TDEE and Fitbit

mfjutras
mfjutras Posts: 26 Member
edited December 18 in Health and Weight Loss
Hey Guys! So I have a question. I've been search the forums and he internet all morning. I've read up on the Fat 2 Fit process and I like the idea of knowing your BMR and TDEE numbers and all that jazz. I ended up with the following numbers:

Katch-McArdle BMR = 1519
Moderately Active Calories = 2393

So, my question for anybody out there is this: I have a Fitbit which calculates my general calories burned throughout the day. I generally burn 2400 calories (up to 2800 on a heavy workout day, but in general the trend has been 2400). So from what I gather 2400 would be my TDEE correct? Up until now I've had MFP set at sedentary and I've been eating back my workout calories. I changed it to moderately active which gave me a TDEE of 2400 and therefore a deficit of 1650 (1-1 1/2 lbs a week). I shouldn't eat back workout calories because it's "built in" to the moderately active category correct? In general it probably wouldn't but the TDEE from my fibit includes my general workouts. So A TDEE of 2400 includes my everyday calorie burning plus the aquafit and elliptical and weight training. Now on days that fitbit tells me I burned above 2400 calories it'll give me bonus calories (through the connection it has with MFP). I can eat those back so my deficit doesn't get too big. I also don't want to go below my BMR of 1519 so if I burn more than 2400 calories via fitbit, I'll eat those back.

I think I sort of answered my own question by writing it out, but I just want to make sure that it makes sense to anybody out there.

Replies

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    the 2393 TDEE estimate for moderately active is the same thing as the Fitbit is measuring
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    Yep, you've got it. If your FitBit says you burned more calories than MFP expected, you'll get the adjustment under "Cardio" and can eat those calories back to maintain your deficit.

    You could leave it on sedentary and eat back your workout calories as you have all along, or leave it on Moderately Active, whatever your preference.
  • mfjutras
    mfjutras Posts: 26 Member
    Yeah I was thinking of leaving it on sedentary but I am actually leaning on using MFP just for food and then put all my workouts on Fitbit. That way I don't have to deal with the workouts in MFP and Fitbit just gives me one big adjustment. Either way, I'll see if it works. I've plateaued for the last few weeks so I want to shake it up a bit.
  • Jacwhite22
    Jacwhite22 Posts: 7,010 Member
    Yeah I was thinking of leaving it on sedentary but I am actually leaning on using MFP just for food and then put all my workouts on Fitbit. That way I don't have to deal with the workouts in MFP and Fitbit just gives me one big adjustment. Either way, I'll see if it works. I've plateaued for the last few weeks so I want to shake it up a bit.

    This is what I do.....leave it on sedentary and fitbit adjusts accordingly.....if I do an exercise fitbit doesn't track well (weightlifting) I add it as an activity in fitbit and it modifies the mfp adjustment accordingly.
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    Yeah I was thinking of leaving it on sedentary but I am actually leaning on using MFP just for food and then put all my workouts on Fitbit. That way I don't have to deal with the workouts in MFP and Fitbit just gives me one big adjustment. Either way, I'll see if it works. I've plateaued for the last few weeks so I want to shake it up a bit.

    This is what I do.....leave it on sedentary and fitbit adjusts accordingly.....if I do an exercise fitbit doesn't track well (weightlifting) I add it as an activity in fitbit and it modifies the mfp adjustment accordingly.

    I was wondering why those 1400-calorie fitbit adjustments kept showing up in your diary, LOL.
  • Jacwhite22
    Jacwhite22 Posts: 7,010 Member
    Yeah I was thinking of leaving it on sedentary but I am actually leaning on using MFP just for food and then put all my workouts on Fitbit. That way I don't have to deal with the workouts in MFP and Fitbit just gives me one big adjustment. Either way, I'll see if it works. I've plateaued for the last few weeks so I want to shake it up a bit.

    This is what I do.....leave it on sedentary and fitbit adjusts accordingly.....if I do an exercise fitbit doesn't track well (weightlifting) I add it as an activity in fitbit and it modifies the mfp adjustment accordingly.

    I was wondering why those 1400-calorie fitbit adjustments kept showing up in your diary, LOL.

    That's how. I leave it as sedentary.......Take 4-5 flights of stairs 4-5 times a day, coach soccer two days a week, play soccer 1 day a week, lift at the gym 3 days a week. Do cardio 3 days a week and try to do something active on the weekends.......Not quite sedentary...But I find its easier for me to leave it like that because if I have a day I have 0 (very little activity) I would prefer to eat less.
  • free2live72003
    free2live72003 Posts: 186
    bump
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    Yeah I was thinking of leaving it on sedentary but I am actually leaning on using MFP just for food and then put all my workouts on Fitbit. That way I don't have to deal with the workouts in MFP and Fitbit just gives me one big adjustment. Either way, I'll see if it works. I've plateaued for the last few weeks so I want to shake it up a bit.

    This is what I do.....leave it on sedentary and fitbit adjusts accordingly.....if I do an exercise fitbit doesn't track well (weightlifting) I add it as an activity in fitbit and it modifies the mfp adjustment accordingly.

    I was wondering why those 1400-calorie fitbit adjustments kept showing up in your diary, LOL.

    That's how. I leave it as sedentary.......Take 4-5 flights of stairs 4-5 times a day, coach soccer two days a week, play soccer 1 day a week, lift at the gym 3 days a week. Do cardio 3 days a week and try to do something active on the weekends.......Not quite sedentary...But I find its easier for me to leave it like that because if I have a day I have 0 (very little activity) I would prefer to eat less.

    Do you frequently sync the fitbit throughout the day to keep track of how much food you should eat, or just ballpark it based on your activity and see where things fall at dinner?
  • Smuterella
    Smuterella Posts: 1,623 Member
    If you manually set a calorie level on MFP then do not eat back the fitbit adjustments, it can't read from a manual calorie level properly.
  • momof2winsplus
    momof2winsplus Posts: 137 Member
    There's a Fitbit group on MFP for these types of questions.

    Check it out, it might help.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/1307-fitbit-users
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