed, I'm not sure that weight loss is the best course of action for you and would recommend instead that you look into body recomposition.

    I was 10lbs heavier when my BF% was measured, so it would have been at 138lbs. I had an inBody scan done, which is supposed to be 98% as accurate as a DEXA scan. I realize it's hard to believe, but outliers do exist and BMI is inherently flawed anyway. To me it seemed reasonable for my BF% to be that high due to the circumstances under which I gained my extra weight. I am very small framed (ring size 4, head size XS, wrists under 5") and have always been comfortable and looked properly proportioned at my earlier weight of 113lbs.

    Though this is all really kind of off topic. I was just wondering whether Fitbit's estimates of my calorie burn seemed to be too high so I could adjust accordingly.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,255 Member
    deannasawyer wrote: »
    WholeFoods4Lyfe wrote: »
    How did your doctor measure your BFP? Because unless it was a DEXA scan, I have a very hard time believing that at 5'4" and 128lbs that your BFP was 34%. A healthy weight for a woman your height is between 110-144 lbs and you are smack in the middle of that range.

    That said, unless you are very small framed, I'm not sure that weight loss is the best course of action for you and would recommend instead that you look into body recomposition.

    I was 10lbs heavier when my BF% was measured, so it would have been at 138lbs. I had an inBody scan done, which is supposed to be 98% as accurate as a DEXA scan. I realize it's hard to believe, but outliers do exist and BMI is inherently flawed anyway. To me it seemed reasonable for my BF% to be that high due to the circumstances under which I gained my extra weight. I am very small framed (ring size 4, head size XS, wrists under 5") and have always been comfortable and looked properly proportioned at my earlier weight of 113lbs.

    Though this is all really kind of off topic. I was just wondering whether Fitbit's estimates of my calorie burn seemed to be too high so I could adjust accordingly.

    Underscoring what was said before: Any of the estimates (base calorie needs, exercise calories, food logging) could be a bit off, or all of them could (and add up to be moving things all in the same direction vs. balancing each other out). The exercise adjustment doesn't seem crazy to me in the abstract (as someone close to your size, 5'5" and 120s pounds, especially keeping in mind that it may not just be steps that affect it (steps aren't the only movement types that burn calories, and aren't the only thing that most fitness trackers try to capture in their estimates).

    The thing is, at one level, it doesn't really matter which piece is incorrect: If your weight loss slowly trailed off (vs. was clicking along at a good rate than stopped suddenly), then you're probably at maintenance calories since you haven't lost in several months.

    I would also encourage you to add strength exercise if you aren't already doing some, either some form of bodyweight strength exercise, or formal strength training. Your bodyfat percentage is a function of both bodyfat level (best addressed via eating) and muscle mass level (best addressed via strength exercise). The strength side of things is slower to progress (even if achieving top speed), so starting sooner is always better than starting later, if it's at all possible. Idea here:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

    Despite the title, that thread does include strength programs (such as bodyweight strength ones) that are not weight lifting per se.

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    "Hey all. I've put my activity level in as Sedentary and am allowing Fitbit to add to my calorie estimate on top of that. On a day when I take 14k steps, it adds a little more than 500 calories to my calorie goal for the day. Does that seem high?"

    That's not just exercise - it's a total daily activity and exercise ADJUSTMENT. It's not just your steps.

    You are getting a larger adjustment because you are setting yourself as sedentary when clearly you are not with 14,000 steps.
    If you set an activity level closer to reality the adjustment would be smaller, but FitBit's estimate of that days TDEE would still end up the same.

    BTW - Although InBody scans are a better version of domestic BIA scales they are still subject to weird and wonderful fluctuations mostly caused by variation in hydration levels. A one off scan by your Doctor really isn't great data at all and you shouldn't base decisions on suspect data. You would need a series of scans taking great care to keep conditions identical (time of day, not after exercise, fed/unfed, etc etc) to get a trend. My gym has a very similar commercial grade device and mostly it's fairly consistent but still gives odd wild readings which need to be discarded to see a trend.
  • deannasawyer
    deannasawyer Posts: 47 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    "Hey all. I've put my activity level in as Sedentary and am allowing Fitbit to add to my calorie estimate on top of that. On a day when I take 14k steps, it adds a little more than 500 calories to my calorie goal for the day. Does that seem high?"

    That's not just exercise - it's a total daily activity and exercise ADJUSTMENT. It's not just your steps.

    You are getting a larger adjustment because you are setting yourself as sedentary when clearly you are not with 14,000 steps.
    If you set an activity level closer to reality the adjustment would be smaller, but FitBit's estimate of that days TDEE would still end up the same.

    BTW - Although InBody scans are a better version of domestic BIA scales they are still subject to weird and wonderful fluctuations mostly caused by variation in hydration levels. A one off scan by your Doctor really isn't great data at all and you shouldn't base decisions on suspect data. You would need a series of scans taking great care to keep conditions identical (time of day, not after exercise, fed/unfed, etc etc) to get a trend. My gym has a very similar commercial grade device and mostly it's fairly consistent but still gives odd wild readings which need to be discarded to see a trend.

    I set myself as Sedentary because I'd rather have a positive adjustment on days I walk more than a negative adjustment on days when I barely push 3k steps. It's just personal preference.

    That does make some sense on the scan. I'll be having my next scan in 2 weeks so I'll see if it's still around that number or whether it was an odd reading.

    @AnnPT77 I hear you on the strength training. I really should be getting back to the gym; it's just difficult with my lack of transportation. I'll check out the bodyweight exercises, though.

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